M T Lott Disney
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M. T. Lott Disney
In 1923, Walt Disney and his brother Roy founded a company that would eventually become The Walt Disney Company. Out of respect for that seminal moment in the company’s history, Disney’s official fan club adopted D23 as its name. With the company’s 90th anniversary fast approaching, Walt Disney Imagineering Research & Development has partnered with Walt Disney Studios to produce The Optimist, a six-week long alternate reality game culminating in an event at the D23 Expo.
The Optimist focuses on a young college student named Amelia as she strives to learn more about her recently deceased grandfather, Carlos Moreau, for a documentary film she’s planning on shooting. To Amelia, her grandfather Carlos was an inveterate storyteller whose life remains a mystery. Her efforts to learn more about Carlos’ life and legacy through his personal effects are documented on her blog StoryOrbit.com. A series of documents are beginning to paint a picture of Carlos Moreau’s life: after selling a short story called Orbit’s Story to Disney, Carlos fostered a close relationship with the company that saw him collaborating with Disney’s Special Projects team on the 1964 World’s Fair. While the focus of the game so far lies squarely in uncovering Carlos’ past, Amelia provides a personable front for the investigation as she balances research into the annals of Disney with her college studies.
- Among the several dummy corporations used to buy property in Florida without people tying it to Disney, by far my favorite company name was M.T. Real Estate Investments (say that first part out loud). Ayefour Corporation was another good one (as the property is near the I-4 highway).
- Lotts Real Estate Investments' is listed as the company name; Donn Tatum (a real Disney executive who took over as CEO when Roy Disney died) is listed as president. The names of the actual shell companies are listed as 'Subsidiaries.'
- He decided to cleverly use the name 'M.T. Lott' when he was searching for the perfect plot of land to use to build an amusement park. This was done so that potential sellers and realtors would not try to hike up the prices associated with that land just because Walt Disney was wealthy.
M T Lott Disney
According to Disney Parks, over the next six weeks players will piece together “an imagined story of Walt Disney, the Imagineers and other visionary thinkers and their potential involvement in a secret project that sought to build a better future.” Through this fictional lens, players are given the chance to share their familiarity with Disney’s often unbelievable history. For instance, when The Optimist introduced players to the Lott Family Construction company as a fictional collaborator on Disney’s exhibit at the 1964 World’s Fair, players were quick to point out that M.T. Lott Real Estate Investments was the name of a shell company set up to purchase land for Walt Disney World. Similarly, a phone number written on the back of a napkin led to players discussing one of Walt Disney’s favorite restaurants.
Because this blending of real world people and places might make it difficult to identify the line between fiction and reality in the narrative, all confirmed in-game sites and social media profiles include a disclaimer letting players know when they are interacting with fictional pages in the game’s universe. This way, real establishments can coexist with fictional constructs without creating unnecessary confusion. Trowbridge mentions that the game will extend beyond the web, with interactions ranging from “social media and mobile devices to visiting unique physical sites from the story in and around Los Angeles,” making the distinction all the more important. Upon registering, players are given the option to provide their physical or email addresses for potential mailings, opening up additional avenues for gameplay.
The Optimist has maintained a steady update schedule with new content every day: however, the game is still in its early stages, so there’s more than enough time to dive in before the game’s finale in August. To get caught up, read StoryOrbit’s in-game recaps and Inside the Magic’s collaborative Google Doc summarizing theories and events so far.
Politicians and the global elite exposed in the so-called Panama Papers aren’t the only ones that set up shell companies to hide what they’re up to.
In fact, one classic example of how such companies are used comes from Burbank’s own Walt Disney Co.
In the mid-1960s, when the company was looking to buy tens of thousands of acres of land in Florida for its Disney World resort, the company made the purchases using several shell companies — with names such as Latin-American Development and Management Corp., Tomahawk Properties and M.T. Lott Co. (Get it?)
M.t. Lott Disney
The idea was that if property owners knew Disney was interested in their land, they might hold out for a far higher price, said David Koenig, the author of several books about Disney theme parks, including “Realityland,” which chronicles the creation of Disney World.
“There were dozens of landholders, and as soon as someone heard that Disney bought lot one, they knew the price on lots two through 50 would go through the roof,” Koenig said. “It had to appear as if it were just a coincidence that there were 10 different companies buying land in the same area.”
Beyond using shell companies, Disney took other steps to hide its identity. For instance, Disney attorney Bob Foster called himself Bob Price when he was scouting for land, according to a story posted on an official Disney Parks blog in 2013.
What’s more, instead of flying directly from Florida to Los Angeles, Foster would stop in St. Louis – resulting in rumors that McDonnell Aircraft, then based in that city, was the mystery buyer.
Heather Lowe, legal counsel for Washington, D.C., advocacy group Global Financial Integrity, said the Disney World example is often cited as a way that shell companies can be used for legitimate business purposes.
Still, it’s an argument she doesn’t accept. By hiding its identity, Lowe said Disney withheld information from land owners, potentially giving the company an unfair advantage in negotiations.
“What you’re saying is that one party should have more information in the transaction than the other – that the buyer should have more information than the seller,” she said. “That goes against the entire concept of an economically sound transaction.”
Source: L.A. Times