A Friday Visit With Jim Korkis: Why Disney World in Not in St. Louis

Welcome back to Fridays with Jim Korkis! Jim, the dean of Disney historians and author of Jim’s Gems in The easy Guide, writes about Walt Disney World history every Friday on yourfirstvisit.net.

DISNEY WORLD AND ST. LOUIS

By Jim Korkis

During 1963 and 1964, Walt Disney was in discussions with the city of St. Louis to build a five story building covering over two city blocks that would house an indoor entertainment complex called Riverfront Square.

It would include a Pirate’s Lair and Blue Bayou boat ride (later combined at Disneyland into Pirates of the Caribbean), a Haunted House, a Circarama 360 Theater, a Mike Fink ride, a “Lewis and Clark Adventure Ride” and even a Mississippi steamboat attraction.

Since it would be an enclosed area devoted to telling the story of the state of Missouri, the Mississippi River and Mark Twain, Walt had plans to create his own “sky” on the ceiling that would simulate weather and time of day so that the venue could operate year round in a climate controlled environment.

Walt had insisted that no alcohol be served in the indoor venue because he wanted it to be family friendly, and the absence of alcohol would keep out what Walt referred to as “rowdies” who would disrupt the experience. This was the same philosophy he had at Disneyland.

Admiral Joe Fowler, who was in charge of construction for both Disneyland and Walt Disney World, was 82 years old in 1988 and living in his Bay Hill home in Florida when he shared this story with me by phone:

“Well, it seems almost from the day Disneyland was opened people were after Walt to open another. If not exactly like the one in California, then something else, but hurry up and build something. Walt resisted this at first, but then, after our New York World’s Fair exhibits were in place and proving a spectacular success, he began to look around the country.

“I think it was in early 1964 that after several visits, Walt gave the green light for some preliminary theme park work to start in St. Louis. We were invited to this fancy civic banquet, where there were lots of enthusiastic bankers, chamber of commerce types, the mayor and his people, that kind of thing.

“At some point well into the dinner, August Busch, owner of Anheuser-Busch brewery and a powerful man in St. Louis, stood up, when he should have sat down and said something to the effect of ‘Any man who would build something like this, and then not serve beer and liquor inside, ought to have his head examined’.

“Now Walt, when in public, didn’t show much emotion if he got angry. He would just remain quiet where usually he was quite talkative. But when you saw his left eyebrow shoot up, you knew there was a serious state of affairs. Well, when Walt heard that Busch considered him crazy for not selling alcohol in the thing, his eyebrow arched straight up.

“Once we were all on the company plane and headed back to California, Walt gathered us for a meeting and said, ‘All right, forget about St. Louis’. Nobody had to ask why. The bankers called, all upset that we had pulled out. Some even visited us later, but it was to no avail. After that Walt said maybe we should concentrate more on Florida.

“When we picked up the bulk of 27,000 acres in Florida, Walt was delighted but not overwhelmed or over the moon. If he had had his way, we would have bought 50,000 acres!”

Interestingly, documentation has been uncovered in recent years that Walt did not consider the St. Louis project as an alternative to his interest in building something in Florida. He truly intended to do both things simultaneously.

The biggest issue was not actually the selling of alcohol, but rather that St. Louis felt that Disney was going to pay for the entire thing itself, whereas Walt felt that St. Louis was going to finance it and then later be reimbursed from the net profits of the operation but that the property would have been owned solely by Disney.

In any case, on July 13, 1965, St. Louis officials and Disney executives jointly announced that the project would not be built. Four months later, in November 1965, Disney made a public announcement of the plans to build in Florida.

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Thanks, Jim. And come back next Friday for even more from Jim Korkis!

In the meantime, check out his books, including The Vault of Walt, Who’s Afraid of the Song of the South?, and The Book of Mouse, and his contributions to The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit, all published by Theme Park Press.

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