Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 12, 1993 TAG: 9311120158
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG SCHNEIDER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Whatever the phrase "Disney's America" conjures in your mind - say, President Mickey in an Uncle Sam hat singing "Yankee Doodle Dandy" to the 101 Dalmatians - it's probably not like the 1,200-acre theme park Disney officials described Thursday for a site in Prince William County.
"Disney's America is not a fantasyland," project designer Bob Weis said in announcing details of the "several-hundred-million-dollar" project. "We will not be afraid to focus on real issues of today. . . . We will not have to clean everything up and make everything nice."
Well, not too much.
Go on a "break-neck white-water ride" with the Lewis and Clark expedition!
Relax in a World War II officers' club - "but not for too long. Doncha know, there's a goin' on!"
Travel through the Great Depression in "celebration of the irrepressible optimism of the American spirit!"
That's how a patriotic, eight-minute video described some of the nine sections of the park, which could open as soon as 1998. It would employ almost 3,000 people and generate $1.5 billion in state and local tax revenues over 30 years, according to Disney.
But the video and earnest Disney executives emphasized repeatedly that the park will highlight conflict and diversity along with fun and diversion.
A 360-degree movie palace will put you on the Underground Railroad and give "a real sense of the emotional impact of slavery and why it was abolished," Weis said. The Native American Village will show "a complex and sophisticated life lived in harmony with the land long before . . . European settlers pushed it to the edge of extinction," said the video narration.
One ride will take you on a runaway conveyor belt in a steel foundry. Civil War soldiers will re-create battles and put you in a uniform to fire cannons. Stage shows will celebrate American music, including jazz and hip-hop. A row of ethnic restaurants will accompany a re-creation of the New York City's Ellis Island immigration office. At night, the ironclads Monitor and Merrimac will battle beneath fireworks.
"This is an idea that only works in this location," said Peter Rummell, president of Disney Design and Development Co.
Virginia saw the first English settlement at Jamestown, he said, produced the Declaration of Independence and eight presidents and cradled the Civil War. "If you take [the history park] to Kansas, it doesn't work."
"But it's also very much about today," Weis said. "Young people can come debate about the future and the present. We can host seminars, debates, activities. It will be a constantly changing place."
The project has been planned in secret for two years. Smaller in scope than Florida's Disney World or California's Disneyland, Disney's America would close for the coldest months. Reports out Thursday said the park could host up to 30,000 people a day. Disney would not confirm that figure.
The project apparently fell without warning into the laps of Gov. Douglas Wilder and Gov.-elect George Allen, who struggled to contain their enthusiasm.
"You've made two administrations very happy with your selection," said Allen, sunburned from a recent vacation in Florida. He said he happened to be at Disney World with his wife and children when corporate Chairman Michael Eisner tracked him down and outlined the project. "It was a good, coincidental omen," Allen said.
Wilder said he has known of the project for two weeks, and stressed that he has promised no incentives. His staff began Thursday to look at how much it might cost the state to widen the Interstate 66 interchange and to help bring utilities to the site.
State officials clearly were eager to make the Old Dominion a Magic Kingdom.
"Our administration will certainly kick down any hurdles that you have," Allen told Rummell.
Don't worry, Wilder said later in Richmond. "We're going to leave as few hurdles for him to kick over as possible."
by CNB