Orlando at Night

John Fraim

Brand New Day

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(Assembled & edited from various articles. Hypertext left in for more exploration)

In early 1950, Disney produced Cinderella, his studio’s first animated feature in eight years. It was popular with critics and theater audiences. Costing $2.2 million to produce, it earned nearly $8 million in its first year. Disney was less involved than he had been with previous pictures because of his involvement in his first entirely live-action feature, Treasure Island (1950), which was shot in Britain, as was The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952). Other all-live-action features followed, many of which had patriotic themes. He continued to produce full-length animated features too, including Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Peter Pan (1953). 

From the early to mid-1950s, Disney began to devote less attention to the animation department, entrusting most of its operations to his key animators, the Nine Old Men, although he was always present at story meetings. Instead, he started concentrating on other ventures. Around the same time, Disney established his own film distribution division Buena Vista, replacing his most recent distributor RKO Pictures.

For several years Disney had been considering building a theme park. When he visited Griffith Park in Los Angeles with his daughters, he wanted to be in a clean, unspoiled park, where both children and their parents could have fun. He visited the Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, Denmark, and was heavily influenced by the cleanliness and layout of the park. In March 1952, he received zoning permission to build a theme park in Burbank, near the Disney studios. This site proved too small, and a larger plot in Anaheim, 35 miles south of the studio, was purchased. 

To distance the project from the studio‍—‌which might attract the criticism of shareholders‍—‌Disney formed WED Enterprises (now Walt Disney Imagineering) and used his own money to fund a group of designers and animators to work on the plans; those involved became known as “Imagineers.” After obtaining bank funding he invited other stockholders, American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres‍—‌part of American Broadcasting Company (ABC)‍—‌and Western Printing and Lithographing Company. 

In mid-1954, Disney sent his Imagineers to every amusement park in the U.S. to analyze what worked and what pitfalls or problems there were in the various locations and incorporated their findings into his design.  Construction work started in July 1954, and Disneyland opened in July 1955; the opening ceremony was broadcast on ABC, which reached 70 million viewers. The park was designed as a series of themed lands, linked by the central Main Street, U.S.A.‍—‌a replica of the main street in his hometown of Marceline. The connected themed areas were Adventureland,  Frontierland,  Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. 

The park also contained the narrow gauge Disneyland Railroad that linked the lands; around the outside of the park was a high berm to separate the park from the outside world. An editorial in The New York Times considered that Disney had “tastefully combined some of the pleasant things of yesterday with fantasy and dreams of tomorrow.” Although there were early minor problems with the park, it was a success, and after a month’s operation, Disneyland was receiving over 20,000 visitors a day; by the end of its first year, it attracted 3.6 million guests. 

The money from ABC was contingent on Disney television programs. The studio had been involved in a successful television special on Christmas Day 1950 about the making of Alice in Wonderland. Roy believed the program added millions to the box office takings. In a March 1951 letter to shareholders, he wrote that “television can be a most powerful selling aid for us, as well as a source of revenue. It will probably be on this premise that we enter television when we do.”

 In 1954, after the Disneyland funding had been agreed, ABC broadcast Walt Disney’s Disneyland, an anthology consisting of animated cartoons, live-action features and other material from the studio’s library. The show was successful in terms of ratings and profits, earning an audience share of over 50%. In April 1955, Newsweek called the series an “American institution”. ABC was pleased with the ratings, leading to Disney’s first daily television program, The Mickey Mouse Club, a variety show catering specifically to children. 

The program was accompanied by merchandising through various companies (Western Printing, for example, had been producing coloring books and comics for over 20 years, and produced several items connected to the show). One of the segments of Disneyland consisted of the five-part miniseries Davy Crockett which, according to Disney biographer Neal Gabler, “became an overnight sensation”. The show’s theme song, “The Ballad of Davy Crockett“, became internationally popular, and ten million records were sold. As a result, Disney formed his own record production and distribution entity, Disneyland Records. 

As well as the construction of Disneyland, Disney worked on other projects away from the studio. He was consultant to the 1959 American National Exhibition in Moscow; Disney Studios’ contribution was America the Beautiful, a 19-minute film in the 360-degree Circarama theater that was one of the most popular attractions. The following year he acted as the chairman of the Pageantry Committee for the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California, where he designed the opening, closing and medal ceremonies. He was one of twelve investors in the Celebrity Sports Center, which opened in 1960 in Glendale, Colorado; he and Roy bought out the others in 1962, making the Disney company the sole owner.

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Despite the demands wrought by non-studio projects, Disney continued to work on film and television projects. In 1955, he was involved in “Man in Space“, an episode of the Disneylandseries, which was made in collaboration with NASA rocket designer Wernher von Braun. Disney also oversaw aspects of the full-length features Lady and the Tramp (the first animated film in CinemaScope) in 1955, Sleeping Beauty (the first animated film in Technirama 70 mm film) in 1959, One Hundred and One Dalmatians (the first animated feature film to use Xerox cels) in 1961, and The Sword in the Stone in 1963. 

In 1964, Disney produced Mary Poppins, based on the book series by P. L. Travers; he had been trying to acquire the rights to the story since the 1940s. It became the most successful Disney film of the 1960s, although Travers disliked the film intensely and regretted having sold the rights. The same year he also became involved in plans to expand the California Institute of the Arts (colloquially called CalArts), and had an architect draw up blueprints for a new building.

Disney provided four exhibits for the 1964 New York World’s Fair, for which he obtained funding from selected corporate sponsors. For PepsiCo, who planned a tribute to UNICEF, Disney developed It’s a Small World, a boat ride with audio-animatronic dolls depicting children of the world; Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln contained an animatronic Abraham Lincolngiving excerpts from his speeches; Carousel of Progress promoted the importance of electricity; and Ford’s Magic Skyway portrayed the progress of mankind. Elements of all four exhibits‍—‌principally concepts and technology‍—‌were re-installed in Disneyland, although It’s a Small World is the ride that most closely resembles the original.

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 During the early to mid-1960s, Disney developed plans for a ski resort in Mineral King, a glacial valley in California’s Sierra Nevada. He hired experts such as the renowned Olympic ski coach and ski-area designer Willy Schaeffler. With income from Disneyland accounting for an increasing proportion of the studio’s income, Disney continued to look for venues for other attractions. In 1963, he presented a project to create a theme park in downtown St. Louis, Missouri; he initially reached an agreement with the Civic Center Redevelopment Corp, which controlled the land, but the deal later collapsed over funding. In late 1965, he announced plans to develop another theme park to be called “Disney World” (now Walt Disney World), a few miles southwest of Orlando, Florida. Disney World was to include the “Magic Kingdom”‍—‌a larger and more elaborate version of Disneyland‍—‌plus golf courses and resort hotels. The heart of Disney World was to be the “Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow” (EPCOT)

During 1966, Disney cultivated businesses willing to sponsor EPCOT. He received a story credit in the 1966 film Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N. as Retlaw Yensid, his name spelt backwards. He increased his involvement in the studio’s films, and was heavily involved in the story development of The Jungle Book, the live-action musical feature The Happiest Millionaire (both 1967) and the animated short Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968). 

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Disney had been a heavy smoker since World War I. He did not use cigarettes with filters and had smoked a pipe as a young man. In early November 1966, he was diagnosed with lung cancer and was treated with cobalt therapy. On November 30, he felt unwell and was taken by ambulance from his home to St. Joseph Hospital where, on December 15, at age 65, he died of circulatory collapse caused by the cancer.^[143] His remains were cremated two days later and his ashes interred at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.

Disney’s EPCOT

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Walt Lives On In Imagineering

The World’s Greatest Theme Park Designers. Can Urban Planners Learn from Disney?

Or

Why Can’t Urban Planners Learn from Disney?

The research and development arm of the Walt Disney Company responsible for the creation, design and construction of Disney theme parks and attractions worldwide. Headquartered in Glendale, California, Imagineering is composed of “Imagineers,” who are illustrators, architects, engineers, lighting designers, show writers and graphic designers.

The term “Imagineering”, a portmanteau, was introduced in the 1940s by Alcoa to describe its blending of imagination and engineering and used by Union Carbide in an in-house magazine in 1957, with an article by Richard F. Sailer called “BRAINSTORMING IS IMAGination engineering.” Disney filed for a trademark for the term in 1989, claiming first use of the term in 1962. Imagineering is currently a registered trademark of Disney Enterprises. 

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One of Imagineering’s techniques, “blue sky speculation”, is a process in which ideas are generated without limitations. Imagineers may develop a bold idea in extreme detail, initially disregarding budgetary or physical constraints. It can take up to five years for an idea to turn into a finished attraction. The company considers this the beginning of a design process, believing, “if it can be dreamt, it can be built.”

WDI partnered with the Khan Academy to create a series of online video classes called Imagineering in a Box, to allow students to “explore different aspects of theme park design, from characters to ride development…” The classes, which are organized into three main categories (Creating Worlds, Designing Attractions, and Bringing Characters to Life), are presented by WDI employees using multimedia lessons and exercises.

The Imagineering Pyramid

Past Disney Imagineers have shared 15 principles of Disney Imagineering, divided into five tiers. These are: 

• It All Begins with a Story
• Creative Intent
• Attention to Detail
• Theming
• Long, Medium, and Close Shots
• Wienies
• Transitions
• Storyboards 
• Pre-Shows and Post-Shows
• Forced Perspective 
• “Read”-ability
• Kinetics
• The “It’s a Small World” Effect  
• Hidden Mickeys
• Plussing

Walt Disney coined the term “plussing” for the process of constantly striving to perfect Imagineering work. Disney believed that there is always room for innovation and improvement, stating, “Disneyland will never be completed as long as there’s imagination left in the world.” This sometimes takes the form of returning to previously abandoned ideas, such as the rework of the Museum of the Weird wax museum concept into the present The Haunted Mansion.

The Art of the Show

Disney theme parks are storytelling and visual experiences, also known as “The Art of the Show.” The use of theming, atmosphere, and attention to detail are essential in the Disney experience. Creative director John Hench (Hench and his wife were longtime devotees of the Hindu saint Ramakrishna, were initiated by Swami Ramakrishna and were members of the Vedanta Society of Southern California. Hench served as the society’s board president for a short time).

One notable example of forced perspective is Cinderella Castle in Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. The scale of architectural elements is much smaller in the upper reaches of the castle compared to the foundation, making it seem significantly taller than its actual height of 189 feet. 

The attraction, Pirates of the Caribbean, evokes a “rollicking buccaneer adventure,” according to Hench. In contrast, the Disney Cruise Line ships create an elegant seafaring atmosphere. Minor details in theme park shops and restaurants are crucial; these include the menus, names of the dishes and the Cast Members costumes. When guests walk down the area of Main Street U.S.A., they are likely to notice a bakery fragrance, reminiscent of suburban America in the 1900s. In addition to theme parks, Imagineering has devised retail stores, galleries, and hotels which have “stories” and create a specific mood. For instance, the Disney’s Contemporary Resort, features an A-Frame structure, modern décor and futuristic features including a quiet monorail in the lobby. These details reinforce the hotel’s contemporary nature. 

Mickey’s Ten Commandments

In 1991, Marty Sklar (then-president of Imagineering) presented ten commandments attributed to Mickey Steinberg (the vice president of Imagineering). They are: 

1. Know your audience
2. Wear your guest’s shoes (don’t forget the human factors; try to experience the parks from the guests’ point of view)
3. Organize the flow of people and ideas (ensure experiences tell a story that is organized and logically laid out)
4. Create a “Wienie” (Walt Disney’s term for a “visual magnet”)
5. Communicate with visual literacy (use a dominant color or shape or building to reinforce a theme)
6. Avoid overload—create turn-ons (do not offer too much detailed information)
7. Tell one story at a time (put one ‘big idea’ in each show so guests leave with a clear understanding of the theme)
8. Avoid contradictions—maintain identity (avoid irrelevant or contradicting elements; make sure the audience has a clear idea of what is being said)
9. For every ounce of treatment, provide a ton of treat (take advantage of the distinction of the theme park, which is that it encourages active participation, compared to passive entertainment)
10. Keep it up (do not become complacent or allow things to run down)

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Notes

https://disneyparksblog.com