Not Just a Walk in the Park: My Worldwide Disney Resorts Career

The never-before-told, behind-the-scenes story of Disney's pioneering and triumphant global theme park and resort expansion.

On June 16, 2016, Shanghai Disneyland Park, located in Pudong, Shanghai, opened to great fanfare and acclaim. Disney Chairman and Chief Executive Bob Iger called the world's twelfth Disney park "one of the proudest and most exciting moments in the history of The Walt Disney Company." But a short three decades before, there were only two Disney parks--both in the U.S. How this unique entertainment enterprise expanded and was embraced all around the world is one of the most ambitious and successful, but little-documented aspects of The Walt Disney Company's history.

Leading that pioneering and influential initiative was a fascinating man who, like Walt Disney himself, was the right combination of experience, enterprise, curiosity, and cultural complement at just the right time and place: Disney Legend Jim Cora. Part memoir, part cultural history, part documentary--and always fascinating, revealing, candid, and frequently humorous--Not Just a Walk in the Park: The Creation of Disney's Global Resorts is the first-ever documentation of Disney's rise as a worldwide powerhouse in destination recreation and cultural export; and the circumstances, events, and individuals who brought it all to life.

Filled with remarkable information, insight, anecdotes, and reflections of places, people, projects, problems, and ultimate successes, this is a one-of-a-kind recollection of a previously unknown aspect of the wide, wonderful world of Disney and how it got that way.


Author: James B. Cora, Jeff Kurtti
Publisher: Disney Editions
Published: 12/28/2021
Pages: 192
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.45lbs
Size: 8.30h x 5.70w x 1.70d
ISBN13: 9781368043649
ISBN10: 136804364X
BISAC Categories:
- Biography & Autobiography | Entertainment & Performing Arts
- Biography & Autobiography | Business
- Travel | Special Interest | Amusement & Theme Parks

About the Author
Jim Cora started as a part-time Disneyland attraction host in 1957, but a push from a fellow named Walt Disney began a forty-year career exporting the ideas and ideals of Disney to far-flung locations around the globe. The international success of Disney theme parks and resorts, and indeed, the growth of the theme park industry worldwide, owes an enormous debt to his experience, vision, and diligence. Jim was named a Disney Legend in 2005 and has the prestigious honor of a "Window on Main Street" in four Disney Magic Kingdom Parks around the world.