Robert Price Foster, the man who bought up the small parcels of Florida land that now make up Walt Disney World, has been named an official Disney Legend, joining 13 other honorees on the 2022 list.
Foster, who used the name Bob Price during the low-key acquisitions in the 1960s, took extraordinary measures to ensure that the identity of Walt Disney Productions remained classified while initiating and executing the property research and acquisition effort” for the so-called “Florida Project,” according to a news release from D23, Disney’s official fan club. Foster died Jan. 13 in Prescott, Arizona, at age 97.
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The names Bob Foster and Bob Price both appear on Main Street windows at Magic Kingdom theme park. They are presented as executives for Pseudonym Real Estate Development Co.
Other Disney Legends in the class of 2022 include actors Anthony Anderson, Tracee Ellis Ross, Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Josh Gad, Jonathan Groff, Chadwick Boseman, Ellen Pompeo and Patrick Dempsey; Imagineers Rob’t Coltrin and Doris Hardoon; Walt Disney Studios producer-director Don Hahn and music executive Chris Montan.
The Disney Legends award ceremony will be incorporated into the opening ceremonies of the D23 Expo in Anaheim, California, on Sept. 9.
“I was asked to go into the hinterlands and, in a quiet manner, surreptitiously buy a piece of real estate — somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 acres,” Foster told the Disney Parks Blog in 2013. He spent more than 18 months spearheading the acquisition of what eventually amounted to 27,443 acres of land, Disney says.
The Disney Legends program was launched in 1987 by honoring actor Fred MacMurray.
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The D23 event also will include a presentation by Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Chapek about the upcoming Disney 100 Years of Wonder celebration.
“I can’t wait to give fans a first look at what we have in store for our hundredth anniversary, and how we’re using this occasion to celebrate all the fans and families who have welcomed Disney into their lives,” he said in the D23 news release.
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