1/22/2024 0 Comments Epcot torchesAn IOC member from California had to accept the flag on area's behalf.īringing the Winter Games to California meant harnessing the luster of Tinseltown. So undeveloped was the location that at the close of the 1956 Winter Games, the area had no local government to accept the Olympic flag from the mayor of previous host Cortina d'Ampezzo. Now the newly-formed California Olympic Commission had five short years to build a fully-functional, Olympic-ready facility in the mountains near Lake Tahoe. Upon hearing about the California bid, IOC President Avery Brundage told Cushing, “The USOC has obviously taken leave of their senses.” Cushing turned the resort’s size into an advantage, presenting it as a blank slate upon which a world-class facility could be custom built to suit Olympic needs. At the time it boasted only one chairlift, two tow-ropes and a fifty room lodge. The only problem was that the area was hardly prepared to host an international sporting event. Initiated as a publicity stunt by Alexander Cushing, the Harvard-educated owner and only resident of the struggling ski resort, the bid shocked the world by beating out some of the great ski resorts of Europe in International Olympic Committee (IOC) voting in 1955. The tale of the 1960 Winter Olympics, held near Lake Tahoe, California, seems itself taken from a fairy tale. At the nexus of this activity came the VIII Olympic Winter Games of 1960, where Walt and his creative team expanded the bounds of their activities while forever changing the way the Olympics were presented. In the last eleven years of his life, the scope of his entertainment empire expanded greatly the one-time cartoon maker was now a fixture of theme parks and World’s Fairs, of television and sporting events. His creative legacy was so diverse, spanning so many realms of entertainment and outdoor recreation, it’s remarkable to think that before 1955 he was “merely” a producer of motion pictures. In October of 1966, Walt Disney was declared “Showman of the World” by the National Association of Theatre Owners. Crawford shares one of the most unusual and frequently-overlooked stories of Walt’s outdoors avocations. Disney historian and Museum contributor Michael A. This film was only one of the manifestations of Walt Disney’s interest in outdoor recreation, sports, and adventure. Our Film of the Month for January is one of the finest adventure dramas of its era, Third Man on the Mountain. Note: The images used throughout this article are presented how they were originally created, and may contain outdated and offensive terminology/location names.
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