Roller Coasters, Flumes & Flying Saucers
Author: Robert R. Reynolds
Publisher:
Published: 1999
Total Pages: 0
ISBN-13: 9780965735353
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Three Years in Wonderland
Author: Todd James Pierce
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
Published: 2016-03-10
Total Pages: 304
ISBN-13: 1496803817
DOWNLOAD EBOOKWhile the success of Disneyland is largely credited to Walt and Roy Disney, there was a third, mostly forgotten dynamo instrumental to the development of the park--fast-talking Texan C. V. Wood. Three Years in Wonderland presents the never-before-told, full story of "the happiest place on earth." Using information from over one hundred unpublished interviews, Todd James Pierce lays down the arc of Disneyland's development from an idea to a paragon of entertainment. In the early 1950s, the Disney brothers hired Wood and his team to develop a feasibility study for an amusement park Walt wanted to build in southern California. "Woody" quickly became a central figure. In 1954, Roy Disney hired him as Disneyland's first official employee, its first general manager, and appointed him vice president of Disneyland, Inc., where his authority was exceeded only by Walt. A brilliant project manager, Wood was also a con man of sorts. Previously, he had forged his university diploma. A smooth-talker drawn to Hollywood, the first general manager of Disneyland valued money over art. As relations soured between Wood and the Disney brothers, Wood found creative ways to increase his income, leveraging his position for personal fame. Eventually, tensions at the Disney park reached a boiling point, with Walt demanding he be fired. In compelling detail, Three Years in Wonderland lays out the struggles and rewards of building the world's first cinematic theme park and convincing the American public that a $17 million amusement park was the ideal place for a family vacation. The early experience of Walt Disney, Roy Disney, and C. V. Wood is one of the most captivating untold stories in the history of Hollywood. Pierce interviewed dozens of individuals who enjoyed long careers at the Walt Disney Company as well as dozens of individuals who--like C. V. Wood--helped develop the park but then left the company for good once the park was finished. Through much research and many interviews, Three Years in Wonderland offers readers a rare opportunity to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the men and women who built the best-known theme park in the world.
The Disneyland Encyclopedia
Author: Chris Strodder
Publisher: Santa Monica Press
Published: 2017-04-11
Total Pages: 525
ISBN-13: 1595807985
DOWNLOAD EBOOKCompletely updated and expanded with over 50 new entries and 300 new photos, The Disneyland Encyclopedia spans the entire history of the park, from its founding more than 50 years ago to the present day. This fascinating book features detailed explorations of 600 Disneyland topics, including lands, attractions, restaurants, stores, events, and significant people. Each of the main encyclopedia entries illuminates the history of a Disneyland landmark, revealing the initial planning strategies for the park’s iconic attractions and detailing how they evolved over the decades. Enriching this unique A-to-Z chronicle are profiles of the personalities who imagined and engineered the kingdom known as “The Happiest Place on Earth.” Discover unbuilt concepts, including Liberty Street, Rock Candy Mountain, and Chinatown, and delight in fascinating trivia about long-lost Disneyland features, from the real rifles in the shooting gallery that was once located on Main Street to the jet-packed Rocket Man who flew above Tomorrowland. The new “Mouscellany" feature adds fun facts, hidden secrets, and odd trivia to the third edition. Overflowing with meticulously researched details and written in a spirited, accessible style, The Disneyland Encyclopedia is a comprehensive and entertaining exploration of the most-influential, most-renovated, and most-loved theme park in the world!
Stealth
Author: Peter J. Westwick
Publisher:
Published: 2020
Total Pages: 270
ISBN-13: 0190677449
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe story behind the technology that revolutionized both aeronautics, and the course of history On a moonless night in January 1991, a dozen airplanes appeared in the skies over Baghdad. Or, rather, didn't appear. They arrived in the dark, their black outlines cloaking them from sight. More importantly, their odd, angular shapes, which made them look like flying origami, rendered them undetectable to Iraq's formidable air defenses. Stealth technology, developed during the decades before Desert Storm, had arrived. To American planners and strategists at the outset of the Cold War, this seemingly ultimate way to gain ascendance over the USSR was only a question. What if the United States could defend its airspace while at the same time send a plane through Soviet skies undetected? A craft with such capacity would have to be essentially invisible to radar - an apparently miraculous feat of physics and engineering. In Stealth, Peter Westwick unveils the process by which the impossible was achieved. At heart, Stealth is a tale of two aerospace companies, Lockheed and Northrop, and their fierce competition - with each other and with themselves - to obtain what was estimated one of the largest procurement contracts in history. Westwick's book fully explores the individual and collective ingenuity and determination required to make these planes and in the process provides a fresh view of the period leading up to the end of the Soviet Union. Taking into account the role of technology, as well as the art and science of physics and engineering, Westwick offers an engaging narrative, one that immerses readers in the race to produce a weapon that some thought might save the world, and which certainly changed it.
Disney's Land
Author: Richard Snow
Publisher: Scribner
Published: 2020-12-01
Total Pages: 432
ISBN-13: 1501190814
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA propulsive and “entertaining” (The Wall Street Journal) history chronicling the conception and creation of the iconic Disneyland theme park, as told like never before by popular historian Richard Snow. One day in the early 1950s, Walt Disney stood looking over 240 acres of farmland in Anaheim, California, and imagined building a park where people “could live among Mickey Mouse and Snow White in a world still powered by steam and fire for a day or a week or (if the visitor is slightly mad) forever.” Despite his wealth and fame, exactly no one wanted Disney to build such a park. Not his brother Roy, who ran the company’s finances; not the bankers; and not his wife, Lillian. Amusement parks at that time, such as Coney Island, were a generally despised business, sagging and sordid remnants of bygone days. Disney was told that he would only be heading toward financial ruin. But Walt persevered, initially financing the park against his own life insurance policy and later with sponsorship from ABC and the sale of thousands and thousands of Davy Crockett coonskin caps. Disney assembled a talented team of engineers, architects, artists, animators, landscapers, and even a retired admiral to transform his ideas into a soaring yet soothing wonderland of a park. The catch was that they had only a year and a day in which to build it. On July 17, 1955, Disneyland opened its gates…and the first day was a disaster. Disney was nearly suicidal with grief that he had failed on a grand scale. But the curious masses kept coming, and the rest is entertainment history. Eight hundred million visitors have flocked to the park since then. In Disney’s Land, “Snow brings a historian’s eye and a child’s delight, not to mention superb writing, to the telling of this fascinating narrative” (Ken Burns) that “will entertain Disneyphiles and readers of popular American history” (Publishers Weekly).
Entertainment Engineering
Author: John W. Wesner
Publisher: Lulu.com
Published: 2013
Total Pages: 216
ISBN-13: 1304351831
DOWNLOAD EBOOKEngineering lies behind almost every type of entertainment, from the press that printed this book, through special effects in many movies, to the creation of ""rides"" based upon flight simulators and industrial robots.
Disney's Dream Weavers
Author: Chuck Schmidt
Publisher: Theme Park Press
Published: 2017-02-19
Total Pages: 130
ISBN-13: 9781683900467
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA Web of Disney. In this unique comparative history, newspaper journalist Chuck Schmidt traces the slender, often invisible strands that connect four monumental achievements in our pop culture: Disneyland, Freedomland, the 1964-65 New York World's Fair, and Walt Disney World.
Making Leisure Work
Author: Brian Lonsway
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-09-13
Total Pages: 273
ISBN-13: 1134718292
DOWNLOAD EBOOKContemporary architecture of theme-based design is examined in this book, leading to a new understanding of architecture's role in the increasingly diversified consumer environment. It explores the ‘Experience Economy’ to reveal how everyday environments strategically and opportunistically blur our leisure, work, and personal life experiences. Considering scientific design research, consumer psychology, and Hollywood story-telling techniques, the book looks at how the design of theme parks, casinos, and shopping malls has influenced our more unexpectedly themed spaces, from the city to the hospital. Widely taking architecture as a social practice, this text is of relevance to all cultural and sociological studies in the built and material environment.
Cedar Point
Author: David W. Francis
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Published: 2004
Total Pages: 132
ISBN-13: 9780738532349
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIn 1870, Louis Zistel began ferrying passengers from Sandusky to the Cedar Point Peninsula's beer garden and sandy beaches. In 1888, the Grand Pavilion was built, housing a massive theatre, bowling alley, photographic studio, and kitchen, and shortly thereafter, the resort's first roller coaster was installed. George Boeckling transformed the resort into a self-sufficient city and amusement park, but the park suffered badly in the 1930s economic depression. However, after Cedar Point changed hands several times in the 1950s, it became one of America's leading amusement parks. Today, the park is best known as the world's largest amusement park and the "Roller Coaster Capital of the World."
Walt Disney and the Quest for Community
Author: Steve Mannheim
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2016-02-24
Total Pages: 218
ISBN-13: 1317000587
DOWNLOAD EBOOKDuring the final months of his life, Walt Disney was consumed with the world-wide problems of cities. His development concept at the time of his death on December 15th, 1966 would be his team’s conceptual response to the ills of the inner cities and the sprawl of the megalopolis: the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow or, as it became known, EPCOT. This beautifully written, instantly engrossing volume focuses on the original concept of EPCOT, which was conceived by Disney as an experimental community of about 20,000 people on the Disney World property in central Florida. With its radial plan, 50-acre town center enclosed by a dome, themed international shopping area, greenbelt, high-density apartments, satellite communities, monorail and underground roads, the original EPCOT plan is reminiscent of post-war Stockholm and the British New Towns, as well as today's transit-oriented development theory. Unfortunately, Disney himself did not live long enough to witness the realization of his model city. However, EPCOT's evolution into projects such as the EPCOT Center and the town of Celebration displays a remarkable commitment by the Disney organization to the original EPCOT philosophy, one which continues to have relevance in the fields of planning and development.
