The standard tourist literature won’t point out these Orlando sights, but at Frommer's, we're anything but standard.
Pop culture history happened just outside the theme park gates in Central Florida. Plug these historic addresses into your next foray to O-Town.
The end of the Beatles
Disney’s Polynesian Resort, Walt Disney World, 1600 Seven Seas Drive, Lake Buena Vista. While on vacation on Dec. 29, 1974, John Lennon signed the document that officially dissolved the Beatles forever. Disney isn’t positive which room he was staying in, but it’s thought it was a ground-floor corner room in what’s now the Samoa longhouse.
The Traveler
Terminal A, Orlando International Airport, 1 Jeff Fuqua Boulevard, Orlando. Many tourists have tumbled off their planes at MCO and mistaken this slumping dude (pictured at the top of this page) for an exhausted fellow traveler. His salmon Polo shirt may be back in style, but the paper luggage tag from US Air on his duffel bag is a solid hint he's actually a vintage artwork from 1985.
Sculptor Duane Hanson, who died in 1996, was famous for his hyperrealistic satirical and political sculptures. Now extremely valuable, his work is preserved at top-tier institutions like the Smithsonian, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and London's Saatchi Gallery.
Jack Kerouac's house
1418 1/2 Clouser Ave., in the College Park area. In July 1957, a few months before the publication of On the Road, writer Jack Kerouac moved in here with his mother. He inhabited a 10-foot by 10-foot room with just a cot, a desk, and a bare bulb. This is where he wrote The Dharma Bums, an exploration of personal spiritual renewal through a connection with nature.
By the time Kerouac moved out in the spring of 1958, he was a literary superstar. The Kerouac Project now owns the home and invites writers to live rent-free for 3-month working tenures.
Walt Disney World announcement
MAA Parkside, 425 E. Central Boulevard, Orlando. This apartment building was once the Cherry Plaza Hotel. LBJ stayed here in 1964, becoming the first sitting president to spend the night in Orlando. And on Nov. 15, 1965, while the hotel was still racially segregated, Walt Disney made his only public appearance in Orlando in the hotel's Egyptian Room, where he and Roy Disney announced their plans for “the equivalent of Disneyland” in Florida. Walt died 13 months later.
Nixon's "I'm not a crook" speech
Ballroom of the Americas B, Disney’s Contemporary Resort, Walt Disney World, 4600 North World Drive, Lake Buena Vista. On Nov. 17, 1973, President Richard Nixon gave his “I’m not a crook” speech to a convention of Associated Press editors here, throwing gasoline on the fire of Watergate and bestowing him with his catchphrase of infamy.
Last stand for The Band
839 N. Orlando Ave., Winter Park. In March 1986, the Canadian rock group The Band was in the middle of a disappointing reunion tour. After playing the Cheek to Cheek Lounge at the Villa Nova Restaurant, which stood here, pianist Richard Manuel, 42, returned to his hotel room at the Quality Inn and, when his wife left the room, he committed suicide. The lounge site is now a CVS drugstore and the motel site is now a Wawa convenience store.
Bob Ross gravesite
Section O, Lot 537, 400 Woodlawn Cemetery Rd., Gotha. Bob Ross, the soothing and expression-positive host of the beloved public television show The Joy of Painting, passed at age 52 in 1995. About 9 miles west of downtown Orlando, admirers still leave paints, brushes, and watercolors at his resting place.
Bob Saget's passing
4012 Central Florida Parkway, Orlando. On Jan. 9, 2022, the body of beloved comic and Full House star Bob Saget, 65, was found in room 962 of the Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes. Investigators determined that Saget, who had returned to his room at 2am after performing at Hard Rock Live at Universal’s CityWalk, passed peacefully in his sleep after hitting his head.
The Citrus Tower
141 N. Highway 27, Clermont. In 1956, this 226-foot-tall observation tower, gift shop, and restaurant opened with national fanfare as one of Central Florida's greatest new tourist attractions. Built with 5 million pounds of concrete, it was one of Florida's tallest structures. Visitors rode an elevator to the top to survey some 17 million citrus trees, a third of Florida's industry inventory at the time.
Today, the crowds are gone, the groves have been replaced by housing developments, and the tower is maintained by a contemporary religious group, which hosts a coffee shop in a lobby once packed with families on vacation. You can still take the tower's elevator to the top, where you'll have the view all to yourself.
Walt Disney World Preview Center
1910 Hotel Plaza Boulevard, Lake Buena Vista. The very first building to be completed on Walt Disney World property was this low-slung glass-and-steel creation, considered dazzlingly modern in January 1970. It was the Walt Disney World Preview Center, on what was then Preview Boulevard. Here, pretty young hostesses guided some one million visitors past artists’ renderings, models, and films promoting Phase One of the resort that was still in the future.
Today, the building's tenant is the Amateur Athletic Union, which promotes athletics and fitness. It's surrounded by the hotels of the Disney Springs entertainment area.
Jason Cochran is the author of the award-winning Frommer's Disney World, Universal & Orlando guidebook. The latest edition was released this month, making it the newest Orlando guidebook on the market.
Frommer's Disney World, Universal & Orlando
Preparing for an Orlando vacation can be a full-time job, and it costs a small fortune. Most other books on the market make the problem worse, burying vacationers in endless pages of pointless details unquestioningly cheering for the high-priced theme parks and resorts. But this lightweight, fact-pa...
Get the bookFrommer's Disney World, Universal & Orlando
Preparing for an Orlando vacation can be a full-time job, and it costs a small fortune. Most other books on the market make the problem worse, burying vacationers in endless pages of pointless details unquestioningly cheering for the high-priced theme parks and resorts. But this lightweight, fact-pa...