Other Secret Stories of Walt Disney World

by Jim Korkis

  During all of these changes, except for the final one, only one prominent element remained the same, the statue of Cornelius Coot.

  Cornelius was a character created by comic book writer Carl Barks for the Donald Duck family stories he was doing for the Disney comic books being published by Dell.

  In keeping with the history that Barks had created for Duckburg where the Disney ducks lived, there was a statue of Cornelius Coot, the founder of Duckburg. He was Donald Duck’s great-great-grandfather and supposedly scared off Spanish soldiers who were attacking Fort Duckburg by popping corn to fool them into thinking reinforcements had arrived and were firing off their guns.

  Coot also piped mountain water into the area that allowed corn crops to flourish and allowed the community of Duckburg to be established. So that is why Coot is proudly holding out an ear of corn and why the statue was in a water fountain.

  The statue was an accurate recreation of the one that first appeared in the comic book story “Statuesque Spendthrifts” by Carl Barks in Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories #138. (March 1952). Afterward, Coot’s statue became a recurring landmark in many comic stories taking place in Duckburg.

  The Cornelius Coot statue even made a cameo appearance in the November 1988 episode “Ducks on the Lam” in the DuckTales syndicated animated television series.

  The statue depicts Cornelius wearing a pilgrim-like fringed hat. Both of his arms are outstretched and hold ears of corn. The plaque below the statue reads:

  This is Old Cornelius Coot, Who Turned His Corn Crop Into Loot, And Founded Mickey’s Toontown Fair, To Him We Dedicate This Square.

  Coots are small water birds commonly mistaken to be ducks, although there are some significant physical differences.

  Why was the statue in Mickey’s Birthdayland? Because the land was supposed to be where the Disney toons lived … Duckburg! Duckburg was a town with a population of “bill’ions and still growing. A town that’s everything it’s quacked up to be!”

  The animated syndicated television series Duck Tales, featuring the adventures of Uncle Scrooge and the nephews in Duckburg, and inspired by the Barks’ comic book stories, had premiered to great success beginning in September 1987.

  The show writer for the project, Steve Hansen, was unfamiliar with any city associated with Mickey Mouse other than Burbank or Hollywood. However, he was a huge fan of Carl Barks’ work on his iconic Duck family stories that took place in Duckburg.

  The popular film Who Framed Roger Rabbit that would make Toontown both the official home for all toons and a place that was readily embraced by the public would not debut until June 22, 1988—after the land was built and before the overwhelming success of the film.

  Roger Rabbit was quickly shoehorned into the new land as part of the show celebrating Mickey’s birthday.

  That statue remained when the area became Toontown Fair where Coot was retroactively also made the founder of the Toontown Fair since his corn crop fit in nicely with the story of exhibiting prize produce and other blue ribbon winners in the merchandise tent called Cornelius Coot’s County Bounty. Supposedly, this iconic treasure is now kept safely in the Disney Archives.

  Things That Disappeared

  Seashore Sweets

  To accommodate the new AbracadaBar at the Boardwalk Inn and Villas, an old-fashioned ice-cream-and-candy shop called Seashore Sweets was closed February 1, 2016. The shop was especially known for offering hand-scooped ice cream.

  Seashore Sweets had a main story related to the Miss America Pageant that was celebrated throughout this location as well as a smaller tangent story about a well-known candy associated with Atlantic City.

  Atlantic City is where salt-water taffy was created in 1883 when a clever businessman named David Bradley sold some taffy that had a hint of salt water when his shop was flooded by ocean water. Salt water is not an ingredient in salt water taffy today. Of course, salt-water taffy could be purchased in the shop, usually with Goofy’s face on the bag.

  The main storyline was that two sisters, known as the Sweet Sisters, who competed in the early Miss America pageant, decided to stay in the area and opened the shop. Their picture was on the outside sign and the motto of the store is “Confections served with Affection.”

  Atlantic City was famous for the Miss America pageant that began in the 1920s and lasted for 85 years on the Boardwalk before relocating to Las Vegas in 2007. It returned to Atlantic City in 2013.

  Leanza Cornett, who was Miss America 1993, was the first actress to play a live-action version of Ariel, the title character from The Little Mermaid, at the Voyage of The Little Mermaid show at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in 1991.

  There were many authentic artifacts like souvenir programs and tickets inside the store, including in a transparent case on the right-hand side of the entrance with a trophy, crown, regal cape, and scepter used in an actual Miss America pageant.

  Up above near the ceiling were framed photos of all the Miss America winners from 1921 through 2007 (when the event stopped being held in Atlantic City).

  In the earliest days, the women were not just judged in a swimsuit competition (called the Bathers’ Revue) but also as part of the Rolling Chair Parade, referenced in a newspaper article on the wall.

  Framed posters and memorabilia could be found in every area of the small shop. A souvenir program from the 1942 pageant would have cost twenty-five cents that year but is worth many times that price today.

  The inspiration for the name Flying Fish Café next door most likely came from a classic Coney Island roller coaster called the Flying Turns. One of the ride vehicles was called the Flying Fish.

  The interior of the restaurant was originally a colorful homage to Coney Island. The back of the booths resembled the curving lifts and drops of a roller coaster. On the back wall was a huge depiction of a back-lit Ferris wheel.

  Fish did, in fact, fly overhead in pairs in the restraurant on a version of the famous parachute ride that was a decades-long favorite in Steeplechase Park at Coney Island. In fact, one of the first images on the wall mural is of people riding the eight wooden horses on a steel track at Steeplechase.

  On the cloud-painted ceiling, the stars changed colors every few minutes.

  The entire interior, including the addition of an open on-stage kitchen, has been recently redesigned. The new design includes images of flying fish in a chandelier of glass, the kitchen tiles, and the upholstery. The restaurant also has references to the classic boardwalk with such things as carnival art and vintage carnival games.

  APPENDIX

  WDW Architheming and Entertainment Architecture

  The Disney company is known for its unique vocabulary and for coining new terms that become common usage, like audio-animatronics. In the 1990s, the term “architheming” appeared in Disney literature.

  By the turn of the current century, it completely disappeared and had been replaced by the term “entertainment architecture” that had been coined by then Disney CEO Michael Eisner, who said:

  In creating our new buildings, we have gone for quality and excitement. We have hired some of the world’s most prominent architects and have given them the opportunity to fully flex their imaginations and contribute to the creation of a landscape that can’t be found anywhere else on the planet.

  In our architecture, Disney continues to produce the kind of groundbreaking entertainment that keeps the Disney name magical to people around the world. Our architecture is part of the show.

  That was Eisner’s introduction to the limited-edition 20-page full-color booklet “Architheming at the Walt Disney World Resort,” published in 1992 by Walt Disney World Seminar Productions (part of Disney University) to be given to guests taking that seminar.

  However, the book proved to be an expensive giveaway and offered no opportunity to include newer buildings that were being built almost every day without redoing the entire book, so it was replaced by a special pin for participants.

  Disney quickly found th
at giving away special pins for classes (that, on the average, cost less than fifty cents each to make and that price included everything from the initial design to the finished product) was more cost-efficient.

  The cover of the book was a double-door design that opened to the text and photos inside. The doors had the humanistic doorknob character from the Disney animated feature Alice in Wonderland, or more precisely, a photo of the physical re-creation of that animated doorknob that was on the front doors of the Walt Disney World Casting Center.

  Walt Disney World Seminar Productions included “Wonders of Walt Disney World” programs for young people and “Disney Learning Adventures” for adults (including special classes for management and educational professionals as well).

  The WDW Seminar Productions were absorbed into the Disney Institute shortly after it opened in 1996. The youth programs were renamed Y.E.S. (Youth Education Services) and the adult programs were renamed D.A.D. (Disney Adult Discoveries).

  Some of the original Disney University programs were included. Some were changed significantly. Some were dropped entirely. However, an architecture class proved popular with guests and was very much in keeping with Eisner’s agenda for the Disney company to be known for its commitment to architecture.

  The Disney term “architheming” was coined by Disney University instructors Ken Cannon and Kaye Bundey to explain how WDW combined the basics of architecture with the concept of story theming. The term never really took hold with the general public or the Disney company and is not used today, but was prominent on Disney company literature of the 1990s.

  When I worked for Disney Adult Discoveries in the late 1990s, two of the tours that I instructed were inspired by that original “architheming” class and were titled “Disney by Design” and “Disney’s Amazing Architecture.”

  Both tours were designed to expose guests to the creative use of architecture to tell stories both inside and outside the Walt Disney World theme parks.

  There was some classroom instruction, but, primarily, the classes consisted of taking guests out in a van to various locations to describe the architecture of places like the Casting Center, Team Disney, Reedy Creek Fire Station on Buena Vista Drive, Disney’s Wilderness Lodge, the Italy pavilion in Epcot’s World Showcase, and elsewhere. The classes were incredibly popular.

  When Eisner came on board in 1984, he became a well-known patron of architects. He said:

  You can have bad architecture that costs just as much as good architecture. Most hotel companies are driven by operations, so you have these hotels that were built in the 1970s that function beautifully but are as ugly as the day is long. It costs the same to do well as badly. It’s exactly the same price if you build 1,200 ugly rooms.

  Eisner saw hotel architecture as an opportunity to redefine the Disney company as the need for new resorts to accommodate guests at Walt Disney World became apparent. Ground had already been broken for a new hotel complex near Epcot and Disney’s partner in the project, the Tishman Corporation, was determined to hire a conventional architect to create a conventionally upscale convention hotel.

  Eisner fought for using architect Michael Graves, who had never designed a hotel before in his life, arguing:

  Look, we are an entertainment company. We’re Disney. We’ve got to have the biggest, the best, the most tasteful.

  However, the finished Dolphin and Swan resort hotels designed by Graves faced criticism as grandiose, confusing. and garish. among other complaints. Eisner, speaking at the dedication of the Dolphin and responding to initial criticism, called them “designs that err on the side of the fantastic,” and asserted that “the only way to avoid such criticism is to build a bland box…. Impact is what great architecture is all about.”

  At the dedication, Graves acknowledged that this type of architecture could not exist anywhere else but at Disney. He emphasized that Disney “offers a liberation from context.”

  However, the Disney Development Company supposedly monitored all the well-known architects they engaged fairly closely so they did not exceed the agreed-upon “competitive budget.” Eisner’s preference for architecture was what he called “strength with lightness” that meant a sound design but with a whimsical touch.

  In the May 1992 issue of the architectural magazine Interiors, a lengthy article, written by Jean Gorman, stated that:

  The [Disney] craze for big-name architects began partly as a practical response to increasing the company’s profit-making potential and partly as a conscious effort to develop and refine its image outside the parks….

  Driven by Eisner’s enthusiastic fascination for architecture, the Disney Development Company looked beyond the in-house team of Imagineers toward outside architects who could appeal to a sophisticated consumer. Eisner maintains that being a name-brand architect is not the only criterion for consideration. The willingness and ability to design projects that are compatible with Disney’s entertainment philosophy also plays into the selection process.

  An article in the July 29, 1991, issue of Time magazine stated:

  Disney has a reputation among architects (as among filmmakers) for tightfistedness and micro-management. On each [architectural] project, Eisner is brought in five times to review the plans, approving masonry textures, paint colors and light fixtures.

  One reason the chairman says he meddles more in the design of a hotel than he does, for instance, in the production of The Marrying Man (a troubled 1991 Disney live-action feature film) is that “movies go away, but buildings stand as monuments to your bad taste.”

  Plus he thinks he’s good at inspiring architects. “I know how to make creative people see that something is not as good as they can do. Or I tell architects. ‘Don’t give up. Don’t accommodate.’” Eisner thinks big and will not take “no” for an answer. … He doesn’t know exactly what he wants, but he wants it to be amazing, and he wants it badly.

  At least one architect, James Stirling, declined an invitation to participate in designing a Disney structure. French architect Jean Nouvel proposed a resort hotel for Disneyland Paris based on a Rationalist theme, while architect Peter Eisenman suggested an underground hotel for that theme park.

  While those projects never went beyond the initial discussion stage, some projects greenlit by Eisner did not develop further, like Antoine Predock’s Mediterranean Resort, a theme hotel inspired by the Greek islands that was planned to open in 1992 at Walt Disney World.

  Instead, Predock designed the Hotel Santa Fe for Disneyland Paris that opened in 1992, with a Pueblo Revival architecture style to represent the American Southwest.

  Peter Dominick’s Wilderness Lodge was actually supposed to include a larger imprint called Buffalo Junction (sometimes called Fort Wilderness Junction). That would have been a 600-room hotel between Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort and Disney’s Wilderness Lodge with a street area of shops and restaurants themed to the Old West (think of a Wild West version of Epcot’s BoardWalk) and would have had the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show from Disneyland Paris.

  Wing T. Chao, the senior vice president for master planning, architecture, and design with the Disney Development Company in the 1980s and 1990s, had a master’s degree in architecture from Harvard University. He credited Eisner with Disney’s patronage of architects, telling the Orlando Sentinel in its July 11, 1990, issue:

  It’s because of his [Eisner’s] personal love of art and architecture, and his leadership. He personally gets involved with our architects at every design meeting.

  Eisner’s mentor in architecture was Victor Ganz, a vice president of New York’s Whitney Museum of American art, who Eisner said “took me by the hand and helped me understand and appreciate art. I wanted to use the architects who were on the cutting edges, the young and new breed.”

  It was Ganz who recommended Michael Graves to Eisner, as well as some other architects.

  Chao told reporters that Eisner was just continuing the vision established by Walt Disney: “Walt wanted to give
his guests the same quality of experience in their hotels that they get in the parks.”

  Chao kept a file of information on roughly 700 architectural firms, from which he culled likely candidates when a new project arose.

  To support this architectural agenda, in 1997 Disney Adult Discoveries produced a limited-edition full-color 60-page booklet titled “Walt Disney World Architecture” to distribute in the “Disney by Design” tour.

  Once again, Michael Eisner wrote the introduction:

  Fun. Magic. Dreams. It’s who we are. Our guests come here to be amused, startled and delighted, and there is no reason that unique experience should stop once they leave the magic of our Theme Parks. That’s why we’ve sought out some of the best architects in the world to help us expand our vision to resorts and buildings beyond the Theme Parks. We are making a daring new statement in architecture. One of impact and imagination, a big “Wow!”

  The three-dimensional dreams you’ll see and read about here are intended to take you on their own unique emotional journeys where something unexpected and surprising turns up around every corner. Each tells a story and each story is a new adventure you’re invited to share. So, please come in and join us on a new flight of fantasy.

  This booklet is rare because shortly after its publication, Disney politics reared its ugly head and the book was forbidden to be sold or given away to guests. An influential department head felt that despite the many approvals by other departments, that since he had not been given an opportunity to review the project, he was going to withhold his approval.

  The majority of the print run was destroyed, although some copies were indeed distributed to guests before the edict came down and others were given to instructors at the Disney Institute.

  The cover had an image of Mickey’s sideways face composed of architectural elements like bricks, the inside rings of a tree, a decorative window, and similar objects.