Project Future: The Inside Story Behind the Creation of Disney World [Paperback]

Chad Denver Emerson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 25, 2010

The Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando, Florida is one of the world's most famous vacation destinations. This iconic resort is now located in what once was thousands of acres of swamp and marshland. Through spy-like moves and innovative strategies, Walt Disney and his cadre of creative leaders turned this massive swamp land into today's Disney World. This books shares the amazing behind the scenes story of how Disney's Florida resort, code-named Project Future, rose from the marshes of Central Florida to become one of the world's most popular theme park resorts.

Product Details

• Paperback: 204 pages
• Publisher: Ayefour Publishing (February 25, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0615347770
• ISBN-13: 978-0615347776
• Product Dimensions: 0.5 x 5.4 x 8.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #119,193 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #64 in Books > Travel > Specialty Travel > Theme Parks

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Behind-The-Scenes Tale of Disney World's Creation March 19, 2010

By Dave

Format:Paperback

I kept thinking over and over again; this could never happen today. Walt Disney World in Orlando is a testament to the creative genius, tenacity, and fantastic reputation that Walt Disney and his hand-picked team possessed at the time that this book takes place. For those looking for a big, glossy, picture-laden coffee table book, this is not the read for you. There are no pictures or diagrams in this book, but truly, it does not need them. Instead, you have a very easy read (took me four bus commuter trips to read this; I couldn't put it down) that documents the why and how of Walt Disney World Resort.

It is fairly common knowledge that Walt Disney was not happy with the less-than-desireable businesses that sprung up around Disneyland in Anaheim back in 1955. These tacky motels and cheap restaurants were not up to the quality of Disney's park, yet they reaped the benefits of proximity. Vowing not to let this happen again, Walt made sure that his next venture would have plenty of land not only for what he wanted to build, but also enough to create a buffer between his dream world and the land speculators who wanted to ride on his coat-tails. Reading almost like a mystery story, you'll learn about the other locations Walt first looked at for his next park (St. Louis, Niagara Falls, New York, and more) and most interestingly of all, the many layers of secrecy that were created to keep the Disney name out of the papers during the negotiations to purchase the property in Florida. The amount of time, research, and effort that went into creating the Orlando Resort is most likely never thought of, but here it is expertly outlined in under 200 pages.... The end of the book also features a timeline of important dates in WDW's history as well as a list of key players involved and their roles in "Project Future" as WDW was dubbed back in the day.

Even when the land was purchased, there was much to do; the political machine had to be dealt with, as the Disney team wanted to create a Utopia with revolutionary ways of doing things. Too much government and/or taxation could have meant the downfall of the entire project. I was pleased that author Chad Emerson also gives facts and figures of the actual financial and environmental impact that Walt Disney World had on Florida; these numbers are truly staggering. Walt got the ball rolling and his team carried (most of) his vision forward. With special interest groups and the political climate today, I seriously doubt that a company could step forward and purchase 27,000 acres of swamp & farmland and turn it into one of the top vacation spots in the world. For better or worse, those days are gone. Fortunately, we have Walt Disney World, a living monument that is a testimony to the brilliance of Walt Disney. Thank you Mr. Emerson for this well-written glimpse into the hard work it took to make it happen. Read more ›

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Insightful perspective on SOME aspects of WDW's establishment May 27, 2010

By John Ott

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Bottom line: I enjoyed this book. That being said, you need to know that the author has chosen to focus on the legal, political, and real estate aspects of the founding of Walt Disney World. While those aspects are fascinating, he gives very little (almost no) attention to WDW's creative, design, engineering, or construction aspects. A few chapters on those additional aspects would have earned a four-star rating. Also, I deducted a star from the rating for the amount of typos. The book would have benefited from one more copy edit. All in all, this is an unique perspective on an unique place.

20 of 25 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Most Magical Water Improvement District on Earth March 17, 2010

By D. N. Stone VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Even after four decades, one of the most incredible things about Walt Disney World is its sheer size: 43 square miles. Take a look from the top of the Contemporary Resort or Bay Lake Tower some night at all the miles of darkness around you; or take a ride in the Characters in Flight Balloon at Downtown Disney to get a sense of what all that land looks like. Chad Denver Emerson's book explains down to the individual parcels and tracts how Disney managed to acquire this spread in the mid-1960s under the code name Project Future. But even more impressive is the story of the Reedy Creek Improvement District and the novel legislative and legal pixie dust that created it. What's refreshing about Emerson's book is that he doesn't see control as a bad thing, at least when it is Disney who is exercising it. As America's cities were crumbling Walt was attempting to create something beautiful and new in Florida. Emerson concludes that "the Reedy Creek Improvement District, and Project Future in general, demonstrated that unique allocations of public and private governance can, in appropriate instances, promote visionary efforts."

This book provides plenty of new material even for those who have read Married to the Mouse and Realityland. There's the story of how the mineral rights became separated from the surface rights and how Disney gained control of both. There's the story of how the Florida Supreme Court eventually pronounced that the private/public structure of Walt Disney World was neat and pretty under the Florida Constitution. I learned details about the runner-up project in St. Louis that I had never heard before.... And the lengths to which the company went to make sure no one traced the land purchases back to California is something out of the Bourne movies and certainly has never been told so cogently before, complete with an appendix of key players. The only thing missing is a map of the parcels.

The first two thirds of this book, as Walt achieves his manifest destiny, moves like a Space Mountain rocket. The last third moves more at the pace of the Magic Kingdom Railroad as it details legislative battles, legal challenges and the long-term impact of Project Future. But as the recent launch of D23 shows, Disney's fans love this kind of insider knowledge and will no doubt devour Project Future as they wait in ln line for Soarin'. Read more ›

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars An interesting, but uneven, account of the creation of Walt Disney World July 4, 2010

By W. Allen

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

With his background as a lawyer, the author naturally concentrates on many of the complex legal issues that enabled the Disney Corporation to acquire both the land it needed and the quasi-governmental powers it desired to build Walt Disney World.

Although many of the elaborate steps Disney planners took to hide their activities have been described elsewhere, this account relates the names of the participants to a reasonably concise timeline of events. This book is most interesting when the author describes the intricate planning and attention to detail that the Disney Company and their associates employed to accomplish their goals. However, this book also has a number of errors and omissions that weaken its presentation.

First, there are two notable and inexcusable errors. As anyone familiar with Disney history knows, Disneyland opened on July 17th, not July 7th and Walt's name is "Walter Elias", not "Elias Walter". How such fundamental errors could have made it into print is beyond understanding and caused this reader to wonder what other errors exist with less well-known names and dates.

One also wonders why certain details were omitted. For example, although Billy Dial is frequently mentioned as an Orlando-area banker who assisted in acquiring property and who was ultimately chosen by Roy Disney to handle WDW's banking needs, why was the name of his bank never mentioned? Much time was spent on the fact that Tufts University owned the mineral rights to a large portion of the land Disney wanted to purchase, but we were never told why a university in the Boston area owned such a large tract of land in Florida....

Noting that this book was released under the "Ayefour Publishing" imprint, I was disappointed that the author failed to explain the role that the "Ayefour Corporation" played in the land acquisitions, but merely mentioned it once in a list of corporate names used to disguise the identity of the Disney Company.

Although the author is a respected Law Professor who has written a number of academic papers, the bibliography is lacking many sources and few of the quotations are cited. For example, the memoirs of both Gen. Joe Potter and Robert Foster are mentioned as sources of information, but neither is referenced in the bibliography. Also, many of publications listed in the bibliography are not specifically cited, leaving the reader to wonder what relevant information they contain. Several large bodies of reference materials are listed as "on file" in a University's reference collection with no information as to which parts were relevant to this research. Omitting these details makes this book almost useless as a reference for further study of this interesting subject.

Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in knowing more about the early history of Walt Disney World, with the warning that it is rather narrow in focus and omits many details that a little more research, or care, could have provided. Read more ›