Merriweather Adam Pleasure

**Merriweather Adam Pleasure** is a character from the defunct Pleasure Island area of Walt Disney World's *Downtown Disney* and whom is seemingly connected to the story of *Tower of Terror*.

## History

### Biography

#### Origins

Merriweather Adam Pleasure was born the December 31 of 1873 in New South Frewsberg, Pennsylvania. He was the son of millionaire mining-tycoon August W. "Gold Rush Gus" Pleasure and actress Lydia "The American Venus" LaMarr. In 1891, August attempted to bring 18 year-old Merriweather into the family's mining-business much to Merriweather's dismay. Merriweather rebelled by instead brokering commodities on the New York Curb Exchange, leading to him establishing the world's most advanced steel foundry in Pittsburgh.

#### Early adventures

In the 1890s, Merriweather seemingly became a member of a group of globetrotters known as the Pillagers Brigade. This group travelled the world to obtain goods from different cultures via objectively amoral means. At the age of 26 in 1898, a 25-year-old Merriweather met a woman named Isabella Domenico who he courted for three-weeks before marrying her. In 1899, Merriweather seemingly travelled with the Pillagers Brigade and fellow brigade-member Harrison Hightower III on an expedition to the Congo before being attacked by angered locals.

By 1900, Merriweather became a member of the *Society of Explorers and Adventurers*. Merriweather also became a skilled sailor and captain. In 1900 he travelled to Florida where he traversed the Kissimmee River and survived an alligator attack. In 1901, he and Isabella had their first son in the form of Stewart on Merriweather's own December 31 birthday. In 1905 they had another son named Stuart Pleasure on the December 31st of that year.

#### The Grand Funnmeister

While on a voyage to Mexico, Pleasure was visited by an ancient Germanic deity known as, "The Funmeister" which instructed him to travel to the Ferderber Peninsula of Central Florida. Pleasure sold his entire business and relocated to the peninsula, arriving there in 1911. During this time he and the Pleasure family made their home aboard a paddlewheel steamboat known as *The Bailey-Finortner Floating Arts Palace* or more simply *The Floating Arts Palace*. On the peninsula he located an Indigenous totem of the Funmeister which was worshiped by the Semole tribe that instructed Pleasure to turn the peninsula into a place of celebration and joy. After Pleasure agreed, the Indigenous peoples revealed themselves to be long deceased spirits whose souls were put to rest by Pleasure's promise.

In 1912, Pleasure had his third child Merriam Pleasure who he legally changed the birthday of after she wasn't born on a holiday like her father and elder siblings. On the peninsula, Merriweather established a new company in the form of the *Pleasure Canvas and Sailmakers*. By the Christmas of 1912 their industrial operation was in full swing. Prior to 1913, Merriweather became dissatisfied with the Society of Explorers and Adventurers' stuffiness leading him to establishing a splinter-faction known as the Adventurers Club. This club had early members such as former president Theodore Roosevelt, the British glee-master Colonel Critchlow Sunchbench, and Madame Zarkov, the sorceress caretaker of the, "Museum of the Weird" who was a contact of the SEA in the 19th century.

#### Pleasure Island

In 1917 to celebrate the end of World War I, Merriweather set off the, "World's Largest Firecracker" which inadvertently severed the peninsula's connection to land and resulted in it becoming an island. This resulted in the now island being named, "Pleasure Island" after Merriweather and his family. In 1918, the Pleasure family had a mansion constructed for their residency on Pleasure Island which they moved into on July 4. This home however became quickly cramped by the archaeological collection which Merriweather had obtained from the Pillagers Brigade and S.E.A., much to the dismay of Isabella.

In 1921, Merriweather hired architects Sir Edwin Luytens, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and Eliel Saarinen to construct a headquarters for the Adventurers Club on Pleasure Island where he moved his collection of antiques. Every artifact within the headquarters was curated and hung up by Adventurers Club member and curator Fletcher Hodges. In 1927 the club held the first annual, "Balderdash Cup" which had club-members compete to see who had the best adventuring story based off of audience reaction. Merriweather won this event though it would be the only Cup he won.

By 1929, Merriweather began creating establishments on Pleasure Island with a focus on technological and scientific innovation. This included an A.I. lab, an experimental, "X-Thing" flyer, and in the 1930s a "steam-magnetic" train engine. To uphold his promise to the Funmeister and Seminole, Merriweather threw nightly parties and fireworks shows at the island, leading to it becoming well known for those, "In the know". In 1931 Merriweather changed his corporate interests to yachting. As an anniversary present in 1937, Merriweather had a new home for him and Isabella created north of Pleasure Island. On September 1, 1940, Merriweather took his experimental flying machine, "The X-Thing" for a test-drive while using international morse-code to project the message, "W-E-L-C-O-M-E" into the sky.

#### Disappearance

In 1944 a group of corrupt land-developers wished to transform Pleasure Island into a spa resort and retreat for the wealthy. Through bribery and loopholes, the developers managed to get a court order for Pleasure Island's deed to be deemed null and void starting in 1945. Before this could occur however, a powerful storm known as Hurricane Charlotte swept across Florida on the December 31 of 1944. Merriweather lead the evacuation of the island due to Hurricane Charlotte absolutely demolishing it and the island's residents seemingly vanishing off of the face of the Earth.

## Tower of Terror connections

### Tower of Terror

Pleasure and Hightower would have been contemporaries in the Society of Explorers and Adventurers. A portrait from the Adventurers Club depicting a lineup with Pleasure in it was later revealed to have depicted the Pillagers Brigade on the 1899 expedition to the Congo where Hightower and Smelding stole Shiriki Utundu from the Mtundu tribe. Adventurers Club president Pamelia Perkins would describe Harrison Hightower III and the Pillagers Brigade as unfortunate ancestors of the Adventurers Club, the group which Pleasure founded. The, "Original member" of this group was also Theodore Roosevelt, a man known in Tower of Terror for having attended the christening of the S.S. Columbia.

## Trivia

* Pleasure's birthday is the same as Harrison Hightower III's date of death.

## References

1. ↑ https://jungleskipper.com/sea/attractions/skipper-canteen#&gid=1&pid=left-bookshelf-2nd-shelf-c62
2. ↑ https://jungleskipper.com/sea/attractions/skipper-canteen#&gid=1&pid=left-bookshelf-top-shelf-c24
3. ↑ https://wdwnt.com/2018/12/photos-video-take-an-in-depth-tour-of-disneylands-new-tiki-room-jungle-cruise-restaurant-the-tropical-hideaway/