Walt Disney let imagination be his guide

Walt Disney was a true pioneer of 20th century entertainment - a modern-day Aesop who, through characters show-cased in cartoons, films, television and at Disney theme parks, brought his limitless imagination to the hearts, minds and stomachs of millions worldwide.

A leader in television programming, Disney began small-screen production in 1954 with a show that would become the longest-running prime-time series in television history. Originally called "Disneyland," the anthology series ran under six different names and appeared on all three networks over a 29-year run.

Disney later went on to produce the popular "Mickey Mouse Club," and in more recent times the company developed its own cable TV channel.

Ironically, the appetite of a TV network for Disney programming is what catapulted Disney into the foodservice business.

Before launching Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., in 1955, Disney made a deal with the American Broadcasting Co. to help raise the $17 million needed for opening his dream park, since he didn't have enough money, to open it on his own.

"Walt wanted money for his theme park, and ABC wanted Walt Disney on television," recalls Larry Slocum, Disney World's vice president of foodservice. "Walt got money from ABC for Disneyland, and [in return] he went on television."

Disney knew that guests would want to eat during their extended stay at the park, so after selling ABC one-third of Disneyland, he agreed to let ABC's contract foodservice subsidiary, Universal Paramount Theaters, operate most of the park's dozen or so concession stands. They included three "buffeterias," one full-service operation and various fastfood stands. A buffeteria is a Disney term used for a food station that has the accessibility of a cafeteria and the upscale amenities of a buffet.

Disneyland's Main Street U.S.A. was the home of the Maxwell House Coffee Shop, Carnation lee Cream Parlor, Coca-Cola Refreshment Corner, the Plaza Pavilion and the full-service Red Wagon Inn, hosted by Swift & Co. Tomorrowland included the Space Bar, while Fantasyland featured the Pirate Ship Restaurant, sponsored by Chicken of the Sea Tuna; a food and beverage stand and malt shop; Pepsi-Cola's Golden Horseshoe; Aunt Jemima's Pancake House; and Casa de Fritos Mexican Cantina.

In 1955 hamburgers sold for 35 cents; cheeseburgers, 45 cents; ice cream bars, 15 cents; milk shakes, 35 cents; coffee, 10 cents; strawberry shortcake, 35 cents; and jello, 15 cents.

|Not under one umbrella'

But after the Universal Paramount Theaters contracts ran out 10 years later, Disney bought out ABC's stake in Disneyland and took the food operations over to run himself, along with several outside foodservice lessees at specific locations in the park. "Because the [UPT] concessions were not under one umbrella, they had created a city type of atmosphere," Slocum says. "Everybody was trying to beat each other's brains out to get their share of the business."

Slocum explains that Disney was concerned about his lack of control over "theming" and costuming and wanted restaurants to be more in sync with each other.

And he was also furious about public preceptions that Disneyland was not a worthwhile place to eat.

"It wasn't a case of a sudden urge to be lucrative, but rather a desire to control in order to improve quality and service," points out Dick Nunis, chairman of Walt Disney Attractions. "Realistically, profits would improve as quality and service improved, but [profit] wasn't necessarily the driving factor" behind the split with ABC and its subsidiary.

By 1965 Disneyland's food operations were controlled by Disney, and theme restaurants began to change. The Carnation ice cream parlor became Carnation Plaza Gardens, serving salads, sandwiches, hot dogs, hamburgers and beverages. Hills Brothers replaced Maxwell House, and the Tahitian Terrace opened as a full-service restaurant offering authentic Polynesian specials for 30 cents to $1.65 for lunch and 50 cents to $3.75 for dinner.

In 1966 Disneyland's foodservice ambitions were advanced with the debut of the Blue Bayou restaurant in the park's newly developed New Orleans Square area. Through special effects the Blue Bayou replicates a starry night on the outdoor terrace of an antebellum mansion, with fireflies twinkling along the banks of a murmuring canal.

The 250-seat restaurant - the last development in which Walt Disney was involved personally - was to have featured live entertainment. But Disney vetoed the idea for a floor show after a dress rehearsal and trial dinner, saying, "In this restaurant the food is going to be the show, along with the atmosphere," a declaration that set the tone for future dining endeavors in Disney theme parks.

Disney died on Dec. 15, 1966. Five months later his final pet project, the opulent Club 33, opened next door to the Blue Bayou as Disneyland's exclusive members-only hideaway. Disney had conceived the private dining club as a place where he could entertain dignitaries and as a lure to corporate and individual members. Club 33 is still the only place in Disneyland that serves alcoholic beverages.

After Disney's death his quest to improve the quality of life in urban America continued with plans for launching an "experimental prototype community of tomorrow" - hence the acronym Epcot - which he intended to execute on 43 square miles of land he had purchased in central Florida.

As the Disney empire grew, management realized that food was an increasingly important part of the Disney experience, one that had to change along with guests' preferences and the foodservice industry as a whole. In addition to improving quality and service, Disney realized that profitability would improve by meeting those changing consumer preferences.

"As an element of the overall idea, foodservice is added to complement the overall theme," Nunis says. "The menu is not necessarily totally themed, as this might be too restrictive for our broad guest demographics. However, we want to stay on the cutting edge of the foodservice industry, so we balance |comfort' foods with new concepts in food and atmosphere within the original theme."

Nunis also notes that Disney tested the industry's first high-volume conveyor-style hamburger broiler in 1967 and since has worked constantly with manufacturers to improve their machines in terms of speed and end-product quality.

By the mid-1970s, Disney foodservice was in full swing, with the opening of 27,400-acre Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, near Orlando. Theme restaurants included the Liberty Tree Tavern, modeled after an establishment of Colonial times; King Stephan's Banquet Hall in Cinderella's Castle; and the Papeete Bay Verandah at the Polynesian foods are offered.

In 1983 Disney licensed the Oriental Land Co. to open a Disneyland on the outskirts of Tokyo. Unsure if the project would be a hit, Disney did not sink any money into the operation and receives only between 7 percent and 10 percent in royalties from the park's revenues. The foodservice is similar to Disneyland's and includes only one Japanese and one Chinese restaurant for visitors unfamiliar with American cuisine.

By the 1980s Walt Disney World was selling 4.4 million hamburgers a year, followed by 4 million ice-cream cones and 3 million hot dogs. However, upscale theme restaurants were poised for a major debut at the Florida resort.

Epcot Center represented the most ambitious array of theme foodservice operations ever launched by Disney, and it came with a hefty price tag of more than $1 billion by opening day in October 1992. In charge were company veterans Jim Armstrong, a former Restaurant Associates executive who was Disney's vice president of food administration, and Jim Athanas, who was in charge of Epcot's food operations and who currently is in France fine-tuning operations at the Euro Disney Resort near Paris.

"I think we've grown," Disney World's Slocum says. "The food has become more a part of the show as opposed to it being a convenience. We showcase the cuisine."

Epcot Center, an $800 million project, includes exhibits on technology as well as the World Showcase aggregation of foreign restaurant pavilions from countries around the world. Among Epcot's dining attractions are a British pub, complete with "pub grub"; a Japanese tea house, Mitsukoshi, featuring stir-fry and other Japanese fare; L'Originale Alfredo of Rome, operating in the Italian pavilion; and Les Chefs de France, launched by the renowned French chefs Paul Bocuse, Roger Verge and Gaston Lenotre.

In some cases 10-year participant relationships were established, where the food pavilions are owned, operated and staffed by nationals from the country whose cuisine is represented. For instance, such arrangements were made with Les Chefs de France and with the 244-seat Moroccan restaurant, owned by Moroccan foodservice veterans Rachid Lyazidi and Rachid Choufani.

152 Orlando restaurants by '85

By 1985 Disney had 152 restaurants in its Florida theme park and foodservice sales of $220 million, and it was serving 150,000 meals a day. Armstrong, Disney World's food administration vice president, told Nation's Restaurant News in 1985 that Disney restaurants feature "anything but standardization."

By the same year Disney World had 8,000 menu items and recipes, with 3,000 of them in a computer data base. Food was supplied by a central food distribution center.

In 1990 Disney launched Mickey's Kitchen, a Disney-themed fast-food concept meant to introduce food into Disney's growing chain of shopping mall-based retail stores. After two years the only two Mickey's Kitchen units, in Montclair Calif., and Schaumburg, III., were closed, with officials explaining that the concept had failed to yield the results necessary for expanding the concept.

Undeterred by the setback in non-theme-park restaurant development, Disney-MGM ahead with the opening of its Disney-MGM Studios theme park in Disney World. "We expanded the theme thing at MGM Studios and with the European park," explains Slocum, alluding to the fact that restaurants have become more a part of the overall Disney experience than ever before.

Disney-MGM Studios, with its Prime-Time Cafe and Tune-In Lounge, Hollywood Brown Derby and Sci-Fi Dine-in Theater, brought themes to new heights as the dining concepts themselves became attractions, as they are at the new Euro Disneyland theme park in France.

In 1991 Disney incorporated nutrition into its repertoire, subtituting lean beef patties for hamburgers, pasta for chicken fingers and light margarine for butter. Disney revamped thousands of recipes during the push but didn't toot its horn about the changes so that guests would not be alarmed.

The new Euro Disney Resort in France is the latest addition to the Disney empire. With 29 restaurants, the park has the capacity to feed 14,000 people per hour. It also has 2,100 outdoor seats to satiate Europeans' penchant for sidewalk dining.

Disney's foodservice reputation has grown in the past decade as the company has attracted a wealth of culinary talent.

While in the throes of a labor crunch, Disney started a culinary apprenticeship program in the mid-1980s to enhance its culinary reputation, while hoping to attract young, talented chefs. The apprenticeship program was launched in conjunction with the American Culinary Federation.

Culinary Team Disney became a contributing sponsor to Team USA when Epcot Center executive chef Keith Keogh was name manager of the national Culinary Olympics in Germany.

The next chapters in the foodservice history of the Walt Disney Co. will be written in France, Florida, California and Japan, where long-range plans call for new theme parks and resort hotels to be built as complements to existing Disney operations.

If Disney were alive today, he undoubtedly would include those worldwide ventures in the vow he made during a festive opening day in Anaheim 37 years ago, when his company commenced foodservice operations: "Disneyland will never be completed as long as thee is imagination left in the world."

COPYRIGHT 1992 Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group