Celebrating Birthdayland

Mickey's Birthdayland is certainly one of Walt Disney World's most amazing success stories. Consider Charles Ridgway's analysis from his book Spinning Disney's World:

It was originally planned as a temporary attraction, but Michael soon decided to change the name to Mickey's Starland and make it permanent. It was a prime example of the Eisner-Wells team's ability to seize on a good idea and move fast, allowing talented people to carry it out.

Mickey's Birthdayland probably could not be built today with all the financial analyzers sitting on top of it — certainly not in the same way. That kind of shoot-from-the-hip management, so typical of Michael and Frank at the time, was what made everything fun, exciting and — big surprise — "successful."

This new Magic Kingdom "land" was the centerpiece of Walt Disney World's celebration of Mickey's 60th birthday in 1988, and literally went from concept to debut in just a few short months.

For more pictures of Mickey's Birthdayland and its connection to the comic book stories of Carl Barks, check out our earlier "Welcome to . . . Duckburg?" post here at 2719 Hyperion. And be sure to check the comments section of that particular post for additional background on Birthdayland by its very own original show director Steve Hansen.