And Now For Something Completely Different

They say that sometimes when one door closes another one opens. I would certainly like to think that “they” are right.

Due to a lack of work, the planning firm I was working for, Hogle-Ireland, has had to make yet another round of layoffs and this time I was part of that reduction. Therefore, I am looking for new opportunities and chance to contribute to the success of an organization. I bring to the table 12 years of experience in planning, over 20 years in the Recording and Broadcast industries, worked on 100+ projects, and have successfully facilitated more than 700 community workshops and public meetings.

My reputation has been built on being a highly effective consensus builder and communicator. I have worked on award-winning transportation projects, General Plans, Specific Plans, strategic plans, design guidelines, organizational development, and conflict resolution. Clients have included both the private and the public sector.

Of course, like many of you, my dream job would be at Imagineering, Universal Creative or another firm working in this field. However, I am open to all suggestions. If you have one, please contact me at gennawey@yahoo.com.

My personal theme song has always been "Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" and with your help, who knows? Thanks for visiting Samland. Watch for lots of fun stuff over the next few weeks.

Sam Gennawey

Disneyland 55: A Birthday Celebration at the Walt Disney Family Museum - Part 4

Photography by Joseph Driste, Courtesy The Walt Disney Family Museum.

Left to right: Bruce Vaughn, Marty Skalr, Craig Russell, and Dick Nunis

Left to right: Bruce Vaughn and Craig Russell

On day three of the Walt Disney Family Museum’s Disneyland celebration a public audience was treated to The Happiest Places on Earth: A Look at Disney Parks Around the Globe. Once again Marty Sklar was the host and the panel included Craig Russell and Bruce Vaughn from Walt Disney Imagineering along and Disney Legend Dick Nunis. The topic was how Disneyland would influence projects around the world.

Sorry but this is a long post.

Bruce is the Research & Development person and spends a lot of his time looking over the horizon. Craig is the design and build person. He has to take this weird stuff, build it, and do it within budget.

Dick started with Disney before Disneyland. He was in the orientation department and worked with the legendary Van France. After studying the history of the theme parks, you realize that this man was part of everything. Probably knows more about the operation of the parks than any other human.

Like the Saturday session, Marty started with each person’s first experience with the Disney Parks. Craig grew up in Southern California and it was a family tradition. Dick worked security for Walt and Lillian’s 30^th anniversary party two days before the park opened. Bruce did not go until he started working for Disney. He was 27 and it was 1993. He figured he worked for the company so he should go to the parks. After one ride on Peter Pan, he was captivated.

On Walt’s comments that the parks will continually change, Bruce felt the parks needed to remain relevant. Nostalgia is nice but the parks cannot become a museum. What looked cool then can look bad today. There has to be a careful balance.

Craig said audience expectations were changing. As the company focuses on globalization, there is a need for more attractions with cross-cultural appeal. One success story is Toy Story Midway Mania, which he compared to a ride through Wii game.

Dick was struck by Walt’s ability to plan beyond his lifetime. He told the story of the Russians stealing the technology for Circarama. Walt’s people wanted to sue but he had a different idea. He proposed to double the size of the screens and do it better. He and John Hench even talked about a screen above the audience. Dick felt that Soarin’ is a tribute to John Hench.

The discussion moved on to the first wave of expansion including Walt Disney World, Disney California Adventure, and the timeshares and cruise ships. At first, Dick thought he would be moving to Florida to recruit and train a new team to run Walt Disney World. Instead, the Company decided to promote Dick, keep him in California, and have him send his best people to do the job. He was very proud of his team and many remained in Florida for many years. I enjoyed the connection between Dick, Marty, and Ron Miller sitting in the audience. It was like being let in on a private discussion.

Dick is a wonderful storyteller. The opening day for the Magic Kingdom was picked specifically because it is the slowest season of the year and the slowest day. They did not want a repeat of Disneyland’s opening. Some people projected crowds of 100,000 or more. Early in the morning, in the helicopter, somebody noticed a huge line of cars and thought the park would be over run. Dick calmed him and told him that was just the Cast coming to work.

So they braced for the big crowd. It never came. Only 10,000 showed. In fact, the park remained quiet for weeks. The press was saying that Disney bit off too much. Dick said just wait. The pressure mounted. Dick said wait. The day after Thanksgiving, the crowd was so large they had to close the gates.

Walt said to his team, “We have to study the land” when laying out the resort. That team included Joe Potter who built 44 miles of canal in such a way that he would never flood an adjacent property and it has worked. Others mentioned include Joe Fowler and Dick Irvine.

An interesting fact about the Disney organization was Walt’s way of putting people together who may not get along. Walt said that, “Friction makes motion” and this produced the most creative solution. John Hench took Potter’s canals and gently curved them for a better look.

You would think that an east coast Disneyland would have been a no brainer. Nevertheless, Walt was very concerned after the failure of Freedomland near the Bronx in New York.

Dick helped to create Tokyo Disneyland. He said it took five years to generate an agreement. With that said, the look on Bruce and Craig’s face was funny. They mentioned that it has already been 10 years since talks started on the Shanghai project and they still are not done. That property is so large; it can hold multiple theme parks.

One factor that made the Tokyo negotiations more difficult was Card Walker. Card was President at the time. During World War II he served on an aircraft carrier. He lost a lot of friends during the war. This created a mental block that made it very difficult to work with the Japanese, as he did not trust them. In the end, it worked out and the Japanese parks have been huge success stories.

Marty asked what it is like to work with different cultures. Craig said that Tokyo wanted a Xerox copy of Walt Disney World. The only time they did a Japanese specific attraction – Meet the World (it focused on Japanese history) – it was a complete failure.

Craig commented on the difference between Japanese and Chinese guests. The typical Japanese guest grew up with Disney products and they are very loyal to the brand. They wanted a clone of the stateside parks. The Chinese guest comes from one of two camps. They are either a local Hong Kong resident with more exposure to the brand or they are from the mainland where most of their exposure came from pirated videos. They found that many of the mainland guests walk onto Main Street and there is no emotional connection. That is why Shanghai is likely to have a very different entry experience.

The Disney people were surprised and adapted to the unique way many of the Mainland Chinese guests use the park. For the most part, the child population is small and families come in large multi-generational groups. Of course, the Company likes that. What they did not expect was the restaurants were being overrun with non-diners because the family would leave behind the grandparents with all of their stuff and then wait until the rest of the family returned. The solution was to add more seating areas.

Many visitors from India visit Hong Kong Disneyland and the park had to increase the availability of vegetarian options. Even the Jungle Cruise script became a complex project. Guests are able to experience the attraction in three different languages. The original script was written in English and the translations were customized to be relevant to that audience. Sometimes jokes just do not translate well across cultures.

There is also difference in the way Chinese and Japanese perceive value. In China, guests have many choices for theme park amusement and they tend to count how many attractions are available and balance that against the admission price. With the limited number of attractions at Hong Kong Disneyland, many felt it was a disappointment. It may have been beautifully designed but that is not enough. So along with the expansion of three new mini-lands, they are also counting every character meet and greet (also known as Love and Shove) as an attraction. This is how they came up with the figure of 37 new attractions.

In Japan, most guests just like to hang out. Going on the rides is secondary. They are happy if they get on 3 to 4 rides in a visit. Contrast to the American parks where guest satisfaction rises, as people get closer to eight attractions.

Marty asked the panel where they thought the theme park business was going. Dick commented on some of the decisions Disney made after his retirement. He thought that Spain was a much better location than France and Disney should still consider opening a second location in Europe. He also felt that Australia made more sense than Hong Kong and the Company should consider a park there as well.

Craig wants to find little niche businesses and then executing them better than the competition. For example, the Cruise Line is a solid business for Disney even though they are a relatively small player in the field. Their focus on the family and creating a quality product has created a profitable business. The Adventures by Disney tour operations is another example and is likely to expand.

The new resort in Hawaii may be the best example of the future. The Company is trying to find that sweet spot between a destination resort experience but stopping short of a theme park. They want to combine the best of what they have learned from the cruise ships and the tours. The Hawaii property is all-inclusive and heavily themed with Hawaiian culture. Joe Rohde is leading the project and if his work at Animal Kingdom is an indication, the décor will be true to the resort’s Hawaiian roots.

The Company is also looking at urban entertainment environments but these have not been very successful in the past.

On the Research and Development front, Bruce said the goal is to add more control and higher touch. Right now, for many guests that high touch is provided by the Cast Members. For high tech applications, people’s expectations have changed and the way we use technology has forced the Company to develop interactive experiences as opposed to passive viewing.

Sometimes they try things and they do not quite work out the way they planned. A good example is Kim Possible in Epcot’s World Showcase. The original concept was to give kids something to do while their parents explored the pavilions. Kind of like a high tech babysitter. To the Company’s surprise, it turned out to be a family activity. The fact that the Cast Members have gotten into the act, like at the UK pavilion, and you have the additional benefit of a morale booster.

The goal is to personalize the experience. You will see this in the Magic Kingdom’s Fantasyland expansion. Bruce described the encounter with Belle as an example. To create a better guest experience, each encounter will be limited to around 20 guests. The Cast Members will assign roles to the kids and the technology will take over and provide a unique immersive and personal experience.

The Utilidors have created a 10-acre foundation where trees will not grow. The solution is a courtyard that gives way to a highly landscaped forest. Bruce stated that John Hench would be proud how each area will create a sense of reveal.

There is talk about creating premium experiences as well but the Company wants to proceed with caution. The fear is a caste system that may offend those who are unable to afford the higher costs.

Bruce and Craig treated the audience to a preview of coming attractions. Much of this has been already revealed so I will just highlight things that caught my attention.

When the Company created Disney California Adventure they wanted to create something new, different, and edgy. They quickly learned that guests just wanted Disneyland to expand across the plaza. So attractions like the Little Mermaid will feature high quality audio-animatronics on par with Pirates of the Caribbean in an attempt to create new E-Ticket. Bruce mentioned that animating Arial’s tiny little arms was very difficult. The cars in Cars Land will feature a variety of body styles and, at one point; guests will race against other guests.

Tokyo Disneyland will be getting Mickey’s Philharmagic and Toy Story Mania. They are also installing a super-sized version of Fantasmic at DisneySea to be viewed by an audience of 20,000.

Disneyland Paris is getting a Toy Story Playland where you shrink to the size of a toy and enter Andy’s backyard. Careful of those giant footsteps. In addition, coming on line soon will be the new super-sized cruise ships.

Hong Kong Disneyland is expanding and they will be adding a Toy Story Playland, Grizzly Gulch, and Mystic Manor. Speaking of cultural differences, many Chinese believe that ghosts are the spirits of their ancestors and nothing to fear. Therefore, Disney decided to make the mansion all about the supernatural. You are invited to an open house at an eccentric millionaire’s house, a crazy monkey takes over, and everything goes wrong. Danny Elfman is composing the theme music. Both Bruce and Craig felt that Hong Kong might be getting the best Haunted Mansion anywhere.

The first question from the audience was about Disneyland. Bruce and Craig stated the focus is on plussing existing attractions and enhancing the experience. As the DCA expansion winds down, they are starting to think about the next major expansion.

Dick told a story about Walt and Midget Autopia. Walt likes to ride his rides and he could not fit in the Midget Autopia cars. That was a major reason why they were removed. The two features that Walt likes best about the Orlando property were the nice people and the two swamps that would keep the outside world outside.

Dick really wished that Walt could have built the Mineral King project. He felt that it would have reinvented the way we build in the wilderness and it would have been a great year round family attraction.

After the event was over, I paused to reflect on the three panels. This will make sense to some so I apologize to the rest of you. I felt that the Friday and Saturday events were like reading a copy of E-Ticket magazine and Sunday was like looking through a copy of the D23 publication. Overall, the Museum put on a good show, took good care of the guests, and created a magical experience. I hope they do this again next year.

I am a Founding Member of the Museum and purchase my tickets for all three events.

Disneyland 55: A Birthday Celebration at the Walt Disney Family Museum - Part 3

Photograpy by Joseph Driste, courtesy of the Walt Disney Family Museum

Last time, I went on about the conversation between Marty Sklar, Jack Lindquist, Matt Ouimet, and Tony Baxter at the Walt Disney Family Museum Disneyland 55 event.

We watched a summary of the park’s second decade. This was an exciting time and Jack and Marty both agreed that that it’s a small world is the quintessential Disney attraction. Marty is especially fond of the lyrics. Matt commented that you work for Disney because of your heart and not your head.

Marty turned the discussion to the day that Walt passed away. All three agreed that it was a good decision to keep the park open and that is what Walt would have wanted to happen. Tony commented that it just got more depressing as the day went along.

The subject changed to Disneyland’s 50^th anniversary celebration. Matt was President of the park at the time. Marty said the park was becoming a mess and Matt and his team had saved it. Marty knew that a poor show on such an important occasion would reflect very poorly on the park and could do serious long-term damage to the Company’s image. The park really needed some TLC and Matt was the right leader at the right time.

Matt tells the story of one meeting that changed everything. The discussion focused on how to clean up the park. One Cast Member said that it would be impossible. So the next day, Matt had signs made up with the famous Walt quote, “It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.” This became the mantra for his leadership team. Today, Matt’s son works as a Jungle Cruise skipper.

One of Matt’s favorite mementos of his time at Disneyland is a photo of him and Marty at the Club 33 bar on the 50th anniversary. He noted that a little known fact is the Homecoming theme was Jack’s idea. Even in retirement, Jack was genius.

There was some good-humored tension between Tony and Matt. They did work directly together for a while. When Matt wanted to remove the olive trees in the Hub to improve visibility for the fireworks, Tony objected. However, Matt won and, in the end, so did Tony. Today, those olive trees are at Tony’s home. He joked that they light up promptly at 7:00 pm.

The focus shifted to the attractions and the shows. Marty asked each man for his favorite. Matt stated that Splash Mountain was his favorite. Jack really liked Fantasmic and thought it was much better than World of Color. Tony picked one of his own attractions and picked Indiana Jones. He really liked the pace of the movies but knew that the technology did not exist to capture that in a theme ride. It was not until the invention of the enhanced motion vehicle that the attraction could actually be realized. All of them agree that Pirates is in a class by itself. During the public Q&A, Marty added that his favorites were Space Mountain and it’s a small world.

One promotion mentioned was Jack’s 30^th Anniversary giveaway in 1985. He created the Gift Giver machine. As guests pushed through the turnstile, some won prizes. For example, the 30^th person got something small, the 300^th person something bigger, the 3,000^th person something bigger, and so on. They gave away more than 100 GM cars that summer. The promotion was responsible for the biggest attendance year up to that point and the park did not even have a new attraction.

Jack is also responsible for the famous “Where are you going now” promotion. It started with a comment from Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager who piloted the Flight of the Voyager in 1986. This was the first non-stop, unfueled flight around the world. Jack liked the sound of the line and two weeks later he convinced Phil Simms to repeat it twice (once for Disneyland and once for Walt Disney World) at the Super Bowl at the Rose Bowl. The rest is history.

Marty got a nervous chuckle with his next question. He asked the panelist about their biggest failure. Matt suggested that the maiden voyage of the Disney Magic did not go as well as he would have like. There was a culture clash between the Disney people and the maritime people. It took a few months to sort things out.

For Tony, it was the failure of the Rocket Rods in Tomorrowland. This short-lived ride never quite worked as planned and frequently broke down. It would eat through very expensive tires in just 1,000 miles. Originally, GM was slated to present and pay for the ride. When there were delays with the opening of Test Track at Epcot, GM pulled the funding from the Rocket Rods project. This reduced the budget by almost 2/3. This forced too many compromises and the ride never recovered. From a design perspective, if Test Track was about the technology of cars, then Rocket Rods was supposed to be about the design. That is why the queue was decorated the way it was.

Jacked talked about something that goes way back to 1956. He came up with the idea for Community Days. He would pick one city and focus his marketing attention there. The first city was Lakewood. He went around to all of the businesses with flyers and posters. As he approached the special concert in the Holidayland tent, he heard the roar of two hands clapping. Over the weekend, only 216 people from Lakewood visited the park.

One of the audience members asked the panel about their celebrity encounters. Tony talked about Michael Jackson. He felt that Michael was the park’s #1 fan. The superstar lived in the penthouse at Disneyland Paris for almost 6 months. When MJ would come to the park, Tony would take him around. They would go on one ride while operators ran ahead to fire up the next one. One night, in Toontown, Tony got to experience for the first time the only attraction that he had never been through and this was with MJ. That is right. Chip and Dale ball crawl. Now an Extinct Attraction.

Jack told a Walt story. It seems Walt would always call him Bob. Even though he had a nametag, Walt would call him Bob. So one day, Jack pointed out to Walt his nametag. Walt took one look and said, “It looks like Bob to me.” So Jack became Bob and it stuck for years.

Matt enjoyed touring the park with John Lasseter. Apparently John never did anything small. So Matt helped him bring Disney Legend Ollie Johnston’s steam locomotive to Anaheim, place it on the Disneyland track, fire it up, and take it for a run. It was a very special moment on a variety of levels.

When asked how they deal with bloggers and the Internet, Tony said he likes to use it and talked about the very visible demonstration box for the Subs and Nemo just to create speculation. He suggested something special for Comic Con is coming from Disney. Marty said you just have to work with them but he hates it when things pop up a few minutes after a brainstorming session. He says complicates the creative process. Matt was optimistic and said the Internet community is self-correcting. Finally, Jack just shook his head and said that is not his world.

The program lasted almost 1 hour and 50 minutes.

Reedy Creek Improvement District Comp Plan - Part 4

The Comprehensive Plan is designed to be a blueprint for future development. The Reedy Creek Improvement District’s (RCID) plan achieves this goal. Let’s take a closer look at the plan and see what we can learn about how the Walt Disney Resort could look like in the future? Nobody outside of The Walt Disney Company really knows for sure. That is one of unique qualities of this particular governance solution. As the RCID serves primarily only one landowner there can be things that are understood but not documented. However, we can get an idea of what potential still exists within the borders of the RCID.

Remember that land use planning is basically an exercise in resource allocation. Land is a finite resource that has a value that can be enhanced by development or preservation. To draft a plan, the RCID made seven assumptions about the future in order to derive the land use demands.

The first assumption by the RCID was to recognize that this would remain a tourist-oriented community. Although there are a limited number of permanent homes that was not expected to change. As required by the State of Florida, the Plan does have a chapter totally dedicated to the housing discussion.

It is likely that future development will probably be denser than what we see today. The RCID wants to maximize the limited developable land. As you recall, much of the property is set aside for conservation areas or part of the massive drainage system. Therefore, it is likely that a fifth theme park would be smaller. You will be seeing more infill development. Having the new super kennel right across the street from Port Orleans Riverside is an example.

One of Disney’s goals is to keep visitors on property. Working with the RCID they have been able to secure ample capacity to build additional hotels and timeshares. There is an the assumption that “attendance at the theme parks will continue to grow.”

Within the theme parks there are growth opportunities. There are infill opportunities at the Magic Kingdom and Epcot. Even with the Fantasyland expansion, there is plenty of room within the operating borders of that park. The Animal Kingdom is huge and has a lot of room to grow. The Studios may seem to be more constrained but the plan envisions that parks expansion to take it across World Drive.

There are several undeveloped sites within the RCID for new theme parks. The 1999 Plan anticipates that the resort would add one more theme park bringing the total to five. Although no date or specific location is noted, the RCID is always trying to find the right mixes of complimentary attractions and services.

Considered in the planning process is the need for a more robust infrastructure system along with growth in the parks, resorts, and commercial areas. The trend will be more and more developments with mixed uses on a single site or integrated into a single building. The Plan notes that there are no areas of and no “historically significant buildings” within the RCID borders.

Integrated within the plan is a growth management strategy. The opportunity areas for development are limited and have already been set aside. Some areas allowed for existing development to expand. Other areas were set aside as stand-alone Greenfield sites. A Greenfield site is a project area that is relatively undisturbed from its natural state.

There are a series of thresholds that are used to determine the size of developments. The thresholds are 5- and 10-year caps that determine the level of expected public service delivery. The indicators include how much traffic is generated, the amount of water that needs to be pumped to service the project, and the amount of wastewater and solid waste that will be produced and will need to be processed.

The Comprehensive Plan is based on a planning horizon of 2018. Looking at the Plan, what are some of the more obvious opportunities? Once again, the RCID does not tip Disney’s hand but the physical expansion of the four theme parks have been accounted for along with one more stand-alone hotel or golf course being a possibility. Most of the growth, including any new theme parks, will be in mixed-use areas. Most of the mixed-use land is currently vacant. There is also enough land set-aside for support services and public facilities.

Disneyland Dedication Plaques: Frontierland

Here we experience the story of our country's past...the colorful drama of Frontier America in the exciting days of the covered wagon and the stage coach...the advent of the railroad...and the romantic riverboat. Frontierland is a tribute to the faith, courage and ingenuity of the pioneers who blazed the trails across America.

Walt Disney

July 17, 1955

Disneyland 55: A Birthday Celebration at the Walt Disney Family Museum - Part 2

Photography by Joseph Driste, courtesy of the Walt Disney Family Museum

Sitting Left to Right, Tony Baxter, Jack Lindquist, Matt Ouimet, and Marty Sklar

Last time I reported on the Walt Disney Family Museums Disneyland 55 celebration. I had a chance to attend the Founding Member’s event featuring Diane Disney Miller and Buzz Price. On Saturday and Sunday, the Museum hosted public discussions that were just as enjoyable.

The Saturday program was called Disneyland’s Growth, Development, and Stature Today. Unlike the Friday night event, which was held in the theater on the lower level, the staff moved this event to an auxiliary exhibition space that is behind the main museum. For those who went either day, the queue with a view of the Golden Gate Bridge and Crissy Island was amazing. There was a fun buzz throughout the crowd. This was a very knowledgeable audience and expectations were high. We would not be let down.

It started as soon as we sat down. Up on a large screen was very rare footage of the park under construction and the rehearsals for the live television broadcast. You saw familiar things from very different angles. Do you remember when the teacups spun so freely you could separate nuclear materials? One shot of the attraction under construction was a fun reminder. I want this video.

Marty Sklar hosted both days. He was responsible for creating the entire Disneyland weekend. Longtime Imagineer Tony Baxter and former Disneyland Presidents Jack Lindquist and Matt Ouimet joined Marty. In the audience were Diane Disney Miller, Dick Nunis, Ron Miller, and others.

Right at the start, Marty gave credit to Matt for fixing up Disneyland for the 50^th celebration and bringing it back to Walt’s standards. Jack is considered Disneyland’s best marketing person and he is the one responsible for many of the traditions that we know today such as the New Year’s Eve parties and Grad Nite.

Marty wanted to know what was each person’s first experience with Disneyland. For Tony, it was the television program and the first time he rode Peter Pan. He felt Peter Pan was the ultimate in wish fulfillment.

Jack worked for an ad agency that had a client who was a Disneyland sponsor. He wanted to create a promotion for Kelvinator but the Disneyland folks rejected the concept. So Jack played hardball and told them he would pull all of the advertising from his client from the park. The result was the first 3^rd party promotion in the history of the park.

Matt grew up on the east coast and was more of Walt Disney World guy. He drove across the country to experience his first visit and his first reaction, like most first time visitors who only experienced the Magic Kingdom, was “What happened to the castle?” This was in July 1980.

Marty wanted to get the panelist’s reaction to two of Walt’s famous quotes. The first was about the park never being complete as long as imagination still exists and the other was how the park was not like a movie, it can be changed. For Tony, this meant he had a career. Jack said just as you can’t watch the same movie over and over. You have to keep things fresh and new. Matt felt you needed to find the right balanced between the past and the future. Just like Walt said, it was “memory on top of memory.”

After a short video of the achievements from the park’s first ten years, Jack told the story of the first New Year’s Eve party. It was 1957 and Jack was thinking of ways to transform Disneyland from primarily a daytime facility. He wanted to create nighttime entertainment to keep people around so that they could buy dinner.

He decided it would be a good idea to have a New Year’s Eve party. People thought he was nuts since Disneyland didn’t serve alcohol. The way Jack looked at it, he didn’t know anything therefore anything was possible. This was also going to be Disneyland’s first advance ticket event. He made deals with three local stores to sell the tickets. Ticket price was $3.95. They sold 4,000 advance tickets and another 2,000 the night of the event.

Jack wanted to do the event again the following year but others were against the idea. So he offered to rent the park and put on the party himself. Cooler heads prevailed and a new tradition was born. To date, more than 3 million people have attended New Year’s Eve parties at the Disney parks worldwide.

When Tony saw Mr. Lincoln for the first time as a kid he knew he had to get a job at the park. He claims to have the largest collection of theme park tickets anywhere. He also told of his opportunity to peak inside Pirates while it was still under construction.

Everybody thought Marty’s Vacationland magazine was a good tradition. The group mentioned Marty’s Vacationland magazine as a tradition. Even though people thought they knew about the park because of the television shows, it was the magazine that filled in the blanks.

Jack invented the Magic Kingdom Club, which was also a huge success. Companies with more than 500+ employees got special benefits and discounts. The result was more than 5.5 million members and a huge financial return to Disney. He also invented Grad Nite. The suggestion came from a woman in Alhambra. She wanted to rent the park because the previous year saw a couple of kids get killed at an all night party. She felt that Disneyland would be a safe place.

Once again, people told Jack it was a crazy idea but he was determined to put on an event and went around to a bunch of schools to get them to sign them up. Disneyland used high standards including coats and ties plus everybody had to arrive by bus as a security measure.

One time Jack met a kid who was wearing jeans and a t-shirt and was proud that he hopped over the fence. So Jack threw him out. Many hours later Jack saw the same kid, dressed in a coat and tie. The kid said he went home, changed his clothes, and then hopped the fence again. Jack let him stay. Tony noted that during the final two hours, the train begins to look like a flophouse.

The stories continued but I will leave you with one more from Jack and then get back to more next week. This was the best party ever held at Disneyland. After one of Jack’s legendary Dixieland at Disneyland events all of the musicians were ready to continue. So they moved over to the Disneyland Hotel and began to play. In the room were Louis Armstrong, Pete Fountain, Jack Teagarden, and many others. Also in the room were many Anaheim city officials. When 2 o’clock rolled around, the police chief was having too good a time and declared the party a private event and allowed the booze to keep flowing.

There was so much more. So come back next time and I will continue with this panel and the Sunday event, which explored how Disneyland has influenced Disney activities around the globe.

Disneyland 55: A Birthday Celebration at the Walt Disney Family Museum

Photography by Joseph Driste, Courtesy the Walt Disney Family Museum.

If you are a fan of the history of Disneyland, you had two really good options for the weekend of park’s 55^th anniversary. Of course, for many the tradition is to be at the park. This year, I have a feeling a new tradition is born. The Walt Disney Family Museum hosted a three-day event called Disneyland 55: A Birthday Celebration.

The event was the brainchild of Disney Legend Marty Sklar. With his clout, he was able to pull together three different panels featuring Disneyland experts who revealed wonderful stories about the impact of Disneyland.

The three-day event featured a different panel discussion each day with a different focus. The Friday talk was limited to the Museum’s Founding Members and was held in the theater on the lower level. The talks on Saturday and Sunday were open to the public and sold out quickly. To allow for more tickets, the staff hosted those talks in the Special Exhibition Hall behind the main Museum.

I was present at all three sessions and thought there might be some value to sharing what I heard. It was a great program and I applaud the Museum and the staff for hosting a terrific event. I hope they build on this. If I had to describe the fell of the weekend I would have to use an obscure reference that will make perfect sense to those in the know. The Museum’s event was like reading E-Ticket magazine instead of the Disney version, which is a lot like D23. Both are great but there is a difference. A nice difference. By the way, the Museum now has back issues of E-Ticket for sale in very limited quantities.

Today, I will recap the Founding Member’s event. Tomorrow and next week I will document the highlights from the public events. Sadly, no photos were allowed.

The Founding Member event was called Behind the Scenes at Disneyland: The Back Story of Its Creation. The host was the Museum’s Executive Director Richard Benefield. His special guests were Diane Disney Miller, Walt’s daughter and co-founder of the Museum, Harrison “Buzz” Price, and filmmakers Katherine and Richard Greene (Walt: The Man Behind the Myth). In the audience was Disney luminaries Jack Lindquist, Ron Miller, Marty Sklar, Dick Nunis, and others.

Mr. Benefield started with Buzz. Buzz Price was the founder of Stanford Research Institute. He had conducted a couple of other strategic location studies for two other big companies and this gave him the expertise to take on the Disney challenge. When asked what it was like the first time he met Walt, Buzz replied that he had one question for Walt. Do you have any bias? Walt replied, “No, you tell me.”

Buzz and his team looked at census track data, freeway construction plans, average smog and temperature levels, and came up with a 5 mile wide by 5 mile “ameba” of potential sites. Although, the current site was always the first choice, there were four principal sites including one in La Mirada. He was very proud of contribution and was very proud that Walt entrusted him with continuing the vision for Cal Arts.

Diane reminisced about her earliest recollections of a theme park. For her, it seems like this was something her father was talking about all her life. She thinks it goes back to Walt’s early childhood when he and his sister snuck a peek at a local amusement park. She believes that was when he decided he would create his own amusement park one day.

Diane noted that Dick Nunis was in the audience. Dick played college football with Diane’s husband, Ron Miller. He also worked at the Studio doing Orientation. He was selected to be part of the security detail for Walt and Lillian’s 30^th wedding anniversary. The party was held July 15^th, 1955, just two days before Disneyland opened.

Here is one memory of that night shared by Diane. Walt just loved the Golden Horseshoe Revue. Diane said that she had seen the show a few more times than necessary but she loved to watch her dad enjoy Wally Boag do his thing as Pecos Bill.

At one point during the anniversary party, Diane asked her mother where her father was. It seems that Walt was in the second level box right above the stage pretending to shoot at the audience at the same time as Wally. The next thing she knew, Walt was climbing down from the box onto the stage. Walt pulled his wife on stage. This was his night in his new park with his wonderful wife and having the time of his life. She said she never saw him never happier than at that party.

Somebody suggested that somebody needed to take Walt’s car keys away from him. So a conspiracy was born to distract Walt and have somebody lift his car keys. Instead, Diane just asked her Dad for the keys and he gladly handed them over.

As Diane was driving her parents home, she could see her dad in the backseat. One time she looks back and sees him with a rolled up tube of papers that was playing it like a horn. She looks back a little bit later and sees him sleeping like a baby after his big day.

Diane did not attend the park’s famous grand opening. Walt didn’t want any of the “women” at the grand opening because he knew it was going to be a zoo and he didn’t want to worry about them.

As Walt was trying to better understand the amusement park business, he had Buzz attend a conference, hire a pretty woman, buy some booze and caviar, and quiz leaders within the industry. Buzz gave a short pitch about the boss’s plans and listened to their reactions. They all thought Walt was crazy and his ideas wouldn’t work. All Walt could say is that these “experts” didn’t get it and he knew he was on the right track.

When asked if Diane had plans to write a book about her father, she commented that the Museum is her book about her father. Like Disneyland, it can grow and change over time.

Buzz mentioned that Walt was considering a second gate in Anaheim as early as 1961. One idea was to call it “California Living.” However, the World’s Fair and Walt Disney World consumed most of the organization’s energy and that killed the idea for the time being.

Throughout the discussion, the Greene’s filled out the conversation with additional information and context. It made for a rich discussion in a very intimate setting. Diane was a gracious host and Buzz was funny and insightful. This man is 89 and has been there from the beginning. From my perspective, Buzz is one of the most interesting people in the Walt universe. Buzz was the guy that took apart Walt’s dreams, figured out how to measure them, and told him if they would do what he wanted them to do.

Next time I will dive into the public programs.

Reedy Creek Improvement District Comp Plan - Part 3

Part One Part Two

The Future Land Use Chapter

The Future Land Use Chapter’s primary objectives are to identify the location of specific uses and to define the density and intensity of those uses. The goals and policies try to preserve the natural environment, provide public services, minimize threats to public safety, and direct future development in a way that supports economic benefit. The Reedy Creek Improvement District (RCID) recognizes that serving one major landowner makes them different than other governmental agencies and benefits from that relationship.

The RCID tries to implement “recreation-oriented community design” that features “innovative entertainment, recreational, and commercial facilities.” During the initial planning stages, the property was used forward leaning design ideas that determined the land uses by the nature of the existing environment. The process starts with setting aside marginal areas while development is directed to areas where infrastructure can be installed with minimal impacts to the environment.

Growth and development is managed by setting maximize thresholds that are tied to the delivery of public services. This ensures there is adequate service infrastructure to meet the needs of future development.

In the future, you will see more and more development in mixed-use clusters. Public transportation will continue to be used as a way to mitigate traffic congestion. The Plan deals with mitigation efforts to eliminate the adverse impacts to the natural environment with special attention being paid to flooding.

The Future Land Use chapter is the heart of the plan and sets the stage for everything that follows. The document provides a brief history of pattern of growth within the RCID. The community character has been defined as a place that features substantial open space that becomes a barrier between the RCID and the surrounding urban development. One should have a sense of arrival when entering the property.

The property is broken down into four distinct activity areas that are separated by larges areas of open space. The four areas include the Magic Kingdom area, the Fort Wilderness area, the Lake Buena Vista area, and the development within the EPCOT and Disney’s Hollywood Studios area.

The Magic Kingdom contains all of the facilities around the Seven Seas Lagoon. This includes the Magic Kingdom, four resort hotels, two golf courses, an auto speedway, and large array of service buildings and facilities.

The Fort Wilderness activity area includes the Wilderness Lodge and the Fort Wilderness campgrounds. Other facilities include golf courses, the City of Bay Lake residential area, a former landing strip, and Bay Lake. The community character for this activity area tries to create “a more rustic vacation experience for visitors and emphasizes outdoor activities.”

The two theme parks, the waterways, the Boardwalk, Crescent Lake, and the thousands of hotel and Disney Vacation Club timeshare rooms define the community character for the EPCOT/Studios activity area.

It is the Lake Buena Vista activity area that features the broadest array of functions. Downtown Disney is just the start. Also included are the nearby hotels, all of the resorts along Bonnet Creek, golf courses, office buildings, a small residential neighborhood, water parks and more. Hidden from view are service facilities.

The Plan deviates from traditional land use categories used by other municipalities so that the descriptions can more accurately reflect the type of development that is unique in a community dedicated to recreation. There are eleven categories. Seven represent urban land uses and four are used for undeveloped areas.

The first of the seven urban land use categories is Residential. This category contains all of the permanent homes within the District boundaries. Yes, people really do live at Walt Disney World. As of the date of the release of the plan there two different locations, with a total of 17 manufactured homes spread over eleven acres. There are 47 or so residents who are all very trusted employees of the Walt Disney Company.

The offices, service stations, theaters, nightclubs, retail shops, and other similar activities are represented by the Commercial category. All of the hotels are listed in the Hotel/Resort category, which also counts the golf courses. The Entertainment category is where you will find the theme parks, water parks, the Speedway, and other attractions. Adjacent to the Entertainment, Commercial, and Hotel/Resort areas are Support Facilities. Some of the more publicly visible Support Facilities include the Ticket and Transportation Center and the Casting Center.

Hidden from the public are some of the most important Public Facilities. These include the wastewater treatment plants, the recycling and composting facilities, energy plants, and the fire stations. Areas dedicated to Agriculture are in the plan. I can hear you saying Agriculture? The District does contain land for used for cattle grazing. Other agricultural uses include pine plantations and citrus groves as well as the nursery and tree farm.

The District maintains a considerable amount of undeveloped land. The undeveloped land categorized by two long-term visions. Some areas are set aside for future development. There is also a very large area is set-aside and labeled as a conservation overlay zone. Much of this land is within the flood plain.

There are some adjoining land uses outside of the Districts boundary that are recognized in the Plan. They include US 192 Corridor, CR/SR 535 Corridor, Little Lake Bryan and the town of Celebration.

The Roads and Water Bodies categories were dropped in the 2008 update.

The Future Land Use Chapter takes a deeper look at opportunities and constraints related to natural resources, public services, and the suitability of certain areas for development. It complies with Florida’s attempt to limit urban sprawl. In our next chapter we will take a look at what the future might look like as limited by the plan.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DISNEYLAND

It was on this day in 1955 that Walt Disney dedicated his park and open the doors for the world to enjoy. Happy Birthday Disneyland!

To all who come to this happy place: Welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past, and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, dreams, and the hard facts that have created America; with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world.

- Dedication Speech