61 * ------Walt Disney World, Florida: The Creation of a Fantasy Landscape

Morton D. Winsberg Florida State University * ------

n 1971 an 11, 100-hectare amusement area named chose themes based on fairy tales, adventure stories, I Walt Disney World was opened in central Florida folklore, nostalgia, and future technologies. In sum, near Orlando. Within it was the Magic Kingdom·, the the goal was to create a friendly and wholesome en­ first of three large theme parks located there by 1991. vironment in which visitors could have a pleasant The venture rapidly became an international success, escape from reality and exercise their imagination. and annual attendance today is approximately 30 mil­ Disneyland opened near Los Angeles in 1955 (Bright lion. It is the most visited privately owned tourist 1987). It was divided into six sections, each built facility in the world. More than any other economic around a theme: Main Street U.S.A., Adventureland, activity, including the Kennedy Space Center on Cape Fantasy land, T omorrowland, New Orleans Square, and Canaveral, it has generated economic growth in central Frontierland. Characters and themes from Disney's Florida. · animated movies were employed throughout, partic­ ularly Mickey Mouse, who became the central figure of Disneyland, and later the Magic Kingdom in Florida. Conceptualization of the Park

Walter E. (Walt) Disney was most responsible for a Location of Walt Disney World new concept in amusement parks which after World War II revitalized a dying industry (Mosley 1986; Disney conceived Walt Disney World shortly after he Thomas 1976). He proposed to build a park based opened Disneyland. It was to be much larger in scale upon themes. As in the older ones, there would be and would necessitate a huge tract of land. The purchase thrill rides, but it .would lack many of the carnival­ of a large tract was intended to provide ample area like amusements that earned the older parks such a for expansion and to create a buffer between it and bad reputation among middle-class American families. the numerous non-Disney attractions that would be The ambience of his park would be one of scrupulous drawn to compete for visitors (Thomas 1976). Im­ cleanliness, and be totally non-threatening. Employees, portant location factors were accessibility to a large most of whom would be young, were expected to adhere num_ber of people, proximity to a city large enough to a rigid code of appearance and were to be cheerful to provide labor, and a climate that would permit at all times. operation throughout the year. Disney was confident that if his park projected the Disney chose Florida. Although far from the nation's ambience of wholesomeness, it would become highly large cities, it was already popular with tourists and profitable. He based this optimism on the post World had a state government receptive to investments in War II national prosperity, greater use of automobiles, tourism. The Orlando area was warm enough for year­ and the baby boom. He believed that many of these round operations and was near the crossing of several new families willingly would drive long distances to limited-access highways, part of the nation's interstate a park with themes to entenain young children. Disney highway system, then under intensive development. 62

W a I t D i s n e y W o r I d, F I o r i d a Disney assembled this huge tract of land very cheaply being exposed since childhood to Disney images. by dealing with agents who had no idea they were Whether we can accept such an analogy, most who working for him. He realized that had the owners visit it become emotionally absorbed by it. They come known whom they were selling their land to, which to feel that, as Disney wished, "They are in another was mostly poor palmetto pasture, they would have world" (Mosely 1986). inflated the value greatly. The Magic Kingdom is deep in the interior of Walt Disney desired as little interference from government Disney World. It is reached by mass transportation as possible in the development of the property and either from Disney's own hotels within the park, or was pleased that the Florida legislature awarded him by car and bus from hotels outside the park. An es~ special governmental status over the land purchase pecially large concentration of hotels outside the park

(Walsh 1986). The 11,100~hectaretract was named has grown up along International Drive (Figure 1). the Reedy Creek Improvement District. In effect it Depending on the season of the year, between 25,000 became the 68th county in the state, with authority and 75,000 guests are admitted to the Magic Kingdom over electric power, water, zoning codes, and fire pro~ each day. Many thousands more visit Disney World's tection. Police and-judicial authority continued to rest two newer theme parks, EPCOT and Disney~MGM with the two counties in which the land was situated, Studio Theme Park. and the park pays county property taxes. Although Guests to the Magic Kingdom (in Disney parks all

Disney World today employs approximately 35,000 visitors are referred to as "guests") go to its Trans~ workers, there are only about 40 voting residents of portation and Ticket Center. Here they purchase tickets the district, most Disney employees. to the Magic Kingdom, or a "passport" to visit all

The special starus of Disney World has led to tensions three parks (Birnbaum 1989). Although it is not nee~ between it and the counties in which it is ·situated (Walsh 1986). Whereas other developers must pay impact fees to the county for roads and other public construction at the time they develop their property, Disney does not. Many believe Walt Disney Company is not contributing its fair share for the development of the area's infrastructure. Disney executives maintain that they ha:ve made substantial contributions, citing the company as the major force behind the growth of the region's economy. There is no dispute that the Disney operation was the principal stimulant for growth in central Florida.

In 1971, the year the Magic Kingdom opened, Florida BEELINE EXPWY tourism was much more uniformly distributed throughout the state than it is today. Most tourists vacationed along the beaches of the lower peninsula. ~ Orlando, in the interior of the upper half of the pen~ N insula, had comparatively little appeal to either tourists I or retirees. In 1971, when the Magic Kingdom opened, approximately 450,000 inhabitants lived in the Orlando metropolitan area. Twenty years later, in 1990, the population had risen to slightly over 1 million. Among the nation's metropolitan statistical areas, including that of New York City, Orlando and Las Vegas, Nevada, continually exchange the lead in the number of hotel and motel rooms.

Creating a Sense of Place

Anthropologist Alexander Moore ( 1980) compares a visit to the Magic Kingdom to a religious pilgrimage. Figure 1. Disney World (11,000 hectares) is southwest of Orlando He believes that its success may be attributed to people on U.S. Route 4. 63 WINSBERG essary, those who wish to heighten the illusion they are going into a different world can exchange U.S. dollars for one, and five,dollar Disney bills. From the ticket office, guests have a choice of reaching the Magic Kingdom by paddle,wheeled ferry boat across artificial Bay Lake or by monorail. Even before arriving at the entrance to the Magic Kingdom all but the most calm begin to be swept into the spirit that Disney strove to generate. The sheer size of a typical day's crowd, which includes many children, heightens the excitement. People who visit the park marvel at crowd control. Although there are often long lines at popular attractions, the attendants move people through with great efficiency. Upon entrance to the Magic Kingdom the first theme area or "land" entered is Main Street, U.S.A., the Disney concept of a late, 19th,cenrury small,town main street. Main Street, U.S.A., provides an excellent opportunity to appreciate the attention to detail that Figure 2. Cinderella's Castle, in the center of the Magic Kingdom, is the hallmark of all Disney attractions. It is used is a point of orientation for visitors to the theme areas that here as an exemplar of the other theme areas within surround it. The design of the castle was inspired by 12th- and 13th-century French castles as well as King ludwig of Bavaria's the park. Neuschwanstein. Source: Florida State Archives. The buildings are careful reconstructions of struc, tures of the period (Goldberger 1972). Detractors argue that no main street at the end of the 19th century was as clean as Disney's. Draft horses pull center of Magic Kingdom. Here roads lead directly to streetcars down Main Street, but droppings or litter the other theme sections of the park. of any sort never remain on the ground for long, thanks to a crew of constantly vigilant sanitation workers. From a railroad station near Main Street Design and Construction of EPCOT one can take a train around the perimeter of the Magic Kingdom. The old steam locomotive that pulls Walt Disney World's second theme park, EPCOT, the train is one of four salvaged in 1969 from an opened in 1982. In design it bore little resemblance abandoned Mexican railroad system. to what Disney himself had proposed in 1966, when Illusion is vital in the creation of the Magic Kingdom's the Florida property was purchased: In Disney's words landscape. The kingdom seems much larger than it "Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow "will actually is. Buildings often are not built to true scale, take its cue from the new ideas and new technologies or lower floors are, but the upper ones are not (Bright that are now emerging from the creative centers of 1987). Many features are scaled down for children. American industry" (Mosley 1986). It was never to Throughout the park are numerous examples of tricks be completed, but would always be introducing, testing, of scale, to make buildings appear much taller or more and demonstrating new materials and systems. It would distant through design. This technique, called "forced be "a showcase to the world for the ingenuity and perspective," had earlier been refined by movie,set imagination of American free enterprise." designers in Hollywood. Instead of a community, what emerged was a park Since it is the visitor's first impression of the Magic with two theme sections, Future World and World Kingdom, to heighten the level of excitement, Main Showcase. Disney planners recognized that the de, Street also is the venue for much of the Kingdom's mographic profile of the nation was changing as the live street entertainment. This entertainment includes baby boom children became adults (Lyon 1987). They a 19th,century barber shop quartet, strolling banjo wanted to build a park with themes that would appeal players twice each evening during the busiest periods to this group. Future World was built with corporate of the year, and a parade featuring a marching band financial support, including giants such as General and approximately 30 floats. From Main Street most _Motors, General Electric, and Exxon. Within it are move toward Cinderella's Castle (Figure 2), in the exhibitions, in the style of a World's Fair, that explain 64

W a I t 0 i s n e y W o r I d, F I o r i d a technological evolution. World Showcase is a joint Conclusion development between Disney and a number of nations. The exhibition areas of the ·countries were designed No person in American history has more effectively to incorporate popular visual impressions of them. On imprinted on the nation's public the visual conception the "typical" English high street at the United Kingdom of a utopian and fantasy landscape than Walt Disney. exhibition are half,timberecl buildings that lean and Although he was a political and economic conservative, have hand,painted smoke stains that make them appear and some have accused him of both racial and ethnic to be centuries old. Some roofs are of thatch, but fire prejudice, from his youth he had a utopian vision of regulations demand that the material be non,flammable community acquired from his father, an outspoken plastic. Mansard roofs are conspicuous at both the socialist (Harrington 1979; Mosley 1986). While EP, Canadian and French areas, and the French area is COT departed from his original conception, Disney distinguished by a large model of the Eiffel Tower. would most likely approve of its attempt to bring the Italy is depicted by a corner of Venice's St. Marks world together in a peaceful, orderly, and educational Square, including the campanile and the Doge's Palace, setting. He would have been delighted with the evo, set on EPCOT's lagoon with a seawall that has been lution of the Magic Kingdom, and Walt Disney World's made to appear stained with age. Most national ex, newest park, Disney,MGM Studio Theme Park. At hibitions have souvenir shops as well as restaurants the inauguration of Disneyland, the progenitor of the where guests can sample the national cuisine. The Magic Kingdom, Disney said, "I don't want the public United States is represented in World Showcase by a to see the real world they live in while they're in the colonial style brick building where a 30,minute film park. I want them to feel they are in another world" panorama of American history is narrated by robots (Mosley 1986). The Walt Disney Company is now representing Ben Franklin and Mark Twain. successfully involved in joint theme park ventures in Detractors criticize Future World for too heavily Japan and France, proving that the Disney landscape relying upon technology to solve the world's problems can appeal to the inhabitants of nations whose cultures (American Heritage 1987; Harrington 1979; Morison are distinct from ours. 1983). Those who disparage World Showcase, partie, ularly the United States show, often say that history is put in too positive a perspective (Morison 1983). References Disney officials make no apologies for their presentations in either section. Physical geographers should find the landscaping American Heritage. 1987. Disney: Coast to coast. 38:22- throughout Walt Disney World of great interest, es, 4. pecially that of the national exhibits at EPCOT. The Birnbaum, Steve, ed. 1989. Wale Disney World. New York: climate of central Florida is humid subtropical, while Avon Books. Bright, Randy. 1987. Disneyland: The Inside Srory. New that of most of the exhibiting nations is colder or York: Harry N. Abrams. drier. Furthermore, the park is open all year, and Goldberger, Paul. 1972. Mickey Mouse teaches the archi­ designers did not want the landscape to differ radically tects. New York Times Magazine Oct. 22:40ff. between one season and another. Imaginative substi, Harrington, Michael. 1979. To the Disney station. Harpers tutions often were made by the park's horticulturists 258:35-39. to create natural landscapes exotic to that of central Lyon, Richard. 1987. Theme parks in the USA: Growth, Florida (Birnbaum 1989). For example, at the Canadian markets and future prospects. Travel and T ourise Analyse exhibit hemlock trees are represented by deodar cedars, 9:31-43. a tree native of the Himalayas that is better adapted Moore, Alexander. 1980. Walt Disney world: Bounded ritual to Florida's hot summers. Geometrically sculptured space and the playful pilgrimage center. Anthropological bushes in the British exhibit are not yews but podo, Quarrerly 53:207-219. carpus. The European plane tree does not grow well ~orison,Elting E. 1983. What went wrong with Disney's world's fair. American Heritage 35:70-79. in Florida. Where this tree is needed the western Mosley, Leonard. 1986. Disney's World. New York: Stein sycamore, of the same genus, has been substituted. and Day. At the French exhibit sycamores are pruned to about Thomas, Bob. 1976. Wale Dime)': An American Original. 6.1 meters (20 feet), and have developed the same New York: Simon and Schuster. characteristic knots found on plane trees along French Walsh, Matt. 1986. It's not easy living with the mouse. streets. Florida Trend 29:70-75. 65 JI•IJI'Ii!J Elayne Rapping A Bad Ride at Disney World 'm going to Disney World," said Lorena of Florida . And then it's into another, choose to get married here. There was a Bobbitt cheerily upon being released even more elaborate system of monorails Disney wedding during our stay, actually, Ifrom the particular set of ordeals that that whisk you, with utmost efficiency and to which we were invited-via telecast. had become her life. It's become a com- ease, through a series of prescribed routes The groom, who had proposed here the mon tag line for Americans celebrating to preplanned itineraries. previous year, gave the bride a gilt-edged such closures, or simply suffering from "Day One," begins the Disney guide­ Disney Cinderella book and a shopping that old "there-must-be-some-way-out-of­ book you probably selected from a shelf trip to Treasure Island. The bride told the here" feeling of postmodern frenzy. Dis­ full of choices-Disney With Kids, Disney world that she first fell for him because, ney World: the ultimate escape, the on a Budget, Disney for Honeymooners, "He had very good manners; that was im­ "nowhere'' destination that is "just like Disney Without Kids-at your local portant to me." the world, only better." Barnes and Noble. And then come pages Good manners are important to every­ After all these years of avoiding it, I of dauntingly detailed, rigidly precise one at Disney World. So is shopping. And had begun to feel pressure to check it out. schedules of events and sights and rides, Treasure Island-like virtually every edi­ For one thing, it had become difficult to accompanied by timetables, tips, rules, and fice of every kind in Disney World, face my Long Island students as a Disney coupons to help you complete the ex­ whether a restaurant, a hotel, a ride, or an virgin, and maintain credibility as an au­ hausting course. actual store-is filled with virtually identi­ thority on popular culture. And so I "You must stay at least six days," said cal items of clothing, housewares, food, dragged my daughter (the one person al­ my travel agent, with a Disneyesque toys, games, and media products all im­ ways willing to accompany me into cul­ cheeriness, "or you'll never see every­ printed with the Disney motifs. tural terrain where no one else will be thing." Never mind that "everything" on There is a synthetic spirit of democracy caught dead) and headed south, at the Day Six was pretty much the same as "ev­ about all this that is seductive. The work­ height of the summer-vacation season, to erything" on Day One. ing-class family that has saved all year for meet the Head Mouse. Indeed, the sameness, the static pre­ a week's vacation is indistinguishable from It was an experience for which, I con­ dictability of this wholly managed, wholly the CEO and his kids who are virtually fess, I was ill prepared. To visit Disney simulated world of ''Taylorized fun," as slumming. The stress of competition­ World is to be transported, in more ways it's been described, seems to be a large whether sexual, material, or status­ than one: to be immersed in a universe part of its appeal. Nothing can possibly go based-seems to dissolve. I have never that is somehow totally "Other," "Else­ wrong here, because nothing can possibly seen so many small children forced to wait where." even as it is-paradoxically-the happen. in so many long lines in so much heat with most mundanely quintessential of Ameri­ But the nothing that endlessly doesn't so little nagging, whining, crying, or fight­ can landscapes. happen is designed to fill the senses and . ing. Nor have I ever spent so much time There's nothing here that you haven't the hours with comfort, amusement, and a with so many people and seen and heard seen or experienced a million times, every kind of luxury not typical of most Ameri­ so little unpleasantness, conflict. hostility. day of your life, in every mall and airport can lives. The "family-rate" hotels and And why should there be any? These are and multiplex and fast-food franchise. restaurants of Disney World are com­ the very things one comes to Disney And yet, to find yourself-like Dorothy in modious, yet relatively affordable and free World to escape. Munchkin Land-suddenly set down in of the appearance of class distinction. Our I overheard one couple telling another the middle of a vast landscape in which no hotel room was by far the largest and most that they had flown all the way from Cali­ trace of anything noncommodified, non­ lush I've ever occupied at my own ex­ fornia, although they could have gone simulated, nonregulated. non-smiley­ pense. The hotel restaurants were surpris­ much more cheaply to Disneyland, be­ faced, is visible or reachable, is to suffer a ingly posh. too. And since none of the cause "you really get away from the world profound mental disorientation. Most peo­ 26,000 "cast" members who served us (no here. It's like an oasis in the middle of ple seem gleefully and instantaneously to one works at Disney World; even the staff nowhere. No one can get to you and you adapt to this new psychic environment. I of waiters. cleaning persons, yard workers, don't have to worry about what's going on did not do so well. and so on are "players," dressed up in in the world." That, it seems, is how most "Transported" is actually a perfect Disney costumes) is allowed to frown or people want it. Every morning when I term to describe the experience of being be rude or irritable, the service is regal. bought my New York Times there were Disney-tied. From the minute you hit the There is a "style" at Disney World five copies on the counter. Every evening Orlando airport, you enter a system of that-in sharp contrast. certainly. to my when I returned, four were still there. transit that moves you effortlessly, via Manhattan neighborhood-is uniform in monorails and people movers, through un­ its middle American, asexual, uninflected y grandmother would have said, derground tunnels decorated. almost nos­ sameness. Oversize unisex T -shirts and "So what's not to like?" (My stu­ talgically, with scenes of the "real" walking shorts-almost all, save those of Mdents' version was, "Like, you Florida, the one that Disney so strenu­ the Day One new arrivals. marked by Dis­ didn't like it? Like, that is just too weird!") ously attempts to supersede and render ney logos-are the standard-issue gar­ My daughter Alison and I did indeed feel superfluous. From there. it's a quick ride ments from which most visitors diverge in un-American, but by Day Three we were to the 28.000-acre enclave-a self-con­ only minor ways. (A young woman in our bored silly, and by Day Four we were seri­ tained, self-regulated fiefdom in the mid­ hotel dressed in high fashion "cruise ously antsy. dle of. but wholly separate from. the state wear·· stood out as odd.) Even Epcot Center's famously ·•eru• This sense of classless luxury and un­ dite" (by mass-culture standards) presen­ Elayne Rapping, most recently the author of threatening sameness has its attractions. tation of scientific, historic, and geo­ "Media-tions." published by South End Press, People who visit regularly as children de­ graphic wonders. at first intriguing. was appears in this space every month. velop attachments to the place. Many even ultimately a drag-but again. a perversely

Jh I NovF.MRF.R 1995 expanding "city-state" has its own po­ 66 democratizing drag. Here. in a series of -it various kinds. bob their little heads. and lice force . taxation system. and governmg elaborately constructed national and sci­ sing-over and over and over again-the administration-that draws 100,000 peo­ entific pavilions. are all the wonders of the brain-jan_gling jingle itself. ple to its gates each day. a total of thirty world. all the culture, knowledge. and pro­ million a year. ductivity that mark the greatest achieve­ This nde excmplities the very spirit of ments of human civilization. commodified, Disney's dream was explicitly utopian. Disney's world view. The world and its packaged. and converted into lowest-com­ He was a man who believed in the Ameri­ cultures are gobbled up. reproduced as mon-denominator infotainment. can Dream of peace. progress. and pros­ Disney images. and put up for sale to Each pavilion celebrates the cultural perity in its most uninflected, idealized those who cannot afford to visit the real and historic achievements of a different form. And he built an empire on the locales or be trusted to look squarely in global location. Each ride charts the hunch that billions of people would pay to the face of the real people who live there. course of some branch of learning or spend time indulging the fantasy that the No one yells or spray paints "Yankee go progress . And each is exactly like the dream. at its hokiest and most ntisJeadin& other. promised . In this dream version of the home" at Epcot. Everyone is already home and the world has come to us, in a Want to visit China but a bit short on American project. technology. the free form we can tolerate-indeed consume­ cash? Come to Epcot, where you can market. and mass education have all been without fear. spend a couple of hours watching videos channeled into the service of an elaborate While I was put off by the audacity of of highlights of Chinese history. eating vision of a classless. stress-free. immacu­ Disney's vision and sheer Americanized versions of Chinese dishes late land of plenty and harmony. ambition-the gall his belief that he might actually served by an appropriately costumed of "cast" of wait persons. and browsing and What's missing in Disney's model, of hang a paper moon over the ruin that ·shopping among the many. many. many course. is the class, race, and gender strife wmmercc- +ms·m1lde of our living space booths and enclaves filled with all the that American technological and eco­ and call it Heaven-1 could certainly un­ Asian-style chotchkes and souvenirs you nomic progress has, in truth, been built derstand why so many chose to ignore the can carry (most of which are available at upon . In Disney's utopia there is no transparent ruse and enjoy the ride they any mall. but not in one convenient .set­ poverty, no crime, no blood, no dirt. The had saved and paid for. It is the illusion of ting). idea that nature might be "red in tooth absolute escape that, understandably and Want to know about the history of com­ and claw" was utte!lY foreign to Disney's justifiably, people come here to experi­ munications'? Just jump in the first open world view. But even more than blood, he ence. knows, down deep, seat in the little train and take yet another abhorred dirt. Everyone that the easy. sight-fillcd·ride. Little wQOden pup­ Indeed, it is no accident that Dimey's real world of work and worry and credit­ pets. meant to represent key figures and central ambassador is a neutered, hairless, card bills that made the trip possibJ~is scenes in communication history. bob civilized rodent-by nature the filthy waiting and that all the social and political scourge of every slum in the developed problems of home are right there waiting. about. sing. and act out facts and dates world. Disney is quoted as saying proudly, And if they choose-as I did not-to re­ and major breakthroughs. There's Sam on more than one occasion, that "Mickey press that truth for the duration, who Morse. looking very much like Ted is a clean mouse." But I could not help could blame them? Turner. but with longer hair. thinking, while touring Mickey's empire, Perhaps the ultimate Disney experience of the New Yorker cartoon in which a returned to Manhattan with pleasure. I is the MOM-Disney Studio ride. a series of bunch of scraggly, highly unclean urban love New York for the very reasons so clips and scenes from movie history. every rats peer at a framed oil painting of the Imany people hate it. In New York ev­ one of which is a simulation of a simula­ Great One in a museum and mutter, erything that's stressful and scary about tion of a memory of a simulation. For "Y cab. but what has be done for his peo­ today·s world, everything Disney tries to memory itself is what Disney has most am­ ple?" deny and mask, is right there, in your face, bitiously and arrogantly confiscated. trans­ Mickey. of course, bas no "people." all the time, everywhere. No one pretends formed. patented. and retailed. And the real "people" who run the to be or feel anything but the raw truth. Walk out of any of the rides or events place-who do indeed bleed and sweat The tension and despair and rage are visi­ and you're on Main Street. 1900. as Nor­ and get dirty as they work to make Disney .ble in the blank faces of those who beg on man Rockwell would have painted it. had World function-are invisible. Inge­ the subways, who rant their mad magical he been able to imagine this many vari- niously. the park is built above an under­ prayers for salvation on every street cor­ . etic:s of mass-produced .. useless objects. all ground system of tunnels that hides the ner, who sleep and eat in the cardboard linked to other Disney attractions. Buy a infrastructure of the park and the workers boxes discarded by those who have too T-shirt and be lured toward the game. or who keep it functional. The "plenty" of much of everything and still demand movie. or ride of the same motif. Pocahon­ Disney's utopia, then. is made to seem en­ more. tas-the biggie this season-was every­ tirely free not only of blood and dirt but of Disney World is the ultimate effort to where seductivdy beckoning us to con­ work itself. deny all that. to create mass social amnesia and blindness. But anyone visiting Times sume further representations of her I was reminded. upon being told of this cinematic image and narrative. In Disney's Square (where Disney's latest gargantuan underground system. of Herman plan to clear the landscapes of reality and version. of course. Pocahontas. her Native Melville's story. "The Paradise of Bache­ replace them with synthetic versions is in American heritage. and her European lors and the Tartarus of Maids," in which a lover arc indistinguishable from Barbie the planning stages) knows that his is ulti­ society of prosperous. pampered white mately a fool's errand. Times Square and and Ken and their state-of-the-art camp­ businessmen lounge in an urban men ·s­ ing gear. its squalid. street-wise denizens-its pimps club environment while. below them. in an and whores and runaways and druggies underground factory/sweatshop world and hustlers and indigents-are not going fdt depressed on our last morning. read­ very similar to Disney's underground ing Tilt! Nt•w York Time:s. dn:ssed inap­ away and they are not about to let Disney workplaces. an army of young working­ World's version of America erase their Ipropriately in black. mentally shooing class women slave away to produce the own nasty reality from sight. The poor and commodities and services upon which the elderly and feeble. the deranged and ad­ away the larger-than-life Mickeys and Plu- "bachelors" thrive. . tos that wander about chatting. up the cus­ dicted and destitute. the runaways from But it's not just domestic. industrial life the real middle AmeriCa. the social and tomers and offering coupons to do ever that Disney renders unthreatening and more Disney things. And yet. it would be sexual and esthetic "deviants" whose consumable. a form of entertainment. It is tastes refuse to be contained by the puri­ unfair to say that I didn't understand or also the specter of cultural and economic appreciate the charm of the place-espe­ tan ethic enforced by Disney-all these globalization that Disney has tamed. are going to stubbornly cling to the skid· cially for families with young kids. One of the most popular Disney rides at Walt Disney, a visionary if there ever row streets that we have forced them into Epcot is called "It's a Small World." In it until we decide to deal with their needs, was one and a serious social thinker in his one rides the usual little train through a way. planted the seeds of what has become and desires. Where else can they possibly series of global scenes in which the ubiqui­ go? a $2:?.billion empire of entertainment, me­ tous wooden puppets. this time painted in That is the truth that Disney World can dia. theme parks. and consumer goods. varying shades of beige. yellow. pink. and never silence or obliterate.• And the signature achievement of his life­ brown. and dressed in "nativt:" attire of long dream is Disney World. an ever- \