Page 147 - The Disneyization of Society

THE DISNEYIZATION OF SOCIETY

they siphoned off business that could have gone to the park’s restaurants and to the
Disneyland Hotel. In order to buy the land for and to build Disneyland, Walt had had
138 to go deeply into debt and had not been able to buy sufficient land that would allow
the kind of sealing off of the park from its environment and therefore from the par-
asitic hotels and restaurants that began to surround it. For Disney World, he ensured
that he could buy sufficient land so that the same kind of experience would not be
repeated. As a result, when visitors enter Disney World, they have to drive for a long
time before arriving at their destination (park or hotel) on winding and somewhat
disorientating highways. This land has allowed the company to build four major
theme parks, water parks, numerous hotels, a shopping and eating area, and so on.
But also, it allowed the company to seal Disney World off from the visual intrusion
of other establishments and to have access roads unsullied by freeloading hotels and
restaurants (though there are, of course, plenty of both of these in Orlando, but
much further removed from the parks than at Disneyland). Ironically, it was not
until after 1984, when Michael Eisner and his team took over the running of Disney,
that the number of hotels at Disney World began to grow substantially. However, the
basic point is that in this and other ways, the Disney theme parks seek control over
their immediate environment. One facet of this relates strongly to the next section,
since the control over the Disney theme parks’ own destiny has been crucial to their
ability to have control over their immediate environment.

Control over its destiny

Following some of the difficulties that he experienced at Disneyland, when Walt
and his company began negotiations with the Florida authorities over the location
and financing of Disney World they sought to create a situation in which they had
more or less total control over such things as building and the provision of secu-
rity in their Magic Kingdom. They were in an outstanding bargaining position for
extracting benefits from the relevant authorities, because of the huge influx of new
jobs, commerce, tourists, and ultimately dollars that Disney World would bring. As
a result, the Disney negotiators were able to secure huge tax concessions and to
receive financial support for construction of roads leading to the resort.
However, the benefits that Disney managed to secure pale into insignificance
compared to the innocently named Reedy Creek Improvement District (RCID),
which effectively turned Disney World into a kind of self-governing principality
within Florida (see Box 6.1), leading one writer to call it ‘a sort of Vatican with
12
Mouse ears’. RCID gave Disney World control over its destiny in that the company
was able to arrogate to itself total control over its dominion, and therefore freedom
more or less in perpetuity from the restrictions that other companies face when
seeking to build on their land. Disney uses the legislation surrounding RCID when-
ever it needs to in order to justify actions, particularly with regard to construction
projects, which might otherwise have been prohibited under state or county laws.