Project Future | Ayefour Publishing | Trade Paperback | 978-0-615-34777-6 | $14.95 | Order online

Key Players and Their Roles in Project Future

Emily Bavar
a reporter with the Orlando Sentinel-Star. After attending a press event in Anaheim, California, to discuss Disneyland’s tenth anniversary, in October 1965 she reported the “mystery industry” buying land in Florida was Disney. While other reporters had written articles suggesting that Disney might be the mystery land purchaser, Bavar is usually credited as the reporter who first broke the news.

Irlo Bronson
a Florida State Senator who owned a large tract of land in Osceola County, Florida. In May 1965, Disney purchased 8,380 acres of this land for Project Future from Senator Bronson at the cost of $900,000.

Haydon Burns
the Governor of Florida who negotiated with Disney in 1965 regarding Disney’s decision to locate Project Future in Florida. Burns made the official announcement of the project at the Florida League of Municipalities Convention on Monday, October 25, 1965 following Emily Bavar’s article disclosing Disney as the mystery company buying large amounts of land in Central Florida. Burns lost re-election in the 1966 Democratic primary before Disney introduced its legislative package in the Florida state legislature.

Marvin Davis
an art director who designed much of the Disneyland plan. Walt later tapped him to design the Project Future master plan, including work on the Magic Kingdom and the original concept of EPCOT.

Jack and Bill Demetree
two brothers who sold Disney an option in 1964 for the surface rights to a twelve thousand-plus acre tract that composed a significant portion of the Project Future property. Disney exercised that option in June 1965 after negotiating with Tufts University for the subsurface rights to the property. The Demetrees had originally purchased the parcel in 1959 from Senator Irlo Bronson, who had purchased the property’s surface rights from Tufts University.

Tom DeWolf
a Florida attorney who practiced with Paul Helliwell’s law firm. DeWolf provided legal and regulatory counsel for the purchase of Project Future parcels and for the development of the Reedy Creek Improvement District. DeWolf was also a long-time Chairman of the Board of Supervisors for the Reedy Creek Improvement District.

Billy Dial
the Orlando banking executive and business leader whose help and influence kept Disney’s identity as the mystery industry secret until the company could complete the purchase of Project Future’s vast land holdings. Dial also played a significant role in convincing several hold-out landowners to sell their parcels to Disney-controlled entities.

Roy O. Disney
Disney’s older brother who focused on the company’s business interests. After Walt’s death in 1966, Roy Disney made the decision to go forward with Project Future.

Walter Elias “Walt” Disney
the youngest Disney son who was the creative visionary of Disneyland and Project Future, later named Disney World. The theme parks exist because of him.

Bob Elrod
the well-respected Florida State Senator whom Disney tapped to shepherd its Project Future legislative package through the state legislature. The legislative package ultimately passed the State House and Senate with only one vote against it.

Robert Price Foster
the Disney attorney who had served as legal counsel for Disneyland. Walt Disney assigned Foster the responsibility of identifying and acquiring land for Project Future. Foster also played a significant role in the development, passage, and implementation of the legislative package for Project Future.

Helmut Furth
an attorney at the Donovan, Leisure firm. He served as Disney’s outside legal counsel. Furth drafted much of the legislation submitted to the Florida legislature. The legislation ultimately made Project Future a reality.

Roy Hawkins
a well-connected Florida businessman who provided political and real estate counsel to Disney during the identification of land and its acquisition process. Hawkins worked closely with Robert Foster and Paul Helliwell in securing most of the Project Future parcels.

Paul Helliwell
a Florida attorney who served as Disney’s lead legal counsel in Florida during the Project Future process. In addition to providing legal and regulatory advice, Helliwell used his extensive business and political connections to provide valuable strategic advice for the project.

Claude Kirk
the Florida Governor who succeeded Haydon Burns and served as governor during the passage of Project Future’s legislative package. Kirk signed the actual legislation on May 12, 1967.

William Lund
the Economic Research Associates official who originally travelled to Florida in late 1963 to begin identifying potential areas and parcels for Project Future. Lund toured the state, including the Orlando area, on behalf of Disney under the strict instructions not to identify his client or negotiate for actual parcels.

John MacArthur
a colorful South Florida billionaire who had made much of his money by starting the Bankers Life and Casualty Company. MacArthur owned large amounts of property in the Palm Beach area. In the late 1950s, Walt Disney and other company officials travelled to South Florida on different occasions to consider the possibility of building a company project in the area. The company ultimately opted not to build in that part of Florida.

Harrison “Buzz” Price
the head of Economic Research Associates, the consulting firm Walt Disney hired to provide economic forecasting and other planning services such as initial land identification for Project Future. Disney had previously hired Price to provide similar services for Disneyland and other proposed Disney projects.

Joe Potter
a former executive with the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair. Disney hired him to manage the development and construction of Project Future. Potter would later serve as Chairman of the Board of Supervisors for the Reedy Creek Improvement District.

Card Walker
the Disney executive who originally supported building Disney’s eastern U.S. project in St. Louis or the eastern seaboard as opposed to Florida. He later became both Chairman and CEO of Disney during the time the company opened the EPCOT theme park.