It was a much different world in 1971 when Walt Disney World opened 43 years ago.
Walt Disney World had been the largest privately funded construction project in the world with an estimated cost of over $400 million by the time it officially opened, and hundreds of millions of dollars added to it over the first few years of operation.
In 1971, Walt Disney World employed over 8,000 cast members. Almost 200 potential cast members had been walking into the Casting Center every day, with another 8,000 applications a month received through the mail.
It was conservatively estimated that only one in a dozen applicants were hired.
On the dedication of the Magic Kingdom on October 25, 1971, Walt's older brother, Roy O. Disney, told the press, “He (Walt Disney) was really, in my opinion, truly a genius—creative, with great determination, singleness of purpose, and drive; and through his entire life he was never pushed off his course or diverted by other things.”
Roy turned to Walt's widow, Lillian Disney, and asked, “Lilly, you knew of Walt's ideas and hopes as well as anybody. What would Walt think of it?”
Without hesitating, she replied, “I think Walt would have approved.”
From the Story of Walt Disney World Commemorative Edition that was available to guests in 1971, here is the description of the new entertainment venue:
“Walt Disney World is a completely new kind of vacation experience. Here you'll find all the fun of California's Disneyland—and many new attractions created especially for Walt Disney World. And that's just the beginning: Here you can dine in the banquet hall of a medieval castle… sail for miles, or sun on the beach of a Polynesian Village… watch the sunset from the deck of a 19th-century steamboat… ride a swift monorail train right through the interior of a resort-hotel, as contemporary as tomorrow.
“These adventures, and many more, await you and your family when you visit Walt Disney World—a completely new kind of destination-resort. Come for the day… or better yet, plan to stay for your entire vacation!
“Here are just a few of the exciting adventures and attractions awaiting you and your family in The Vacation Kingdom of the World.”
That theme was echoed on the first sheet of the standard Magic Kingdom Ticket Book:
“Welcome to Walt Disney World and the Magic Kingdom. We hope you and your family will enjoy your stay in the Vacation Kingdom here at Walt Disney World. A multitude of Recreational-Leisure activities is yours to enjoy. This Ticket Book is your Passport to many wonderful adventures in the Magic Kingdom. May your stay be a pleasant one and may you return and visit us again soon. Walt Disney Productions.”
That standard Magic Kingdom Ticket Book only offered seven tickets, not the eight that were then offered at Disneyland.
The book was purposely designed to look different than a Disneyland Ticket Book, with the text on the back of the book placed vertically rather than horizontally, and the letters on each individual ticket done in a more elaborate font.
For an adult, the cost of the book was $4.75 (19 cents of which was state tax) but it included admission, seven tickets, and a “transportation ticket”—Disney estimated that the value was actually $7.65, so it was quite a bargain. It was even more of a bargain when you realized that a single adult admission (without any tickets) was $3.50.
A Junior (12-17 years of age) book was $4.25, and a child (3-11) was $3.75. Parking was 50 cents a car. The lowest hotel rate on property was $22 a night (no extra charge for children under the age of 18 occupying the same room as an adult).
An “A” ticket was good for a one-way ride on Main Street's Omnibus, Horse Cars, or other Main Street vehicles. Or you could choose a spin on Fantasyland's Cinderella's Golden Carrousel.
A “B” ticket was good for a visit to the Main Street Cinema, Frontierland's Shootin' Gallery or Mike Fink Keelboats, or Adventureland's Swiss Family Treehouse.
A “C” ticket was good for Tomorrowland's Grand Prix Raceway, Fantasyland's Dumbo the Flying Elephant, Peter Pan's Flight, Snow White's Adventures, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Mad Tea Party or Frontierland's Davy Crockett's Explorer Canoes (that closed at dusk with a reminder on the ticket itself, to avoid disappointing guests).
A “D” ticket was good for the Main Street Railroad Train Grand Circle Tour, Tomorrowland's Skyway to Fantasyland or Flight to the Moon, Fantasyland's Skyway to Tomorrowland, Frontierland's Country Bear Jamboree or Liberty Square's Admiral Joe Fowler Riverboat or The Hall of Presidents.
A “E” Ticket was good for Fantasyland's “it's a small world,” The Mickey Mouse Revue or 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Submarine Voyage, Adventureland's Jungle Cruise, Tropical Serenade (name changed in September 1972 to Enchanted Tiki Birds and dropped to a “D” ticket), or Liberty Square's Haunted Mansion.
Not a lot of attractions open and operating. The Hall of Presidents and Country Bear Jamboree would move up from “D” to “E” in 1972, and The Mickey Mouse Revue would drop from “E” status to “D” in 1972.
Walt Disney World in 1971 was promoted as not just another theme park—an East Coast Disneyland—but as a vacation destination with countless additional activities that required a multi-day stay rather than a casual few hours.
Also in those early months, there were no traditional guide maps available for guests to pick up as they entered the park. Instead, to create a different experience than at Disneyland, guests were given a newspaper called the Walt Disney World News.
The map for the park was printed inside the newspaper, along with various short news items like a regular newspaper. It wasn't until early in 1972 that the more familiar free guide maps became available for the Magic Kingdom.
When we celebrate the anniversary of Walt Disney World, we usually concentrate on all the activities, including the opening and the dedication ceremonies in the month of October.
However, it was Thanksgiving weekend November 1971 that was the truly defining moment in the Magic Kingdom's history in its first three months, demonstrating beyond a doubt that the new vacation kingdom was a major success.
The media had dubbed the October opening of the Magic Kingdom as disappointing in terms of the number of guests that showed up. The Walt Disney Company had purposely chosen the slowest day of the week and the slowest month of the year for tourist traffic to give the new theme park some time to make necessary adjustments before the holiday season.
According to author Bob Thomas, Roy O. Disney was enraged at the reaction on Wall Street and in the media that the Disney Company had “blown it.”
Word had reached Wall Street quickly that the final attendance was well below their estimate. However, it was almost exactly the number that the Disney Company expected but had never revealed.
People tried to unload their Disney stock, fearing that this “Florida Folly” would be the end of the entertainment company. Disney stock dropped nine points by the end of the day on October 1, 1971.
Card Walker, at the time an executive vice president and COO, said later, “The worst time in my life was at the Polynesian on opening day, a question-and-answer session with newsmen. They were asking why there were only 10,000 people that day. All of us wanted to kill ourselves.”
As Publicist Charlie Ridgway remembered it, “Having forecast (internally) a first-year guest count of eight million, Walt's brother Roy told associates, ‘Unless we have a full house for Thanksgiving weekend, we're in trouble.' Turkey day brought a crunch of first-time visitors jamming roads in every direction.
“With only 5,000 hotel rooms in the area plus 1,500 in Disney's two hotels, eager fans were camped out along the Florida Turnpike and I-75 all the way to the Georgia border, about 200 miles away.”
The Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving Thursday was dubbed “The Traffic Jam Heard 'Round the World.”
The Magic Kingdom quickly reached a capacity of roughly 50,000 guests early in the day on Friday, with over 500 cars being turned away from the parking lot. The traffic congestion on Interstate 4 leading into Walt Disney World was backed up for over 20 miles. One news report declared it “the longest parking lot in the world.”
“It seemed everybody in the country had suddenly decided to go to Walt Disney World that day. The Kingdom was taken completely by surprise,” wrote Edward Prizer, publisher of Orlando Magazine. “Radio stations frantically broadcast reports of a bumper-to-bumper jam on I-4. For the first time, Disney was forced to close the parking lots. Thousands of tourists had to cool their heels in motel rooms until the stampede subsided.”
“Within an hour, we were meeting and talking over the problem,” remembered Disney executive Bob Allen. “We began checking alternatives. We recognized the need for more capacity. A lot of problems were out of our hands. We knew we had to work closer with the state on long-range highway planning.”
Some of the ideas that were soon put into place included having the Disney parking lots open earlier and extending theme park hours during peak seasons. State troopers were instructed in dealing with heavy traffic loads. Radio broadcasts would warn visitors of crush periods and urge them to wait a few hours before driving out.
“Everybody really had to turn and help each other (that Friday),” added Disney executive Bob Matheison, who became Vice President of Parks. “Whether it was parking cars, traffic control in the parking lot, or cooking hot dogs, it took everybody's contribution, not just the people assigned to the operational aspects. We heard about (the big traffic jam) from places like India, five years later!”
“Christmas week was even busier. Our 1,500 rooms in the Contemporary and the Polynesian were booked up for a year,” smiled Ridgway.
Prizer added, “Attendance (at Magic Kingdom) increased steadily. It rose to 600,000 in (the month of) December. Hours were extended to midnight for the Christmas holidays. For three successive days at Christmastime, the gate total approached 70,000. But never again did the crisis on the Interstate occur.”
Roy O. Disney had predicted that the first year would generate $8 million but the final tally was closer to $11 million.
However, that success did not come easily. Behind the scenes, the Disney Company struggled that first year Walt Disney World was opened.
Even with Disneyland as a model, the conditions in Central Florida were different.
There were no local support businesses to supply the need for material and specialized skills that could have been obtained in Southern California in mere hours.
The challenge of too much or too little water was an unexpected problem.
The excessive heat and humidity required large indoor waiting areas and massive air conditioning. Shelters had to be built over exits to some attractions and hundreds of umbrellas were installed to provide shade.
Within the first year, it was discovered that wooden structures, especially on Main Street U.S.A. would deteriorate or get dry rot because of the rain and heat.
Repainting didn't work because it was so humid that the paint would not dry in time for the guests to enter the park. New ways of protecting wood or replacing it with fiberglass were instituted.
Humidity caused the wallpaper in some of the rooms at the Disney resorts to peel off the wall. A $3.5 million rehab was done to the Disney resort hotels during the second year of operation.
Since Orlando was the lightning capital of the world, there had to be different preparations for the buildings, like the addition of lightning arresters.
Norm Doerges, who was part of the opening team for Walt Disney World responsible for pools, beaches, boats, and sailing recalled, “Being from the West, we didn't understand the effect lightning could have. There are 16,000 strikes per year around Walt Disney World. We'd never experienced anything like it.”
Even with protection in place, lightning strikes to power lines would result in computers running attractions like the Haunted Mansion and Hall of Presidents to shut down, sometimes as often as three times a day, forcing the evacuation of the attraction.
However, the guests who journeyed to this vacation kingdom never noticed these challenges that the WDW team struggled with everyday. So much had been done right at Walt Disney World and was so magical that any problems were ignored by the visitors, who had plenty of pixie dust in their eyes.
As publisher Edward Prizer remembered, “In the two years that followed the opening, there was no let up in momentum. Somewhere in the Park, at almost any time, you could see them digging or nailing boards or stretching wires, but you knew plenty was going on.
“There were estimates than an additional $100 million was spent in the first two years. Tens of thousands of additional trees and shrubs and flowers kept landscaping crews constantly at work. There seemed to be no limit to the number of shops and small eating places that were constantly being added in vacant spaces among the attractions.”
The Disney Company press release from October 1972, on the one-year anniversary of Walt Disney World opening, stated:
“In just one year, Walt Disney World has become one of the world's best known vacation destinations. On the basis of the first year total of 10,712,991 visitors from 'outside its borders', the new Vacation Kingdom ranks number six among the 'nations' of the world: behind Spain, Italy, France, Canada and the U.S. but ahead of Austria, Germany, the United Kingdom and the rest.
“Walt Disney World outdistanced (in attendance) such areas as Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gettysburg, Yellowstone, and Yosemite.
“Not only was Walt Disney World's first year a critical and attendance success, but its impact on Florida, on the United States and on the world of tourism was equally significant.
“It has become known as a happy place where young and old can forget their cares and spend hours or days enjoying a way of life unlike anything else in the world.”
The continued success of Walt Disney World began over four decades ago in the month of November.
