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Mouse in MO? JHM says “No” : Why the latest round of Disney-in-Branson rumors aren’t true

By now, you’ve probably heard about that article that ran in yesterday’s News-Leader. You know, the one where this Springfield, MO. -based newspaper talked about the rumor that’s been racing around Newton County this past month. Which has the Walt Disney Company getting ready to build a $1.1 billion theme park & resort in southwest Missouri.


Now Kathryn Buckstaff (I.E. The reporter who first broke this story) actually did a wonderful job. She asked all of the right questions and then followed every possible lead. Which is why the News-Leader was able to report yesterday that …



Jerry Carter, Newton County Presiding Commissioner, said (that these rumors) arose after Todd Marshall, who said he represented a Springfield company called ARM Risk, attended the April 12 commissioners’ meeting. Carter asked about changes on county roads leading to the location the company is considering for a theme park.


A list of specifications Marshall gave the commissioners included first-phase construction costs of $1.1 billion, land purchases of 1,000 acres with the park taking 100 acres, six hotels, 95 shops, 27 rides, 12 stages and 18 restaurants.


“We want to be cautious and careful,” Carter said. “We live in an opportunistic world and sometimes things come along we can’t even conceive of.”



A possible Disney connection was raised when commissioners checked the company owners. On a form called “Registration of Fictitious Name” filed with the Missouri Secretary of State’s office in March for ARM Risk, three owners are listed. Corporations routinely file such forms.


The owners are Michael Hill of Wilmington, Del.; Robert Brown, who lists his address as 500 South Buena Vista St., Burbank, Calif.; and Jason Johnson, who lists his address as Corporate Office, Lake Buena Vista, Fla.


On the Internet, commissioners found that the Burbank address is corporate headquarters of the Walt Disney Co. (While) Lake Buena Vista, Fla., is headquarters of Walt Disney World Resort.


Now, to give Kathryn her props, this is some very solid reporting. Ms. Buckstaff made sure to connect all of the dots. So that News-Leader readers could then come to the same conclusions that she had.


But if you’re a truly hardcore Disney dweeb (And what good JHM reader isn’t?), there are a couple of red flags in the above excerpt from Kathryn’s article that should have probably made you think twice about this particular rumor.



Photo courtesy of Google Images


Like what? Well, let’s start with that “500 S. Buena Vista St.” address. In the 50+ years that the Walt Disney Company has been in the theme park business, has the Mouse ever made this sort of bush league mistake before (I.E. Allowing the actual address of its corporate headquarters to be used on any documentation for a yet-to-officially-be-announced project)? No.


I mean, this is Disney that we’re talking about here, folks. The company that used no less than six dummy corporations (I.E. Ayefour Corporation, Bay Lake Properties, Compass East Corporation, Latin American Development, Reedy Creek Ranch Lands & Tomahawk Properties) to secretly purchase those 24,700 acres of swampland that eventually became the Walt Disney World Resort.


This is the corporation that was so paranoid about word leaking out prematurely about its WDW dealings that Disney executives actually made Robert Foster (I.E. The attorney who handled most of those Orlando-area land purchases for the company) work under a pseudonym (I.E. Bob Price). And to insure that no one in Central Florida ever connected Mr. Price to Walt Disney Productions, Bob was forbidden to take any direct flights back to Burbank. Which is why Foster spent most of 1964 & 1965 changing planes in Chicago.


So Disney is obviously a corporation that knows how to keep a secret … Even from its own employees. How many of you remember the code name that the Imagineers used internally for “Disney’s America,” that history-based theme park that Mickey wanted to build in Prince Williams County, VA back in the mid-1990s? Prior to its official announcement, DA was known in-house as “Project Venezuela.” With the hope that this deliberately deceptive name would then keep any nosy Imagineers from discovering the true nature of that project.


And then when it comes to the truly super-secret stuff … The Mouse compartmentalizes. Take — for example — that “Harry Potter” mini-park that WDI was working on with J.K. Rowling a year or so back. Imagineering kept a lid on “Potter” for months by severely limiting the size of the crew that was assigned to work on that project. Which is why only six Imagineers did the bulk of the design work on that particular park.



Photo courtesy of Google Images


And as for that “Lord of the Rings” -themed project (Which WDI management seriously considered as a possible alternative to “Harry Potter” once Rowling proved to be impossible to work with) … Would you believe that only three Imagineers were assigned to see if it would be possible to turn Middle Earth into a workable theme park setting?


So you see what I’m saying here, folks? Disney is a company that knows how to keep secrets. And it has for decades now. (Except — of course — for those few stories that occasionally slip through the cracks and wind up in the hands of webmasters like yours truly. But I disgress …)


Which is why — if the corporation were considering building something in the Branson, MO. area — Mouse House officials would never have made such a boneheaded mistake as to use the really-for-real address of its corporate headquarters on that “Registeration of Fictitious Name” form. Mickey’s smarter than that, people.


But do you want to know the real reason that I was extremely leery about this latest round of Disney-in-Branson rumors. Check out the name of the ARM Risk owner who reportedly lives at 500 S. Buena Vista Street: Robert Brown.


Does that name ring a vague bell? If you’re a big-time Disney history buff, it should. You see, Robert Brown was the name of the man that Walt’s daughter, Sharon, married back in 1959.


Mind you, most people don’t remember Robert nowadays because … Well, Mr. Brown died of cancer in 1967. And then Sharon remarried (and eventually divorced) William Lund. Which is why — these days, anyway — Robert is little more than a footnote in Disney Company history.



Photo courtesy of Google Images


So to have these ARM Risk guys use both Robert Brown’s name as well as the physical address of the Walt Disney Company corporate headquarters on that “Registeration of Fictitious Name” form … That (to me, anyway) suggested that we were dealing with people who actually want the good citizens of Newton County to think that the Mouse is seriously considering building a new theme park & resort near the junction of U.S. 71 & Interstate 44. Rather than Mickey mistakenly tipping his hand too soon.


Which is why — early yesterday — I got ahold of Ms. Buckstaff and shared my suspicions with her. Which is why Kathryn then put together a follow-up story for today’s Springfield News-Leader. Which basically blows this whole Mouse-in-Missouri rumor right out of the water.

So my apologies to those of you who thought that this Disney-in-Branson rumor was the first of those stand-alone hotel-and-water-park combos that Jay Rasulo, Chairman of Disney Parks & Resorts, talked about building back in February. And who knows? … Given that 7 million people annually vacation in this portion of Missouri, maybe someday the Mouse will actually build some sort of entertainment complex in the “Show Me” state.


But as for this ARM Risk project … I’m afraid that the only real risk here came from ever believing that Robert Brown, Michael Hill and Jason Johnson (Who — let’s remember, in yet another ham-handed attempt to create the illusion that this dummy corporation has some sort of direct tie to the Walt Disney Company — listed his address as “Corporate Office, Lake Buena Vista, Fla.”) actually worked for the Mouse House.


Your thoughts?

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