Posted to rec.arts.disney.parks by snopes@netcom.com:
                               Los Angeles Times
                           June 12, 1996, Wednesday
              NEW DISNEY THEME PARK TO PAY HOMAGE TO HOLLYWOOD
By MARLA DICKERSON
   The world has long considered Southern California something of giant
theme park. Leave it to Walt Disney Co. to make it a reality.
   Disney's California Adventure is the working title of the long-awaited
second theme park to be constructed on the Disneyland parking lot in
Anaheim. Disney brass are tight-lipped about the details, but sources
familiar with the project say it will combine the glitz and glamour of
Tinseltown with the sun-and-fun culture that has made the Golden State
synonymous with pleasure.
   Walt Disney Imagineering, the company's design wizards, are still
tinkering with the concept, but sources say the park will borrow some ideas
from its existing properties in Florida to create period attractions, shops
and restaurants reflecting classic California style.
   Among the themes being developed are a 1940s-era studio back lot that
will re-create the Golden Age of Hollywood movie making, as well as a
boardwalk area to capture the feel, food and fun of an old-fashioned seaside
resort, complete with a wooden roller coaster.
   The park would be a boon to Southland tourism and bolster Disney's
efforts to create a full-fledged resort in Anaheim. But so far the company
has declined to even set a date for the groundbreaking.
   Disney was expected to unveil plans for its second Anaheim park by the
end of March, a target mentioned publicly by Disney Chairman Michael Eisner.
The company subsequently backed away from that date, though not from the
project itself.
   "We are waiting to get all the creative and financial elements in place,"
said Disneyland spokesman Tom Brocato. "We plan on going forward with the
expansion. All I can say at this point is that we'll make an announcement
sometime in 1996."
   Disney and the city of Anaheim have yet to resolve who will pay for
millions in required public improvements for the proposed expansion.
Industry sources speculate that those hurdles, combined with the recent
harried negotiations over Anaheim Stadium, not to mention the inevitable
last-minute tinkering of the Imagineers, caused Disney to back off from the
first-quarter unveiling of plans for the new park.
   Disney executives are also trying to avoid a repeat of the public
relations nightmare that accompanied Westcot, its first attempt to construct
a companion park at Disneyland. Following a splashy 1991 unveiling and
lengthy approval process for the $ 3-billion World's Fair-style theme park
and resort, Disney scrapped the project as too ambitious.
   Although the new Anaheim expansion will undoubtedly contain some unique
elements, Disney appears to be utilizing its time-tested strategy of taking
an attraction that proves successful in one of its parks and replicating it
in another.
   Visitors can already see Hollywood-style movie magic at the Disney-MGM
Studios near Orlando, Fla., which combines working movie and television
production facilities with a theme park tribute to Hollywood's glamorous
past.
   The park's main street is Hollywood Boulevard, a neon and Art Deco
re-creation of Tinseltown's booming studio district in the 1930s and '40s.
The Sunset Boulevard district pays homage to Hollywood landmarks such as the
Beverly Wilshire Theater. Guests can also experience movie rides, action
shows, Hollywood-themed restaurants and studio tours.
   "Popular attractions that work in one area will often work in another,"
said Jim Benedick, theme park consultant with Management Resources in
Tustin.
   Likewise, the boardwalk concept being planned for Disney's California
Adventure has its roots in a Florida attraction. The company is getting set
to take the wraps off Disney's BoardWalk, an entertainment district and
hotel complex at Walt Disney World in Orlando. Scheduled to open at the end
of June, BoardWalk attempts to re-create the charm of a 1930s seaside resort
and will feature beach-themed entertainment, nightclubs and restaurants.
(End of quoted material.)
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