Scott Liljenquist – the Ubbermeister of Mouseketrips.com – just dropped me an e-mail to remind me that I have another set of Disneyland Resort tours coming up on Saturday, June 26th & Sunday, June 27th. More to the point, Scott wants me to let JHM readers know that there are still a few slots open for this next set of tours. So – if you still want to get in on the fun – Liljenquist says you should sign up today.
Sigh
I’m sorry, folks. I guess I’m just not any good at this blatant promotional stuff. I mean, JimHillMedia.com has been up & running for almost 2 years now. And I’m still somewhat embarrassed by the fact that this website has my name plastered all over the place.
So – taking that into consideration – I guess you can imagine how uncomfortable it makes me feel to have to pull a Jay Sherman. To go around saying “Book my tours! Books my tours! Book my tours!”
So how’s about this: Rather than go with the obnoxious right-in-your-face promotional stuff, why don’t I take a softer approach. I’ll just share one of the stories that I tell on my Disneyland tour. If you like what you hear & want to hear, then drop Scott a line & sign up for next weekend’s JHM tours.
If you don’t like the story … Then – hey – it’s no skin off either of our noses.
So now the question is … Which story should I tell?
Well, JimHillMedia.com has spent a lot of time over the past few weeks talking about Roy Disney. And (me personally) I really find it fascinating that — just because Roy sort of resembles his uncle — that most people seem to automatically assume that Roy Disney must be a kindly old grandfather-type as well.
Well, I have some news for you people. While Roy may come across as being soft-spoken & folksy, the truth of the matter is that he’s a businessman. Someone who can play hardball when he has to. (Don’t believe me? Then just ask Michael Eisner. Anyway …
Of course, in his day, Walt Disney could be a pretty tough customer too. Someone who could get pretty darn nasty if you ever made the mistake of crossing him.
How so? Well … Let me ask you a question: What do you see when you look at Disneyland’s Matterhorn?
Were you to quiz a semi-knowledgeable Disneyana fan about the Matterhorn, you’d probably hear a few interesting factoids like:
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This attraction was Disneyland’s first true thrill ride.
- That this steel-and-concrete structure replaced Disneyland’s first man-made mountain, Snow Hill.
(Which – truth be told – wasn’t actually a hill in the strictest sense of the word. It was actually just where the construction workers piled all the dirt that they excavated while digging the moat for Sleeping Beauty Castle - That Walt spent $6 million to add this attraction – as well as the Submarine Voyage & the Monorail – to Disneyland’s lineup in the Summer of 1959. A special occasion that was marked by a two-hour long TV special, which was broadcast on ABC.
Now what you like to hear what I see when I look at the Matterhorn? I see the world’s largest middle finger.
Okay. I know. That sounds kind of obscene. But you have to understand that – by the Summer of 1959 – Walt Disney finally had some serious competition in the theme park arena. Just a year earlier, Lawrence Welk & CBS had poured millions into the creation of Pacific Ocean Park. Which hoped to turn a run-down Southern California amusement pier into Disneyland-by-the-Sea.
And meanwhile – out in Massachusetts – C.V. Wood … The man who Walt entrusted (back in 1953) with the all important job of finding just the right spot to build Disneyland on. The man who Disney then put in charge of building his theme park, making Walt’s dream a reality. The man who then ran Disneyland for the first six months that the park was in operation … That man was in the process of building Pleasure Island. A Disneyland clone that – as the Spring of 1959 rolled around – was rising up out of the swamps of Wakefield, MA. Which was basically a bedroom community of Boston, MA.
Anywho … Back in 1958, when Walt first saw Pacific Ocean Park as well as learning that Pleasure Island was about to become a reality, the man was livid. I mean, how dare these people horn in on his action. Cash in on his idea.
Now Pacific Ocean Park – given that (back in its amusement pier days) this project had actually predated Disneyland – Walt couldn’t get himself all that worked up about that amusement park. Whereas Pleasure Island … The very idea that this theme park even existed was making Disney a little bit crazy.
Now you have to understand that it wasn’t just C.V. Wood’s involvement in the Pleasure Island project that was making Walt mad. It was … Well, that C.V. had lured away some of Disneyland’s very best people in order to make Wood’s own theme park design company – Marco Engineering – a reality. Key personnel like Van France (Yes, Mr. “Window on Main Street” himself) bailed out of the Mouse House in the late 1950s to help Woody go into competition with Walt.
Well, if it was a competition, then it was a competition that Disney intended on winning. For the better part of a year now, Walt had been puzzling with what to do with Disneyland’s Snow Hill area. This prime piece of real estate right in the middle of the park. For a while there, he actually toyed with building an International Village here. A quaint collection of buildings (Which had originally be proposed for that piece of property between Main Street U.S.A. and Tomorrowland. But – eventually – this long-planned Disneyland addition just outgrew that backstage area. Which is Walt then began looking for other places in the park to build his International Village. Anywho … )
But – during the summer of 1958 – while Walt was in Europe, observing the filming of “Third man on the Mountain,” he had a brainstorm. A 1/100th scale model of the Matterhorn with another European innovation that Disney had observed on this trip – a Monorail – whizzing around it. Plus a set of submarines to replace Tomorrowland’s lackluster Phantom Boats. That was just the sort of thing that would put Disneyland back on the map. That would show these Johnny-come-latelys just who the real king of the theme park world was.
The only problem with Walt’s plan was his brother, Roy O. Disney. Who held the purse strings at Walt Disney Productions. Roy had initially been very skeptical about the Disneyland project. By that I mean: When Walt first told Roy about his family fun park dream, the elder Disney brother thought that the younger Disney might be having another one of his nervous breakdowns. That it might once again be time to send Walt off on another “publicity tour of South America.” Which was what Roy typically did when it looked like the old Mousetro had misplaced his marbles, when it looked like Walt had let the pressures of running the studio get to him again. When it was time for Roy’s brother to go & get some R & R …
Anyway … In order to get the money for this massive Disneyland expansion project (More importantly, in order to have these three new Tomorrowland attractions up & running by the Summer of 1959. Just so Walt could steal some of C.V.’s thunder), Walt had to convince Roy that this project was vital to Disneyland’s future. That it was crucial that Walt Disney Productions fast-track these pricey additions to the Anaheim theme park.
Roy listened to Walt’s impassioned pitch, saw that the projected price tag for building the Matterhorn, the Monorail & the Submarine Voyage was going to be somewhere between $5 – $6 million … Then told Walt” “No. We can’t build this. At least not right now …”
And – from a businessman’s point of view – Roy’s reasons were sound. After all, Disneyland was still technically in the red. Walt Disney Productions still had to repay all the loans that the corporation had taken out back in 1954 & 1955 to finish construction of the park. Plus there was still the matter of ABC & Western Publishing, Disney’s two financial partners in the project. If Walt was ever going to buy those guys out, gain control over all of Disneyland, he’d have to start stockpiling dough.
Mind you, Roy admitted that the Matterhorn, the Monorail & the Submarine Voyage all sounded like they’d be fine additions to the park. Just not right now. Once Walt Disney Productions had gotten its financial house in order (Which – to Roy’s way of thinking – was three to four years down the line), then Walt could finally go forward with his plan.
As you might have guessed, Walt was very disappointed when Roy rejected his plan. But – given that the younger Disney respected his old brother – Walt put on a brave face and supposedly said: “Okay. Maybe you’re right, Roy. Maybe it would be best to wait on this project.”
Roy reportedly responded: “Let’s talk about this again after I get back from Europe, okay?” (Here’s an important piece of the puzzle. At this point in 1958, Roy was already scheduled to be headed overseas. Where he was supposed to meet with Disney’s distribution partners on the continent. See if these guys were doing all that they could to properly promote Disney product.)
And – mistakenly thinking that he had successfully persuaded Walt to put off construction of this ambitious Disneyland expansion project for a few years – Roy headed off on a business trip to Europe.
According to a couple of people who have told me this story over the years, Walt waited ’til Roy was officially out of range before he turned to the Imagineers and said: “Okay. Let’s get started on that Tomorrowland addition ASAP.”
A WED veteran (who had allegedly been in the room when Roy rejected the project) supposedly stammered: “But Walt, Roy said that … “
Walt allegedly cut the guy off. “Don’t worry about my brother,” the younger Disney said. “If we can have the site cleared, concrete poured and steel rising by the time Roy gets back, there’s no way that he can derail the project then …”
And – allegedly – that’s just what they did, folks. Quickly went out & hired a construction team to clear away Snow Mountain, then pour the concrete footings for the Matterhorn’s steel structure.
Of course — as you might expect — when Roy returned from Europe and found out that the project that he had rejected was rapidly rising out of the ground … Well, naturally, the guy was furious. But – after some huffing & puffing – Roy eventually came around. Even going so far as to persuade General Dynamics to come in as the sponsor of Disneyland’s “Submarine Voyage.” Which helped to take some of the sting out of this very personal, extremely expensive project.
You see, it was crucial (to Walt’s way of thinking) that this addition to Disneyland be ready to open right before Pleasure Island opened in Massachusetts. So that – no matter what sort of snazzy theme park that C.V. Wood managed to pull out of the swamps of Wakefield, MA. – that all eyes would still be on Disneyland.
Which explains that two-hour-long TV special on ABC celebrating the grand opening of the Matterhorn, the Monorail & the Submarine Voyage. The way that the story’s been told to be, Walt strong-armed the network into running that program just days before Pleasure Island opened. Just so he could send a message to C.V. Wood. Saying – in essence – that “You can try, pal. But you’re never going to be able to top the master.”
And – supposedly – C.V. got that message. As he sat with his Marco Engineering team in a hotel room in Boston, watching the ABC “Disneyland ’59” special, Wood – after seeing a shot of the Matterhorn – reportedly turned to his crew and said: “You see that, boys? That’s the world’s largest middle finger.”
Mind you, even though Pleasure Island never quite emerged as serious competition for Disneyland (The New England-based theme park limped along for 10 years or so before finally officially closing its doors in the winter of 1970). But Wood would go on to try & build other Disneyland clones … Like Freedomland in the Bronx. That theme park also crashed & burned.
Truth be told, it wouldn’t be ’til the early 1960s ’til C.V. finally got the formula right. His “Six Flags Over Texas” project proved to be a real hit with the public, eventually providing a successful template for a series of “Six Flags” theme parks which would be built around the U.S.
Now one might wonder … Why would Walt really give a rat’s ass about a Disneyland clone that was being built ‘way the hell out in Massachusetts? Well, it wasn’t ’til the last couple of years that the Walt Disney Company has finally begun to admit that – as early as 1959 – that Walt was actively looking for a place back east to build another Disneyland on.
So – if C.V. Wood (Once Walt’s trusted right-hand man) was out in Massachusetts, potentially poached on what could be considered Disney’s turf – Well, Walt had to do something about that.
Which – in this case, anyway – meant making a mountain out of a mound of moat movings. (Try saying that one three times fast.)
Anyway … That’s a sample of the sort of stories that you’d here if you ever decided to take part in a JHM tour of Disneyland and/or DCA. So – if that sounded even remotely entertaining to you – then why not make Scott Liljenquist happy by clicking on this link and learn a little bit more about the JimHillMedia.com tours.
And that’s about as close as I can get to a hard sell, folks. Truth be told, people (In spite of JHM’s self-aggrandizing name), I’m really not all that comfortable with tooting my own horn.
On the other hand, tooting someone else’s horn … Well, that’s an entirely different matter. Which is why I’d like to direct your attention to this link. Where you’ll find that Peter Emslie – that wonderful illustrator who provided JHM with those great caricatures of the late John Hench, the late Peter Ustinov and the it’s-later-than-you-think Michael Eisner – has some “Monkey Exec” merchandise available for sale that I think you folks will really enjoy.
Okay. That’s it for today, folks. Here’s hoping that you enjoyed the Matterhorn story. Now go make Scott happy by going to checking out his JHM tours web page, okay?