The Marketplace Co-Op in Disney Springs at Walt Disney World is getting ready to host a few book signings this weekend.
On Saturday, February 15 from 11 am to 1 pm, Tim O’Day, Steven Vagnini, Kevin Kern, and Fabiola Garza will be meeting to sign their book A Portrait of Walt Disney World: 50 Years of The Most Magical Place On Earth. This book was originally released in September 2021, right before the 50th Anniversary of Walt Disney World
A Portrait of Walt Disney World is a must-have coffee table book that paints a robust portrait of the Walt Disney World Resort, through vibrant voices and rare Disney theme park concept art, photographs, and ephemera.
Walt Disney’s vision for the “Florida Project” begins with Disneyland and the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair. After an imaginative and expansive design, a unique land acquisition process, and an innovative construction period, Walt Disney World celebrated its opening in 1971. It featured a theme park dubbed the Magic Kingdom and three exquisitely themed resorts: Disney’s Contemporary Resort, Disney’s Polynesian Village, and Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground.
As Walt Disney World consistently grew and evolved through the five decades that followed, certain themes kept reverberating: there’s an appreciation for nostalgia, a joy in fantasy, a hunger for discovery, and an unending hope for a better tomorrow. Inspirational and memorable theme parks, water parks, sports arenas, recreational water sports options, world-class golf courses, vast shopping villages, and a transportation network unlike any other in the world resulted in fun and familiar characters, traditions, spectacles, merchandise, and so much more. The resort has come to represent the pulse of American leisure and has served as a backdrop for life’s milestones both big and small, public and private.
A Portrait of Walt Disney World: 50 Years of The Most Magical Place on Earth serves as a treasure trove for pop culture enthusiasts, students of hospitality, artists, art collectors, and Disney fans.
Later that afternoon from 3 pm to 6 pm and again Sunday, February 16 from 3 pm to 5 pm, Disney Legend Martha Blanding and Tim O’Day will be signing their book “Groundbreaking Magic.” Groundbreaking Magic made its debut at the D23 Ultimate Disney Event Fan in August 2024 and was officially released on October 1, 2024.
Groundbreaking Magic tells the story of an empowering and moving story of a young woman from South Central Los Angeles (Watts and Compton) who took a chance, defied the odds, and became the first-ever Black American to achieve a half-century-long career with The Walt Disney Company.
Disneyland was groundbreaking when it opened in 1955 and continues to possess a legacy of being a trendsetter in both the world of themed, immersive, entertainment and workplace culture, experiences, and training. Although change was inevitable it didn’t always come easy.
Here is the incredible story of a young woman from South Central Los Angeles (Watts and Compton) who took a chance, defied the odds, and became the first-ever Black American to achieve a half-century-long career with The Walt Disney Company.
When Martha Blanding started working at Disneyland Park in 1971, it was already a wildly successful and internationally beloved travel destination that had welcomed more than 100 million guests. This book is a personal journey through fifty years of Disneyland as told like never before . . . through the eyes and perspective of a successful Black woman who was indeed an example of Groundbreaking Magic.
This book tells how a twenty-year-old college student came to work in Walt Disney’s original theme park during the racially charged era of the early 1970s, starting as the park’s first Black tour guide and eventually overseeing multi-million dollar generating merchandise-based events, many featuring globally acclaimed artists and celebrities. Martha also had a unique vantage point as she saw how societal changes impacted and changed Disneyland while she helped make much of that change possible.
In addition to all the Disney pixie dust, an incredibly loving, resilient, and close American family is at the heart of this book. With her bedrock parents who had joined the Great Migration out of the Deep South, her family witnessed firsthand some of our country’s most shameful events while never faltering in their faith or pride in being Black Americans.
Part memoir and part cultural history, Groundbreaking Magic is sweet, insightful, sometimes blunt, occasionally heartbreaking, and often funny and surprising, providing the first-ever account of Disney history as seen through the eyes of “Martha B.”
What do you think of these book signings? Have you added either of these books to your collection? Let us know in the comments.
