History of the Los Angeles Angels team general manager, under whose watch the Angels eventually won their first World Series Championship. Although Disney did not technically acquire a controlling interest in the team until after Autry's death, for all practical purposes it ran the team (the Autry loyalists on the board acted as "silent partners") through its Anaheim Sports subsidiary, which also owned the NHL's Mighty Ducks of Anaheim at the time. Disney, of course, had been a catalyst for the development of and population growth in Orange County, having opened its Disneyland theme park in Anaheim in 1955. Autry had named Walt Disney himself to
The Walt Disney Company time, Walt Disney was also secretly scouting out new sites for a second Disney theme park. In November 1965, "Disney World" was announced, with plans for theme parks, hotels, and even a model city on thousands of acres of land purchased outside of Orlando, Florida. Disney continued to focus its talents on television throughout the 1950s. Its weekday afternoon children's television program "The Mickey Mouse Club", featuring its roster of young "Mouseketeers", premiered in 1955 to great success, as did the "Davy Crockett" miniseries, starring Fess Parker and broadcast on the "Disneyland" anthology show. Two years later, the "Zorro" series