WDW Magazine December 2015 - Crowds at WDW | Page 138

Jef - Yeah, in fact I've got a great story about Walt and the holidays. In 1959, they did the very
first major expansion which of course was into Tomorrowland. Tomorrowland had suffered the
most from the shortage of both money and time when the park opened in 1955. In fact, it
suffered so much that they didn't even have landscaping. They literally, you know, the morning
that the park opened went around and turned weeds upside down. By 1959, when they knew
the park was actually going to be a success and might stay around for awhile, they poured money
into the area that they knew had suffered the most back in 1955. That first major expansion
included the monorail, the Submarine Voyage and of course, Matterhorn. We're talking millions
and millions of dollars - it was the 1959 expansion that sort of turned the corner for the park and
nothing was ever really the same after that. That's when they really, really knew that this thing
was something really, really special and might actually last a very, very long time.
They did this expansion, the stuff starts opening up in June. They spent millions of dollars and
now they're coming into the holiday season at the end of 1959 and Walt starts pitching to his
executives and to the imagineers the idea of spending $350,000 for a holiday Christmas parade.
They all argued with him. They said look Walt, we've just spent millions on the expansion. People
are coming here in droves, they're going to come here in droves over Christmas regardless, we're
not going to make a dime more over a Christmas parade. We do not need to do this. Walt looked
at them and said we have always got to give to people more and the second we take them for
granted is the second that they're going to stop showing up. It will cost 10 times as much to ever
get them to come back. Again, it's that vision, it's that vision, it's that long term thinking that I
think makes Disney so special.
The other thing I would like to say and you can use it however you want to, people are already
buying this book as a holiday gift and I am still personally signing each and every one so if
anybody is looking for a personalized gift for a Disney friend who is a fan and a family member,
it really does make a fabulous gift in my humble opinion and I say that.
People have asked me, you know, everybody does e-books today and nobody wants a hard
cover book anymore. I get that and that's why we did the e-book one but at the same time, I
wanted to write a book that the finished product reflected the values of the person I was writing
about and quite frankly, showed off the quality of the park that he gave us that we all love. As
we get into the holiday season, if you're interested in giving a beautiful hard cover book, again to
a Disney fan, friend, family member, it really does make a very, very impressive gift because I was
fortunate enough to have a team of people to work with who turned my writing into a final
product that's far more beautiful than I could have ever dreamed or imagined.

The Wisdom of Walt Disney is available in hard copy, e-book and audiobook - click here!