OUR STORY SO FAR: Master Imagineer Marc Davis was hoping to build on the lessons WED had learned while creating Disneyland’s “Pirates of the Caribbean.” But – for a while there in 1967 – it looked like the Imagineers wouldn’t get the chance to build any new attractions, as Roy O. Disney toyed with the idea of selling the company off to the Westinghouse Corporation.
Eventually, Roy came to his senses and declared that Walt Disney Productions was not for sale. He also announced that the company *WOULD* be going forward with Walt’s greatest dream: the Florida project.
Roy then put the word out to WED that he wanted Disney World to have attractions that would top anything that could be found at Disneyland. Marc was thrilled to hear this, for he had an idea for a brand new ride that he felt was sure would surpass “Pirates.”
Well, maybe “brand new” isn’t the right word.
After all, the attraction that Marc was thinking about had originally been proposed for a theme park Walt Disney Productions had toyed with building in St Louis in early 1963. “Walt Disney’s Riverboat Square” would have been the name of the park. And – had this project actually gone forward – it would have America’s first indoor theme park.
But – after months of drawn out negotiations with the St. Louis city fathers – Disney ultimately decided to take a pass on “Riverboat Square.” Why? Well, WED could never quite work out how to cram an entire theme park full of rides, shows and attractions under one roof. (Though – 16 years later – Imagineers working on Tokyo Disneyland did consult Disney’s St. Louis plans as they tried to figure out how to put a roof on top of that park’s “Main Street USA / International Bazaar” area.)
Plus a rude remark allegedly made by beer baron August A. Busch, Sr. (At a dinner party attended by Walt, Busch supposedly said that “Any man who builds an amusement park in St. Louis that doesn’t serve beer is a fool.”) reportedly got back to Walt. Immediately after this, Disney lost his enthusiasm for building an indoor theme park along the waterfront in St. Louis.
A coincidence? I don’t think so.
Instead, Walt turned his attention toward the challenges of the 1964 New York Worlds’ Fair as well as the wide open opportunities to be found in Florida. All those ideas for attractions for “Riverboat Square” got tucked away in some drawer at WED. Abandoned. Forgotten.
Except for one.
Marc was one of the new guys at WED (This was a just a year or so after Davis had left Feature animation to come work full-time as an Imagineer) when work was getting underway on “Riverboat Square.” Since the parcel of land the proposed park was supposed to be built on bordered the Mississippi, Walt asked the Imagineers to come up with lots of ideas for water-based rides. Attractions that built on the history and the heritage of this most American of rivers.
Combing history and water, Davis suggested that the Imagineers design a boat-based attraction that recreated Lewis and Clark’s historic journey to the Pacific Ocean. Marc pointed out that a ride based on this trek would give Disney plenty of opportunities to thrill guests at the St. Louis park. As their boat chugged along the ride track, guests could menaced by Indians or have close encounters with wild animals.
Walt – who had a great love and appreciation for American history – immediately sparked to Marc’s suggestion. He asked Davis to flesh his idea for a “Lewis & Clark River Expedition” ride, work up some drawings that illustrated possible scenarios for the attraction. Marc spent several days in 1963 doing just that. He worked up scenes where guests floated by moose grazing at the water’s edge and watched black bear hunt for fish.
Disney liked what Marc had worked up enough to add this ride to a list of possible attractions that the Mouse might build at “Riverboat Square.” Though Walt could never decide what he wanted to call Davis’s proposed attraction. Should it be the “Lewis & Clark River Expedition” ride or just “Western River Expedition?”
That point became moot when Disney decided *NOT* to go forward with the St. Louis project. Davis was disappointed when he heard “Riverboat Square” wasn’t going to happen. He had really been looking forward to fleshing out his ideas for a river adventure ride.
But – since he worked at WED in the early 1960s – Marc didn’t have time to mourn his abandoned attraction. He was far too busy working on rides and shows that were actually being built. Classic attractions like “it’s a small world,” “Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln,” “The Carousel of Progress,” “Ford’s Magic Skyway” as well as “the Enchanted Tiki Room.” Marc had a hand in the creation of all of these. It was a pretty heady time to be working at WED.
But that was then. Now it was the Fall of 1967. And Marc had been asked to come up with some new ride concepts for Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom.
*** Irvine, then the chief executive in charge of WED, had some interesting ideas about which attractions should be installed at WDW’s theme park. Knowing that Walt wouldn’t have played it safe, Irvine decided that he wouldn’t either. Rather than make the Orlando park a slavish copy of the Anaheim original, *** felt that Florida’s Magic Kingdom should have a liberal mix of old and new shows.
So – while Irvine did “borrow” many key concepts (i.e.: the castle, the hub, Main Street U.S.A., Adventureland, Fantasyland, Frontierland and Tomorrowland) as well as several signature attractions (i.e.: “The Jungle Cruise,” “The Enchanted Tiki Room,” most of “Fantasyland” ‘s dark rides plus Tom Sawyer’s Island) for his Florida theme park from Disneyland – he also insisted that his Imagineers come up with several new rides and shows that would only be built at WDW’s Magic Kingdom.
By doing this, Irvine thought that WDW could have the best of both worlds. There’d be just enough familiar about Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom that the 90 million people who already visited Disneyland would feel right at home when they visited the new park. But these very same folks would still feel compelled to fly down to Florida, just so they could check out all the amazing new attractions the Imagineers had put together just for Disney’s Orlando operation.
It was a delicate balancing act, deciding which Disneyland attractions should be recreated at Walt Disney World and which should remain in Anaheim.
Take – for example – Tomorrowland’s “Submarine Voyage.” While this “journey through liquid space” had been a favorite with Anaheim visitors since the attraction opened in 1959, many Imagineers felt that the ride really hadn’t aged well. Its blunt gray subs seemed landlocked in the 1950s, which didn’t fit at all with the sleek new stylings of Disneyland’s recently revamped Tomorrowland.
Still, people loved Disney’s sub ride. So how did the Imagineers bring this popular attraction to Florida but still keep it from aging as quickly as Disneyland’s version of the ride had? Simple. Make the subs an attraction for WDW’s Fantasyland. Here, the boats would be themed to look like Captain Nemo’s Nautilus. Now every guest could have a chance to voyage “20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.” Just by making a change in a location and doing a bit of retheming, a potentially troubled attraction now becomes timeless entertainment. (At least until WDW management thought that “20K” had become too expensive to operate and quietly shut down this beloved attraction in September 1994. What a swell bunch of guys, huh? But I digress … )
Given how much Disneyland’s guests enjoyed the original “Pirates of the Caribbean,” today it must seem like the Imagineers had no choice but to bring this hugely popular attraction to Walt Disney World. Not so fast, kiddies. There were weeks of heated debate at WED about whether this Anaheim favorite really belonged in Orlando.
Why for? Because the state of Florida – which is just a hop, skip and a jump away from the really-for-real Caribbean – was already inundated with pirates. Much of the earliest recorded history for the state deals with the rogues who reportedly plied the waters around the area. Florida has football teams that were named after pirates (The Tampa Bay Buccaneers) as well as annual street parties that celebrated the salty old sots (Tampa’s Gasparilla Festival).
You get the idea now? Pirates are no big deal to the residents of Florida. They were something you’d hear about your whole life when you live in the Sunshine State. Pirates were just not something Floridians get all that excited about.
This last bit of news really worried the Imagineers. For here they had a show that was thrilling guests at Disneyland that sounded like it really might bomb with Florida residents were it to be built at Walt Disney World. Given how much it was going to cost to recreate “Pirates of the Caribbean” in Florida (and given how much Disney was depending on Florida residents to boost attendance levels at WDW), WED wasn’t willing to take the chance.
But here’s the Catch 22, kids: Even though Floridians were bored by real pirates, they’d still expect Walt Disney World to have an elaborate attraction just like Disneyland’s “Pirates of the Caribbean.” This meant that the Imagineers had to come up with a ride that was just like “Pirates” that didn’t feature pirates …
What was WED to do?
“Not to worry,” said Marc. “Do you remember that Lewis and Clark thing I dreamed up for St. Louis…?”