The Magic Kingdom Turns 40
‘They Left Me Behind and Went Home!,’ by Marty Sklar
As Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom celebrates its 40th anniversary, Disney Legend Marty Sklar offers this inside look at how the most popular theme park in the world came to be. In this exclusive excerpt from Sklar’s forthcoming untitled memoir, the IAAPA Hall of Famer shares the stories behind two Disney landmarks: Cinderella Castle, and “Space Mountain.”
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As WED began planning the 27,400 acres Disney had purchased, it was interesting to read some of the early speculation about the mystery purchasers of that huge tract of land. Under the Page 1 banner headline, “Giant Land Deal Near Orlando Revealed,” the Miami Herald on May 27, 1965, covered the speculation spectrum in a story by staff writer Clarence Jones:
A Miami law firm working with $5 million in cold cash has quietly engineered one of the biggest, most-talked-about Florida land deals in years.
Twelve miles southwest of Orlando, the firm has bought 30,000 acres of strategically located land that could become the state’s largest industrial complex.
Hottest current speculation says the purchasers will offer 3,000 acres to the Atomic Energy Commission for its new national accelerator laboratory, then develop the remaining 27,000 acres for related space age industry.
Rumor also says the Ford Motor Co. plans to break into missile and space technology at the secret site. Ford officials in Detroit deny it.
The McDonnell Aircraft Corp., builder of the Mercury and Gemini space capsules and a series of supersonic warplanes, is also mentioned as a possible buyer. McDonnell now has headquarters in St. Louis. There were some St. Louis men involved in the land negotiations.
Still another possibility is Disneyland East, the longplanned amusement park that would be bigger and better than the original Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif. Walt Disney was at Cape Kennedy several weeks ago, but denied that he’s still considering Florida for his new venture.
Bankers and real estate brokers have been trying for months to find out what’s in the works. If any outsiders know, they aren’t telling.
It wasn’t until three weeks before the November press conference that Governor Hayden Burns officially solved the mystery when he told the Orlando Sentinel, “Walt Disney has extended to your governor the privilege of making the official announcement that Disney Productions (sic) is the mystery industry. They will build the greatest attraction in the history of Florida.”
Our work was cut out for us. But as we began planning and design, at least we had Walt’s answer to Governor Burns’ question posed at that November 1965 press conference:
GOVERNOR BURNS: Will it be a Disneyland?
WALT: Well… I’ve always said there will never be another Disneyland Governor, and I think it’s going to work out that way. But it will be the equivalent of Disneyland. We know the basic things that have this what I call family appeal… . But there’s many ways that you can use those certain basic things and give them a new décor, a new treatment. In fact, I’ve been doing that with Disneyland… But… this concept here will have to be something that is unique and… so there is a distinction between Disneyland in California and what ever Disney does… You notice I didn’t say “Disneyland” in Florida (laughter)… What Disney does in Florida. And… we have many ideas. I have a wonderful staff now that have had ten years experience of designing, planning and operating… . It’s one of those things… You get in, we call them gag sessions… we get in there, we toss ideas around, everybody’s been thinking on the staff of things that might be done if we were redoing Disneyland… and we throw them in and put all the minds together and come up with something and say a little prayer and open it and hope it will go. I’m very excited about it because I’ve been storing these things up over the years and, certain atrractions at Disneyland that have a basic appeal I might move here. Then again, I would like to create new things… you hate to repeat yourself… I don’t like to make sequels to my pictures. I like to take a new thing and develop something… a new concept.
These remarks were so general, however, that in the weeks before that seminal October trip to Florida, Dick Irvine had worried about all the new staff that would be needed to design and build Walt Disney World. How would we begin to get everyone on the same page?
I suggested to Dick that we put together a selection of background material and articles not just for new staff but to remind all of us about the principles that Walt had used to create Disneyland. I compiled this material in a thick spiral bound book I called “Walt Disney World—Background and Philosophy.” On September 21, 1967, we distributed this booklet at Imagineering with the following memo from me:
This assemblage has been prepared as a background and starting point for developing a “philosophy” for the Disneyland- style theme park in Walt Disney World. There is a great deal of other material, particularly articles about Disneyland, that might have been included. However, the intent here is to provide, as a foundation, Walt’s thinking and philosophy as it was applied in Disneyland, and additionally Walt’s thoughts about Walt Disney World as they apply to what we are now beginning.
The original booklet contained 16 different articles and historical background material, including the early Disneyland philosophy write-up by Bill Walsh, a transcript of that November 1965 Press Conference, a selection of “Walt’s quotes re: Disneyland,” my notes from a meeting with Walt discussing the Epcot film, and a series of articles from various publications that I believed captured key aspects of the spirit of Disneyland and provided insight into its popularity with the public. For me, and many others, it became a kind of philosophical bible that I have continued to reference through the years.
Later, after the Florida legislature had created the Reedy Creek Improvement District as the overall governing body for the Walt Disney World property, I wrote the Preface to the so-called “Epcot Building Code.” Although the basic purpose was to state the objectives of safety, health, general welfare and good practice during construction, points two and three in the Preface were directly reflective of Walt Disney’s Epcot thinking:
To provide the flexibility that will encourage American industry, through free enterprise, to introduce, test and demonstrate new ideas, materials and systems emerging now and in the future from the creative centers of industry.
To provide an environment that will stimulate the best thinking of industry and the professions in the creative development of new technologies to meet the needs of people, expressed by the experience of those who live and work and visit here.
As the only designated Staff Writer at WED in those days, I was a jack-of-all-trades, leading a small staff in creating the attraction scripts, all the park and resort nomenclature, some of the written marketing materials, and working with our key “Participants” (sponsors) on anything related to the shows, exhibits and name displays they sponsored. In that connection, Dick Irvine asked me to create a standard for the display and recognition of our valued sponsors. None existed, even at Disneyland; Dick’s idea was to make sure everyone—those selling sponsorships, park operators, and our graphic designers— all knew the rules. We recognized the importance of making sure the public, our guests in the parks, knew that the attractions were created by the Imagineers, while providing recognition and an opportunity to associate with a particular attraction for our participants. We developed the form that is still in place today:
TITLE OF ATTRACTION
presented by
Name of Sponsor
Here’s one specific in Epcot today:
SPACESHIP EARTH presented by Siemens
I think Dick Irvine was way ahead of his time on this issue. Just turn on your TV set to the New Year’s Day football bowl games to see why: Allstate Sugar Bowl, Capital One Bowl, GoDaddy.com Bowl, and, my favorite, the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl. Only the Rose Bowl in Pasadena has held firm. It’s now “presented by Vizio.”
A key to maintaining the Disney standard is consistency around the world. Thus guests find these examples: The Broadway Theatre, presented by Japan Air Lines (Tokyo Disney Seas); Hong Kong Disneyland Railroad, presented by UPS (Hong Kong Disneyland); Autopia, presented by Chevron (Disneyland); and Rock ‘N’ Roller Coaster presenté par Gibson Guitar (Walt Disney Studios—Paris).
As that jack-of-all-trades on the Imagineering staff, I was constantly being given new challenges by WED’s design leader, Dick Irvine. One day Dick gave me a new assignment: Get Herb Ryman to finish the concept design for the Walt Disney World Castle.
“Herb is holding up the whole project,” Dick explained.
“The architects can’t do the design and working drawings until they have a concept direction.”
“Dick,” I asked innocently, “doesn’t Herb report to you?”
“Of course,” Dick responded.
“Then why don’t you talk to him?” I asked.
“Because,” Dick replied, “he won’t listen to me. So I want you to tell Herb he has to close his door and finish the design.”
I approached my new assignment cautiously. First, I suggested to Herb that Dick wanted him to keep his door closed: Dick’s thinking, of course, was that if Herb had his door closed, he would be in his office, and the design would be done. Herb complied with part of Dick’s request… except, with the door closed, it was easy for him to be absent from his office invisibly, as he mostly was. Herb loved to wander and help his fellow artists with their projects—especially spending time mentoring any young artist who needed a helping hand, and frequently a brush stroke or two to straighten out his or her drawing.
Finally, one day Herb asked me, “Why are you coming to my office every day?” I had to admit that I had been designated by Dick Irvine to be the official Jiminy Cricket to get him to finish the concept for the Castle, which was nowhere to be seen on Herb Ryman’s easel. With a knowing sigh, Herb told me to “come back Thursday,” and I would see the first drawing of the Castle. On my arrival a few days later, he proudly unveiled the very first vital concept drawing of the Magic Kingdom’s Cinderella’s Castle: It was an 11 x 14 pencil sketch of me as a gargoyle (Ryman called it “Sklargoyle”) on the Castle, clutching my scripts to my breast, and spewing forth nouns and verbs from the Castle’s parapets! I have the original, now framed and hanging in my home.
Fortunately, Herb understood that this would not satisfy Dick Irvine, and he agreed that if I came back “next Tuesday” he would have the concept sketch. And he did: an exquisite pencil drawing of Cinderella’s Castle to be. It became the basis for Ted Rich’s beautiful architectural design of Florida’s Magic Kingdom Castle—a perfect fit for the site of that big yellow “X”!
Our planning for the Magic Kingdom was not without early mistakes. In Fantasyland, there’s still a “pinch point”— a passageway too narrow for the amount of guest traffic—in the corridor between it’s a small world and Peter Pan’s Flight. Because a new concept by Marc Davis, a “Western River Expedition” featuring Audio-Animatronics® cowboys and Indians, was being groomed as a major feature, Pirates of the Caribbean was not included in the original park plans—it was finally added in 1973 as part of the new Caribbean Plaza attached to Adventureland. But the biggest “goof” was the view we held of Florida’s audience that resulted in a decision not to build any “thrill rides” for opening day: too many “older and retired” people, we thought. When the audience demographics proved to be almost identical to Disneyland’s— families, with not only small children but also teenagers and young adults looking for a thrill—the call went out for the Imagineers to solve this oversight as quickly as possible.
Two lucky opportunities converged to make a timely response possible. One was the contract with RCA to work with our engineers to design “the first 21st century information- communications system”—linking computers, telephones, automatic monitoring and control devices, mobile communications and television. The contract included a significant quid pro quo: RCA agreed to consider sponsorship of a major attraction in the Magic Kingdom Park after its opening if (that was the key word) we Imagineers could develop an attraction they would be proud to be associated with. It was a very significant quid pro quo: $10 million 1971 dollars, the equivalent of about $90 million in today’s dollars, was on the line.
Before the Magic Kingdom’s opening in 1971, John Hench joined me and artist Tee Hee in developing a story and design concept for RCA. It did not take long; RCA was then in the computer business, and we determined to take Tomorrowland visitors inside a computer—to tell the story from the inside.
Finally, after nine long months working our way up the corporate ladder, we secured an audience with RCA’s chairman and CEO, Robert Sarnoff. The night before our big day, we set up our presentation in the RCA board of directors meeting room. As befits Disney and Imagineering’s tradition as visual storytellers, we lined one side of the large room with nine storyboards, each one with its four foot by eight foot surface covered with sketches, paintings, and graphic concepts. Everything was positioned so that Mr. Sarnoff, sitting in the center of the Boardroom, would see everything directly in front of his chair. As we completed our perfect set-up, then (and only then) the RCA meeting organizers played their “wild card”: Mr. Sarnoff, they said, always sits at the head of the table! Sure enough, we made our pitch the next morning with the RCA chairman sitting so far away he needed binoculars to see our materials. There literally was no way to communicate our brilliant concept for the RCA computer story.
For a moment, I thought we might recover, as John Hench, Tee Hee, and I joined Mr. Sarnoff and three RCA vice presidents in the seats adjacent to him. Soon Mr. Sarnoff scribbled a note and passed it to the VP next to him, who passed it to the next VP, and the third… who passed it to me. When I opened it, I read: “Who are these people?!?!?”
Reality hit me—hard. The RCA VPs had not even told Robert Sarnoff who we were, or why we were there! Nine months of my life, down the drain on four words scribbled on a note pad.
My associates and I returned to California, and I went straight to the office of E. Cardon Walker. “Card,” I said, “I don’t care if you fire me, but I’m not giving another nine months of my creative life to RCA.” His response was clear: “Marty, you guys at Imagineering have to figure out a way to get RCA to sponsor an attraction. We need it!”
So we went back to the drawing board. And as good fortune would have it, there was a perfect idea staring us in the face. John recalled the day in 1964 when Walt brought a team of Imagineers together to discuss a “rocket flight into the cosmos” for the new Tomorrowland planned for Disneyland, to open in 1967. “Walt wanted to build a roller-coaster style ride, but in the dark, which no one had ever done before,” John wrote in his seminal book, “Designing Disney—Imagineering and the Art of the Show,” published by Disney Editions. “He wanted to have precise control of the lighting and to be able to project moving images on the interior walls.”
John’s illustration of the now-familiar structure, drawn in 1965, excited the Imagineers—and created a huge stir among Disney fans. But there was one major issue: Computer systems were not sophisticated enough to help design a ride system to be run in the dark, from a safety standpoint. Once again, technology needed to catch up to Walt Disney’s vision.
A good idea may come back to life in the world of Disney… but a great idea will find its way into our parks somewhere in the world… and Space Mountain was clearly a great idea. So John Hench and I created a way to make it work for RCA, first by enlarging the whole structure—at the Magic Kingdom, it’s 183 feet high and 300 feet in diameter versus 200 in later versions at Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland, and Hong Kong Disneyland. There was a necessary and practical reason for this: We had to create an RCA story before and after the trip through space, so we developed “Spaceports” along the long entry walkway, allowing guests to “view out into space” to see the RCA-developed communications satellites of the 70s at work. And as a post-show, we created a moving ramp allowing guests to view a “home of the future,” filled with RCA products for the home—highlighted by an opportunity to see yourself on color TV as you exited Space Mountain.
Armed with this complete package—including the thrill ride itself—we had another day in court with Chairman Sarnoff.
This time, as we returned to the scene of our failure, we again set up our presentation of nearly the same amount of storyboard- covering materials—and again the RCA people reminded us (after we were already set up) that “Mr. Sarnoff always sits at the head of the table.” “Fine,” I said, “But whoever sits there” (pointing to a seat in the very center of the room) “is the person I’ll be talking to. And if Mr. Sarnoff sits there” (pointing to the head seat) “I’ll have my back to him the entire presentation!”
Fortunately, the next morning, the RCA people stationed an interceptor, so that when Mr. Sarnoff entered the room (last, of course) the blocker could stop the CEO and say, “The Disney people would like you to sit here.” Which he did, immediately (no one, I guess, had ever asked before!). This time, Mr. Sarnoff did not need binoculars.
We made the sale… and on January 15, 1975, Colonel James Irwin, pilot of the Lunar Module on the Apollo XV mission to the moon, became the first official rider.
To accomplish Walt Disney’s goal of a “rocket flight in the dark,” ride designer Bill Watkins completed the first all computer design of a Disney-version rollercoaster… and Bob Gurr created a brand new vehicle chassis that actually shares its basic design with a retrofitted 1974 Bobsled for Disneyland’s Matterhorn Mountain. It was also Disney’s first pure gravity ride, with no boosters or retarders, advancing the state of the ride design art with its own computer controlled speed and safety zone system.
Blending all the ride and show elements required the Imagineers to create “the most complicated, sophisticated and accurate model” that had ever been built, Bob Gurr marveled. All the twists, turns and drops of the ride system are spelled out, as is the location of each and every show light, sound amplifier, the projectors to create asteroids tumbling across the inner surface of the darkened mountain, and dancing, mirror balllike reflections to depict stars and the endless expanse of space. The result is a sensory experience conveying the convincing illusion of space travel.
But it’s the whole look of Space Mountain that stamps it as the definitive theme park statement about space. Here’s what designer Hench wrote in “Designing Disney”:
Space Mountain begged to be cone shaped. It wanted to echo the expanding spiral of the ride inside. The form housing the ride follows its movement, so that the center of the structure is naturally elevated, like the peak of a mountain being pushed up from the pressure below.
In the construction of the building, the engineers selected pre-cast concrete and steel T-beams for the main roof structure. They wanted the beams facing inside the building, but I wanted them facing outside to provide a smooth surface in the interior on which we could project images. The distance between the T-beams varies, from narrow at the top to wider at the bottom; on the cone-shaped roof this gives an appropriately dynamic effect of forced perspective. The resulting exterior design is strong, simple, and visually effective.
Space Mountain has an abstract, contemporary form and tells its story architecturally. The ride is above all an experience of speed, enhanced by the controlled lighting and projected moving images. But it evokes such ideas as the mystery of outer space, the excitement of setting out on a journey, and the thrill of the unknown.
To each of us at Imagineering who played a role in the birth of that first Space Mountain in 1975, we knew we were fulfilling Walt Disney’s vision. And it took us only a decade to accomplish! Every time I’m in Tomorrowland in the Magic Kingdom Park, I make sure to watch the faces of our guests exiting from Space Mountain—more than 250 million have enjoyed this original Space Mountain alone. And I never ask, “Who are these people?!!?
The opinions expressed in this piece are solely those of the author.
© by Marty Sklar. All rights reserved. No reproduction without written permission of the author.
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