While General Joe Potter was taking care of the infrastructure of Disney’s
huge parcel of land in Florida and Admiral Joe Fowler was overseeing the
construction of the hotels, the Admiral was also overseeing the construction
of the centerpiece of the resort’s Phase I: the Magic Kingdom theme park.
The same, but different
While similar to Disneyland Park in California, plans were made to use
many of the lessons learned from that park’s construction and operation,
as well as to take advantage of all of the space available. Walkways would
be made wider to accommodate more patrons. Backstage areas would include
underground passages, called “Utilidors” (a contraction of “utility
corridors”) to allow cast members to move from location to location
without their costumes seeming out of place. The castle would be made
taller to allow it to be visible from all lands to serve as a wayfinding
point for all guests, as well as to be visible from across the Seven Seas
Lagoon to build guest anticipation.
To further differentiate from the original Disneyland, advertising campaigns
focused on new attractions being built for Florida that were not available
in California, such as the Hall of Presidents, the Mickey Mouse Review,
the Country Bear Jamboree, and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
Proving the Imagineering axiom that “good ideas never die,”
some of these “unique” attractions were reused from prior concepts.
The Hall of Presidents was originally planned by Walt as an attraction
for the 1964 World’s Fair in New York (and also planned to be moved back
to Disneyland as part of a proposed “Liberty Street,” the inspiration
for Walt Disney World’s Liberty Square). The Country Bear Jamboree was
originally intended for Disney’s planned ski resort at Mineral King (mentioned
in Part 2 Author
