San Diego.
“Where the hell is Orlando?”
I had heard of it but knew little. E.g., I just assumed it was another generic shore city. It wasn’t until Disney World that I found out it was inland.
I bet most Californians would’ve said the same thing about Anaheim as late as 1952. Here’s a description of how Disney chose it, after Burbank rejected his idea:
[QUOTE=Anaheim Public Information Office]
Walt jumped in his car and headed south . . . When he finally entered Orange County, it was like being transported back to the Midwest. Miles of open farmland scented with the fragrant perfume of orange blossoms stretched out before him, interrupted only occasionally by a modest farmhouse. . . Anaheim was a lot like Walt’s boyhood home in Marceline, Missouri. As he drove through the small town, it was like coming home. Here, in the middle of orange groves, he had found the place for his magical park.
[/quote]
guizot: I agree completely.
In both cases Disney correctly understood he was going to build something that would cause local land values to skyrocket. And starting with the cheapest farm or swampland was the best way to profit thereby.
At the time I first was old enough to remember anything, Orange County was about 1/2 rural and 1/2 suburb. There were extensive bean fields just outside my tract. By high school the farms were all but gone and it was 98% suburb. Conversely, when Disney was first planning D-Land the county was more like 90% rural with a few well-separated small towns.
In 1955, I was 7, so I probably would have been in the “Huh?” crowd.
But the news broke c. 1966. when you would have been 18.
Oh, and further to the two works I mentioned above there was, more famous than either to the average British child, Katherine Hale’s **Orlando The Marmalade Cat series **, large flat picture books, with his delightful tabby wife, Grace, his two gymslipped daughters, tortoiseshell Pansy and white Blanche, and his mischievous, hyper-masculine black son, Tinkle.
One would not have heard much about Florida, and Walt Disney only meant Mickey Mouse.
My grandparents lived in Miami Beach, so I knew that. I may have known where Jacksonville was, as well.
I was also a devoted fan of the Mickey Mouse Club, and they probably promoted the “Florida Project” on the show.
I’d have been clueless before 1972 when I moved to Jacksonville (and even then it was ‘some shithole between here and Miami’). I would have recognized McCoy AFB though. 1953.
“Hey dad, isn’t Orlando where cousin Anne lives? Can we go to the new Disney place when it opens, can we? Please, please, please?”
We were there the first year it opened. If I remember correctly, you only got a couple of ‘E’ tickets but cousin Anne had lots of other tickets stockpiled from other relatives who decided to visit that year.
Hey I lived in Niskayuna for 10 years. Have you read
Damn if I knew it was worth that much, I would have sold it instead of giving it away.:smack:
And on topic, I had no idea where Orlando was.
I knew Orlando was a city in central Florida back then, but I found maps fascinating and spent a lot of time pouring over them.
My mother’s sister and her family lived there and we visited a few times, so yeah, I knew about Orlando.
In National Lampoon Vacation during the opening shots there is a picture of a postcard showing a motel made of concrete tepees. They lived close to that and I remember seeing them.