The rumor that ran the mill, pt. 2
A smorgasbord of Disney deflections, distractions, and dealings
If you haven’t read the first part of this lil’ installment, be sure to give it a read for additional context that led us to this point in the story of how the Walt Disney World Resort came to be. I’m a bit biased, but it’s some good stuff!
So, what happened next?
By late May of 1965, the Disney camp had nailed down their real estate options in southwestern Orlando mostly by way of option agreements1, with one expansive property, the Bronson Parcel, purchased outright through a “dummy” corporation. With the property for “Project X” secured, much of their efforts at this point were focused on the planning and design components of the future development back at their home base in California.
If the Orlando Sentinel article from May 20th, 1965 made them a lil’ nervous, the next one would send them into an absolute tizzy.
On June 12th, 1965, the paper’s gossip columnist Charlie Wadsworth published a rumor that Walt Disney was behind the mad-dash to quietly acquire multiple properties around the Orlando area. Not only that, but he also suggested a “life-sized model of the city of the future” was planned for the mystery development. Sounds like an awfully good guess or an extremely well-sourced piece of information on what Walt was ultimately planning for his Community of Tomorrow, huh?
Bob Foster, a key figure behind the land acquisition process, was quoted explaining that Wadsworth’s article “kept [Disney] in the news.”2 After trying his darnedest to stay away from Orlando out of fear that his tracks would eventually be discovered, he was well-aware that “Charlie would no doubt consider himself a failure if he knew how many times [Bob] was shoved into the coat closet and out the side door of Florida Ranchlands’ office as [Charlie] entered from the front, or [Bob] was hustled across the street to avoid an encounter with his prodding inquiries.”
It was a multi-year-long game of keep away to ensure anonymity.
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