This article is part of a series – History of Reedy Creek Improvement District. Be sure to check out our additional research on the RCID.
Back in the 1960s, Florida legislators weren’t picking fights with Disney Corporate. But rather, they welcomed the Mouse with open arms.
Do you remember how — on November 15, 1965 — Florida Governor Haydon Burns actually shared a dais with Walt Disney & his brother Roy at the Cherry Plaza Hotel in Orlando as they then shared their plans for Project Florida?
Florida Representatives Meet in Burbank
Well, what doesn’t get talked about all that often is what happened just one month later. On December 16, 1965, a delegate of some of the most powerful people in Florida flew from Tallahassee to Burbank. We’re talking:
- Fred “Bud” Dickinson, the State Comptroller
- J. Ed Straughn, the director of the Florida Revenue Commission
- Wilken McDuff & Edward Cowart, both prominent attorneys within the Attorney General’s Office
- And Joseph Chapman, administrative assistant to Governor Haydon Burns
These gentlemen — along with key members of their support staff — made a special trip out to California just days before Christmas because, in the eyes of Governor Haydon Burns, this matter just could not wait. The Disney World Project was seen as such a huge opportunity for Florida that the state’s elected officials had to move with all due speed.
So a month and a day after Walt first spoke — in pretty non-specific terms, mind you — about what his Company was thinking about doing with that 43 square miles of swampland in Central Florida it had just purchased, here was a delegation from Tallahassee meeting personally with Walt & Roy so that they could then better understand the whole of Walt Disney Productions. More importantly, so that these elected officials could then make it easier for the Mouse to quickly set up shop in the Sunshine State.
As Walt’s brother recounted in an article that was published about these state officials’ trip to Disney Corporate Headquarters in the December 1965 – January 1966 issue of “The Disney World,” the Company’s in-house newsletter back then:
“They need to study our operation in considerable detail so that they can then advise us on how Florida tax laws would apply to our proposed project,” Roy said.
Touring WED and Disneyland
After they spent the morning with Walt & Roy drilling down into the specifics of Project Florida, the team from Tallahassee was then taken over to Glendale. Where they then toured WED (which is where all of the rides, shows & attractions for the Disney Parks were designed). More importantly, this was where the folks from Florida got their very first glimpse at what the Imagineers were actually dreaming up for Disney World.
To make sure that — when the team from Tallahassee flew back home to Florida — they had only good things to say about everything they’d seen … After WED closed for the day, the folks from Florida were then invited to linger at this facility after-hours. You see, that night (Friday, December 17th) was when Imagineering held its third annual holiday party / open house. So there was plenty of food & drink on hand. Not to mention the opportunity to schmooze with Disney stars like Dick Van Dyke & Dean Jones.
The very next day, this delegation from Florida was then driven down to Anaheim. Where they were then given a thorough behind-the-scenes tour of Disneyland Park. With the idea that they’d then have an intimate understanding of how an East Coast version of this family fun park might operate. After this backstage tour was over, the team from Tallahassee was then cut loose to explore Disneyland on their own / experience many of the Park’s rides, shows & attractions for a few hours.
That evening, the Florida delegation regrouped in Town Square. Where they were then Walt’s personal guests at the premiere of that year’s edition of Disneyland’s holiday parade.
These elected officials then flew home on Sunday. And — on Monday morning — walked back into the state capital and then told the Governor “Give Disney whatever it wants. We have to bring this project to Florida. We will make so much damn money.”
Excitement About EPCOT: Event at Park West Theater
We jump ahead to February of 1967. Which is when Walt Disney Productions — in an invitation-only event that’s held in the Park West Theater in Winter Park, FL — shows people other than that selected delegation that flew out to Burbank in December of 1965 — exactly what the Company’s plans are for all that swampland in Orange & Osceola County.
908 leaders from the local community cram into this auditorium and are just dazzled by what the Disney team presents. Which — at that time, anyway — call for developing (over time) 20,000 of the 27,500 acres that the Mouse now owned in Central Florida.
It’s important to stress here that a lot of what excited the audience in the Park West Theater wasn’t that Vacation Kingdom the Imagineers wanted to build next to Bay Lake (i.e., The Magic Kingdom and the monorail resorts right outside that theme park). But — rather — Phase 2 of Project Florida. Which was supposed to see a city of the future (with a 30 story-tall skyscraper at its very center) and its adjacent industrial park. Which was then — in Walt’s own words — supposed to eventually become “ … “ … a showplace for American free enterprise.”
It was this part of Project Florida that especially tantalized the folks up in Tallahassee. Think about it: If Disney had actually built Epcot-the-City and that radial design industrial park right next door, Central Florida wouldn’t just become a tourism destination thanks to the Magic Kingdom and the monorail resorts. But rather, Walt Disney World could have potentially turned this part of the State into a second Cape Canaveral. A place where thousands of highly paid folks would then have worked at full-time hi-tech jobs.
Those folks who worked in Epcot’s industrial park would have had to live locally. And the money that they made from those high paying, hi-tech jobs in this showcase for American industry would have then poured right back into the local economy.
It was this aspect of Project Florida — rather than the Vacation Kingdom — that really powered the push to ram the Reedy Creek Improvement District legislation through. If you thought that Ron DeSantis’ response to Disney’s opposition to Florida’s “Parental Rights in Education “ legislation (AKA the “Don’t Say Gay” bill) was fast, consider this: That presentation in the Park West Theater was held in February 2, 1967.
Fast-tracking the Reedy Creek Improvement District
By May 12th of that same year (Just three months and 10 days later), the bill that gave Walt Disney Productions the right to … Well, not only to build 18 story-tall castles and install cutting-edge transportation systems without seeking the approval from some local planning commission — not to mention collecting taxes and issuing bonds — was being signed into law. In a ceremony that’s held in the garden at the Governor’s mansion, no less.
I also want to stress here that — back then, anyway — the Reedy Creek Improvement District had bipartisan support. Haydon Burns — the governor who shared the dais with Walt & Roy at the Cherry Plaza Hotel in November of 1965 — was a Democrat. Whereas Claude Kirk — the governor who actually signed this bill into law in May of 1967 — was a Republican. The first Republican governor the State of Florida had had since the Reconstruction, I might add.
A bit more background here: At this special signing ceremony in the garden of the Governor’s mansion in Florida, Roy O. Disney went out of his way to state publicly that …
The entire delegation from Orange and Osceola County, in which we will soon be making our home, have given us the upmost in cooperation since the inception of this project. I would particularly like to call attention to Senator Bob Elrod and Bill Gunter, and Representatives John Ducker and Henry Land of this delegation. These four men acted as floor leaders and primary sponsors for the Disney legislation.
Roy O. Disney
So — just to be clear here — the Reedy Creek Improvement District wasn’t some sort of shady backroom deal with Walt Disney Productions that suddenly got rammed through by the folks up in Tallahassee in the dark of night. There were all sorts of public hearings and lots of thoughtful discussion about what should actually go into this bill prior to Governor Claude Kirk actually signing the thing.
Dissolving the Reedy Creek Improvement District in 2023: Where is the City of the Future?
That’s why DeSantis’ people are running into so much trouble now. They tried to undo a comprehensive piece of legislation that had been carefully crafted over a period of months by top notch state attorneys (Not to mention Disney’s own corporate lawyers) with a bill that was hastily slapped together over days. Which is why their effort to dissolve the Reedy Creek Improvement District is doomed to fail once it finally gets challenged in court.
Which isn’t to say that Governor DeSantis doesn’t have another card up his sleeve. I’m told that his new plan when it comes to taking on The Walt Disney Company has to do with promises the Mouse made to the State of Florida that then weren’t kept. To be specific, the construction of the City of EPCOT and its adjacent industrial park.
As I mentioned earlier, it was that aspect of Project Florida — rather than the Vacation Kingdom — that really excited Florida legislators back in the mid-1960s. The idea that the State could soon have a second Cape Canaveral of sorts, a second place in Florida where highly educated folks would work at high-tech jobs that paid well (with a good chunk of their salaries being funneled back into the local community via payroll taxes and purchases at area businesses & restaurants) was what ultimately powered Sunshine State officials to grant the Mouse this unprecedented amount of autonomy.
This is how DeSantis’ people are reportedly looking to spin Phase 2 of their dissolve-Reedy-Creek effort. They’re going to say “ … We’re doing this because Disney never actually delivered on their promise to build a city-of-the-future in the swamps of Central Florida. Back in the 1960s, we were promised all of these high paying, high tech jobs. What we got instead were thousands of low paying positions in Disney’s theme parks.”
Given that the Walt Disney World Resort is still in the process of celebrating its 50th, it’ll be hard for the Company to put together a solid response to this line of attack at this particular moment in time. I mean, it’s been five decades now. Shouldn’t that City of the Future — and all of those high paying jobs that were supposed to come along with it — have risen up out of Central Florida’s swamps by now?
Of course, Disney’s response will no doubt involve pointing at Epcot-the-theme park as well as at Celebration. But let’s face it: A theme park and a residential community isn’t exactly a City of the Future or its adjacent industrial park.
Disney’s reportedly readying its response to the anticipated continuation of Governor DeSantis’ effort to dissolve the Reedy Creek Improvement District. That’s one of the main reasons that Geoff Morrell was let go as Disney’s Communications Chief after less than four months on the job. Going forward, the Company wants to take a far more nuanced approach to how Disney Corporate handles the governor of Florida. Who has learned — given how much money has recently poured into DeSantis’ war chest for his potential Presidential run in 2024 — how truly lucrative it can be to attack the Mouse House.
That’s Disney’s real worry right now. That what’s happening in Florida — Disney being pulled into the culture war that’s currently inflamed public discourse across the country — could then become a prairie fire. With other politicians across the United States deciding that they too need to get into the declaring-that-Disney-is-evil game. All with the hope that they too will then be able to fundraise off of this controversy.
The Reedy Creek Improvement District: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
And that — for now, anyway — is the end of our look back at the formation of the Reedy Creek Improvement District. It’s honestly hard to imagine — given how eager Florida officials initially were to make this deal, persuade Disney to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to turn some swampland in Orange & Osceola County into a world class tourist destination — to see the current state of the State’s relationship with the Mouse House. But here we are.
And not to belabor the obvious, but we’ve got another six months ‘til November. Which is when the Mid Terms happen. Not to mention when we learn whether Governor DeSantis winds up getting re-elected as the Governor of Florida. That’s a lot of time for The Walt Disney Company to find itself back in the spotlight in a not-so-flattering fashion.
It’s gonna be interesting to see what happens next.
This article is based on research for The Disney Dish Podcast “Episode 372”, published on April 25, 2022. The Disney Dish Podcast is part of the Jim Hill Media Podcast Network.