Disney World's Beginnings

[Lou... 3,118]

For those of you that haven't ever seen this, I thought I'd post it.

It once again points out how Epcot and an industrial park were supposed to be the heart of Disney World and not the theme parks.

BTW, Disney World and not Walt Disney World was the original name. Roy later changed it to WDW in honor of his brother.

The Magic Kingdom was just a park where the residents of Epcot would visit.

It was considered a tiny part of the overall DW project.

To those that think Walt was a genius, the video blows that theory. Most of what is presented is so far out there and not realistic, not to mention that Disney didn't have anywhere near the funding to build Epcot by itself and would need lots of outside help and money.

The Magic Kingdom, which Disney could fund, was just something to get the real project of Epcot started.

But it didn't jump start the Epcot project because the real genius behind the Disney Company, Roy, was a realist and knew that the Epcot project as Walt envisioned it, was a monumental task and would never be built.

The Epcot that was built doesn't have any of the elements that were in Walt's plan.

I don't even know why they used the name.

It's not a community to begin with, so therefore it can't be an experimental prototype community of tomorrow.

A few things that stand out that would have been very difficult to carry out.

The domed inner core. It still hasn't been done anywhere to that scale.

High speed Monorail. If you consider 35 mph high speed.

30 story hotel

Jobs for everyone.

That everyone working there would earn enough to live there.

It's all a bunch of pie in the sky thinking that Walt was guilty of, but it's fun to watch anyway.

And where is Seven Seas Lagoon on that map?

Bay Lake looks a lot different on that map too.

[media=]http://vimeo.com/8798681

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

Wow! Walt was certainly an imagineer, wasn't he? But I'm so happy that EPCOT evolved from his dream into what it is today.

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

Fascinating!! I had never seen the entire presentation, just bits from different attractions at the World.

[Total Joker ... TJ 203]

at 3:19 you can see that scene in universe of energy... :)

[Lou... 3,118]

at 3:19 you can see that scene in universe of energy... :)

What's on at 3:20?

I always thought that MK was the main project, but it turns out that Epcot, as Walt originally planned it, was supposed to be what all of WDW was going to revolve around.

I had seen the overall plans before but never saw the amount of detail that is on that video.

[mikeymouse1 25]

I never knew that the city center was to be under glass. That in it self would have been a sight to see. Imagine no hummidity in July in Florida as you strolled threw epcot

[rdancemom... Pam 113]

When they first announced Celebration I had hoped a lot of the elements of Walt's dream would be incorporated there. Sadly, it just wasn't practical though...

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Lou-

Thanks for posting that video. That is some very interesting stuff. I agree that most of what Walt says was crazy talk, but what a visionary that guy was!

I'm not sure if you know, but there is a great display in the One Man's Dream exhibit in Hollywood Studios where they have a mock up of the TV studio that Walt spoke from in the film.

Here's an excerpt from an old TCD trip report with some photos from there:

In the One Man's Dream attraction at Hollywood Studios, you will find some interesting information about Bay Lake.

In that attraction, they have this display showing Walt standing in front of a huge map of Disney World (which was then called the "Disney Florida Project"):

From what I understand, this is a mock-up from an old television broadcast.

Where Walt himself shared his vision of what would become Walt Disney World.

The big map is really interesting.

If you look way up at the top of the map, you can see Bay Lake:

And Discovery Island is right there! In fact, you can see the little peninsula that juts out into the lake there where the Shoe Tree stands today.

If you look closely, you can see the words "New Island" and "Original Shoreline" printed right there on the map. There are several islands shown on the map- more than are in the lake now. But, one of these could be our Shipwreck Island. Also note that the Seven Seas Lagoon is not shown, nor is the Magic Kingdom located where it is today. Instead, the map shows a South Seas Resort where the Contemporary Resort and Magic Kingdom ultimately ended up. I guess this is where the Seven Seas lagoon got its name. It looks like they intended to dredge this lagoon for the resort, and it looks like there were going to be canals next to the resort buildings. The size of this lagoon is way smaller than what we now know as the Seven Seas Lagoon.

Epcot is depicted on the map close to where the Epcot theme park sits today. But, Epcot is depicted as a city of tomorrow, and its northern border almost reaches all the way to Bay Lake. The water that we see curving around to the East of Bay Lake presumably would have been a big dredging project,as there is no lake there now. This area that is depicted as a lake is where the Port Orleans resort sits today. The Epcot theme park is no where near as large as the original City of Tomorrow.

In this same display, there are copies of scripts used in television broadcasts about Disney World:

TCD

This is a subject that realy fascinates me, so thanks again for the link to the video.

TCD