From a Century of Progress to Progress City and Beyond: Section VIII, Part I

Hello, everyone! Welcome to the next installment of my series called “From a Century of Progress to Progress City and Beyond: The Comparability Between the 1933-34 World’s Fair and the Disney Parks.” In this series, I analyze similarities in the offerings and operations of said entities in the process of exploring the broader convergence of world’s fairs and theme parks, and for the post at hand, I allocate my attention to the strategic processes of site selection.

Without further ado, let us begin! As always, though, for those who would prefer to read my questionable research in “proper” formatting and with the accompanying photographs, I will leave a link to my Google Doc here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/11war0KVBHNuxcWbOvwxJuseLug7LAx219l-zHswg5tc/edit?usp=sharing

Section VIII: Resort Design

Part I: Site Selection

From world’s fairs to theme parks, the selection of a location for entities requiring high levels of investment and anticipating large numbers of attendees becomes vital to their short- and long-term success. Consequently, once a decision is made, the corresponding justification is likely to be portrayed to all stakeholders, as was the case with the 1933-34 World’s Fair. Taking place in Chicago, the two-year-long event aimed to stress progress, particularly as the concept related to industry innovations awaiting an introduction to operations and daily household life. Intuitively, as a consequence, once would assume that the location chosen to host the exposition would boast evident connections to corporations, be a transportation hub, and have a large year-round capacity; according to organizers, Chicago, Illinois, satisfied all such qualifications.

Created by Chicagoans, Incorporated, a group self-described as “A citizens’ invitation committee organized to extend hospitality to visitors,” highlights the value of the city in their 1934 brochure entitled “The World’s Greatest Summer Resort, Chicago, One of the Most Healthful Large Cities of the World.” The focus of this document does, in fact, largely revolve around the inherent qualities of Chicago; for instance, the health of the area–proven by the fact that the city received second place in United States Chamber of Commerce’s 1933 Inter-City Health Contest–is claimed by Chicagoans, Incorporated (1934b) to be a result of the funds and efforts of Board of Health employees, while the drinking water from Lake Michigan is reported to exceed standards of purity. Beyond the analogous low levels of such issues as typhoid fever and diphtheria, Chicagoans, Incorporated (1934b), point out the summertime climate of Chicago, citing the cool breezes and higher sunshine record than that of Los Angeles in 1933 as points worth recognition. Next, thanks to such features as the 250 golf courses, multitude of cultural institutions, and hosted professional sports organizations, Chicago is proclaimed “THE VACATION CENTER”; playing a part in this determination, surely, was the 1934 installment of A Century of Progress International Exposition. Specifically, at the bottom of the final page of the brochure at hand, a statement of the 50-cent admission cost for adults accompanies a list of the buildings, attractions, and free events at the fair, concluding with the following call to action (Chicagoans, Incorporated, 1934b, p. 3): “Last year’s show was only a ‘curtain-raiser.’ The 1934 Exposition far surpasses anything of its kind that has ever been staged. Come early, come often and have a good time.”

The same organization would again promote the value of the City of Chicago by way of a promotional brochure produced in conjunction with the 1934 World’s Fair, under the name of “How to Enjoy Vacation Days in Chicago.” Correspondingly, recommendations for prospective visitors are granted in the categories of sports, theatres, night life, shopping, arts and sciences, education and religion, business and industry, and general sightseeing. All the while, these features are ones regarded by Chicagoans, Incorporated (1934a), as “entirely apart from the greatest of all attractions–the 1934 World’s Fair,” at which “the treat of your lifetime” was recently enhanced to the tune of millions of dollars (pp. 1, 3). A sense of place is never lost in the piece, though, as shown by an illustration and caption compelling readers to make plans to be at the city where the entire world will be headed for the summer. “Spend your vacation in Chicago this summer and you’ll get more entertainment in that time than anywhere else in the world,” the opening page of the booklet declares, ending this central claim about Chicago’s merits as the host of the fair with the profession that “You’ll probably spend less money, too.”

As said brochures demonstrate, not only in terms of the location of the world’s fair, but also for a broader potential for tourism, Chicago, Illinois, was considered promising due to cultural, business, and environmental factors. Concerning future public places of entertainment and education, one of the most legendary processes and decisions of large-scale site selection, used on a similar basis, was that associated with the Walt Disney World Resort. On November 15, 1965, a press conference with Walt Disney, Roy E. Disney, Governor Lawton Chiles, and three former governors would reveal The Florida Project, following the occurrence of a five-million-dollar land deal in the Orlando area, as described in the Miami Herald (2017) article entitled “The Secret Land Deal That Became Walt Disney World.” To reach such a monumental decision came a great deal of deliberation and first-person inspections of potential lots taken by Walt Disney and his team. Marty Sklar, in his 2013 autobiography called Dream It! Do It!: My Half-Century Creating Disney’s Magic Kingdom, recalls his first visit to Central Florida for such purposes, revealing the lack of commercial flights servicing the area, the swampland, and the corresponding ability of the small hole dug out to represent the middle of what would become Magic Kingdom to be full of water by the next day (pp. 121-123). Despite the many environmental and cultural challenges of the land chosen for the eventual resort, the location had a remarkable level of potential and value–originally purchased for approximately $200 for each of the 27,400 acres–about which Walt Disney stated in an interview for Chicago Tribune in 1966 “Florida and Southern California are the only two places where you can count on the tourists. I don’t like ocean sites because of the beach crowd, and also the ocean limits the approach. If you’ll notice Disneyland at Anaheim is like a hub with freeways converging on it from all sides. I like it better inland. That’s why we chose Orlando” (as cited in Sklar, 2013, p. 122).

According to the “Theme Park History: Walt Disney and the Beginning of His ‘World’” Theme Park Insider article, before the area just outside of Orlando, Florida, officially became the host site of the next Disney destination, several others were considered, but ultimately eliminated on the basis of such factors as climate and capacity. For instance, St. Louis, Missouri, is said by author Derek Potter (2013) to have been the closest to being chosen among other options, such as New Jersey and Florida’s Palm Beach; in the end, a plane ride over the the Central Florida land, in which a large capacity supported by a highway system and plenty of centralized, clear land, led to its purchase.

Supported by the Plant City, Florida, the “Official Directory of Florida Exhibit, World’s Fair, Chicago, 1934, and Facts to Help You Know Florida” brochure both highlights the inherent appeal of Florida as a destination and gives insight into how such qualities were relative to those of Chicago at the time likewise worth promotion. In a twelve-page section called “DO YOU KNOW THESE FACTS ABOUT FLORIDA?,” both practical and tailored questions are presented about the state, thus allowing a rather idealized image of the state to be portrayed. For instance, covering the former category, the population of Florida is revealed to be an estimated 1,544,000, the amount of lakes present are numbered at 30,000, and the 5,558 miles of railroad are highlighted; the latter grouping can be represented by a note of the fastest automobile speed (272.108 miles per hour) being achieved there, along with the state’s varieties of oranges able to be grown, long stretches of highways, training sites of major league baseball teams, and “one of the most famous and oldest winter resorts” in Palm Beach (Plant City, 1934, p. 3). On the final page of the brochure, the following conclusion is drawn about Plant City, specifically, in a manner that epitomizes an argument about Florida at large that has only broadened since 1934:

You will find the city itself as delightful a place to live as you could desire – modern and progressive, with friendly neighboring cities for it is only a few minutes’ drive over splendid paved highways to Ringling’s Art Museum at Sarasota; the Bok Singing Tower at Lake Wales; the world’s largest and most beautiful spring at Ocala, and the beautiful city of Tampa is only twenty-three miles to the west. The United States Weather Bureau says that the yearly average temperature in and around Plant City is 72 degrees. (Plant City, 1934)

As the portrayals and criteria applied to both Chicago, Illinois, and Orlando, Florida, demonstrate, when conducting the selection and promotion processes for the land intended to be the basis of a large, public attraction, commonalities are identifiable. Whether it is the amount of viable land, the climate, transportation networks, pre-established industries, or other contemporaneous attractions, the people and organizations behind such marvels as the 1933-34 World’s Fair and the Walt Disney World Resort clearly prioritize what aspects of the location will satisfy their respective missions. In turn, despite the vast differences between Chicago and Orlando, both prove to hold value in their own, unique ways that have led them to success as destinations over the years.