Vinyl
Leaves: Walt Disney World and America
Stephen M. Fjellman
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The Disney family of parks has been studied from many angles. Some are
very basic and simply describe the properties park by park, others offer a guide for affordably traversing the properties and several
well-done architectural books have examined the company and its impact upon American building and urban design. However, until I picked up
Stephen M. Fjellman's Vinyl Leaves: Walt Disney World and America I
had not run across a book that examined any Disney property in the larger sense, i.e. the societal constructs in which Disney presents
itself and the way the parks shape instead of reflect American culture.
The book itself is laid out as an academic work with footnotes, a thesis and chapters divided by concept as opposed to the physical
splits between the properties. This is not surprising as Fjellman is an anthropologist by trade. But, for history nerds like me it is
wonderful to read a piece on amusement parks written in such a manner. His examination is not of Disney as a whole, but rather the Florida
complex. The book's copyright date is 1992, so only Epcot, the Magic Kingdom, MGM Studios and the other smaller properties running at the
time are examined. One of the author's main theses was that Disney creates American culture instead of reflecting it and that a large part
of that is the encouragement of a culture of consumption.
It is evident that Fjellman enjoys his visits to Walt Disney World. His strength is to look at things on a deeper level and connect the
thoughts and experiences that escape the casual visitor. However, I think the fact that he has a good time while on property is important for readers to note and remember after turning the last page. The
book's first few chapters might be hard to digest as Fjellman throws
several well-known international sociologists and anthropologists together. Personally, I enjoyed this part of the work as it gave me a
better understanding of where he was coming from and refreshed me on some social and culture theory, most of which I had not come across
since college.
One of my favorite sections of the book was Chapter 4, entitled "Distory: Disney History at the Magic Kingdom". Fjellman took more
of a historiographical approach (the analysis of "who said what happened") as opposed to traditional history ("what happened") when examining how Walt Disney World sees history, particularly in
America. He works at comparing what we find at places throughout the Magic Kingdom, such as Main Street U.S.A., to how these places existed
in real life. He also does an in-depth look at the Carousel of Progress presentation that existed at the time of writing. Fjellman
makes some interesting points about how the concept of progress is measured in terms of household convenience and purchases.
Some of my other favorite chapters are Chapter 6: "Go East, Young Mouse" and Chapter 7, "Let's Make a Deal". I have read "the
story" of Disneyland many times over, but this was the first time I
came across a detailed look at the evolution of the Florida property.
Fjellman has found some interesting tidbits, especially about the Reedy Creek Government body and the unique allowances Florida gave the Disney
Corporation under the Reedy Creek name. He also examined the city of
Orlando and the good and bad that comes with having a new mammoth business that operated outside of traditional government restrictions.
One of my largest surprises in these sections was how different Walt envisioned Epcot and how it was eventually built under Roy. Walt
believed that Epcot could thrive as an altered urban landscape concept, similar in some ways to what Le Corbusier envisioned earlier in the
century. However, once Walt passed away it was turned from a community into a unique park- but an amusement facility none-the-less.
Probably Fjellman's most controversial contentions are in chapters 15 "Consumption and Culture Theory", 5 "More Distory: Mostly EPCOT
Center" and 17 "Tomorrow and the Future". Here Fjellman looks at America's culture of consumption and how Disney fosters it in some
ways. He argues that part of it comes from the facility's unique isolation abilities and the way Disney can completely immerse people in
a park. Little things, such as the trashcans that say "Waste Please" to the commoditization of countries in Epcot's World
Showcase are tied together remarkably well. I personally related to the latter point as I thought the same thing while walking through
Epcot by myself the week before Thanksgiving. The World Showcase provides an interesting approach of revenue through controlled
pseudo-foreign environments. In some ways it acts as a modern-day World's Fair, but for all the "authentic" workers, foreign food
and vegetation both Fjellman and I found it rather cold. The reduction of countries to a few thousand square feet means that in many cases the
smashing of regional architecture, high-capacity food outlets and shops full of trinkets showcases countries that resemble the places they are
modeled after in name only. What Fogg did in 80 Days one can do in an
afternoon, but to both of us it doesn't feel like you have actually experienced anything unique or created memories. The World Showcase is
a sanitized version of foreign countries whose overall purpose we both don't quite understand outside of a traditional business plan. It
seems to be based more on classic amusement park money in/money out as opposed to a land sprinkled with pixie dust.
Overall I found Vinyl Leaves to be a very enjoyable read. While I did not agree with all of Fjellman's contentions I did find enough valid
points to be convinced of his overall analysis and conclusion. In many ways he treated the property as something more than an animatronic
playground. He contends that Walt Disney World is a business, and a successful one at that, which deserves more than a passing thought by
those who study our country and its people. It has an effect on the way America's current culture operates, with the idea that everyone
is a potential customer. I would recommend this book if you enjoy social/historical theory or want one man's analysis of why Disney
"works".
Copyright Amusement Park History.