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.
In the previous post, we talked about Disney’s use of dummy corporations to keep the paper trail free of any names that could be traced back to Walt and his team. Those were fun, but my favorite method involved the clever planting of “Easter eggs” to distract reporters and speculators and make them believe another company was behind the land acquisitions. For example:
Foster would sometimes drop by Kansas City, Missouri upon heading back to California. This visit required a stop in St. Louis, which he was sure to mention to others more than a few times as a stop on his itinerary. It wasn’t a surprise to the Disney team when McDonnell Aircraft, headquartered in St. Louis, was soon pin-pointed as the potential mystery industry.
Disney’s real estate consultant, Roy Hawkins, would send a postcard to property owners and other stakeholders that he had previously met with as a way of keeping the relationship friendly. But these weren’t any ole postcards, oh no. He picked them up while on a trip with his wife to Seattle and they featured a company none other than Boeing Aircraft, which - can you guess? - quickly claimed a prime spot in the rumor mill.
Outside of the Disney team’s own diversions and deflections, some folks had their own theories that pointed away from Disney, including:
As illustrated in the Wadsworth’s column above, many local speculators were convinced that Howard Hughes was the mystery buyer, largely due to his role in acquiring 25,000 acres near Las Vegas and purchasing numerous properties, hotels, and media outlets in the city. Hughes was an eccentric, billionaire businessman and aerospace engineer who is said to have inspired the Marvel character, Tony Stark. The first name of Starks’ father is Howard, which seems like rather convincing nod to Hughes.
Other names that were thrown around included Ford Motor Company and Lockheed Martin, an aerospace and defense company. Basically, any real contender had to possess a heckuva lot of money and require a substantial amount of land for their operational facilities.
So, like Foster mentioned, all of this kept Disney at the tip of speculators’ tongues. Everyone, even down to casual observers, was paying attention to this developing rumor because, well, it was exciting! After following the evolution of the company and the smashing success of Disneyland some 2,500 miles away, it wasn’t naive or presumptuous to believe that a Disney-led project would forever change what was then a sleepy Orlando. There were cards on the table.
If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em
With not one but two articles suggesting Disney as the property scouter, Walt and his team kicked things into gear for real. Sure, they might have had the properties under option agreements but that didn’t mean they owned them. The land prices could still be subjected to price hikes and bidding wars if the news made it to the right folks.
Soon after Wadsworth’s column was published, a member of Disney’s legal counsel, Paul Helliwell3, met with Billy Dial, a local Orlando businessman and banker who previously assisted the Disney team with acquiring the Goldstein property. He explained their precarious situation and told him quite frankly, “If this leak is publicized, [the project] is dead.” Helliwell didn’t share who was behind the acquisitions, but he was sure to mention that “it [was] something that any town in Florida would give its right arm to get” and that while the company had its key parcels under contract, it still needed to purchase an interest in a smattering of smaller properties.
The two shared a trusted relationship, so Dial was fully convinced that this project would help put Orlando on the map. He just needed to use his connections to secure a lil’ more time so that the mystery company could tie up their loose ends.4
Shortly after, Dial set up a meeting with Helliwell and Martin Anderson, publisher of the Orlando Sentinel. After hearing about the company’s conundrum, Anderson made the decision to put an embargo on sharing the identity of the company if any of his reporters or editors happened to discover it. Big move, right? This single decision paired with the likely-bewildered cooperation of his staff afforded the Disney team some extra time to negotiate the several remaining contracts while remaining totally anonymous.
Sealing the deal
With the 8,380-acre Bronson Parcel previously secured on May 3rd, 1965 for $900,000, the Disney team made moves on three additional properties:
The Bay Lake tract: Approximately 1,250 acres purchased under the dummy corporation, Bay Lake Properties, Inc., from a group of ten investors for $250,000
The Demetree tract: An expansive 12,440-acre parcel that was bought under another dummy corporation, Reedy Creek Ranch Inc., on June 22nd, 1965 for $1,806,364.33 (that’s roughly $145 per acre…per acre!)
The Hamrick tract: A couple days later, this 2,700-acre property was purchased through the dummy corporation Tomahawk Properties, Inc. for $561,171.46
The remaining smaller parcels were also purchased and by the end of June 1965, the Disney team had acquired ownership of twenty-seven thousand acres of property (or roughly 43 square miles) in southwestern Orlando. The price tag? A smidge more than $5 million, which broke down to just under $200 per acre (equivalent to $937 today). Absolutely bonkers.
The five dummy corporations — Bay Lake Properties Inc., the Latin American Development and Management Corporation, Reedy Creek Ranch Inc., Tomahawk Properties, Inc., and the Ayefour Corporation - held title to the properties while a Disney-managed Delaware firm, Compass East, possessed each of the corporations’ stock.
On June 25th, 1965, the Orlando Evening Star published an article titled “‘Let’s Go!’ 2nd Stage Launched” in which Helliwell confirmed that the still-anonymous Disney had wrapped up its land purchases and was now proceeding to the planning and engineering phase of the project.
Enter: Project Future
The three months following the property acquisitions would be comprised of expanding the team to include outside advisors who would know just how to legally accomplish the complex, lofty goals for what was then referred to as “Project Future.” This would ultimately lead the team to unanimously finalize their decision to proceed with construction.5
With a fresh agenda, they convened at a three-day meeting to brainstorm plans and potential hurdles that might arise throughout this phase of the project. Topics of discussion ranged from the spectrum of municipal authority to taxation to the creation of an atomic energy facility. They weren’t calling some simple shots and sealing deals with a stack of cash anymore; they were now navigating the political and legal landscape of Florida, which is still an arduous and expensive challenge for Disney executives to this day.
I’ll save the details of this phase for another post because boy, is it fascinating. For a lil’ primer, this is when the Reedy Creek Improvement District was created which was an incredible feat of corporate lobbying and legislative peddling to ensure Disney had complete and comprehensive control of their property and everything that existed within its boundaries. It’s the reason why the Walt Disney Resort exists to begin with — to remove the possibility of loud traffic, competing advertising and businesses, and generally unappealing visuals that surrounded Disneyland from the get-go. In this sense, the “Disney bubble” isn’t just a humorous euphemism; it’s an actual real life thing, and it encompasses about 43 square miles.
Anyway, while the Disney team huddled around maps and legal documents pertaining to Project Future, local news outlets and business leaders were still chopping at the bit to grab hold of any additional information that might direct them to identifying the mystery industry. On a trip to NASA facilities at Cape Canaveral during the summer of 1965, Walt was asked by members of the media if his company had plans to set up shop in Florida. He loosely denied any involvement, which — unsurprisingly! — didn’t do much to keep the rumor mill at bay.
However, the tides changed in early October, which is where we’ll pick up this story because if there’s one thing I’m known to do, it’s commit to a timeline.
I know, I know — another cliffhanger? Yep, but I promise it’ll be a satisfying continuation to this saga.
The story of how the Walt Disney World Resort came to be is once of my favorite bits of Disney lore, and it’s always interesting to consider if and how something like this could be accomplished today without a soul knowing. It gives much to think about, especially when traversing the property via the Monorail or Skyliner. It really adds a layer of depth and context to the place we all know and love. That’s magic, noted.
See ya real soon,
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A method of acquiring the legal rights of purchasing a property at an established price within a certain timeframe. This allows for greater flexibility for the buyer and can be cheaper than buying a property upfront.
Vagnini, Steven. “How Walt Disney World Found Its Home in Florida.” D23, 28 Sept. 2016, d23.com/we-say-its-disney/.
Paul Helliwell was a Miami-based lawyer who was recommended to Disney by the head of their legal counsel, William Donovan. Helliwell and Donovan became friends after their joint stint at the Office of Strategic Services (“OSS”), which was an intelligence agency formed during WWII as the predecessor to the CIA. Both of their backgrounds in intelligence operations would greatly assist their efforts on Project X.
Emerson, Chad Denver. Project Future: The Inside Story Behind the Creation of Disney World. Ayefour Publishing, 2010.
I say “unanimously” but it actually required the convincing of some Disney executives, like Card Walker, that Central Florida was the place to house a second Disney development. Even after spending a couple years and over $5 million to reach this point…