In 1965, as the fair wound down, Walt Disney was quietly acquiring 28,000 acres for something big in Central Florida. Potter’s next task was helping to build New York’s World’s Fair of 1964, putting him in direct contact with Walt Disney who debuted It’s A Small World and the Abraham Lincoln animatronic from the future Hall of Presidents. And at the Panama Canal, he served as governor in charge of business operations and the 40,000 people who lived there from 1956 to 1960. In World War II, Potter oversaw sending mass numbers of men and supplies overseas for the invasion of northern France. The general had been responsible for high-stakes, high-profile projects throughout his career before Disney World. Disney” in Orlando as he became the liaison for the company. Again, it was Potter who went on the public relations offensive, negotiating and cajoling and earning himself the nickname “Mr. Orlando didn’t have a major airport as it was about to become a tourism hotspot. To make Disney World, something had to be done about Bay Lake.Īlong the way, there were political landmines that could implode at any time.Ī few holdout landowners unwilling to sell. On a boat ride through the canal, Potter and his team brought a gun because snakes hung from the trees, his daughter recounted. This was an old Florida back then, more rugged, wild and so far away from the well-manicured Disney grounds known today. The bulldozers tore through, uprooting trees, and crews tamed what was an alligator- and snake-infested swamp of Central Florida in the late 1960s. Army general led the massive construction project to get Disney’s land ready to build a theme park. In his early 60s, the graying retired U.S. Hipp discovered a handwritten budget for the Magic Kingdom drawn up by the general when going through Potter’s belongings years after his death. Potter’s daughter, Jo Ann Heine, tells stories of how Walt and the general, two good friends, made bets with each other to stop smoking and how Potter once shared a golf cart ride with Dolly Parton at Epcot’s grand opening.Īttorney Kent Hipp, the general’s grandson, displays a photograph of Walt Disney holding him as an baby in his downtown Orlando office. Potter died at age 83 in 1988 after remaining in Central Florida for the rest of his life post-Disney retirement, but the memories still run deep with his daughter and grandson who live in Orlando.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |