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Disneyland was a totally new kind of entertainment experience.. It was like entering the movie screen and being able to fly with Peter Pan, explore the Wild West with Davy Crockett and have a wild tea party with the Mad Hatter. Disneyland has served as the inspiration for every amusement park built since its opening, attracting hundreds of millions of visitors from around the world. Walt said that Disneyland would "never be completed … as long as there is imagination left in the world," and that statement remains true today. New attractions are added regularly, and Disneyland has steadily grown in popularity since its widely watched opening, which was co-hosted on television by future American president Ronald Reagan.
The studio continued to produce highly popular filmed entertainment, with animated films like Lady and the Tramp and Sleeping Beauty, live action films 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and The Shaggy Dog, and a popular TV series about the legendary hero, Zorro. In the 1960s came more classic films, like 101 Dalmatians and Pollyanna At Disneyland, Walt pioneered the use of Audio-Animatronics, first at the park's Enchanted Tiki Room, and then in four shows at the 1964 New York World's Fair. Also in 1964 came Mary Poppins, which was Walt Disney's crowning achievement as a filmmaker, combining live action, animation and animatronics to tell a classic story for the entire family. Just two years later came the end of an era, as Walt Disney died December 15, 1966. It was said at the time that he was probably the best known individual in the world.
Roy Disney, who was older than Walt and had been planning to retire, took over supervision of the company, The Jungle Book in 1967 and The Aristocats in 1970 showed that the company was still the leader in animation, and The Love Bug in 1969 was the highest grossing film of the year. Disney also established itself in the area of educational films and materials with the start of an educational subsidiary in 1969.
Prior to Walt's death, the company had purchased land in Florida to fulfill Walt's next major project – the development of 28,000 acres that would dwarf the 400 acres of Disneyland. Roy was determined to realize his brother's vision, and honored him by naming it Walt Disney World. It opened October 1, 1971 with a Disneyland-style theme park, hotels, campgrounds, golf courses, shopping villages and a monorail connecting them all. This was to be a destination resort, removed from the urban sprawl that had grown up around Disneyland. It did not take long for Walt Disney World to become the world's premier vacation destination.
Roy Disney died just two months after realizing his brother's final dream. For the next decade the company was led by a team including Card Walker, Donn Tatum, and Ron Miller, all originally trained by the Disney brothers. One of Walt Disney's last plans had been for what he called the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, or EPCOT. While he died before the plans could be refined, they became the inspiration for the second major phase of development at Walt Disney World, and in 1979 ground was broken for the new park in Florida. EPCOT Center, a combination of Future World and World Showcase and representing an investment of over one billion dollars, opened to great acclaim October 1, 1982.
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