by Chad Denver Emerson
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Product Description
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.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 An interesting, but uneven, account of the creation of Walt Disney World, 2010-07-05
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.
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Lacking in some aspects, but still an enjoyable read, 2010-06-13
The book was a quick enjoyable read about Walt Disney World's conception but, as an author, Chad Emerson isn't quite successful in finding the right voice for this tale.
It's important to note that this is NOT about the creative process that Walt Disney and his colleagues went through in conceiving Walt Disney World. Instead, it's about the legal, political, and real estate obstacles that they had to overcome in order to make the resort a reality. While Emerson attempts to create a "concise and interesting history of Disney World from the earliest days", it seems there was too much emphasis on "concise" and less on the "interesting". Don't get me wrong, as a whole, the book is interesting, but only in the most tepid sense of the word.
Often times Emerson mentions in the book certain information about a legal or political drama that could have possibly derailed Disney's grand project. Then suddenly "Bob's your uncle"; the situation is resolved through some negotiation, the terms of which we never hear about. Consequently, there are points in the book that read like a report or academic paper. Even at the very end Emerson feigns objectivity about the resort's impact on Central Florida when his bias had already been clearly established in the previous 150 pages. It was evident that Emerson is a Disney fan, and trying to cover it with false objectivity was a mistake. He was one step away from declaring the book a celebration of Disney's imagination, and he should not have shied away from going there.
In effect, "Project Future" is torn between wanting to be a tale about the practical drama underlying the creation of the world's most notable theme park resorts, or an academic study of the same topic. Either direction would have made "Project Future" an excellent read. I just wish Emerson would have chosen one.
Additionally, typos throughout the book were a big distraction. GET ANOTHER COPY EDITOR!
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Insightful perspective on SOME aspects of WDW's establishment, 2010-05-28
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.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
An interesting read, 2010-05-07
There are a lot of urban legends about how Disney set up Disney Florida. This little book puts a lot of them to rest and validates others. The book actually is pretty supportive of the Disney organization and how it finally got it's governmental structure set up. It clearly reinforces the image of Disney wanting to be in complete control of it's destiny at the Florida site, both the why and how was done. It is very readable for what might be classed as a business book.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Lots of details but lacks presentation skills, 2010-05-07
I heard the author of the book on the WDW Today podcast and found the stories to be exciting, interesting, and informative. Unfortunately, some of these very stories are presented in a much drier and less interesting fashion (with less detail) in the book. The book would have also benefitted from maps, diagrams, and photos to help bring the story to life and to make especially the land-buying material more cogent.
The average WDW fan who wants background on "how it came to be" would probably be better served by Realityland.
Nonetheless, it's an essential tome for WDW competionists.
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