RIP Harrison Price

Oh that’s sad, I just heard that Harrison “Buzz” Price has passed away: “Disney Legend Harrison “Buzz” Price Dies at 89.”

Briefly, Price was the MBA from Stanford who figured where to put Disneyland and Walt Disney World back in the 1950s and 1960s. He put everything into the hopper – economic analysis, population projections, land values – and came out with Anaheim and Orlando.

Clever guy.

His autobiography, Walt’s Revolution!: By the Numbers, is simultaneously fascinating and frustrating; I love how he did what he did in the days before computers, but a co-author would have helped immensely. Sometimes numbers guys should stick to the numbers.

I’m glad he wrote his story down, though, it shows how Disneyland and Walt Disney World were the product of so many clever individuals and not the sole brainchild of one man.