On this week's Friday with Friends listener interaction show, one of our listeners Latesha recently intrigued me with an article on the All About the Mouse Disney podcast Facebook group about a theme park located in New York City in the early 1960's called "Freedomland" that was inspired by and even had connections with Disneyland. I was so fascinated by the story of Freedomland, that I invited Mike Virgintino, author of "Freedomland U.S.A.: The Definitive History" to join me for a more detailed look at this park and it's 7 themed lands based on the historical aspects of the United States of America. Mike will walk us through from before the beginning with a developer by the name of C.V. Wood who was Disneyland's first employee to the inevitable demise and bankruptcy of the park.
Classic photos of Freedomland U.S.A.
Chicago Fire
New Orleans Civil War Camp
Satellite City Braniff Space Rover
Old Southwest Ore Buckets
Little Old New York
Fur Trapper Bone Town
The Great Plans Ft. Calvary and Chuck Wagons
Get "Freedomland U.S.A. : The Definitive History" by Michael Virgintino
The Story of America's Park
After being fired by Walt Disney, the flamboyant C.V. Wood brought his hard-won experience as the self-titled "master builder of Disneyland" east, to a marsh in the Bronx, where in 1960 he unveiled his greatest project, a doomed theme park to tell the history of America: Freedomland.
Wood's efforts to build his "Disneyland of the East," a themed collection of lands that presented epic moments in American history as thrill rides, shows, and live action, were plagued from the start by politics, cost overruns, and financial chicanery. Despite these obstacles, the park prospered—until its big-money backers (as they had planned from the start) pulled the plug and cleared the land for lucrative urban development.
Through a well-researched narrative, personal and newspaper accounts, interviews, and exclusive photos, journalist and author Michael R. Virgintino presents the definitive history of Freedomland, from the people behind its creation, and the executives, entertainers, and sponsors who kept it running, to in-depth looks at each of its historically themed lands, and an analysis of the park's inevitable bankruptcy in 1964.
Unlike Disneyland, the story of Freedomland does not have a happily ever after, but theme park fans will not want to miss this captivating but cautionary tale of America's park.