EPCOT: Walt’s Biggest Vision, Part 1

It’s tempting to think of the Magic Kingdom as the embodiment of Walt Disney World, the park that put Orlando on the map and the source of all Disney’s fantasy and imagination.

After all, Cinderella Castle and all the classic characters are at home in the original park that opened Walt’s biggest project back in 1971, and it was also the focus of the recent 50th Anniversary celebration.

It has also grabbed the most recent headlines for the opening of the new TRON Lightcycle/Run ride, which we featured in our TRON blog last month.

But, in all honesty, Mickey and Co weren’t the real inspiration for Walt’s World, which dates back to the early 1960s. It was EPCOT.

The Birth of Project X

Back in the early days of the Swinging Sixties, the creator of Mickey Mouse was upset. His Disneyland Park had opened in Anaheim, California, to immense success, but that success had brought complications, and it was those that Walt fretted about.

The world’s first bona fide ‘theme park’ had caused a major sensation, and everyone wanted a piece of it. Within just a few years, the imaginative development was surrounded by restaurants, hotels and other businesses that all wanted a piece of the action. Disneyland had become a honey-pot that attracted a swarm of bees.

Walt, ever the creator and dreamer, bitterly resented the uncontrolled sprawl that developed on his doorstep and immediately started planning an alternative strategy, one where he could control all the elements and ensure they met his high, exacting standards.

He needed land. Lots of land. And his big dream was now to create something that put Disneyland in the shade for creativity and ingenuity. Under the title Project X he began a search across the United States for the ideal location, and a little-known spot in Central Florida really caught his eye.

Why Orlando for Walt Disney World?

Back in 1964, Orlando was a pretty insignificant city. Its population was less than a quarter of a million and it was best known for the citrus industry, with orange groves throughout the region. There was a little roadside attraction called Gatorland, but otherwise it was the very opposite of Tourist Central.

But Walt saw potential, on a grand scale. With much of the area still swampy and of little use to builders, land was relatively cheap. The city was also on the crossroads of a brand new highway, the Orlando Expressway (today’s I-4 motorway), and the existing Florida Turnpike. It was the perfect confluence of accessibility for a country built for the motor car.

Secretly, Walt set up dozens of dummy companies to buy up land so it wouldn’t spark a huge price increase, and Project X quickly took shape. The secrecy couldn’t last for long, of course, and on November 15, 1965 Walt and his brother Roy held a major press conference to announce their Florida Project, on roughly 28,000 acres of land.

It was, said Walt, “the biggest thing we’ve ever tackled.”

From a Land to a World in Orlando

It wasn’t until 1966 that the Disney company put some flesh on the bones of their grand announcement, but then Walt presented a “future” that really took the breath away, a monument to innovation and vision.

In a major TV presentation, the man behind the Mouse unveiled the most important part of the Project, and it wasn’t the one with the castle.

“The most exciting, by far the most important part of our Florida project – in fact, the heart of everything we’ll be doing in Disney World – will be our experimental prototype city of tomorrow, spelled E-P-C-O-T.”

Over the course of the broadcast, Walt detailed the vast scope of a living, breathing high-tech city, a “dynamic urban centre” that would include offices, restaurants, nightlife and shopping, a place where people lived AND worked.

And then things turned tragic. Walt was diagnosed with lung cancer and he died in December 1966, never to see his ultimate dream take shape.

Disney Without Walt

While Roy was able to take over from his brother and see the initial park to a hugely successful opening in 1971, no-one else had the essential creative vision of what EPCOT would actually be. None of the plans laid out how it would be designed and implemented.

The Magic Kingdom was a roaring success, of course, and for the next few years Walt’s World took shape with expansion of the first park and plans for more resorts. EPCOT, however, remained largely an unknown quantity.

Disney’s Imagineers had plenty of plans for the second park, which was scheduled for 1982, but the company’s creative department had no over-arching concept that even began to meet their founder’s visualisation.

Instead, they had two main models that moved in the general direction of Walt’s grand construct, albeit the idea of a living, working city had been abandoned. A ‘Future world’ of technology and imagination was on the drawing board, though, along with a model that proposed a kind of World Expo, a showcase of countries from around the globe, each with their own distinctive attraction.

Two become One at Epcot

Meetings between the Imagineers and Disney management were becoming increasingly fraught in 1977, with the two principal contenders both having their champions and the company urgently in need of clarity.

Finally, in a moment of either exasperation or enlightenment, one of the Imagineers got up from his chair in their latest meeting and, walking over to the two models, dramatically pushed them together. There, he said, that’s our park.

And sure enough, the twin-model concept was approved. EPCOT Center would be a combination of technology showcase and world cultural experience, a unique mix of Disney creativity and international flavours.

Disney president Card Walker announced the final vision for the new park in 1978, along with an evocative statement that set out the company’s stall for the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow:

Walker explained: “EPCOT Center will consist of two major themed areas: Future World and the World Showcase. The first of these will dramatize the history and future challenges of the critical problems facing us today, providing a public window onto the worlds of energy, transportation, the seas, space, life and health and other subjects. Future World will also include a global marketplace of new ideas, which we call Communicore. In this communications core, industry and the public will participate in a ‘hands-on’ exchange of exciting new systems, products and technology.

“The World Showcase will be a community of nations, the only permanent international exposition of its kind, focusing on the culture, traditions, tourism and accomplishments of people around the world. A model for true people-to-people exchange, it will offer participating nations an opportunity to send their outstanding young adults to operate the attractions, shops, restaurants and exhibits of their pavilions. And these young people who will work, play and learn together for a period of up to one year will help to generate greater international understanding.”

On October 1, 1979, the construction project – the largest on the planet at that time – got under way. The 21st century was about to begin.

See Part 2, next, for the full story of the park’s construction and growth.

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