from 2011
CHUCK CORSON
the opening of Walt Disney World

by Scott Wolf

No history of Disneyland or Walt Disney World live entertainment would be complete without mention of Chuck Corson. Chuck began his Disney career in 1959, only a few years after the park opened, and played an important role in the beginnings of Walt Disney World in 1971. I'm so grateful he took the time to meet with me last time I was in Florida. What fascinating stories he has! I'm sure you'll enjoy them as much as I have.

Scott Wolf: You sure were an important part of the beginnings of Disney World. You have your own window, right?

Chuck Corson: That’s an interesting story. I did not know that I had a window until my son, Randy, saw it online while researching for a visit. When he was there, I asked him if he had time to get to the Magic Kingdom to see it and he said, “No, we didn’t have time.” I was kind of disappointed. Then the last package I opened at Christmas was a beautifully framed picture of the window! So he did see it and took a picture of the window for me.

I never had the opportunity to have my picture taken with Walt, but Randy did! That’s him in the red shirt! Walt’s office called one day. They were doing a book about Walt and they wanted to get some kids out there early on a Sunday morning before the park opened, to have their picture taken with Walt. I got some of the employee’s kids together and there it is.

SW: How did you get involved with Walt Disney World?

CC: It was opening in ’71, so I was shuttling back and forth (between Anaheim and Orlando), commuting like everybody was, and I had to get all the performers for here, for the Magic Kingdom and the two hotels.

I went to Hawaii several times and found genuine Hawaiian performers (for the Polynesian resort).

SW: You had such tough assignments.

CC: (laughing) Yeah, it was awful. We had the two hotels, the Polynesian and the Contemporary. The rest were all built after I left.

Walt never believed in Hollywood fake performers, he would want authentic Hawaiian hula dancers, for example. He wanted the real thing. So we had to go to Hawaii and that’s where I recruited all the performers that came to Disney World.

The Top of the World was a club back in the opening. We had Patti Page, Donald O’Connor, Peter Marshall, and all those people at the Top of the World.

Sonny did all the auditioning for the onsite bands, the atmosphere bands and the marching band at the Hilton Inn South on International Drive. Disney took over and managed the hotel for a while and it was the training grounds for the Disney Resorts hotel and kitchen staffs.We were housed down there for weeks and weeks and weeks, and I brought in Ray McKinley, who took over the Glenn Miller band. Ray and I were friends and I booked that band quite a bit. Ray had some time and I brought him down to assist Sonny. They auditioned every musician that ever performed at Disney World back in those days. The piano players in the lounges, the whole bit.

SW: What was the difference between your job and Sonny’s job?

CC: Sonny did most of the atmosphere groups at that time and I did the big names and the big bands and all that. Sonny had a wonderful talent for knowing the pulse of teenagers, and he was older than I am! He was great at knowing the kids. In fact, he had some kid groups of his own at Disney. He was in the Spacemen and the Mustangs. So he handled all that side of things and I did the rest of it.

SW: So you both were doing talent booking for Florida?

CC: Yes, I left in '73 but Sonny stayed on, continuing in the position of Talent Booker. I went to four retirement parties! They couldn’t get rid of him, it was a joke. Eventually they got him out of there and he went on to do his own booking for awhile. Wonderful guy.

Here’s a photo of Arthur Fiedler and me. We used Arthur Fiedler (former conductor of the Boston Pops) a lot. He conducted the World Symphony for the opening of Disney World (on October 25). We recruited musicians from all over the world for that. It was a World Symphony and they only played here, one night, and they went to Kennedy Center and played a night up there.

I used Arthur a lot since, on corporate events.

SW: Did you eventually work solely for Disney World?

CC: No, I was still commuting. I was Director of Entertainment at Disneyland and Disney World.

SW: How often were you traveling back and forth?

CC: Probably once or twice a month, from before the opening until after. It was a tough job commuting back and forth, but we had to put a new cast together for the Diamond Horseshoe, we put together a Dapper Dans group. We sort of replicated, because it was similar between Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom, plus the hotels, though.

I didn’t really care that much for Florida at the time.

SW: Why do you live here now?

CC: (laughing) Because now I like it!

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