EPCOT - Part I

00:00This is World's Greatest Con. I'm Brian Brushwood.

00:06So let's talk about some of the weird things humans will do to establish and protect a legacy.

00:17We've recorded all of these episodes from a constantly evolving seven and a half acre production facility that I bought just over five years ago in a completely dilapidated state.

00:30Probably 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?

00:45This broken down yoga martial arts studio, that has its own AC unit.

00:51It could be a podcast studio with multiple sets.

00:56A place to transmit live to the world.

01:00That field over there, why is it there a 2,000 square foot soundstage with modular pieces so that we could shoot YouTube videos.

01:10We could make it into a black box theater.

01:13We could have total control of the environment and we could live stream everything.

01:18But all of that, that's the front.

01:20That's where traffic makes noise.

01:23That's where simple hard edged buildings are.

01:27There's a weird soaking pool.

01:29From back in the days when this used to be a nudist colony.

01:35Once you cross that equator, things get different.

01:38Because you begin to walk down.

01:41And I have the thought, this is the barrier from the profane into the sacred.

01:48You walk down 150 feet and all of the traffic noise goes away.

01:56There's a beautiful pond.

01:57Sometimes full, sometimes not.

01:58But what if it could be full all the time?

02:02What if it could be an ecological preserve?

02:05On my way back, I notice that there are several areas, little pockets, that could be filled with anything.

02:13Let's say a tiny home that happens to look like a hobbit hole.

02:18And then I start to have more magical thoughts.

02:20I see a berm that we could build a watchtower so that we could see the stars, watch sunsets.

02:29Some of these dreams have happened.

02:32We have a functioning production studio.

02:34That's where we're recording this right now.

02:38Other parts are going to take years, if not decades, to complete.

02:42But by God, by the time I die, I want this seven acres to be nothing less than magic. That's my vision.

02:54That's going to be my legacy.

02:57And that's why I understand the power and the heartbreak of this single moment.

03:07Walt Disney World is a tribute to the philosophy and the life of Walter Elias Disney.

03:16And to the talent, the dedication, and the loyalty of the entire Disney organization that made Walt Disney's dream come true.

03:27May Walt Disney World bring joy and inspiration and new knowledge to all who come to this happy place.

03:35The first heartbreak of this moment, I think you already know.

03:40It's Roy opening the park and not Walt.

03:43Because Walt's been long dead.

03:47Probably doesn't help that Roy's going to die two months later.

03:52But the second part is the real heartbreak.

03:55And it's the one I hope you feel as much as I feel by the time we reach the end of this story.

04:05Because this park that's opening, it's not only not what Walt wanted.

04:12It is, in just about every way, a perversion of his last great idea.

04:21Because what we have is by all available metrics, the greatest theme park on planet Earth.

04:30But what Walt wanted was the world's greatest city.

04:35A city that could heal all of Western society.

04:41And to get there, he needed control.

04:44He needed control of the land.

04:47He needed control from the government.

04:50And he needed control of the people.

04:53And we're still to this day wrestling with some very weird questions.

04:59Why did a roller coaster park have the legal authority to deal with enriched uranium?

05:04Why are there citizens who live and pay taxes and yet do not have the right to vote?

05:11Why is this bizarre city-state granted its own police department, its own fire department, its own medical examiner and coroner, who, by the way, with a straight face to this day, proclaims that not one person has ever died in a Disney park?

05:27A land the size of two Manhattans that forever has been able to do whatever it pleases, and it's in writing from the government.

05:41The drive for a legacy is so powerful that a simple cartoonist can become the emperor of a nation-state in America.

05:51And to get there, every underhanded technique you can think of gets used, from false identities to shell corporations to outright lies and deceptions.

06:01It's a victory so complete that when signed into law, the governor himself jokes, you forgot a clause for your crown.

06:12But the guy who earned that crown doesn't live to ever see it.

06:19Cons don't fool us because we're stupid.

06:23They fool us because we're human.

06:26And Walt Disney's quest for Epcot, for my money, just might be...

06:35The World's Greatest Con.

08:04One of my favorite moments of the last summer was taking my 19-year-old daughter to the Disney Family Museum in San Francisco.

08:20Now, keep in mind, this is not the Disney Company Museum.

08:23It'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.

08:33As you go through exhibit after exhibit, boy, is there a lot of failure in the beginning.

08:40Walt starts off doing scrappy gigs, advertisements.

08:43The first time he created a popular character, Oswald the Rabbit, it was stolen from him.

08:51Based on a technicality in a contract, and he had to start all over again.

08:57And as he built his animation studio, Walt kept on doubling down, always flirting with absolute bankruptcy.

09:02There's a whole exhibit set in 1941, the moment when all of Walt's own animators walked out on him.

09:11A deep betrayal that he directly blamed on communism.

09:16I believe at that time Mr. Sorrell was a communist because of all the things that I had heard and had seen his name appearing on many of the commie front things.

09:27And 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 commie front organizations.

09:38One that's clear in my mind is the League of Women Voters, the People's World, the Daily Worker, and the PM Magazine in New York. They smeared me.

09:46Nobody came near to find out what the true facts of the thing were.

09:54He just wants full control.

09:56Even Disneyland was a series of compromises that drove him nuts.

10:01He thought he was buying enough land to do whatever he wants, but he kept having to make changes.

10:10And then once the park launched, he was destroyed by the fact that all these hangers-on made everything so gross.

10:16Inside the park was the magic that Walt wanted.

10:20But outside the park, that was the land of cheap hotels, knock-off parks, people suspiciously close to infringing on his trademarks. He wanted control.

10:30And so he envisions the force that will motivate him for the rest of his life, Epcot, the experimental prototype city of tomorrow.

10:45A gorgeous dream come true.

10:48Picture Star Trek alive and well in the mid-60s.

10:52All he needed was the land and the autonomy and the authority to bring that Disney magic to entire city planning.

11:03So here's the game we're going to play.

11:07Walt Disney spent the rest of his life making this second park perfect.

11:13As we go through all of this, ask yourself, did he do it for personal reasons?

11:20Did he do it to finally get that control?

11:23Or was it a religious calling?

11:26Was 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?

11:42And so begins his pitch.

11:44Not just for a second park, but for a city to transform the world.

11:51But Walt needs his company.

11:57He needs his board members.

12:01He needs his executives.

12:04And most importantly, he needs his brother, Roy Disney, to be on his team.

12:11If he wants to sell the city of tomorrow, he needs to push for something he knows everybody else wants.

12:18Walt's playing a different game from everyone else. Take a moment. Lean back.

12:31Imagine just sitting in that boardroom.

12:43Cigar smoke is everywhere.

12:46Walt gets up and paces around the room.

12:50Maybe 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.

13:04Just to clarify, 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.

13:14For example, Disney World was not the collection of theme parks.

13:17It was the entire massive amount of land, the city-state that we're talking about.

13:21When we talk about Epcot, we're not talking about the theme park we know.

13:27We're talking about Walt's vision of the city of tomorrow, an actual functioning metropolis.

13:32And whenever we say Disneyland East, Disneyland East, for all intents and purposes, is the Magic Kingdom.

13:39He agrees with the team.

13:42Yes, a new park. Sound idea. Gentlemen, it's simple.

13:47Imagine Disneyland with 1,000 times as much space.

13:51Imagine we were able to push literally anything interesting all the way into an ocean.

14:00What would it be like if we were the only game in town?

14:07What if Disney tried something a little bit different?

14:11Maybe, dare I say, revolutionize?

14:13This meeting would be the first time Walt would tell anyone about the concept of Epcot.

14:26Walt wants to build Epcot right next to Disneyland East.

14:33And it is so much bigger.

14:36When he wants it to be the city of the future, he means it when you see it on the map.

14:46The idea came partially out of concepts he'd seen at the World's Fair in 1939.

14:50A bunch of things that had stuck in Walt's mind.

14:54his head for decades.

14:55Thoughts that would only grow in intensity as he gets older.

14:59It would combine modernism and futurism and a love of ever-evolving technology.

15:03It would be unlike any city that ever existed or that likely ever would exist again.

15:09A place where nobody owned land.

15:11One where Disney's company held a certain level of control over every single denizen.

15:17Notice I said denizen and not citizen because citizens get to vote.

15:23It would have a glorious monorail coming in and out of town, bringing visitors to the welcome center.

15:31Tours would take people around factories and warehouses and laboratories.

15:35The center of the city would be covered by a huge enclosed dome.

15:40The entire community spinning outwards from there.

15:42Think Burning Man but not covered in mud and drugs.

15:47Nobody who lived there would own a car because why would you even need to leave?

15:54Civilians would live in high-density apartments.

15:57They could, you know, work at one of the Disney-owned shops, hotels, theme parks, or convention centers.

16:03Oh, and there would be no such thing as retirement because why would you ever want to stop working there?

16:09If this sounds a bit like a commune, it's because it's a commune.

16:14Which is very strange given the fact that Disney hated communists.

16:18He was pretty direct about his open suspicion that Hollywood was overrun with them.

16:24He testified before the House Un-American Activities Committees in 1947, only the fourth producer to do so.

16:32He 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.

16:43His studio was the last holdout of animators working without a union.

16:47But led by the guy who created Goofy, his workers fought for their rights.

16:53Now to Walt, this was about as un-American as anything could be.

16:58Clearly, this was the work of those commie bastards.

17:02After all, after five weeks of being on strike, the artists, they won.

17:06Maybe when he testified, Walt was looking for just one last act of revenge.

17:11Or maybe deep down, he really believed that outside forces had corrupted his animators.

17:17Either way, he had had enough of organized labor to last a lifetime.

17:22Maybe his vision of Epcot was a way for him to ensure that his workers would never need to strike.

17:30Maybe in his mind, Disney knew he was going to provide everything they would need to be happy, healthy, living American lives.

17:38And in return, every citizen, denizen, would work for the man himself.

17:41I mean, at least until they died.

17:44Again, no retirement in Epcot.

17:45Either way, you got to 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.

18:03But when you look at that map, Epcot is king, so much bigger than Disneyland East.

18:09It was the beating heart, the thing that would make the entire concept worth pitching, worth doing, worth creating.

18:19It will always be a showcase to the world for the ingenuity and imagination of American free enterprise.

18:27I don't believe there's a challenge anywhere in the world that's more important to people everywhere than finding solutions to the problems of our cities.

18:37But where do we begin?

18:39How do we start answering this great challenge?

18:42Well, we're convinced we must start with the public need.

18:45Walt senses things changing.

18:47Suburban flight is beginning to hurt the American city Walt so loves.

18:53And he knows that the world needs his project more than ever.

18:59A place where the Disney company could kickstart American innovation and bring about a second industrial revolution.

19:09I 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.

19:22The whole board claps.

19:23Walt leans back, lights another cigarette.

19:26The cash was right there for Walt to buy his space, but not without some good negotiations.

19:36At this point, Disney is way past the golden age of animation.

19:411950s had seen the brand expand to television and action productions.

19:48And they'd been good about holding on to that cash.

19:53But as the 60s started, things were looking a little more dire than usual.

19:59These days, Sleeping Beauty is thought of as the company's masterpiece.

20:04One of the most beautiful animated films ever made.

20:08But it did cost $6 million of 1959 money.

20:12That's three times as much as Cinderella just a decade prior.

20:17And it didn't even make it back at the box office run.

20:22A loss of nearly a million dollars was not helping Roy with this Epcot whatever it is.

20:31Disney's doing all right on the money department.

20:34Lots of cash flow.

20:36But margins are thin.

20:39They don't have the kind of cash reserves it takes to just buy anybody out.

20:47Walt and Roy both recognized that, yes, Disneyland was an institution.

20:52But if they go buying up a bunch of land Walt wants, any landowner with half a brain would see that Mickey Mouse logo and suddenly double, triple, quadruple their price.

21:05This is the first official meeting for what they would call Project Winter.

21:11The latest big vision initiative at Disney.

21:14And it is not to leave this office.

21:21This is the birth of their con.

21:25The first mark, the landowners themselves.

21:28We all know they're going to raise their price if they know what's going on.

21:36So you keep that a secret.

21:44They must buy the land without those real estate dummies figuring out what's going on.

21:49The second mark, the politicians.

21:50Disney's about to make the ask of all asks.

21:54So timing is crucial.

21:55The third mark, the press.

21:57If they find out what's going on, they will tell the other two marks.

22:04Roy does the math and figures out they have enough for what Walt wants, but only if they can avoid all three marks.

22:16If one of them finds out all of this is over, there's no Epcot.

22:23There's no Disneyland East.

22:24There's no Disney World.

22:26Part of the focus on the East Coast is primarily because Disneyland only drew in two percent of its visitors from the other side of the country.

22:45Disney needed to find a way to build a second moneymaker on the opposite side of the U. S.

22:51in order to maximize the returns.

22:53Events like the 1964 World's Fair in New York, of which Disney was a huge part thanks to the partnership with Pepsi for It's a Small World, that was clear evidence that there was an appetite on the East Coast.

23:06Walt just needed to figure out where.

23:08Now, most of the coast wasn't an option.

23:11Walt was certain that competing with the ocean for attention was one sure way to screw up the plan, so cities up in the Atlantic were a no-go.

23:22Niagara Falls, both on the U. S.

23:24side 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.

23:32Seems obvious now, but Walt's biggest fear in 1963 wasn't those brutal western New York winters.

23:38It was the seasonal carnies.

23:40He was afraid these roustabouts coming and going every year would damage his brand.

23:45Of the 13 cities written on a list in Disney's offices, St. Louis came closest to being the final destination.

23:55Makes sense, it's centrally located, temperate weather.

23:59In 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 in Anheuser-Busch's St. Louis without serving beer or liquor.

24:16That was a no-go for Disney.

24:18Walt and his party left early the next morning, even the bank's best solicitors went unanswered.

24:25So the winner, as you know, was Orlando.

24:29Finally, this is where Walt was going to plant his flag.

24:32And there are good reasons for it.

24:35First, Elias and Flora met in the small town of Akron, an hour north of Orlando.

24:42And 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.

24:54Turns out, your most precious memories might have an impact on your decision as you decide to build a theme park for, you know, children.

25:01Orlando also had the win when it came to weather.

25:04Outside of some heavy summertime rainstorms, Orlando's gorgeous weather would allow the theme park to be open year-round.

25:11That means a constant flow of cash coming in, and more importantly, a permanent staff.

25:17Tie 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.

25:25But Walt didn't really feel it in his gut until they landed and he got boots on the ground.

25:32On November 21st, 1963, a team of Disney execs, Walt included, checked into a hotel in Tampa under fake names.

25:40Remember, this plot is so big, this scheme is so secretive, no one can know about it.

25:46Next morning, the air, a brisk 63 degrees.

25:50Normally, this is the part where Walt would take a puff of a cigarette and then light a second cigarette and then grab the yolk himself, but he's too focused on the land.

26:05Walt needs to fly high above these plots and ask them, what do you want to be?

26:11And he sees it, that part, those two roads intersecting.

26:17I mean, it can't be this easy, right? What are those?

26:24One goes north, south, the other east, west.

26:28Is this literally the most approachable spot in all of Florida?

26:32And he was right.

26:34Both of those highways have been built in the last five years. Walt sees it.

26:40He turns to his teammates, he's laughing, and he says, that's it. Everybody nods.

26:48But more importantly, everybody knows you can't change Walt's mind once it's set.

26:54And it is set.

26:56Roy sees it too. Orlando is perfect.

27:00After circling around Orlando long enough for the execs to feel comfortable with further research into Florida, they headed back to New Orleans for the night. What a day.

27:20The day Walt Disney realized that this is where Disney World was going to be.

27:25Put this one in the history books.

27:27That will be what everyone remembers about November 22nd, 1963.

27:31Here is a bulletin from CBS News.

27:33In Dallas, Texas, three shots were fired at President Kennedy's motorcade in downtown Dallas.

27:37The first reports say that President Kennedy has been seriously wounded.

27:43So what you want is tens of thousands of acres of Florida swampland.

27:50How do you start?

27:51What do you go door to door?

27:54Give that a try, Walt.

27:58Let's see how it goes.

28:01Hi, I'm Walt Disney.

28:02Would you like a cigarette? I have three.

28:05Hi, I'm Walt Disney.

28:07You see this 57 Chevy behind me?

28:11Pretty great, isn't it?

28:14Let me buy your land.

28:17Hi, I'm Walt Disney.

28:19Do you believe in God?

28:21Because dirty red communists don't.

28:23Walt Disney needed a way to get into Orlando, purchase as much land as they possibly could, and get the heck out.

28:35To pull this off, Walt needed a shark.

28:41And that man was Bill Lund, a real estate consultant.

28:46Lund was working with the Economics Research Association, or ERA, a group assisting Disney with their new park.

28:54He was one of the only people who was let into the plan.

28:59And he would be responsible for both assessing the overall land in Florida and making the necessary deals to get Walt his land.

29:06He'd already previously used secret identities before for Walt, sneaking into a PeopleMover conference in Tampa to get secret insider knowledge on transit systems.

29:14For this mission, Bill would have to touch down throughout Orange and Osceola counties while using fake credentials to target banks and landowners. The goal? Simple.

29:26Make as many deals as you can for 25,000 acres of land and get the hell out of Dodge before anyone knew what was up.

29:37Then, once the time was right, the crew could make the announcement on their own terms and save millions of dollars in the process. Easy, right?

29:45Lund would enter the state using his name.

29:47But the rest of his identity would be shrouded a mystery.

29:51Disney'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.

30:02Suddenly Bill Lund was no longer a team member with Disney or the ERA, he's just a working stiff at the law agency of Burke and Burke.

30:11Only two weeks after Walt Disney falls in love with the land, Bill Lund touches down in Tampa.

30:16He finds out there's a real estate agency called Florida Ranchlands where he meets with a guy named David Nussbickel.

30:23Lund does the routine of showing his Burke and Burke card, introduces himself as, I'm just here on behalf of a mystery buyer interested in buying that land around I-4 and the Turnpike.

30:34Nussbickel, he smells something weird, but he plays the game.

30:37In fact, during the early introduction, the two men bond over their alma mater, Stanford, and Nussbickel shows off a newspaper clipping from the Orlando Sentinel bragging about how important the road network was going to be to Florida.

30:51At this point, Lund just nods as Nussbickel makes his pitch, news to him.

30:56Florida Ranchlands 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.

31:10Right next to I-4, it would be the perfect starting place for the future location of Project Winter.

31:18Lund had a lot of meetings ahead of him, but he agrees to have dinner with Nussbickel and his wife the next night.

31:24There's something that just doesn't sit right with Nussbickel.

31:27I mean, sure, yeah, Orlando, sleepy part of the country, but something's off.

31:30This Stanford grad is representing a New York law firm looking to buy so much land.

31:36What if he isn't who he says he is?

31:39We've said it before.

31:41The gift of the con man is the asymmetry of preparation.

31:45But the gift of the mark is that feeling in your gut.

31:50And Nussbickel has it, just enough for him to call New York City.

31:56And the Birkenberg law firm answers.

31:58He gets a secretary. OK, that's fine. That passes.

32:01And then he asks about our mystery man, Lund.

32:06Now, keep in mind, if the exact person Nussbickel is on the phone with isn't informed, if she says something casually like who, then all of this goes up in smoke.

32:18Nussbickel would know this whole thing was a ruse and the price would skyrocket.

32:23But luckily, the secretary is in on the grift.

32:26She plays off that Lund is indeed affiliated with the firm, nothing to worry about here.

32:32And Nussbickel hangs up, ready to talk Stanford with his new friend from New York.

32:37After dodging a bullet with Nussbickel, Bill Lund heads out on a whirlwind tour, making meetings left and right.

32:44He meets with owners anywhere around the area, most of it undeveloped swamp or orange trees as far as the eye can see.

32:55He meets back up with Nussbickel.

32:57They do a tour of Orlando, get a sense of the city.

33:01And 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, then leave for snowy old New York. He'd done it.

33:17He'd pulled it off.

33:18And 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.

33:29It's January and Burbank has never felt sunnier.

33:31Just a month after Lund had spoken to Nussbickel, it really feels like the plan is coming together.

33:41Walt takes over one of the conference rooms at the studio, declares it's now a war room for Project Winter.

33:52So naturally, it looks like the basement of a madman.

33:56Maps 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.

34:08All of the stats they got from Lund.

34:11Roy has the hard numbers, and now they have a budget for the amount of land they need.

34:17By 1964, this is no longer Walt's hobby.

34:20He lives in this room.

34:22Lund is back in town and walks in, in a meeting already in progress.

34:28Walt barely sees him, because he's at the front of the room, explaining their plans for the upcoming year.

34:381964 is gonna be the big one.

34:41The Demetri property is too good of a deal to pass up.

34:45Walt saw it from the sky.

34:48The location is perfect.

34:49He lights his second cigarette.

34:51Lund walks into the meeting and asks Disney point blank, Nussbickel, he's ready to put this to bed.

34:58Are we doing this or not? Disney.

35:02Disney asks the landowners.

35:04We know where they are, right? Yes.

35:07And we can call the landowners at any moment, right? Yes.

35:11Well, then what do we need Nussbickel for?

35:14Lund pauses and asks.

35:16So we're just gonna cut them out, right?

35:20Walt lights a third cigarette, pauses, thinks about it a minute and nods his head.

35:26Send Nussbickel one more letter.

35:29And while he's busy chasing that tail, we secure the land.

35:34That will be the last communication to Nussbickel.

35:38Now this is a high risk, high reward strategy.

35:42Yes, they're gonna save a bundle of money by going straight to the landowners. But landowners talk.

35:50Landowners call their state representatives.

35:53Landowners could ruin the entire deal.

35:56Finally, Walt lights a fourth cigarette and hands two of them to the people he wants everyone to meet.

36:03Here's Bob Foster and Paul Now, Bob is a known commodity. Everybody's met him.

36:15But Hallowell is a totally different force here to make sure that Foster and anyone else going to Orlando doesn't get caught.

36:27Hallowell was the real deal.

36:32We're talking about a guy who played a key role in funding the Bay of Pigs invasion of 1962.

36:43And now he's leaving his role with the government to help Disney secure one of the most important private land deals ever made.

36:54If they're gonna do this right, Hallowell has to know the score.

36:59Because they can trust him given his background, he's let in on the whole plan from the beginning.

37:07Using his magic, Hallowell transforms Bob Foster into the newly minted Bob Price.

37:11And along with a couple of real estate moguls in Hallowell's back pocket, Disney's own spec ops team goes to work.

37:19Hallowell introduces Foster under his fake name to a local realtor interested in showing off a few of the big lots.

37:25Realtor sensibly says, what's this all about?

37:31And Hallowell squints his and says, we represent a substantial company.

37:37And that's all you need to know.

37:40As the real estate agents talk to the landowners, they discover another problem.

37:46The reason the Demetries want out of their land isn't just because they can't grow nothing on it.

37:56It's because they also sold the mineral rights years ago.

38:00They sold the drilling rights to Tufts University.

38:03Could 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.

38:15This is a pro level snarl to unwind and they need a pro level negotiator to fix it.

38:21The Demetries hadn't even spoken to the Tufts folks in ages.

38:25Two decades of quiet anger between two parties, Hallowell Foster and the Demetries cousins arrive in Boston just a few weeks later to meet with the Tufts University folks.

38:35You can picture the tension, right?

38:38Some Southern landowners looking at some stuck up Yankees while an undercover sniper and a negotiator try to unfurl this.

38:44Tufts has no reason to sell.

38:47They have no reason to budge.

38:50I'd like to imagine they were just sitting here in the clock ticking as they all stare at each other.

38:57Eventually, Hallowell says something like, hey, Tufts guys, can I talk to you for a moment?

39:05They go to the other room.

39:07And to this day, I have no idea what was said.

39:12Maybe he made them an offer they couldn't refuse.

39:14Maybe he appealed to their better nature.

39:16Maybe he made a promise that never surfaced again.

39:20Whatever he said, they walked back into the room and a deal was struck.

39:24Around $150,000 in today money.

39:26At this point, Hallowell and Foster are popping champagne.

39:30Together, they've scored nearly 13,000 acres for Disney for just $1. 8 million.

39:37And it's happening while Mary Poppins brings in $31 million for Disney.

39:45That one movie alone paid for everything with cash to spare.

39:50Disney is winning hard and they're winning in secret.

39:54All three of their marks are in the dark.

39:59No mayor, no state representative, no governor has any idea what they're up to.

40:08Nobody in the press knows.

40:10And they've already secured the bulk of the land for $144 per acre. Oh, man.

40:17Imagine being Walt, standing in that war room, huge smile on your face.

40:22And now imagine being one of the Florida holdouts.

40:28Somebody who knows something's up.

40:31You can only buy so much land before word gets around.

40:38Sitting in the war room, a newspaper is flopped down, asking the question everybody wants to know.

40:47Who is buying this land?

40:50And this rag has three suspects.

40:53Ford, McDonnell Aircraft, and Disney.

40:58Walt issues the order.

40:59Everybody get on those phones.

41:01It is all hands on deck.

41:03We need to make the calls and get this land.

41:12But 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.

41:24And that's exactly what happens.

41:27So now we're on a commercial airliner, I assume.

41:32We're flying into LAX.

41:34Picture looking out the window, as Los Angeles approaches, one Emily Bavar, a writer for the Orlando Sentinel.

41:50She's on her way to cover a celebration of Disneyland's 10-centennial, the 10-year anniversary.

42:04Because heaven forbid you would say the 10-year anniversary.

42:08Everything has to be too cute by half.

42:12Disney is hosting this event.

42:14They want to celebrate Disneyland.

42:16They want the They were a little bit confused why the Orlando Sentinel would want to send a reporter out.

42:25Essentially, the back and forth is nobody comes here from Orlando, but they fought for it.

42:32They got her a slot and she flew out.

42:35She lands, gets herself composed, and gets ready to ask the that could unearth the biggest scoop in the history of the state of Florida.

42:46She's in the room with a handful of other reporters, and in walks the man himself, Walt Disney.

42:54There's a bunch of talk about how great Disneyland is, about how everything's awesome that they're doing, and how great is it that they invented the word 10-centennial.

43:04And 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?

43:16Imagine being in that moment.

43:18One of your marks just made you.

43:22But also, imagine holding on to one secret. Those calls worked.

43:27He is the only one in the room who knows they have the land.

43:38He admits essentially, I mean, that's not us.

43:42But now that I think about it, I suppose the climate of Florida would be perfect for one of my parks. Oh, goodness.

43:56And I suppose that location would be right around the intersection of I-4 and the Florida Turnpike.

44:04We had three marks.

44:06The owners, the press, and the government.

44:09I mean, sure, they'd lock down one.

44:12And if you were just a regular land developer, that'd probably be enough.

44:16But this isn't a regular land deal.

44:19Walt wants to build the future.

44:21And the future needs cooperation, both from the press, so they don't turn negative, and from the government, who's going to need to sign off on everything Walt wants.

44:31And the government could get spooked by bad press.

44:35But even with all those stakes, maybe the thrill of the tencennial is just too much.

44:41Walt just chucks all the subterfuge, the fake names, the...

44:44crowded calls, the secret plane rides, everything so he could just give a shrug and a little wink to a reporter from the Orlando Sentinel.

44:55His inability to contain his excitement was enough to convince Bavar, and she wired her story to Orlando that very night.

45:03The biggest scoop in Florida history.

45:05She sends a telegram back. It's unambiguous. She's cracked it.

45:09She's figured it out.

45:11And the newspaper, holding pure gold, publishes it on page 35 with the headline.

45:18Girl reporter convinced by Walt Disney.

45:21Girl reporter convinced by Walt Disney. I cannot. It's very 1960s.

45:27Girl reporter convinced by Walt Disney revealed the truth.

45:33A few days later, the Sentinel ran one more headline.

45:42This time it was front page news and it cut right to the chase.

45:54We say it's Disney.

45:57Mark number one, the landowners tackled all the contracts were finished.

46:02Mark number two, the press.

46:04Yeah, Disney was busted there.

46:07Which meant they had to race for Mark number three.

46:12Now that the cat's out of the bag, Walt has to play catch up with the government.

46:26It's time to start making friends fast.

46:30Walt and his team met with the governor of Florida, Hayden Burns, to admit that the deal was really happening and to plan an official announcement.

46:41The governor suggested that he make the announcement at the Florida League of Municipalities the next day.

46:46The crew wasted no time helping him out and giving their blessing.

46:50They wanted a win-win at this point.

46:52Governor Burns makes the announcement during his speech and the crowd goes absolutely nuts.

46:56One month later, November 15th, Disney makes it official at a joint press conference with Burns in Orlando.

47:03Disney was officially in business with the state of Florida.

47:08All that was left was to build the damn thing.

47:13To be honest, a process that would be a bit harder than anyone was expecting.

47:18Yes, the Disney brothers faced months and months of agonizing planning meetings, but this wasn't new territory for them.

47:25To most of the company's employees, this was Disneyland 2. 0.

47:29Same thing, but bigger, right?

47:31The real hard work was over. They went undercover.

47:34They did special operations.

47:36They took on disguises and they got the land.

47:39There was only one problem though.

47:41Walt's dream of an Eastern Disneyland wasn't just a theme park to Walt.

47:46Remember, he had gone all in on his concept of Epcot.

47:51They had nearly 30,000 acres and Walt didn't want that many roller coaster rides and funnel cakes.

48:01Instead, Walt wanted to cement his legacy as one of the greatest innovators ever to live in the US of A.

48:09Epcot would be his crowning achievement, his Mona Lisa, his Sistine Chapel.

48:14Just 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.

48:30Walt would take those all-American ideas of ingenuity and bring them into the living rooms of every American, starting with a small Orlando community.

48:40Governor 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.

48:51To do what Epcot needed to do for the greater good of America, his company would need total control over everything.

49:02It's why he didn't want Epcot to have landowners or municipal voting rights.

49:07This was Walt's space and if Disneyland had taught him anything, the more control, the better.

49:12The people of Florida are gonna love Epcot.

49:15It's not up to So far, everything looks to have played out great, and for most folks, this would be the end.

49:27But Walt doesn't want to build another theme park.

49:31He's building the future, and he means it.

49:35It's now late 1966, and Walt doesn't have the written assurances he needs to build the future.

49:41So if he can't get what he wants from the state, he makes promises to the world.

49:48Epcot will take its cue from the new ideas and new technologies that are now emerging from the creative centers of American industry.

49:57It 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.

50:08It's a message so audacious that it echoes for decades.

50:12Walt explains Epcot and exactly what he wants for it, what he needs for it.

50:18We don't know if the Florida legislature would have gotten cold feet without this video.

50:25But now if they did, they'd have to answer to voters who just got promised utopia.

50:34So which one do you think is the motivating force?

50:37Is it the drive for autonomy, authority?

50:39A madman's quest to be unquestioned?

50:41Or is it the religious calling that just happens to require complete control?

50:47Right now I am of the feeling the injury happens first, and then the opportunities present themselves.

51:00I know what it's like to lose the rights to a property you own.

51:08I think that Walt wanted a place where he could do everything exactly right without oversight.

51:16And only after seeing a path to it, did he ask himself, well, what do I want to do with it?

51:35And I believe that that was an almost religious calling for capitalism.

51:42He wanted capitalism to win over communism.

51:45And if ironically, the shortest path to get there includes citizens who couldn't vote, and a god king who could never be questioned.

51:54Well, I mean, we got to beat the red somehow, don't we?

52:00This moment, it's Walt's legacy, literally, because this video is Walt's last filmed appearance.

52:08In November of 1966, he's diagnosed with support they've gathered, and now this detailed blueprint.

52:14But for the rest of the crew, for everyone else left behind, can they finish it?

52:24Can they complete another man's dream?

52:33Or more importantly, do they want to finish it?

52:45Even worse, the governor that they've been uttering 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.

53:08And the incoming governor is in no rush to do Disney any favors.

53:14Next week, we'll tackle the mutating dream of Epcot and look at the improvement district, a deal that remained controversial 55 years after it was signed, part of what just might be the world's greatest con.

53:31This episode of World's Greatest Con was written by Will Sattelberg and me, Brian Brushwood, your humble host.

53:39The show is executive produced by Justin Robert Young.

53:49Production and research by Dog & Pony Show Audio in Austin, Texas.

54:06Credit to Married to the Mouse by Richard E.

54:10Fogelsang and Buying Disney's World by Erin H.

54:13Goldberg, which along with other contemporary news articles, retrospectives, and archive videos made for the bulk of our research.

54:35Of course, you have questions that we want to answer as many as we can.

54:40So hit us up at world's greatest con at gmail. com.

54:44On the next world's greatest con, Roy and the board channel Walt's ghost, hoping to save the dream of Epcot.

54:50Diamond Club hopes you have enjoyed this broker.

54:52Dog and Pony Show Audio