Hollywood — ON A SMOGGY morning in October, 1966, I had an interview with a genius, a man who told me about a big dream that he had. Less than three months later he was dead.
His name was Walt Disney and his big dream was Disney World, to be built near Orlando, Fla.
"It's going to be more than a Florida-based Disneyland. It's going to be a world, a new different kind of world where you can leave all the problems of the everyday world behind you," he said.
"Sure, there’ll be a Magic Kingdom like Disneyland, you betcha, and bigger and better yet. But there’ll also be a planned community, a city of tomorrow with no slums, no air pollution, no unemployment…“
And nothing, not even death, could stop the big dream of the genius who had already brought so much joy and laughter to the world.
During that interview in 1966, Walt Disney declared that Disney World would be ready to open in five years.
He called that shot right, as always. Florida's Walt Disney World, as it is formally known, the most ambitious project in the vast Disney empire, is right on schedule and will open in October, precisely five years to the month that Walt predicted it would. Six months away from opening day, Cinderella's Castle, towering 180 feet high over the Magic Kingdom Park, is virtually complete.
Walt Disney World is no Mickey Mouse operation. The size and scope of Walt's biggest dream boggles the imagination. Cinderella's Castle is truly a sight to behold. So is the man-made lake and lagoon where visitors can go island-hopping in unsinkable canoes or 280-passenger sidewheeler steamboats.
An elevated "highway in the sky" for high-speed, silent, electric monorail trains will run right thru the lobby of a 10-story, 1,000-room hotel now nearing completion. A Polynesian resort, with the architecture and decor of a South Pacific island village, will also be ready for the October opening.
Even more impressive than the mind-boggling physical scope of Disney World is the pervasive feeling of Walt Disney's presence everywhere. His spirit and his philosophy seem to be throbbing thruout the fabulous Magic Kingdom of Disney World.
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