DHI 272 - Strange Stories of Disney History - Volume Three
Disney History Institute Podcast
Todd James Pierce
4.7 • 606 Ratings
🗓️ 5 August 2024
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The story of how a retired Rear Admiral, who used to build aircraft carriers for the Navy, nearly brought swamp-style airboats to Disneyland.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | So, today on the podcast, we have the unusual story about how back in the 1950s, Walt explored a plan to bring airboats to Disneyland as a type of Tomorrowland attraction. |
| 0:15.8 | The type of airboats that were then showing up in South Florida, boats with huge propellers and flat |
| 0:21.6 | aluminum holes that skimmed with futuristic elegance across the surface of the water. |
| 0:27.3 | And as part of this, we also have the story of the person who oversaw that project, Rear |
| 0:33.8 | Admiral Joe Fowler, with some of that information coming from the Naval Holdings at the National Archives. |
| 0:41.3 | But before I get to that, I've got two quick things. |
| 0:45.7 | First, I want to remind everyone that next week, as it's the weekend of the D23 event, |
| 0:53.0 | our weekly episode will be pushed from Sunday to |
| 0:56.2 | sometime early in the week, probably Monday night or maybe Tuesday. Simply, we're going to talk |
| 1:03.3 | about announcements made at the D23 event on our next podcast, but we can't talk about them |
| 1:09.7 | in our usual Sunday release slot if the event is still |
| 1:13.3 | going on. We've done this in the past for some previous D23 Expos, shifted the release date |
| 1:20.0 | by a day or two, and we'll do that this time as well. I'll be at the event, then come home and record. |
| 1:30.7 | So look for our next update early next week instead of on Sunday night. And more importantly, second, I need to thank another round of |
| 1:38.2 | Bandcamp subscribers. I am deeply grateful for each listener who supports us over on Bandcamp, we're an ad-free listener-supported podcast. |
| 1:48.7 | Without our BandCamp subscribers, this show would simply cease to exist. |
| 1:54.9 | So, today thanks are going out to Calvin, Andy, Scott, and Emily. Thanks to each of you for supporting |
| 2:06.9 | all we do here. And now we're going to spin back the clock of time to the 1950s for another |
| 2:15.2 | entry in our Strange Stories series, to a time when Walt was still exploring |
| 2:21.6 | what his park would be, with some early attractions falling away, and other ideas just |
| 2:28.9 | beginning to take shape, a story that I call Admiral Joe Fowler and the Air Boats of Disneyland. |
| 2:46.0 | There were many influences that shaped the original design of Disneyland. |
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