By IRIJAYA KALRA
A Mouse-rable start
From starting as a humble cartoon studio in the early 1920s to becoming the best-known purveyor of family entertainment, Disney seems to be on a fast track of growth since the beginning. It includes the most renowned media studios like Pixar, Searchlight Pictures, Marvel, ABC, ESPN, Lucasfilm and 20th Century Fox. With a current market capitalization of $238.9 billion, the company has broken its own box office records more than 50 times.
But entertainment was not only the mission of Disney Brothers. Walt Disney, the founder, never stopped pushing his limits. As the company built a strong impression in the motion pictures and television programs, he envisioned expanding in the real estate development industry. Disney may not be known as a pioneer in real estate development, but in fact, it has been at the center of its parks and resort strategy for decades. One of the areas that fascinated him was the amusement park. That is when he conceived the idea for the first amusement park- DISNEYLAND! He wanted to build a park that is for people of all ages and not just kids. Walt invested his own money after mortgaging his life insurance policy to achieve the park of his dreams. But not every day is a good day at Disneyland. The soft opening, often referred to as Black Sunday by Walt, turned out to be a disaster. With a turnout of three times the guest invited, restaurants ran out of food. Lines were so long that guests started to leave. Most of these guests were journalists and Walt feared a trail of bad reviews for his park. Next day, the same happened. All the newspapers were filled with devastating reviews for the park, calling it a disappointment and a $17 million booby trap. Walt acted to this situation instantly by making suitable personnel changes and increasing the capacity of the park. The reputation that sank was soon recovered. It has been used as a template for every amusement park built since its opening and it continues to gain international fame by attracting hundreds of millions of visitors. Quoting Walt Disney “Disneyland would never be completed as long as there was imagination left in the world.” The statement stands true till date as new additions are made on a regular basis to this amazing theme park. More than 1/3rd of Disney’s revenues come from its amusement parks.
But Walt wasn’t satisfied. Along with being a great opportunist, he was a perfectionist. Thus he wanted to do the entire thing again but this time with no room for errors. Something that is practically perfect in every way! He wanted to build a park that is 10 times the size of Disneyland, the one that could bring in 10 times the profit! He was set out to build the city of tomorrow and called it Project Future!
The Mystery ride begins
In November 1960, Walt geared up the work for building the second theme park with all the required resources in place. The first prospective location for the park was St. Louis but the conflict of interest over the issue of serving liquor over Disney property forced Walt to step back from the deal. Walt was determined to make no mistakes this time. He wanted to operate everything, as quiet as a mouse. He wanted to buy the venture enough time to buy all the surrounding land of Project Future to achieve his idyllic goal. He failed to do this in his first attempt which priced him out. He appointed the most crucial asset for this project, Buzz Prize. Buzz prize was the researcher-in-chief and one of the most trusted men in Walt’s circle. Mr. Price had a way with people and he knew how to get things done. He was assigned the task of finding the most accommodating locations for Project Future. Florida had always been on top of this list and hence Mr. Price started to check the viability of the location. Walt didn’t just dream of a park with some swings, he had a vision to build an entire community within its heart, the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, or EPCOT. Envisaged as a “living blueprint” of the future, the city hoped to make a “planned environment demonstrating to the world what American communities can accomplish through proper control of planning and design. ”After all the due diligence, Central Florida was finalized for Project Future but the story doesn’t end here. For the project, secrecy was paramount. Walt and Buzz swore all the lawyers and partners involved to secrecy as an internal leak could cause a huge hit to the project. In order to keep things under covers, Walt checked in under a fake name “William Brown” in a Florida hotel. To keep Disney’s involvement a secret, Buzz’s company was given the task to scout large pieces of land in Central Florida and buy them. But Walt wasn’t pleased with the arrangement. For the plan to be fool proof, he went to the extent of hiring Paul Helliwell, who led CIA operations in Southeast Asia, and William “Wild Bill” Donovan, head of the World War II spy organization who eventually joined the CIA. With their help, Disney was able not only to keep the land prices cheap, but to maintain complete control over the long term. The company acquired 27,000 acres at an average rate of $200 per acre of land without any word getting out. The company set up shell corporations to achieve the same. Florida Ranch Lands, a local real estate company, took Walt Disney as a client in this acquisition. They went to lengths to ensure that the name Disney never comes up in any paperwork or conversation. But as the project was reaching completion, rumors started to spread for the large purchase of land in Orlando. Paul Helliwell approached the papers to create a diversion by supplying incomplete details but that didn’t hold for long. The word got out. The land that was worth $80 an acre soared up to $80,000 an acre after the announcement of construction of Disney World in Orlando. But the force was strong with this one. This didn’t harm Walt as he had already managed to acquire enough land for Disney World. But a tragedy was yet to be faced. Walt Disney died in1966, leaving his dream project incomplete.
Since the demise of Walt Disney in 1966 and his brother Roy in 1971, Walt Disney Productions could barely manage to survive takeover attempts by corporate raiders. The company was forced to build a park instead of Project Future themed around science, innovation and cultural exploration, now known as Epcot. The park finally opened on October 1, 1982. The company never entered real estate development for residential purposes until February 2022. Storyliving by Disney has been launched to develop master planned neighborhoods keeping in mind Walt’s vision of EPCOT. The Rancho Mirage project will spread across 24 acres of land covering lagoons along with Disney programming, entertainment, and activities throughout the year. With Storyliving in place, the long lost dream of Walt Disney will finally be accomplished!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Irijaya Kalra is a third year student at Kirori Mal College, University of Delhi pursuing B.Com hons. A diligent, efficacious and ambitious girl, she is known to have a creative approach to deal with situations. With a keen interest in finance, she is always looking for opportunities to widen her arena of knowledge.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organization.
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