Transcript
Introduction
One day in the early 1950s, Walt Disney stood looking out over 240 acres of farmland in Anaheim, California and imagined building a park where people could live among Mickey Mouse and Snow White in a world still powered by steam and fire for a day or a week, or if the visitor was slightly mad, forever. Despite his fame and success, exactly no one wanted Disney to build such a park.
Not his brother, Roy, who ran the company's finances, not the bankers and not his wife. Amusement parks at the time were a generally despised business. Disney was told that he would only be heading towards financial ruin, but he persevered, initially financing the park against his own life insurance policy. He assembled a talented team of engineers, architects, artists, animators, landscapers and even a retired admiral to transform his ideas into a wonderland. The catch was that they only had a year and a day in which to build it.