Walt Disney World: The Dream Opens
Near Orlando, Florida
The dedication plaque at Walt Disney World reads that this place is a tribute to the philosophy and life of Walter Elias Disney, and to the talents, dedication, and loyalty of the entire Disney organization that made his dream come true.
Walt Disney himself never saw it open. He died in December nineteen sixty-six, nearly five years before the park welcomed its first guests on October first, nineteen seventy-one. Disney had secretly assembled more than twenty-seven thousand acres of Central Florida land through dummy corporations starting in nineteen sixty-four, determined that the sprawl surrounding Disneyland in Anaheim would never be repeated. His brother Roy, who had planned to retire, stayed on to see the project through. Roy Disney died just two months after opening day. The dream outlasted both of them.
