I was never that big a fan of the clubs and partying thing there, but I really did enjoy the fakey backstory. That was the best about Disney in the late 1980s, the incredible attention to detail, that every building needed a story. The same goes for the former Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park, currently known as Disney's Hollywood Studios, and Typhoon Lagoon. Great theming.
So here it is, the story of that Grand Funmeister, Merriweather Adam Pleasure:
- PLEASURE ISLAND Founded 1911
An unverifiable, anecdotal, purely subjective, theoretical alleged purported history. Also, ersatz.
A living monument to "the wise fool, the mad visionary, the scoundrel, the scalawag, and the seeker of enjoyment", Merriweather Adam Pleasure, who purchased the island in 1911.
Pleasure's profitable canvas manufacturing/sail fabricating empire, founded on this site, provided him with the capital to indulge his lifelong interest in the exotic, the experimental, and the unexplainable.
Known as the Grand Funmeister, Pleasure disappeared during his 1941 circumnavigation of the Antarctic. His sons, Henry and Stewart, took over the island and the Pleasure enterprises. Their mismanagement led to bankruptcy in 1955; Hurricane Connie hit that same year, and Pleasure Island was abandoned.
In 1987, Archaeologists uncovered the site and its remains, and a large scale reclamation project was begun. In 1989, the new Pleasure Island was re-opened and dedicated to the legacy of Merriweather Adam Pleasure: "Fun for all, and All for fun!"