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We've recorded all of these episodes from a constantly evolving 7.5 acre production facility that I bought just over 5 years ago in a completely dilapidated state. It's probably not the smartest strategy, but I bought the property first and I just kept walking in circles asking it, what do you want to be? This broken down yoga martial arts studio, that has its own AC unit. It could be a podcast studio with multiple sets, a place to transmit live to the world.
That field over there? Why is it there a 2,000 square foot sound stage with modular pieces so that we could shoot YouTube videos, we could make it into a black box theater, we could have total control of the environment and we could live stream everything. But all of that, that's the front. That's where traffic makes noise, that's where simple, hard-edged buildings are. There's a weird soaking pool from back in the days when this used to be a nudist colony.
Once you cross that equaire, things get different because you begin to walk down. And I have the thought, this is the barrier from the profane into the sacred. You walk down 150 feet and all of the traffic noise goes away. There's a beautiful pond, sometimes full, sometimes not, but what if it could be full all the time? What if it could be an ecological preserve? On my way back, I noticed that there are several areas, little pockets that could be filled with anything.
Let's say a tiny home that happens to look like a hobbit hole. And then I start to have more magical thoughts. I see a berm that we could build a watch tower so that we could see the stars, watch sunsets. Some of these dreams have happened. We have a functioning production studio. That's where we're recording this right now. Other parts are going to take years, if not decades to complete. But by God by the time I die, I want this seven acres to be nothing less than magic.
That's my vision. That's going to be my legacy. And that's why I understand the power and the heartbreak of this single moment. Walt Disney World is a tribute to the philosophy and the life of Walter as a lion's Disney. And to the talents, the dedication, and the loyalty of the entire Disney organization that made Walt Disney's dream come true. May Walt Disney World bring joy and inspiration and new knowledge to all who come to this happy place.
The first heartbreak of this moment, I think you already know. It's Roy opening the park and not Walt, because Walt's been long dead. He doesn't help that Roy is going to die two months later. But the second part is the real heartbreak. And it's the one I hope you feel as much as I feel by the time we reach the end of this story. Is it a park that's opening? It's not only not what Walt wanted. It is in just about every way a perversion of his last great idea.
What we have is by all available metrics, the greatest theme park on planet Earth. But what Walt wanted was the world's greatest city, a city that could heal all of western society. And to get there, he needed control. He needed control of the land. He needed control from the government. And he needed control of the people. And we're still to this day wrestling with some very weird questions. Why did a roller coaster park have the legal authority to deal with enriched uranium?
Why are there citizens who live and pay taxes and yet do not have the right to vote? Why is this bizarre city state granted its own police department, its own fire department, its own medical examiner and corner, who by the way with a straight face to this day, proclaims that not one person has ever died in a Disney park. A land the size of two manhattens that forever has been able to do whatever it pleases and its in writing from the government.
Legacy. The drive for a legacy is so powerful that a simple cartoonist can become the emperor of a nation state in America and to get there. Every underhanded technique you can think of gets used from false identities to show corporations to outright lies and deceptions. It's a victory so complete that when signed into law the governor himself jokes you forgot to clause for your crown. The guy who earned that crown doesn't live to ever see it.
Cons don't fool us because we're stupid. They fool us because we're human and Walt Disney's quest for Epcot for my money just might be. The world's greatest con. This episode of World's Greatest Con brought to you by our store. Look, if we're pulling any kind of con it's the fact that ad revenues are not very much. What really keeps us afloat, what really keeps the cons flowing is your trust in us to deliver excellent holiday gifts. And this is the time of year to jump in.
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Now keep in mind, this is not the Disney company museum. It's the Disney Family Museum, which means you get to hear a story of Disney that most of you have never heard before because it's honest. As you go through exhibit after exhibit, boy, is there a lot of failure in the beginning. Walt starts off doing scrappy gigs, advertisements.
The first time he created a popular character, Oswald the rabbit, it was stolen from him based on a technicality and a contract. And he had to start all over again. And as he built his animation studio, Walt kept on doubling down, always flirting with absolute bankruptcy. There's a whole exhibit set in 1941, the moment when all of Walt's own animators walked out on him.
A deep betrayal that he directly blamed on communist. I believe that that time, Mr. Surah was a communist because of all the things that I had heard and and have seen his name appearing on many of the Communist things. And when he pulled the strike, the first people to put me, to smear me and put me on the unfair list were all of the Communist organizations. One that scared my mind is illegal women voters. The people's world, the daily worker and the PM magazine in New York.
They smear me. Nobody came there to find out what the two facts of the thing were. And I even run into. He just wants full control. Even Disneyland was a series of compromises that drove him nuts. He thought he was buying enough land to do whatever he wants, but he kept having to make changes.
And then once the park launched, he was destroyed by the fact that all these hangers on made everything so gross inside the park was the magic that Walt wanted. But outside the park, that was the land of cheap hotels, knock off parks. People suspiciously close to infringing on his trademarks. He wanted control. And so he envisions the force that will motivate him for the rest of his life.
Epcot, the experimental prototype city of tomorrow. A gorgeous dream come true. Picture Star Trek alive and well in the mid 60s. All he needed was the land and the autonomy and the authority to bring that Disney magic to entire city planning. So here's the game we're going to play Walt Disney spent the rest of his life making this second park perfect. As we go through all of this, ask yourself, did he do it for personal reasons?
Did he do it to finally get that control? Or was it a religious calling? Was he so enraged by the thought of communists claiming the crown of ideological superiority that he wanted only to showcase the best and the brightest of a free capitalist society? And so begins his pitch. Not just for a second park, but for a city to transform the world.
But Walt needs his company. He needs his board members. He needs his executives. And most importantly, he needs his brother, Roy Disney, to be on his team. If he wants to sell the city of tomorrow, he needs to push for something. He knows everybody else wants. But only God can let go. Walt's playing a different game from everyone else. Take a moment. Lean back. Imagine just sitting in that board room.
And the gar smoke is everywhere. Walt gets up, paces around the room. Maybe he grabs the back of each chair surrounding him, making sure to make it clear that he's the one in charge. And he has a vision that everybody needs to cling to.
Most of us grew up with a bunch of these terms, meaning one thing, but that's not what they were thought of in the beginning. For example, Disney World was not the collection of theme parks. It was the entire massive amount of land. The city states that we're talking about.
When we talk about Epcot, we're not talking about the theme park. We know we're talking about Walt's vision of this city of tomorrow, an actual functioning metropolis. And whenever we say Disneyland East, Disney Land East, for all intents and purposes, is the Magic Kingdom. He agrees with the team. Yes, a new park. Sound idea. Gentlemen, it's simple. Imagine Disneyland with 1,000 times as much space. Imagine we were able to push literally anything interesting all the way into an ocean.
What would it be like if we were the only game in town? What if Disney tried something a little bit different? Maybe. Did I say? A revolution. This meeting would be the first time Walt would tell anyone about the concept of Epcot. Walt wants to build Epcot right next to Disneyland East. And it is so much bigger. When he wants it to be the city of the future, he means it when you see it on the map.
The idea came partially out of concepts he'd seen at the world's fair in 1939. A bunch of things that it stuck in Walt's head for decades. Thoughts that would only grow in intensity as he gets older. It would combine modernism and futurism and a love of ever evolving technology. It would be unlike any city that ever existed or that likely ever would exist again. A place where nobody owned land, one were Disney's company held a certain level of control over every single denizen.
Notice I said denizen and not citizen because citizens get to vote. It would have a glorious monorail coming in and out of town bringing visitors to the Welcome Center. Tours would take people around factories and warehouses and laboratories. The center of the city would be covered by a huge enclosed dome. The entire community spinning outwards from there. Think burning man but not covered in mud and drugs.
Nobody who lived there would own a car because why would you even need to leave? Civilians would live in high-density apartments. They could work at one of the Disney owned shops, hotels or theme parks or convention centers. Oh and there would be no such thing as retirement because why would you ever want to stop working there? If this sounds a bit like a commune, it's because it's a commune which is very strange given the fact that Disney hated communists.
He was pretty direct about his open suspicion that Hollywood was overrun with him. He testified before the House Un-American Activities Committees in 1947 only the fourth producer to do so. He said he was aware of communist activity at his studio which was directly tied to you guessed it. The time his cartoonists went on strike in 1941. His studio was the last holdout of animators working without a union but led by the guy who created goofy his workers fought for their rights.
Now to Walt this was about as un-American as anything could be. Clearly this was the work of those commy bastards. After all after five weeks of being on strike, the artists they won. Maybe when he testified Walt was looking for just one last act of revenge or maybe deep down he really believed that outside forces had corrupted his animators. Either way he had had enough of organized labor to last a lifetime.
Maybe his vision of Epcot was a way for him to ensure that his workers would never need to strike. Maybe in his mind Disney knew he was going to provide everything they would need to be healthy, living American lives and in return every citizen would work for the man himself. I mean at least until they died. Again no retirement in Epcot.
Anyway you gotta admit it's weird seeing Walt Disney one of the first men in Hollywood to speak out against communism during the age of McCarthyism was now dreaming of a utopian society that also served funnel cakes. But when you look at that map Epcot is king so much bigger than Disney land east. It was the beating heart the thing that would make the entire concept worth pitching worth doing worth creating.
Well always be a showcase to the world for the ingenuity and imagination of American free enterprise. I don't believe there's a challenge anywhere in the world that's more important to people everywhere and finding solutions to the problems of our cities. But where do we begin? How do we start answering this great challenge? Well we're convinced we must start with the public need.
Walt senses things changing suburban flight is beginning to hurt the American city Walt so loves and he knows that the world needs his project more than ever. A place where the Disney company could kick start American innovation and bring it out a second industrial revolution. I mean it wouldn't be a stretch to call Walt a patriot. A capital T capital C true citizen of these United States of America.
The whole board claps Walt leans back lights another cigarette the cash was right there for Walt to buy his space. But now without some good negotiations. At this point Disney is way past the golden age of animation 1950s it's seen the brand expand to television and action productions. And they've been good about holding onto that cash. But as the 60s started things were looking a little more dire than usual.
These days sleeping beauty is thought of as the company's masterpiece. One of the most beautiful animated films ever made. But it did cost six million dollars of 1959 money. That's three times as much as Cinderella just a decade prior. And it didn't even make it back at the box office run. A loss of nearly a million dollars was not helping Roy with this Epcot. Whatever it is. Disney's doing all right on the money department lots of cash flow. But margins are thin.
They don't have the kind of cash reserves it takes to just buy anybody out. Walt and Roy both recognized that yes Disneyland was an institution. But if they go buying up a bunch of land Walt wants any land owner with half a brain would see that Mickey Mouse logo. And suddenly double triple quadruple their price. This is the first official meeting for what they would call project winter. The latest big vision initiative at Disney and it is not to leave this office. This is the birth of their car.
The first mark the landowners themselves we all know they're going to raise their price if they know what's going on. So you keep that a secret. They must buy the land without those real estate dummies figuring out what's going on. The second mark the politicians. Disney's about to make the ask of all asks so timing is crucial. The third mark the press they find out what's going on they will tell the other two marks.
Roy does the math and figures out they have enough for what Walt wants but only if they can avoid all three marks. If one of them finds out all of this is over there's no Epcot there's no Disney land east. There's no Disney world. Part of the focused on the east coast is primarily because Disneyland only drew in 2% of its visitors from the other side of the country. Disney needed to find a way to build a second money maker on the opposite side of the U.S. in order to maximize the returns.
Events like the 1964 World's Fair in New York of which Disney was a huge part thanks to the partnership with Pepsi for its small world. That was clear evidence that there was an appetite on the east coast. Walt just needed to figure out where. Now most of the coast wasn't an option. Walt was certain that competing with the ocean for attention was one sure way to screw up the whole plan.
So cities up in the Atlantic were a no-go Niagara Falls both on the U.S. side and the Canadian side was considered despite the obvious draw of the falls themselves. But the seasonal cold weather stopped that idea dead in its tracks. Seems obvious now but Walt's biggest fear in 1963 wasn't those brutal western New York winters. It was the seasonal carnies. It was afraid these roused abouts coming and going every year would damage his brand.
Of the 13 cities written on a list in Disney's offices, St. Louis came closest to being the final destination. Makes sense it's centrally located, temperate weather. In fact the company was just hours away from committing to a deal with the negotiators when a local business tycoon offended Walt's ego by claiming no theme park could be a success and Anheuser bushes St. Louis without serving beer or liquor. That was a no-go for Disney.
Walt and his party left early the next morning even the bank's best solicitors went unanswered. So the winner, as you know, was Orlando. Finally, this is where Walt was going to plant his flag. And there are good reasons for it. First, Walt's family's nearby. His parents Elias and Flora, they met in the small town of Akron in our north of Orlando.
And although the couple would move by the time Walt was born, both Walt and his brother Roy often visited their mother's side of the family over there. Turns out, your most precious memories might have an impact on your decision as you decide to build a theme park for, you know, children. Orlando also had the win when it came to weather. Outside of some heavy summertime rainstorms, Orlando's gorgeous weather would allow the theme park to be open year round.
That means a constant flow of cash coming in. And more importantly, a permanent staff. Tie that in with the fact that it's nice and far away from the alluring ocean and surrounded by nothing but boggy marshes. It's an obvious winner. But Walt didn't really feel it in his gut until they landed and he got boots on the ground. On November 21, 1963, a team of Disney execs, Walt included checked into a hotel in Tampa under fake names.
Remember, this plot is so big. This scheme is so secretive, no one can know about it. Next morning, the air of brisk 63 degrees. Normally, this is the part where Walt would take a puff of a cigarette and then light a second cigarette and then grab the yoke himself. But he's too focused on the land. Walt needs to fly high above these plots and ask them, what do you want to be? And he sees it. That part. Those two roads intersecting. I mean, they can't be this easy, right? What are those?
One goes north, south, the other east, west. Is this literally the most approachable spot in all of Florida? And he was right. Both of those highways have been built in the last five years. Walt sees it. He turns to his teammates. He's laughing and he says, that's it. Everybody nods. But more importantly, everybody knows you can't change Walt's mind once it's set. And it is set. Royce sees it too. Orlando is perfect.
After circling around Orlando long enough for the execs to feel comfortable with further research in Florida, they headed back to New Orleans for the night. What a day. The day Walt Disney realized that this is where Disney World was going to be. Put this one in the history books. That will be what everyone remembers about November 22nd, 1963. Here is a bulletin from CBS News. In Dallas, Texas, three shots were fired at President Kennedy's motorcade in downtown Dallas.
The first reports say that President Kennedy has been seriously wounded by this. So what you want is tens of thousands of acres of Florida swamp land. How do you start? What do you go door to door? Give that a try, Walt. Let's see how it goes. Hi, I'm Walt Disney. Would you like a cigarette? I have three. Hi, I'm Walt Disney. You see this 57 Chevy behind me? Pretty great, isn't it? Let me buy you land. Hi, I'm Walt Disney. Do you believe in God? Because dirty red communists don't.
Disney needed a way to get into Orlando, purchase as much land as they possibly could and get the heck out. Pull this off Walt needed a shark. And that man was Bill Lund. A real estate consultant. Lund was working with the Economics Research Association, or ERA, a group assisting Disney with their new park. He was one of the only people who was led into the plan. And he would be responsible for both assessing the overall land in Florida and making the necessary deals to get Walt his land.
He'd already previously used secret identities before for Walt, sneaking into a people mover conference in Tampa to get secret insider knowledge on transit systems. For this mission, Bill would have to touch down throughout Orange and Oceola counties while using fake credentials to target banks and land owners. The goal? Simple. Make as many deals as you can. For 25,000 acres of land, get the hell out of dodge before anyone knew what was up.
Then, once the time was right, the crew could make the announcement on their own terms and save millions of dollars in the process. Is he right? Lund would enter the state using his real name. But the rest of his identity would be shrouded in mystery. Disney's team of lawyers in New York, they struck a deal with the law firm below them to give Lund a business card letterhead and a working phone number all under their company's name.
Suddenly Bill Lund was no longer a team member with Disney or the ERA, is just a working stiff at the law agency of Birkenberg. Only two weeks after Walt Disney falls in love with the land, Bill Lund touches down in Tampa. He finds out there's a real estate agency called Florida Ranch Lands, where he meets with a guy named David Nusbickle.
Lund does the routine of showing his Birkenberg card introduces himself as, I'm just here on behalf of a mystery buyer interested in buying that land around the high-forging the turnpike. Nusbickle, he smells something weird, but he plays the game. In fact, during the early introduction, the two men bond over their alma mater, Stanford. And Nusbickle shows off a newspaper clipping from the Orlando Sentinel bragging about how important the road network was going to be to Florida.
At this point, Lund just nods as Nusbickle makes his pitch. News to him! Florida Ranch Lands biggest lot was a 12,440 acre property owned by Bill and Jack Dimitri. A plot of land big enough to give Walt half of his dream acreage right off the jump. Right next to I-4, it would be the perfect starting place for the future location of Project Winter. Lund had a lot of meetings ahead of him, but he agrees to have dinner with Nusbickle and his wife the next night.
There's something that just doesn't sit right with Nusbickle. I mean sure, yeah, Orlando, sleepy part of the country. But something's off. This Stanford grad is representing a New York law firm looking to buy so much land. What if he isn't who he says he is? We've said it before. The gift of the con man is the asymmetry of preparation. But the gift of the mark is that feeling in your gut. And Nusbickle has it. Just enough for him to call New York City. And the Burkin Burk law firm answers.
He gets a secretary. Okay, that's fine, that passes. And then he asks about our mystery man, Lund. Now keep in mind if the exact person Nusbickle is on the phone with isn't informed, if she says something casually like who? Then all of this goes up in smoke. Nusbickle would know this whole thing was a ruse, and the price would skyrocket. But luckily, the secretary is in on the gift. She plays off that Lund is indeed affiliated with the firm, nothing to worry about here.
And Nusbickle hangs up, ready to talk Stanford with his new friend from New York. After dodging a bullet with Nusbickle, Bill Lund heads out on a whirlwind tour making meetings left and right. He meets with owners anywhere around the area. Most of it undeveloped swamp or orange trees as far as the eye can see. He meets back up with Nusbickle, they do a tour of Orlando, get a sense of the city.
And just before heading back to gorgeous southern California, Lund, careful not to tip his hand too hard, makes a joke about wishing, oh, if he could only stay here in the warmer, more tropical Florida weather than leave for Snowy Old New York. He'd done it, he'd pulled it off. And when he did get back to California, he made sure on an ongoing basis that every bit of mail and every phone call were forwarded directly from that Birkenberg firm.
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Walt takes over one of the conference rooms at the studio, declares it's now a war room for project winter. So naturally, it looks like the basement of a madman. Maps all over the walls complete with yarn strings tying everything together, showing how long it would take to reach the park from wherever in Florida. All of the stats that got from London. Roy has the hard numbers and now they have a budget for the exact amount of land they need. By 1964, this is no longer Walt's hobby.
He lives in this room. London is back in town and walks in in a meeting already in progress. Walt barely sees him because he's at the front of the room explaining their plans for the upcoming year. 1964 is going to be the big one. The demitry property is too good of a deal to pass up. Walt saw it from the sky. The location is perfect. He lights a second cigarette. London walks into the meeting and asks Disney Point blank. Nuspical, he's ready to put this to bed. Are we doing this or not? Disney.
Disney asks, the landowners. We know where they are, right? Yes. And we can call the landowners at any moment, right? Yes. What do we need Nuspical for? London asks, the landowners. So we're just going to cut them out, right? Walt lights a third cigarette. Pause. Thinks about it a minute. The knots is head. Send Nuspical one more letter. And while he's busy chasing that tail, we secure the land. That will be the last communication to Nuspical. Now this is a high-risk, high-reward strategy.
Yes, they're going to save a bundle of money by going straight to the landowners. The landowners talk. Landowners haul their state representatives. Landowners could ruin the entire deal. Finally, Walt lights a fourth cigarette. And hands two of them to the people he wants everyone to meet. Here's Bob Foster and Paul Hallowell. Bob, General Counsel for Disney. Now Bob is a known commodity. Everybody's met him.
But Hallowell is a totally different force here to make sure that Foster and anyone else going to Orlando doesn't get caught. Hallowell was the real deal. We're talking about a guy who played a key role in funding the Bay of Pigs invasion of 1962. And now he's leaving his role with the government to help Disney secure one of the most important private land deals ever made. If they're going to do this right, Hallowell has to know the score.
Because they can trust him given his background, he's led in on the whole plan from the beginning. Using his magic, Hallowell transforms Bob Foster into the newly minted Bob price. And along with a couple of real estate moguls in Hallowell's back pocket, Disney's own spec ops team goes to work. Hallowell introduces Foster under his fake name to a local realtor interest in showing off a few of the big lots, realtor sensibly says what's this all about.
And Hallowell squintes his eyes and says, we represent a substantial company, and that's all you need to know. As the real estate agents talk to the landowners, they discover another problem. The reason the demeteries want out of their land isn't just because they can't grow nothing on it. It's because they also sold the mineral rights years ago. They sold the drilling rights to Tufts University.
Could you imagine trying to build a theme park, and at any moment this random university could say, excuse us, we're going to dig an oil well here. This is a pro-level snarl to unwind, and they need a pro-level negotiator to fix it. The demeteries hadn't even spoken to the Tufts folks in ages. Two decades of quiet anger between two parties, Hallowell Foster and the Demeterie Cousins arrive in Boston just a few weeks later to meet with the Tufts University folks.
You could picture the tension, right? Some southern landowners looking at some stuck-up Yankees while an undercover sniper and an negotiator try to unfurl this. Tufts has no reason to sell. They have no reason to budge. I'd like to imagine they were just sitting here in the clock ticking as they all stare at each other. Eventually, Hallowell says something like, hey, Tufts, guys, could I talk to you for a moment? They go to the other room. And to this day, I have no idea what was said.
Maybe he'd made them an offer they couldn't refuse. Maybe he appealed to their better nature. Maybe he made a promise that never surfaced again. Whatever he said, they walked back into the room and a deal was struck. Around $150,000 in today's money. At this point, Hallowell and Foster are popping champagne. Together, they've scored nearly 13,000 acres for Disney for just $1.8 million. And it's happening while Mary Poppins brings in $31 million for Disney.
That one movie alone paid for everything with cash to spare. Disney is winning hard and they're winning in secret. All three of their marks are in the dark, no mayor, no state representative, no governor has any idea what they're up to. Nobody in the press knows and they've already secured the bulk of a land for $144 per acre. Oh man, imagine being Walt standing in that war room, huge smile on your face. And now imagine being one of the Florida holdouts.
Somebody who knows something's up, you can only buy so much land before word gets around. Sitting in the war room, a newspaper is flopped down asking the question everybody wants to know, who is buying this land? And this rag has three suspects. Ord, McDonald aircraft, and Disney. While issues the order, everybody get on those phones, it is all hands on deck. We need to make the calls and get this land.
But of course, every call they make ups their risk, including the risk that they get exposed by one of their most important marks, the press. And that's exactly what happens. So now we're on a commercial airliner, I assume. We're flying in to LAX. Picture looking out the window as Los Angeles approaches one Emily Bavar, a writer for the Orlando Sentinel.
She's on her way to cover a celebration of Disneyland's 10th Centennial, the 10 year anniversary, because heaven forbid you would say the 10 year anniversary, everything has to be 2 cubed by half. A Disney is hosting this event, they want to celebrate Disneyland, they want the press coverage, they were a little bit confused why the Orlando Sentinel would want to send a reporter out. Essentially, the back of fourth is nobody comes here from Orlando.
But they fought for it, they got her a slot, and she flew out. She lands, gets herself composed, and gets ready to ask the question that could unearth the biggest scoop in the history of the state of Florida. She's in the room with a handful of other reporters, and in walks the man himself Walt Disney. Here's a bunch of talk about how great Disney Land is, about how everything's awesome that they're doing, and how great is it that they invented the word 10th Centennial.
And when she gets her chance to ask her question, she looks Walt Disney, point blank in the eyes, and asks, excuse me, are you buying 27,000 acres in Orlando to start a new theme park? Imagine being in that moment, one of your marks just made you. But also imagine holding on to one secret. Those calls worked. He is the only one in the room who knows they have the land.
He admits essentially, I mean that's not us, but, but now that I think about it, I suppose the climate of Florida would be perfect for one of my parks. Oh goodness, and I suppose that location would be right around the intersection of I-4 in the Florida Turnpike. We had three marks, the owners, the press, and the government. I mean sure, they'd lock down one, and if you were just a regular land developer, that'd probably be enough.
But this isn't a regular land deal. Walt wants to build the future, and the future needs cooperation, both from the press, so they don't turn negative. And from the government, who's gonna need to sign off on everything Walt wants. And the government could get spooked by bad press. But even with all those stakes, maybe the thrill of the Tencential is just too much.
Walt just chucks all the subterfuge, the fake names, the rerouted calls, the secret plane rise, everything so he could just give a shrug, and a little wink to a reporter from the Orlando Sentinel. His inability to contain his excitement was enough to convince Bavar, and she wired her story to Orlando that very night. The biggest scoop in Florida history. She sends a telegram back. It's unambiguous. She's cracked it. She's figured it out.
And the newspaper holding pure gold. Publishes it on page 35 with the headline. Girl reporter convinced by Walt Disney. Girl reporter convinced by Walt Disney. I cannot, it's very 1960s. Girl reporter convinced by Walt Disney revealed the truth. A few days later, the Sentinel ran one more headline. This time, it was front page news. And it cut right to the chase. We say it's Disney. Mark number one, the landowners tackled. All the contracts were finished.
Mark number two, the press. Yeah, Disney was busted there. Which meant they had to race for Mark number three. Now that the cats out of the bag, Walt has to play catch up with the government. It's time to start making friends fast. Walt and his team met with the governor of Florida, Hayden Burns, to admit that the deal was really happening into plan an official announcement. The governor suggested that he make the announcement at the Florida League of Municipalities the next day.
The crew wasted no time helping him out and giving their blessing. They wanted a win win at this point. Governor Burns makes the announcement during his speech and the crowd goes absolutely nuts. One month later, November 15th, Disney makes it official to joint press conference with Burns in Orlando. Disney was officially in business with the state of Florida. All that was left was to build the damn thing. To be honest, the process that would be a bit harder than anyone was expecting.
Yes, the Disney brothers faced months and months of agonizing planning meetings. But this was a new territory for them. To most of the company's employees, this was Disneyland 2.0. Same thing but bigger, right? The real hard work was over. They went undercover. They did special operations. They took on disguises and they got the land. There was only one problem though. Walt's dream of an eastern Disneyland wasn't just a theme park to Walt.
Remember, he had gone all in on his concept of Epcot. They had nearly 30,000 acres and Walt didn't want that many roller coaster rides and funnel cakes. Instead, Walt wanted to cement his legacy as one of the greatest innovators ever to live in the US of A. Epcot would be his crowning achievement, his Mona Lisa, his Sistine Chapel.
Just like Alexander Graham Bell, just like Henry Ford, just like Thomas Edison, Disney wanted to join the pantheon of people who were able to change the world through the concepts he invented in his factories. Walt would take those all American ideas of ingenuity and bring them into the living rooms of every American starting with a small Orlando community.
Governor Burns had committed 100%, promising that those roads that Walt saw from the sky two years ago would get his guests wherever they needed to go. But Walt wanted more. To do what Epcot needed to do for the greater good of America, his company would need total control over everything. It's why he didn't want Epcot to have landowners or municipal voting rights. This was Walt's space. And if Disney landed taught him anything, the more control, the better.
The people of Florida are gonna love Epcot. It's not up to them. So far, everything looks to have played out great. And for most folks, this would be the end. But Walt doesn't want to build another theme park. He's building the future. And he means it. It's now late 1966 and Walt doesn't have the written assurances he needs to build the future. So if he can't get what he wants from the state, he makes promises to the world.
Epcot will take its cue from the new ideas and new technologies that are now emerging from the creative centers of American industry. It will be a community of tomorrow that will never be completed. But will always be introducing and testing and demonstrating new materials and new systems. It's a message so audacious that it echoes for decades. Walt explains Epcot and exactly what he wants for it. What he needs for it.
We don't know if the Florida legislature would have gotten cold feet without this video. But now if they did, they'd have to answer to voters who just got promised utopia. So which one do you think is the motivating force? Is it the drive for autonomy, authority, a madman's quest to be unquestioned? Or is it the religious calling that just happens to require complete control? Right now I am of the feeling that injury happens first and then the opportunities present themselves.
I know what it's like to lose the rights to a property you created. And it hurts. And that's part of the reason I am fiercely independent with our programming. I think that Walt wanted a place where he could do everything exactly right without oversight. And only after seeing a path to it. Did he ask himself, well, what do I want to do with it? And I believe that that was an almost religious calling for him. He wanted capitalism to win over communism.
And if ironically the shortest path to get there includes citizens who couldn't vote and a God king who could never be questioned. Well, I mean, we got to beat the red somehow, don't we? This moment, it's Walt's legacy. Literally. Because this video is Walt's last filmed appearance. In November of 1966, he's diagnosed with lung cancer. And the next month, he's dead. What's left behind is his vision, all the materials, the support they've gathered, and now this detailed blueprint.
But for the rest of the crew, for everyone else left behind, can they finish it? Can they complete another man's dream? Or more importantly, do they want to finish it? Even worse, the governor that they've been buttering up for this moment, the moment they're going to make the biggest asks they could possibly ask, this is the moment he's voted out of office. And the incoming governor is in no rush to do Disney any favors.
Next week, we'll tackle the mutating dream of Epcot and look at the reedy Creek Improvement District, a deal that remained controversial 55 years after it was signed. Part of what just might be. The world's greatest con. This episode of World's Greatest Con was written by Will Saddleberg and me, Brian Brushwood, your humble host. The show was executive produced by Justin Robert Young. Production and research by Dog and Pony Show Audio in Austin, Texas.
Credit to Married to the Mouse by Richard E. Fogo Song and Buying Disney's World by Aaron H. Goldberg, which along with other contemporary news articles, retrospectives and archive videos made for the bulk of our research. Support us directly and keep the world's greatest cons coming by heading on over to patreon.com slash greatest con. You'll get an ad free feed, early access to all the good information and behind the scenes extras.
Of course, you have questions that we want to answer as many as we can so hit us up at world's greatest con at gmail.com. On the next world's greatest con, Rollie in the Board, Channel Waltz Ghost, hoping to save the dream of Epcot. Time in Club hopes you have enjoyed this program. Dog and Pony Show Audio. Hey, it's Paige Dessorbo from Giggly Squad. High quality fashion without the price tag say hello to Quince.
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