Disney's America

Summary

Today, Explained: Disney's America – A Detailed Summary

Episode Title: Disney's America
Release Date: July 3, 2025
Hosts: Sean Rameswaram and Noel King
Author: Vox
Description:
Today, Explained is Vox's daily news explainer podcast. Hosts Sean Rameswaram and Noel King guide listeners through the most important stories of the day. This episode delves into Disney's ambitious yet ultimately failed project to create a theme park centered around American history.

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Introduction

The episode begins by contextualizing the current climate of intense debates over American history, highlighting various controversies from political maneuvers to altered historical narratives. Amidst these heated discussions, the focus shifts to a particularly unique and audacious attempt by Disney to encapsulate American history within a theme park—a venture that ultimately did not succeed.

Jackie Schein:
"But since it's the fourth, we at Today Explained thought we'd take a look at a very different fight over our history to see if we can learn anything from it..." [00:38]

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Background: Disney’s Ambition

Historian Jackie Schein, a historian at DePaul University, provides a comprehensive background on Disney's trajectory leading up to the creation of Disney's America. Under CEO Michael Eisner's leadership starting in 1984, Disney experienced the "Disney Renaissance" with a series of successful animated films like The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast.

Michael Eisner:
"I can assure you that I did not come to this organization to watch it be dismantled. It's essential to do what I'm sure Walt Disney himself would have done..." [02:33]

Buoyed by past successes, Eisner envisioned the "Disney Decade," aiming for expansive growth in Disney's parks and resorts. This ambition was evident in the grand opening of Euro Disney, which, despite its early financial losses, set the stage for Disney's continued expansion efforts.

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The Birth of Disney's America

In the early 1990s, seeking to pivot after Euro Disney’s struggles, Disney initiated plans for a history-themed park in Virginia. Unlike traditional Disney parks, this venture, dubbed Disney's America, aimed to present a nuanced and immersive portrayal of American history without relying on classic Disney characters.

Bob Weiss (Head of Disney's America Project):
"We envision Disney's America as a place to debate and discuss the future of our nation and to learn more about the past by living it." [07:05]

Visual elements from the brochure included sections like Crossroads USA, Native America, Civil War Fort, and American Immigration, each promising interactive and educational experiences. For instance, visitors would board an 1840s train to explore pivotal historical periods, from the Revolutionary War to the Industrial Revolution.

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Public Reception and Initial Support

Initially, Disney's proposal was met with optimism. The promise of economic development and an innovative educational experience garnered interest and support from local communities and stakeholders.

Michael Eisner:
"This park... is going to give us an opportunity to really get some gutsy, emotional views in there. And we're hoping to be a little controversial, to fairly represent things that are negative about..." [06:36]

However, the ambitious nature of the project soon sparked skepticism and concern among historians and the public regarding Disney's ability to authentically and respectfully portray complex historical events.

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Rising Opposition and Public Debate

The announcement of Disney's America faced immediate criticism. Historians and community members questioned whether Disney could responsibly handle the sensitive aspects of American history without oversimplifying or commercializing them.

Michael Eisner:
"They want to move in and destroy real history in order to create a facsimile, something synthetic plastic." [18:28]

A significant turning point occurred during Senate Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee hearings, where Disney's proposal was scrutinized. Eisner's combative stance and dismissive remarks about historians—"I sat through many history classes where I read some of their stuff and I didn't learn anything. It was pretty boring." [19:06]—further fueled the controversy.

Notably, high-profile figures like Don Henley of the Eagles joined the opposition group Protect Historic America, amplifying the backlash against the theme park.

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Escalation to National Protests

By September 1994, opposition had reached a critical mass, culminating in a massive protest where approximately 3,000 people marched on the National Mall to voice their dissent against Disney's America.

Jackie Schein:
"Close to 3,000 opponents, including activist Ralph Nader, came from as far away as Florida, California and New York and as close as various counties in Virginia to have their say..." [20:07]

This public outcry was mirrored in national media coverage, significantly diminishing public support for the project, which plummeted to around 25% in national polls.

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Disney’s Withdrawal and Aftermath

Facing overwhelming opposition and dwindling support, Disney announced the withdrawal of Disney's America from the Virginia site in September 1994.

Historian Jackie Schein:
"At the end of September 94, the company announces that Disney was withdrawing from the Virginia site. It's clear that people don't want it to be cited where it is and they're giving up. It's over for Disney's America." [20:50]

The failure of Disney's America serves as a cautionary tale about the challenges of commercializing and presenting complex historical narratives within the framework of a theme park.

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Reflections and Contemporary Connections

Jackie Schein reflects on the uniqueness of Disney's attempt, noting that while other ventures like Freedomland USA also incorporated historical elements, Disney's America uniquely ignited such widespread opposition due to the sanctity attributed to Civil War battlefields and the integrity expected in historical representation.

Historian Jackie Schein:
"Any kind of debate about public history is always going to be about trying to stake some sort of political or ideological claim about the meaning of American history..." [23:10]

Connecting to contemporary issues, Schein draws parallels between the debates surrounding Disney's America and current disputes over the portrayal of American history, emphasizing the ongoing struggle to balance entertainment with respectful and accurate historical representation.

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Conclusion

Disney's America represents a bold but ill-fated attempt to bridge entertainment and education through a theme park dedicated to American history. The episode highlights the complexities and sensitivities involved in such an endeavor, illustrating how public perception, historical integrity, and commercial interests can collide. Ultimately, the episode serves as a reflection on how society navigates the representation of its past within popular culture.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• Michael Eisner:
  "I can assure you that I did not come to this organization to watch it be dismantled..." [02:33]

• Bob Weiss:
  "We envision Disney's America as a place to debate and discuss the future of our nation..." [07:05]

• Michael Eisner on Historians:
  "I sat through many history classes where I read some of their stuff and I didn't learn anything. It was pretty boring." [19:06]

• Jackie Schein on Public Support Decline:
  "Nationally, public support for the park has dropped to like 25% in national polls." [20:46]

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Production Credits:

• Host: Jackie Schein, Historian at DePaul University
• Production Team: Peter Ballin, Jolie Myers, Laura Bullard, Andrea Christensdottir, Patrick Boyd, Aminah Al Saadi, Miranda Kennedy, Gabrielle Burbe, Devin Schwartz, Denise Guerra, Miles, Bryan Abhishai Artsy, Hadima Wagdi
• Special Mention: Victoria Chamberlain, long-time producer
• Distribution: WNYC, part of Vox Media Podcast Network

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This comprehensive summary captures the essence of the "Disney's America" episode, outlining the key points, discussions, and outcomes of Disney's ambitious yet ultimately unsuccessful endeavor to create a history-themed amusement park.

Transcript

[Jackie Schein]

There's a historic number of fights over American history right now. Take your pick. They range from the outlandish President Trump directed, the most complex and secretive military.

[Michael Eisner]

Operation in history, Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.

[Jackie Schein]

To the sketchy critics attacked the U.S.

[Michael Eisner]

Department of Defense after a webpage was removed that honored the military career of.

[Jackie Schein]

Sports legend Jackie Robinson to the existential.

[Narrator]

The Internet's talking about this one today. The National Park Service has removed a reference to Harriet Tubman from a webpage about the Underground Railroad.

[Jackie Schein]

But since it's the fourth, we at Today Explained thought we'd take a look at a very different fight over our history to see if we can learn anything from it on the show today, we're going to talk about the one time Disney tried to make a theme park out of American history, warts and all. Spoiler alert. It did not go well.

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[Jackie Schein]

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[Historian]

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[Historian]

It's today, explained.

[Jackie Schein]

Jackie Shine's a historian at DePaul University in Chicago who knows a thing or two about Disney. So he asked them where the story of Disney's America begins.

[Historian]

The story of Disney's America, one of the most high profile failed Disney projects probably in the company's history, begins with Michael Eisner, who came to Disney as its CEO and chairman in 1984. Eisner is ambitious, aggressive.

[Michael Eisner]

I can assure you that I did not come to this organization to watch it be dismantled. It's essential to do what I'm sure Walt Disney himself would have done, which is to experiment with every new and innovative kind of entertainment possible, whether it.

[Historian]

Be over the next 10 years, in what Disney buffs call the Disney Renaissance, the company has this enormous critical and commercial success with a run of animated movies. The juggernaut of this is the Little Mermaid, Ariel. Listen to me, followed by Beauty and the Beast.

[Jackie Schein]

Hail as old as Time.

[Historian]

The Lion King, Aladdin, maybe. High on that supply, Eisner announces this plan for what he calls the the Disney Decade.

[Michael Eisner]

Tonight, the world of Walt Disney comes alive here in Europe.

[Historian]

Which is this broad expansion of the company's parks and resorts.

[Jackie Schein]

With the grand opening of Euro Disney.

[Historian]

This doesn't go quite the way that they hope it will. It loses nearly a billion dollars in its first year. So the failure of Euro Disney leads the company to sort of want to pivot to more U.S. expansion on smaller park projects. In 1991, the head of the parks division brings Eisner and Disney's president, Frank Wells to Colonial Williamsburg. This inspires this plan for a history themed Disney park, Disney's America, which they want to put in Virginia because they imagine that it can become part of the D.C. area tourist economy. That a Disney theme park that is about American history will fit really well into this context. This is not a project that was supposed to involve Mickey Mouse or any of the Disney icons. Disney was starting work on Pocahontas.

[Narrator]

Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?

[Historian]

Eisner says that he was reading a lot about John Smith and Pocahontas. Okay, my man, whatever. And that internally, the company was interested in democracy as a sort of. As a thematic subject.

[Jackie Schein]

Okay. So Eisner and Disney have an idea of what they don't want to do and perhaps more importantly, what they do want to do with this park. To build it, obviously you're going to need some land. I imagine Disney just didn't already have a huge parcel of property in what, Northern Virginia Ish. Do they. Do they buy some?

[Historian]

They do. Between 1991 and 1993, Disney secretly begins up buying parcels of land in the area through shell companies. The guy who was in charge of buying apparently used fake Persona Land.

[Jackie Schein]

Please.

[Historian]

Like, this was very undercover. This is all happening secretly. It is also less than five miles from a National Park Service Civil War battlefield. Manassas. This is a place where about 3,700 men died and where there were about 25,000 total casualties.

[Jackie Schein]

And they're doing this secretly. At what point does Manassas Does Virginia find out that Mickey Mouse is buying up their land?

[Historian]

Almost everybody finds out. In November 1993, when Disney announces the project.

[Michael Eisner]

The newest Magic Kingdom will actually.

[Jackie Schein]

Be more a democracy.

[Michael Eisner]

Disney's America will serve, we think, as an ideal complement to people visiting this area's museums, monuments, and national treasures and feel and be a part of history.

[Historian]

I think initially people received this warmly because Disney's promising a significant amount of economic development for the region, and Disney is promising a complex experience of American history there.

[Michael Eisner]

This park, because it's not Disneyland, because it's a new kind of park for us, is going to give us an opportunity to really get some gutsy, emotional views in there. And we're hoping to. To really be a little controversial, to fairly represent things that are negative about.

[Historian]

America, things that the guy who heads the Disney's America project, this guy Bob Weiss, says in the press release that Disney releases, that they envision Disney's America as a place to debate and discuss the future of our nation and to learn more about the past by living it. And they are quick to say that this is a project that is not going to whitewash American history. Eisner is interviewed in the Washington Post the next day. He says that the park will present painful, disturbing, agonizing history. We're going to be sensitive, but we will not be showing the absolute propaganda of the country. We will show the Civil War with all this racial conflict.

[Jackie Schein]

This was a very serious, very powerful, very successful entertainment executives saying, we're gonna make a kiddie theme park that will take our most brutal history seriously.

[Historian]

Yes. And I think, like you, a lot of people had trouble with that contradiction. The day after this press release is issued, Disney holds a press conference in Haymarket. At this presser, Bob Weiss, he says, this will be entertaining in the sense that it would leave you something you could mull over.

[Jackie Schein]

We want to make you a Civil War soldier. We want to make you feel what it was like to be a slave or what it was like to escape through the Underground railroad. Weiss told a packed room of reporters. The Washington Post, November 11, 1993.

[Historian]

This moment, I think, comes to define this conflict in the public eye.

[Jackie Schein]

It's such a nutty thing to hear a serious person say, yes, your kids can come to our theme park, home of Mickey Mouse, and find out what it's like to be a slave. I imagine at this point, people are just like, I'm sorry, I'm gonna need some more specifics.

[Historian]

Yes, they put out a brochure, which is where a lot of the information that we have about what this would have been like comes from. You enter at Crossroads usa.

[Michael Eisner]

It is from Crossroads USA that visitors can either head forward or backward in time.

[Historian]

And there you board an 1840s train.

[Jackie Schein]

All above.

[Historian]

That takes you first to President Sea Square, which they say celebrates the birth of democracy. It's about the Revolutionary War.

[Jackie Schein]

1 if by land, two if by sea.

[Historian]

You follow that to Native America. They say guests may visit an Indian village representing such eastern tribes as the Powhatans or join in a harrowing Lewis and Clark raft expedition through pounding rapids and churning whirlpools. We're gonna be educating people about manifest destiny here. We move from Native America to the Civil War fort, where they say you're going to experience the reality of a soldier's daily life. After the Civil War fort, you go to a section on American immigration, and they're going to build a replica Ellis island building. Some sources indicate they would have done a show called the Muppets Take America.

[Narrator]

Oh, wow.

[Jackie Schein]

Right by the Statue of Liberty. She's so tall and so green, just like me.

[Narrator]

Eyes off that green lady, Kermit.

[Jackie Schein]

That makes sense. Cause they all look different.

[Historian]

I'm confident that it would have ripped. The Muppets rule.

[Jackie Schein]

The Muppets don't fail. They can't miss.

[Historian]

Right.

[Narrator]

We're here in America.

[Historian]

The next section is a factory town called Enterprise that centers on a high speed adventure ride called the Industrial Revolution that involves a narrow escape from its fiery vat of molten steel. Then you go to Victory Field. Guests at Victory Field may parachute from a plane or operate tanks and weapons in combat. You then hit the last two areas. State fair and family farm. Learn how to make homemade ice cream or milk a cow. Even purchase a in a nearby country wedding. I do farm dance and buffet.

[Jackie Schein]

Mm, mm, mm. Tasty. This sounds like one doozy of a brochure. Does it work? Does it convince everyone?

[Historian]

Yes and no.

[Jackie Schein]

Does. Does that slow down Michael Eisner? Is he. Is he ready to give up?

[Historian]

No. And that is where the fight begin.

[Michael Eisner]

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[Jackie Schein]

You're listening to Today, explained with writer and historian Jackie Schein. Jackie, when we left off, we got a big doozy of a brochure from the Walt Disney Company trying to sell this park to the good people of Virginia in particular. But you say that it does not really convince everyone, but Disney CEO Michael Eisner is not ready to give up. How does he persist?

[Historian]

People hook in in particular to this idea that Disney's gonna include some sort of element about American chattel slavery. And he is aggressive about saying, you know, no, we weren't gonna do that. Why would you think that?

[Jackie Schein]

Eisner said critics of the concept of slavery exhibit have assumed something before the fact, which is always dangerous. He added, I really don't think they think that to feel like being a slave, we're going to whip them. The Washington Post, December 18, 1993.

[Historian]

He is really persuaded that Disney's big swing can work, that this idea has value and merit, and that the people who are standing against it are misguided.

[Jackie Schein]

At this point, is this fight, you know, relegated to Virginia or is it getting bigger? This is obviously a international company with a huge cultural footprint.

[Historian]

It's getting bigger. One of the things that contributes to this is that the Washington Post does a lot of coverage of this, which makes it go national. And it starts this debate in editorial pages about whether or not Disney can responsibly represent American history and whether or not the Disneyfication of American history is advisable.

[Jackie Schein]

Disney's business is selling entertainment. Mr. Eisner would do better to simply admit that than to pretend that Disney's.

[Michael Eisner]

America is going to significant, significantly expand the nation's appreciation of its history.

[Narrator]

It wasn't entertaining to work in cotton and tobacco fields from sun up to sundown. And it wasn't entertaining to make decisions you knew would cost lives. Real history isn't entertaining.

[Historian]

With the advent of Disney's America, the big bad wolf is standing right outside the door, poised to devour our past. One of the early kind of high water marks is in February 1994 when the new New York Times editorial board weighs in on this in an unsigned editorial.

[Narrator]

For parents who want to give their children history, let them, like generations before.

[Jackie Schein]

Them, make the trip to Prince William County.

[Narrator]

Let them sit still at Manassas and.

[Jackie Schein]

Listen for the presence of the dead. Don't cater to the kids. Make the kids consume adult history.

[Historian]

Right, right. And that, you know, this veneration of the Civil War battlefield as a site that demands specific, careful interpretation and that will be demeaned or diminished by the presence of a Disney park.

[Jackie Schein]

And what happens when national papers, opinion columns start weighing in on this debate?

[Historian]

So a few things happen. And in early 1994, a strong coalition of opponents develops, including people in Prince William county who are concerned about preserving the environment there. A coterie of powerful people who own land in that area. But then the historians get involved. Uh oh, the big guns come out when this group called Protect Historic America launches. This is a group of big name, high powered academics.

[Michael Eisner]

If you were to search from here to California, you could hardly find a more inappropriate place for a huge sprawling commercial development. And yet that is exactly what the Disney Corporation intends to do. And the irony is they want to do it in the name of history.

[Historian]

In very short order, dozens and dozens of historians volunteer their time to write editorials, to comment to the media. They are really fired up about this.

[Michael Eisner]

They want to move in and destroy real history in order to create a facsimile, something synthetic plastic.

[Historian]

One of the people who becomes really involved in this is Don Henley of the Eagles.

[Jackie Schein]

What?

[Historian]

Take it easy. I don't really know why, but Don Henley becomes one of the big names attached to Protect Historic America.

[Jackie Schein]

I guess the Eagles have some songs that are like loosely about U.S. history. Like the Last Resort, they came from everywhere.

[Narrator]

Fight over Disney's America.

[Jackie Schein]

I read that this fight also somehow made it to the United States Congress. Why is this even Congress's business?

[Historian]

Well, this is one of the interesting things that comes out of Senate Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee hearings.

[Michael Eisner]

Gentlemen, we thank all of you for being with us this morning. This is a very obviously controversial project.

[Historian]

The entree into this is that this involves public lands of national importance.

[Michael Eisner]

Our first witness this Morning is David McCulloch.

[Jackie Schein]

David, please proceed.

[Historian]

500 people come to this Senate hearing.

[Michael Eisner]

It's the wrong place for any such project, however well intentioned. And the Wonder is that Mr. Michael Eisner and the other Disney executives and Disney stockholders don't see this.

[Historian]

And Eisner's really combative.

[Jackie Schein]

He says, I sat through many history classes where I read some of their stuff and I didn't learn anything. It was pretty boring. He said of the historian's work. The Washington Post, June 14, 1994. Oh, the historians loved that.

[Historian]

Oh, this went. It went over really well. Just some of the headlines. Eek a mouse, Step on it.

[Narrator]

Virginians in Civil War over Disneyland. Disney's land of make believe.

[Jackie Schein]

Slavery's pain. Disney's gain.

[Historian]

Bigger than this, though. In September 1994, 3,000 people march on the National Mall to protest Disney's America.

[Jackie Schein]

Close to 3,000 opponents, including activist Ralph Nader, came from as far away as Florida, California and New York and as close as various counties in Virginia to have their say about Disney's America, chanting, hey, hey, ho ho. Disney's got to go. Los Angeles Times, September 18, 1994.

[Historian]

Nationally, public support for the park has dropped to like 25% in national polls.

[Michael Eisner]

Hmm.

[Historian]

At the end of September 94, the company announces that Disney was withdrawing from the Virginia site. It's clear that people don't want it to be cited where it is and they're giving up. It's over for Disney's America. It is curtains for Disney's America.

[Jackie Schein]

That's all, folks. I'm sure any number of executives at Disney at the time in the mid-90s and since have said, wow, that was a crazy idea. I mean, just hearing you tell this story, I'm sitting here going, wow, that was a crazy idea. But in reading a little bit about this history, this moment, it's funny because other people have tried it. There are literally existing Civil War theme parks. I mean, Freedomland usa.

[Historian]

Freedomland USA is really interesting because it was a very short lived theme park in New York that actually was launched by somebody who had worked for Walt Disney and it did have a Civil War reenactment section. But I don't think Freedomland faced the same hostility as Disney's America. And that may have been partly because it was located in the Bronx. I do think a big part of this is that people were drawn into this fight by this broadly shared idea that Civil War battlefields are sacred sites. And interestingly, one of the things that Eisner says in his memoir is that he was inspired partly by the US Holocaust Museum in D.C. which is a place that used a lot of multimedia, immersive strategies and has had as its goal giving visitors some sense of what the experience of the Holocaust was like. So it's not that nobody had tried those things, and it's certainly not that nobody has tried them since.

[Jackie Schein]

How do you think what happened in the 90s connects to the kinds of fights we're having about our history right now, if it does at all?

[Historian]

Any kind of debate about public history is always going to be about trying to stake some sort of political or ideological claim about the meaning of American history. Right now we see this very direct, very aggressive effort to insist on a positivist narrative about American history. You know, one of the things that I think people found sort of puzzling about the early days of the Trump administration was that one thing that they did was the National Endowment for the Humanities cut an enormous amount of active grants and they issued new guidelines seeking projects, they say, that instill an understanding of the founding principles and ideals that make America an exceptional country, but don't represent extreme ideologies based on race and gender. I think partly this is about the administration's backlash to efforts in the last decade to bring a more nuanced and complex understanding to structural oppression in US History. We fantasize about American history in all kinds of ways, in all kinds of places. I don't know that Disney, in seeking to do that, was necessarily doing anything out of step with how we represent the American story.

[Jackie Schein]

Jackie Schein, DePaul University thanks for making notes for us. Peter Ballin on Rosen also made notes and also the show Jolie Myers edited. Laura Bullard was on fax. Andrea Christensdottir and Patrick Boyd were on the mix. Aminah Al Saadi's our supervising editor. Miranda Kennedy's our executive producer. Gabrielle Burbe, Devin Schwartz, Denise Guerra, Miles, Bryan Abhishai Artsy and Hadima Wagdi also produce. And Noel King is Victoria Chamberlain was a producer of this program for many years. She made some of our favorite episodes ever. She made some of your favorite episodes ever, whether you know it or not. Today's her last day, explained. But she's got big bright things in her future and we are most happy for her. Interesting times. Thank you, Victoria, and thank you for listening to today. Explained. We are distributed by WNYC the show is a part of vox. You can listen to this show and all Vox podcasts ad free by signing up for our membership [e-mail] members and thank you for that if you choose to do so.