maybe i heard it in interview with animator Milt Kahl, but i cannot find anything similar…
I don’t know about selling Disney but I know towards the end of his life he was interested in city planning and urban development. He originally saw his idea of EPCOT as a community (thus Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow) and not as a theme park.
Here’s a link to the promotional film Disney made for Florida legislatures to explain his plans for EPCOT, which was originally conceived to be an actual planned city located alongside Disney World.
The EPCOT part starts at about the 6 minute mark.
I doubt Disney ever wanted to sell the company in favor of housing development because he was incorporating the synergy of building Disney World with EPCOT.
Well, there’s Celebration, FL. Imagine the HOA from Hell.
From 1967-2023, Disney World and the area surrounding it was under a county-level government totally controlled by Disney. IIt was Walt’s idea.
IIRC there would be a theme park, next door. EPCOT itself was planned for a big recreational area, and of course monorails and Peoplemovers, etc.
The plans for “The Florida Project”, officially dubbed Disney World, called for a Disneyland-style theme park and resort area, EPCOT, an industrial park, an airport, and an entrance complex.
My in-laws live very close to there. I like Celebration. Not gonna apologize.
4 posts were split to a new topic: HOA hijack of the “Did Walt ever said …” thread
A long, long time ago, my wife and I went to a time share meeting. Eyes wide open, wanted to get the experience, knew we couldn’t afford it, wanted the free gift.
During the initial group meeting, one of the things said was “This is such a great idea that even Walt Disney said that he should have started it.” Of course, the first thought to me was “Then why didn’t he?”
Whether or not he actually said something like that, I’m certain more than one TimeShare sales pitch has included it, and that could be the “source” of what you “heard”
Because he died. And the Disney company, of course, now has a timeshare business.
Walt had lots of plans in nascent stages when he died. He was well into an effort to build a ski resort in 1966, but it was stalled by an environmental lawsuit that the company eventually won at the Supreme Court. But without Walt himself (or Roy), it was quietly canceled.
Moderating:
Modnote: I’m taking the HOA hijack out of the thread. Though I feel like everyone involved should know better.