Research question: What do you know about the Original E.P.C.O.T.?

[ChrisFL]

Im currently writing a book which involves Walt's original E.P.C.O.T. concept.

As a totally unscientific survey, I wanted to find out what you know (without looking it up) about his plans for it. I have practically all of the information already, but this is to see what the 'public' knows, since it will help me to better write my book. Its kinda hard to explain why, but I just want to see if it would be as much of a revelation to the general reader as it was to me when I started to find info on it.

I understand that you all know more about Disney than most people, so that's part of why it's unscientific, but I have a feeling that I may be surprised by the results.

Thanks for the help!

 

[ajleone]

Hi- as I understand it he wanted a city where people would work, play, live , go to school etc... of course as Disney corp realized after his death this would be a logistical nightmare and pretty much not possible.

 

[mantysk8coach]

Yes, he never intended for EPCOT to be a theme park. It was supposed to be an actual functioning "city of the future". I believe the original concept is the model that is inside the tunnel when you are on the TTA. But like the previous poster said, that is a logistical nightmare.

 

[Syrreal]

There is a video of Walt explaining his ideas. I am not 100% sure but I think it's in one of the disney treasures.

 

[dmk1021]

Not Walt's concept, but the design and ideas for EPCOT from Imagineers:

Originally, WS and FW were going to be two different parks. Different Imagineers argued for each side to be EPCOT when someone (not sure who) literally pushed the two models together to make what we know as EPCOT today.

 

[seashoreCM]

Somewhere I read that Walt was concerned about, and the Disney corporation of course did not want, a situation where the residents of the e.p.c.o.t. could control the community using their votes. The solution was to not have anyone residing in WDW.

OT: If we take into account practicality, as opposed to the theoretical concept of monorails and people movers whisking infinite numbers of people into a city core, you can see an e.p.c.o.t. right now when you visit WDW. It's named Celebration.

 

[Ted and Holly]

Somewhere I read that Walt was concerned about, and the Disney corporation of course did not want, a situation where the residents of the e.p.c.o.t. could control the community using their votes. The solution was to not have anyone residing in WDW.

OT: If we take into account practicality, as opposed to the theoretical concept of monorails and people movers whisking infinite numbers of people into a city core, you can see an e.p.c.o.t. right now when you visit WDW. It's named Celebration.

Celebration was never intended to be an Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. It is a planned community, just like the many others in Central Florida.

In fact, Celebration is modeled more after a "Northern" small town, rather than some futuristic, constantly evolving, city where new technologies are adopted on the cutting edge. The latter is what Walt had in mind for EPCOT, not a sleepy small town.

Ted

 

[JRawkSteady]

Actually the only reason EPCOT didn't exist the way Walt Disney wanted it to was because of the fact that a lot of the community was supposed to be underground. But in Florida it was impossible to dig so far because of the marshes.

Celebration is Disney's own community but nowhere near what EPCOT was supposed to be. In EPCOT, people commuted on transportation systems called the Wedway Peoplemover. A prototype was developed for the Magic Kingdom in Tomorrowland and is still there today, now known as the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. No cars would ever be overground so it would not be unsafe for children to walk wherever they pleased. Cars and trucks had separate underground levels so there would be no congestion. He designed the center of EPCOT so there would be no intersections, yet it was easy for cars to get around. Celebration is nothing like this...actually Celebration is just a community owned by the Disney company that requires an extensive interview process to get into.

 

[Ted and Holly]

Actually the only reason EPCOT didn't exist the way Walt Disney wanted it to was because of the fact that a lot of the community was supposed to be underground. But in Florida it was impossible to dig so far because of the marshes.

Celebration is Disney's own community but nowhere near what EPCOT was supposed to be. In EPCOT, people commuted on transportation systems called the Wedway Peoplemover. A prototype was developed for the Magic Kingdom in Tomorrowland and is still there today, now known as the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. No cars would ever be overground so it would not be unsafe for children to walk wherever they pleased. Cars and trucks had separate underground levels so there would be no congestion. He designed the center of EPCOT so there would be no intersections, yet it was easy for cars to get around. Celebration is nothing like this...actually Celebration is just a community owned by the Disney company that requires an extensive interview process to get into.

It isn't even owned by Disney anymore. I haven't heard of an extensive interview process, but I know the prices do some serious exclusion (again, like many communities in Central Florida).

Ted

 

[MaryKatesMom]

Probably most of you know that the TTA shows a prototype of the community.

I'd love to hear what other people know!

 

[SueM in MN]

There were going to be 2 parts, the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow and an "EPCOT Center " (the original name of what we now call just Epcot). That was going to be like a permanent World's Fair, showcasing new products and new technology. It would be a permanent site, but with changing exhibits to always be showcasing new things.

 

[mickeyfan2]

It was to be a true community where you lived, worked, played and worshiped.

 

[FanOfStitch]

I believe that I also heard that when EPCOT was to be a community, it was supposed to be built under a dome so that the weather could be controlled.

 

[ChrisFL]

thanks for your replies so far...actually you all know more than I expected.

Just to reply to some of your comments, yes, it is in the Peoplemover (oops, TTA) at the Magic Kingdom (WDW), or actually that's the "Progress City" model which was an earlier concept shown at a world's fair IIRC.

There seemed to be a few reasons why it wasn't built after Walt's death. I don't believe the company knew how to do it the way Walt wanted it, there was still uncertainty about how the public could view the city, while the employees were in it...basically it meant that the CMs living there would still be having tourists see them, even on their time off.

I also don't know if they had everything worked out for the city...several questions were not answered in Walt's promotional film (available to view at Waltopia.com BTW) nor in the book I have of the project ("Walt Disney and the Quest for Community" by Steve Mannheim). I do wonder just how much of the plans were finalized before Walt's death...it seemed to be that either there was a lot that hadn't been worked out, or we've never seen what had.

I've not heard of the 2 parts concept mentioned...except there was to be a fully separate working area for the industrial businesses.

One very small similarity from the original and current EPCOT is the World Showcase. The idea for the original was to have an international themed area, like we have now.

The dome part is a bit confusing, I've heard and seen parts of that, though it seems like the domed sections were actually many smaller domes in the shopping areas, for light to pass through.

If any of you have seen books with good information on this, please let me know, the book I mentioned earlier was the only one I found with a lot of useful stuff.

One question for those of you who said it would be a "logistical nightmare", can you give further details on that? Im not going to disagree with that yet, since I want to see what specifically you think would be at issue.

I do see many parts of the original plan that seemed to need improvement...which will be part of my book...explaining what could be possible using today's technology if we kept the basic idea but made it more complete.

 

[ChrisFL]

anyone else?