History of the World, Part VII
Building a Magic Kingdom
Wednesday, August 11, 2004
by Mark Goldhaber, staff writer
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 of this series).
In fact, after Walt Disney reviewed plans for this attraction during his
last visit to the Imagineering offices before he entered the hospital
for the last time, the Country Bear Jamboree gained the nickname “Walt's
Last Laugh.”
Power struggles
Of course, with Walt gone, there was no single, unifying vision guiding
the entire process, as there had been with Disneyland. Without a final
arbiter of all disputes, conflict arose between those designing the attractions
in Glendale and those installing them and planning their operation in
Florida. Imagineering chief Dick Irvine and park operations head Dick
Nunis, while both trying to achieve the best possible park results, had
differing ideas on certain details. Nunis, being on site, frequently got
his wish.
While Walt's brother Roy was trying to oversee the entire project, his
attention was divided between that and running the company, and so he
had difficulty riding herd on the day-to-day issues. However, he still
spent a good deal of time handling internal fights among the staff. And
yet, work still went on, and the park was still taking shape.
Construction issues
There were a number of problems with outside labor on the job site, with
strikes, union jurisdiction issues, and other issues delaying work. Prime
contractor Allen Contracting was fired by Admiral Joe Fowler a year before
the resort's scheduled opening when they said that there was no way that
they would be able to finish in time. Fowler dismissed them, saying, “If
you can't, we will.” The Buena Vista Construction Company was quickly
formed and took over as prime contractor, rehiring subcontractors and
large numbers of employees from Allen.
Imagineers wanted to pave Main Street, U.S.A. with bricks. They even
found a supply from brick streets being torn up in Winter Park. Howver,
the price for the bricks was too steep, and they ended up only using bricks
on the side streets and paving Main Street with red cement
In the Utilidors underneath the Magic Kingdom, Aerojet General installed
the AVAC system, whereby pneumatic tubes would carry solid waste from
various locations in the Magic Kingdom and Contemporary Resort to a central
collection point, thus implementing an aspect of Walt's original planned
EPCOT, after a fashion. Elsewhere in the Utilidors, the computers and
other controlling mechanisms to run the attractions and Animatronic shows
were all sited in the DACS (Digital Animation Control System) Control
Center under Fantasyland.
A way to get around
Meanwhile, various and sundry types of vehicles needed to be constructed
and/or repaired. The four Baldwin locomotives from the early 20th Century
that were discovered in the Yucatan peninsula were purchased and brought
to Tampa, where they were lovingly restored by Earl Vilmer. The 150-vessel
armada (including paddle-wheel steamboats, ferryboats, jungle launches,
canoes, keelboats, and submarines) was assembled in St. Petersburg. The
Mark IV monorails were constructed at a nearby space plant, while their
tracks were created in Tacoma, Washington.
The original monorail loop between the Transportation and Ticket Center,
the resort hotels, and the Magic Kingdom, consisted of 337 individual
track beams 85 to 110 feet long made of concrete with a special polystyrene
core to lighten weight.
The beams, which still weighed 55 tons a piece, were transported via
standard train from Tacoma, taking three flatbed cars apiece. Two trains
carrying the beams across the country landed in a ditch. The beams were
then trucked from the station at Taft, Florida like a hook-and-ladder
fire engine with a drive truck under the front end and a steerable trailer
at the back end of the beam. The total freight bill for just the beams
was $980,000.
The monorail beams just couldn't be erected anywhere, though. Because
of the swampy ground, the Hubbard Construction Company was hired to dig
holes and drive pilings down to solid ground. The pilings were covered
with concrete and then used as a base for the monorail beam support columns.
Next time
In the next installment of this series, we'll talk about some more pre-opening
Magic Kingdom stories and look at the resort's grand opening.
Thoughts, questions, or comments? Contact Mark here.
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History of the World, Part I
– The history of Walt Disney World starts with the completion
of Disneyland.
History of the World, Part II –
Disney selects a site.
History of the World, Part III –
Walt's plans for the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow.
History of the World, Part IV –
Reaction to Walt Disney's death.
History of the World, Part V –
The engineering problems of working in a swamp.
History of the World, Part VI –
The original plans for five hotels.
History of the World, Part VII –
Construction begins for the Magic Kingdom.
Foglesong, Richard E. Married to the Mouse: Walt Disney
World and Orlando. Yale University Press, 2003 (buy).
France, Van Arsdale, Window on Main Street: 35 Years of
Creating Happiness at Disneyland Park. Stabur Press, 1991 (buy).
Green, Howard E. and Amy Boothe, Remembering Walt: Favorite
Memories of Walt Disney. Hyperion Press, 1999 (buy).
Greene, Katherine and Richard, Inside the Dream: The Personal
Story of Walt Disney. Hyperion Press, 2001 (buy).
Greene, Katherine and Richard, The Man Behind the Magic:
The Story of Walt Disney. Viking Press, 1991. Out of print (buy
Viking Children's Book 1998 edition).
Kurtti, Jeff, Since the World Began: Walt Disney World The
First 25 Years. Disney Editions, 1996. Out of print (buy).
The Quotable Walt Disney. Disney Editions, 2001 (buy).
Thomas, Bob, Building a Company: Roy O. Disney and the Creation
of the Disney Empire. Disney Editions, 1999 (buy).
Thomas, Bob, Walt Disney: An American Original. Disney
Editions, 1994 (buy).
The definitive biography of Walt, as far as I'm concerned. – Mark
Mark is a veteran of many trips to Walt Disney World starting in 1972, with a few Disneyland trips also under his belt. He is also a Disney stockholder and a Disney Vacation Club member who collects Disney sericels, books, clothing, and just about any other thing with The Mouse on it that he can lay his hands on. Between visiting WDW, planning trips for himself and others, fantasizing about trips to WDW, and reading everything he can about Walt Disney and his legacy, there's not much time left for anything other than family time, but he's perfectly happy with that. Mark is a computer geek working for the State of New York. He lives in the suburbs outside Albany, New York, with his wife and son. Click here to contact Mark. 
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