A Letter of Introduction
By George Nelson

If you have reached this point, you may wonder who George Nelson is and what his motivation is in creating the Teenage World's Fair and Prairie Oasis Pictures web site. So, let me proceed by telling you a little about my origins, life, work, goals and objectives.

My mother's ancestors (Van Buskirk family), immigrated to America in the mid-1600's from the Netherlands,and my father's ancestors came from Denmark in the 1700's (Nelson family). The Van Buskirk family initially located in New York and New Jersey before relocating to Pennsylvania Dutch country. Later much of the family moved to Ohio and then on to Topeka, Kansas. The Nelsons first settled in Michigan before relocating to Coin, Iowa. Both families were essentially successful farmers before my father's and mother's respective parents experienced difficulties and moved off the farms and into Topeka. That is where they met, courted and married. My father was a dashing band leader and trumpet player in the thirties, and my mother was a homespun girl whose grandfather was a Methodist minister who traveled and preached all over the Bible belt of heartland America.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, my father enlisted in the Navy and eventually they moved to San Diego, California, where he was stationed. I was born during the last year of the war at the naval air station on Coronado Island. Father shipped out immediately afterwards and did not return home until the war's end. He participated in the Okinawa campaign, which was one of the bloodiest battles of the Second World War. My father survived the war, but mother said he was never the same after his return from Okinawa, and he succumbed to the lingering effects of his war experiences at an early age.

My mother and I have always been close, and she taught me to be honest, hardworking, thoughtful of others and to exercise faith in God. All of these values had firm roots in her Methodist upbringing. If I exhibit any of these qualities, it is because of her faith and diligence in sharing them with me.

I began working nearly full-time at an early age and learned the value of honest labor. After high school, I served a two-year Mormon mission to Guatemala and El Salvador. This endeavor greatly expanded my awareness of the world and other cultures. I grew to love Hispanic people and their rich histories and cultures.

When I returned home, I eventually attended Brigham Young University, where I studied art, philosophy, literature and Latin American Studies. I never did graduate, but I sure took a lot of interesting classes. My most memorable job during this period (I was still working nearly full-time) was as a news agent for the Santa Fe Railroad Company. I rode the "Super Chief" from Los Angeles to Chicago and back every week for one entire summer. I would go through the Pullman cars selling sandwiches, beverages and magazines to the passengers. I have loved trains and the romance of riding the rails across our beautiful country ever since.

My first real job after returning to Los Angeles from the university was with the World Football League in 1974. They were just beginning the organizational process, and I became involved as a marketing representative. I sold more season tickets than anyone thought possible. I had energy and perseverance, but so did others. The two gifts that have always enabled me to achieve beyond the norm were imagination and organization. I used these talents to achieve goals in this endeavor and in subsequent ones as I advanced up the corporate ladder to top positions of executive responsibility.

No matter what industry I was in, I tried to look at all aspects of it as if seeing it for the first time, through fresh eyes. This enabled me to envision new marketing strategies that increased sales in existing markets and reached into previously undeveloped market segments. These corporate positions were rewarding financially, but not fulfilling to my creative nature. I believed I had a mission in life to carry on the work and ideals of entertainment executives such as Walt Disney, Louis B. Mayer and others that had produced such inspiring entertainment faire during Hollywood's Golden Age (1935-1959).

It was this conviction that allowed me to resign a lucrative professional sports management career in 1983 and embark on my life's dream. My ambition was to found an entertainment production company dedicated to producing entertainment (fairs, films, pageants and theme parks) that celebrates America and family values of which Messieurs Disney, Mayer, Capra and DeMille could be proud.

It is now more than twenty years later. I have spent the intervening two decades in researching, designing, developing, and promoting the concepts for Coronado Entertainment Corporate Campus, and individual projects that would be produced there including: motion pictures; Teenage World's Fair; Americana Theme Park; and other related projects.

I have a wonderful wife! Dottie has been and is a never ending source of inspiration, support, and assistance to me. She has four children by a previous marriage, Lori, Kathy, David, and Stephen, whom I love beyond measure. I couldn't be more proud of them.

I believe with all my heart that God has a special purpose for this project. When the time is right, He will provide someone who shares our values and has the substantial capital resources to enable my vision to become a reality. In closing, I would like to share with you ten important things in which I believe.

Ten Things I Believe In

1. I believe in Jesus Christ. I know that He is the living Son of God. I also know that every one of us is a child of our Heavenly Father and shall be resurrected unto eternal life by and through the grace of our Lord and Savior.
2. I believe in our Founding Fathers. I know that the framers were a special group of men possessing wisdom and virtue, which were raised up by heavenly providence for the very purpose of crafting the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution.
3. I believe in the principle of limited government. Edmund Burke said it best regarding the threat of egalitarianism: "A perfect equality will indeed be produced--that is to say, equal wretchedness, equal beggary... Such is the event of all compulsory equalizations. They pull down what is above; they never raise what is below."
4. I believe in America. America's strength is the morality of its people. Alexas de Tocqueville declared: "America is great because America is good." However, I believe we are rapidly approaching a time when our God-given liberties may be in jeopardy. "Great nations do not fall because of external aggression," declared Ezra Taft Benson. "They first erode and decay inwardly." Abraham Lincoln also stated: "As a nation of free men, we are destined to live forever or die by suicide." We must always remember that virtue and morality are the two indispensable ingredients to liberty.
5. I believe in the family. It is the most basic and important element of society. We have a sacred trust as parents. We must set an example for our children and spend quality time with them. We must also honor our parents and look after them in their advanced years.
6. I believe in community. After our devotion to God and family, comes our responsibility to our community. We must love our neighbors as ourselves and always abide the Golden Rule: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
7. I believe in the power of prayer. I know God hears and answers our prayers. The heartfelt daily prayer brings us God's inspiration to find answers to life's most vexing problems and the strength to overcome them. We all have sinned, we all face problems and challenges in our daily lives, but faith in Jesus Christ and humble daily prayer is the only way to put our lives and our nation in order.
8. I believe in cooperation. All people of goodwill must set aside petty differences of religious doctrine and ethnic and cultural diversities to work toward improving our communities and our nation. I have chosen this project with which to make my contribution to society. You may have one of your own or you may choose to support someone else's endeavor, but please become involved.
9. I believe in my chosen vocation. The entertainment industry can have the most profound impact for either good or evil. Unfortunately, today its pervasive influence is felt throughout the world mostly for evil. I believe in the values and creative product of men who brought us inspiring entertainment faire as Louis B. Mayer, Frank Capra, Cecil B. DeMille and Walt Disney. I have committed my life to reestablishing the production of family values oriented entertainment.
10. I believe in heroes. I don't mean the kind of celebrity worship we have today. I mean the real honest-to-goodness genuine article. Who are my heroes? They are the common guys in us all, the ones who overcome significant obstacles to achieve dreams deemed unrealistic or even impossible by others. Men of vision and tenacity like Joseph of ancient Egypt who overcame slavery and incarceration and rose by faith to govern all the land under Pharaoh; men who are undaunted by the incredulity of others like Christopher Columbus, who persevere for years to fulfill their dream; men of consummate integrity and unflagging resolve like George Washington who are willing to sacrifice everything they possess, even their very lives for the cause of liberty; men of courage and faith like Joseph Smith the American Prophet, who bore record of God the Father and his son Jesus Christ; and lastly, men of uncommon originality and imagination like Walt Disney, who strive to uplift and enrich the human spirit through some new form or medium of communication--these are my heroes.

I hope by reading my project home page and this letter of introduction, I have enabled you to know something about me. I am trying to become a better person everyday and hope to meet others who feel similarly. I would love to hear from you.

May God bless you and your family.

Yours truly,

George Nelson

"Make it big, Do it right,
Give it Class."
--Louis B. Mayer.

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