[VOID] Biography | Donn Tatum — The Quiet Friday He Opened Walt Disney World

People remember opening day as Roy O. Disney's last public triumph and leave Tatum out of the gate count.

He was already president of Walt Disney Productions, elected on 14 November 1968. He was also the first president of Walt Disney World Co.

On Friday, 1 October 1971, the Magic Kingdom opened on drained swamp sixteen miles southwest of Orlando. The New York Times and UPI both put paying attendance near 10,000, far below the crush officials had feared.

The project had been budgeted in public figures that moved with the years. Contemporary coverage called it a 400-million-dollar resort. Roy had kept the company from taking on extra debt to finish it.

Tatum had been on the three-member executive committee since 1964 and had been Roy's administrative assistant. The Florida land, the hotels, and the castle were already a corporate problem when he took the presidency.

A 1969 Orlando press conference, with Tatum speaking as president of Walt Disney World, had previewed a first phase then costed at 165 million dollars. The park that opened two years later was larger than that slide.

Roy dedicated the resort later in October. He died on 20 December. The man who had already been running the company as president became the first chief executive who was not a Disney.

Cinderella Castle is the public pin. The decision work had been done in Burbank. The gate that opened was here.

Photo: State Archives of Florida, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.