Walt Disney Miniature Railroad was formed by
Walt Disney in 1950 to manage the
Carolwood Pacific Railroad, his elaborate backyard
miniature railroad. The company's name was changed to Walt Disney, Inc. (WDI) on December 16, 1952, and its purpose was changed to supposedly produce TV shows. However, he soon started the
Disneyland designing and engineering division within WDI. He also assigned the rights to his name and likeness to the company, as well as ownership of the
Disneyland Railroad,
Mark Twain Steamboat,
Viewliner Train of Tomorrow (defunct), and
Disneyland Monorail attractions in Disneyland.
Roy O. Disney objected to Walt's creation of the company as he considered it a diversion of a larger portion of the
Walt Disney Productions income to Walt's family. WDI charged a licensing fee to the Disney company for 5% to 10% of the income from all of Disney's merchandising deals. In light of objections from Roy as well as those of potential stockholders, WDI was renamed WED Enterprises (WED) in 1953 based on Walt's initials of Walter Elias Disney. Walt also licensed
Zorro TV rights from Mitchell Gertz in February 1953. WED Enterprises developed some scripts for the proposed
Zorro TV series and shopped the series to the
CBS and
NBC TV networks. Both networks requested to see a pilot show. However, with the construction of Disneyland ongoing, the Zorro show was put on hold, and the rights were sold later that year to Walt Disney Productions. In July 1953, Clement Melancon, a small shareholder of Walt Disney Productions stock, took Walt Disney and WED Enterprises, to court over the WED deal, believing that Walt had improperly funneled profits from Walt Disney Productions. The case was settled in January 1955. In 1961, the park design group, the future
Walt Disney Imagineering, opened a creative workshop in the
Grand Central Business Park.
Retlaw The theme park design and architectural group became so integral to Walt Disney Productions' operations that the studio bought it on February 5, 1965, along with the WED Enterprises name. Thus the Corporation needed a new name, Retlaw Enterprises. In 1968, Retlaw started to diversify by acquiring its first TV station with its Fresno station purchase. Finally, in 1982, the Disney family sold the naming rights and rail-based attractions to Walt Disney Productions for 818,461 shares of Disney, stock then worth $42.6 million, none of which went to Retlaw. Retlaw's remaining divisions, after the majority of the company was sold to Walt's larger public company, were several television stations and real estate holdings that continue to be owned by the Disney family. Per
Securities and Exchange Commission filings, Retlaw received $75 million in net income from the monorail and railroad from 1955 to late 1981.
Roy E. Disney objected to the overvalued purchase price of the naming rights and voted against the purchase as a Disney board director. By 1990, Retlaw holdings included 6
CBS affiliated TV stations, a small jet charter service operating out of
Van Nuys Airport, 580 acres of farmland in Palmdale, 220 acres of vacant land in Riverside County, and 330 acres of avocado groves in Riverside County and Escondido. The family shares received in 1982 would be in 1990 2% of the Disney stock, worth an estimated $300 million; while Forbes estimates their stock to be worth $600 million, down from 1989's $850 million.
WFXG was purchased in May 1998. In 1999 Retlaw sold its remaining 11 television stations to
Fisher Communications, including all of the related assets to those properties, for $215 million in cash. In 2005, the remaining divisions of Retlaw officially became part of the Walt Disney Family Foundation, a non-profit organization led by
Diane Disney Miller. ==Assets==