The competition Circus World posed to Disney

Opening just three years after the Magic Kingdom, Circus World was one of the first major competitors to Walt Disney World and one that the Walt Disney Company was especially fervent about staving off. The biggest cause for concern was the proposed 19 story hotel shaped like an elephant that was supposed to be added when the Circus World Showcase found investors to fund the completion of the park. It sounded pretty amazing; it was supposed to have hundreds of jewels that would be light up and add a cascade of colors to Circus World at night. Though it would house guests, it was meant to serve as a sort of counterpart to Cinderella’s castle at the Magic Kingdom. Disney was so worried about Circus World threatening its business that they went so far as to alter their PR messages to say that the upcoming Space Mountain would be 20 stories tall instead of 180 feet so they could one-up the promise of the elephant-shaped hotel.

That wasn’t all, though. To stave off the threat of Circus World and other burgeoning theme parks, Disney promised a lot of additions to their Orlando theme park. Most of them didn’t happen, but it definitely put more work on the plate of the Imagineers and adds a richer history to the line of Disney World attractions.

Disney’s response

After Circus World was announced (and rather overhyped) in September of 1972, Disney took swift action. Within a few months, executives held a press conference about a major expansion planned for Walt Disney World. They even promised that, combined with what Walt Disney World already had, the park would offer more attractions than SeaWorld and Circus World combined.

Here are projects that were promised but never delivered because it became clear that Circus World wasn’t fated to ever be a major rival to Walt Disney World.

A western town

Close to the Fort Wilderness camp store, this was meant to include shops, theaters, restaurants and more.

Lake Wilderness

A swimming hole with white water so that guests could ride on rafts.

Big Thunder Railway

A race down the tracks of a classic Wild West iron house roadway. This was meant to have sharp turns, desert wildlife, a beautiful valley to look at and teetering rocks. This was part of a much bigger plan for a Western River Expedition Disney was working on, but none of it ever came to pass.

Treasure Island

Treasure Island was the most complex of the planned additions to Walt Disney World in the wake of the perceived Circus World threat. When they were most worried Disney wanted to construct small lakes and waterfalls on an island in Bay Lake that you could find with the help of paths and trails. After this was completed, the Imagineers would have started building a number of attractions based on the 1950 film Treasure Island. Reportedly, planned features include the wreck of the ship the Hispaniola, a cave to explore and a place to eat inspired by the Benbow Inn from the movie. Personally, I most enjoy the idea they had for a peg-legged parrot that would have hosted the tour (Treasure Island did eventually open in Bay Lake, as a nature preserve/zoo that was later renamed Discovery Island).

The only major attraction that really came out of that press conference was a recreation of Pirates of the Caribbean for the Magic Kingdom. So, while its impact on Disney parks certainly wasn’t wide-reaching, Circus World did at least succeed in rattling the Mouse for a short period.

The Disney collaborations

Even though it was a direct competitor for a time, the Walt Disney Company actually worked with Feld Entertainment on projects that featured the Ringling Bros. And Barnum & Bailey Cirus. “Let’s Go to the Circus” is a video from the Mickey’s Fun Songs series that came out in 1994 in which Mickey and his pals take a trip through the circus that once competed with Walt Disney World. Two years later, in 1996, Feld Entertainment hosted a skating-themed show called Disney on Ice. That just goes to show that even former rivals can collaborate to make money, especially when the other company hasn’t posed a threat to Disney in a long while.

The shutdown of Circus World

The Feld organization ended up selling the Ringling Bros. to Mattel, though they’d buy it back a few years down the line. That included Circus World, but the theme park was something the toy company never had a lot of interest in.

Still, Mattel made an honest go at it. They added things like the Roaring Tiger wooden roller coaster, the Flying Daredevil shuttle loop, a wild west show, carnival rides and various animal-themed attractions. All of that was there by 1982. By 1984, though, Mattel threw in the towel and sold Circus World for a paltry $10 million to a developer named Jim Monaghan.

Monaghan cleaned the place up a bit and added more attractions such as a huge Ferris wheel and a Weiner Looping Coaster. He, too, sold Circus World, but not out of desperation. In 1986 the Orlando company Harcourt Brace and Jovanovich (a textbook publisher, of all things) started going throughout Central Florida buying every theme park it could in the wake of Disney World’s success. That included SeaWorld, Stars Hall of Fame, Cypress Gardens and Circus World. Harcourt Brace and Jovanovich decided that it was time for the property to be rebranded, which led to Boardwalk and Baseball.