Roots of the Future

If we look back at the global concept of "the future" throughout the last century in America, we will likely find that Spaceship Earth is not the only part of EPCOT tied implicitly to the ideologies of the World's Fair.

In the 1939/1940 New York World's Fair, we find the roots for the entire concept of EPCOT center. Here, the fair had the unique attribute of being "themed", and the "theme" was strikingly similar to that of Future World: "Building the World of Tomorrow".



The icons for this momentous occasion were none other than the Trylon & Perisphere, designed by Wallace Harrison (exterior) and Henry Dreyfuss (interior show, called "Democracity"). This giant white spike and accompanying globe stood where the Unisphere has stood since the 1964/65 World's Fair, in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens, New York.

Before Spaceship Earth started taking travelers through the pre-modern futuristic concepts provided by Ray Bradbury and Buckminster Fuller, the Democracity exhibit and the striking image of the Trylon & Perisphere provided the basis for the concept of a space- be that space a city or not- that provided guests and visitors with a view of what the future would actually be like.

The Unisphere, Icon of the 1964/65 World's Fair. 

It's strange today just how transparent the history of the 1939 fair has become. The Trylon stood at a magnificent 700 feet tall, the Perisphere 200 feet, and the fair itself ended its second season with attendance levels topping 25 million people from April 1939 until October 1939, and from April 1940 until October of that year.

If you do the math, thats a total of 12 months. In contrast, today's Epcot takes in between 12 and 16 million guests a year.

In the New York World's Fairs, we see many of the concepts that would later shape EPCOT Center (the theme park) begin to develop.

The 1939 fair featured "zones" (lands, anyone?) fifteen years before Disneyland was a reflection in Walt Disney's eye. The zones featured themes of their own, all of which related back to the central idea of "Building the World of Tomorrow". In the transportation zone, guests could experience "Futurama", an attraction designed by a Hollywood set designer named Norman Bel Geddes. Guests traveled in seats suspended from the ceiling that took them through a series of miniatures depicting the cities of the future, and specifically their options for transportation.

As the show progressed, the models got larger and larger until guests found themselves in a full sized city block with automobiles whirring around them. And to think, all of this preceeded World of Motion by just over 40 years!

Now, none of this is to take away from the credibility or creative ingenuity of EPCOT's talented team of designers. They were the ones who organized these ideas into a cohesive whole- and the ones who took the concepts presented at the fair forty years earlier as essentially a very expensive science fair, and made them fun and family-friendly.

EPCOT was and is the single most innovative concept that exists in themed entertainment today, and we cannot thank Wallace Harrison, Henry Dreyfuss, Buckminster Fuller or even Ray Bradbury for that.



But we can thank them for presenting the first physical place that provided an optimistic view of the future and caused the public to take an interest in Building the World of Tomorrow.

26 years ago today, The Walt Disney Company opened the doors of EPCOT Center and changed the way we view a Disney themed show or experience forever.

While some of the changes have been positive and others have not been in the best interest of Epcot, we can thank Robert Moses, Buckminster Fuller, Ray Bradbury, Wallace Harrison, Henry Dreyfuss, Gilmore D. Clarke, Walt Disney, John Hench, Marty Sklar, Rick Rothschild, Barry Braverman, Tony Baxter, Marc Davis, Bob Zalk, Eric Goodman, Ken Neville and the many other talented and passionate people that have been building the world of tomorrow since before we could imagine the year 1982.


Happy 26th Anniversary, EPCOT.

We've Just Begun to Dream.

"Icon-O-Class"......Our Spaceship Earth

Perhaps The Walt Disney Company is the finest example of a truly American major corporation that continues to exist and prosper today.

After Walt Disney passed away in late 1966, the heirs to his throne were left saddened and confused, and weren't even sure things could continue. It was in a sketch recovered from a trash can in Walt's office that a new dream was born, but it wasn't long before it was determined impossible. If Walt Disney hadn't been there to guide Walt Disney's dreams, rest assured the men of lesser conviction that surrounded the entertainment industry during the first half of the twentieth century would have been eager to shut them down. There would be no animated feature film, no theme parks, no television as we know it today.

Often referenced in the literature as "Walt's Last Dream", the city called EPCOT would have transformed central Florida and the entire world. It went far beyond "forward". It was to be a new example and a way for Walt to transform his audience into the community of tomorrow. In short, what was being attempted was to transform society itself. Walt clearly thought he had the right ideas about the future, and certainly he had the track record to prove it.

In the end, EPCOT would never happen. The logistics overwhelmed those left behind to achieve the dream, in every respect of the word. That isn't meant as a negative comment: they had overwhelmed Walt Disney himself, as his numerous nervous breakdowns and physical ailments and constant stress treatments (provided by the Studio nurse, Hazel George, at the end of each day) can attest.

Yet, something had to be done. The ring leaders of the next great dream, more so than any of the other equally talented Imagineers, were John Hench and Marty Sklar. They understood what Walt had wanted to do with EPCOT, but they also knew that without him the entire company was failing and faltering in ways that had never been expected. They didn't have the creative ability, the logistical ability, or the finances to go about creating a massive city in the heart of Central Florida.

What they did have was the ability to translate the ideas and concepts into a new concept in themed entertainment.

Or was it so new?

Here enters our story the strange and wonderful personages of two visionaries of the early-mid twentieth century that helped shape the project that was to revolutionize Disney as a brand, and themed entertainment as an art form.

First, we have Ray Bradbury. This science fiction writer, responsible for the creation of Farenheit 451, came onto the EPCOT project even before some of the in-house designers were placed. He created what was to become a prototype script for Spaceship Earth.

Spaceship Earth is EPCOT Center's "Thesis" attraction. This was the first time a single attraction in a themed environment had been used to set the stage for every other piece of the story the guests would experience once they moved into the park itself.

While Bradbury created the metaphors and concepts that played out inside Spaceship Earth, the name itself and the exterior came primarily from the works of architect and visionary Richard Buckminster Fuller. Fuller was a man of broad and engaging concepts. In his lifetime, he created such far reaching concepts as Fuel Efficient cars, the energy independent house, and most importantly to our story today, the Geodesic Dome.

Fuller also wrote two heavily influential works on the future of humanity and the planet, and our overuse of resources. The first was entitled The World Game, and was released in 1961. Fuller's definition was:

"make the world work for 100% of humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous cooperation without ecological damage or disadvantage to anyone."

The second work was titled An Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, and described the Earth as a vessel in motion in outerspace. The vessel has a finite collection of resources that cannot be restocked. The book also makes the point that a spaceship is a mechanical entity, and if we fail to provide it maintenance it will break down and suffer.

Both of these concepts played into the creation of Spaceship Earth, though not before they influenced the place that was a prototype of EPCOT Center: The 1939 New York World's Fair in Flushing Meadows, New York.

EPCOT Center, the original theme park incarnation of what has become Epcot, was a park founded on big ideas. Here, guests were going to immerse themselves not in the world of fantasy, but in a world of science and reality. Epcot of today is the saddest example we have of Walt Disney World's growing management issues. Imagineers seem to be far away creatures, and their wonderful creative leadership seems to have less control over what happens in and around Walt Disney World than ever before.

So, as Fuller was responsible for the exterior and Bradbury planted the seed for the show inside, it was legendary Imagineer and color expert John Hench that solved the pavilion's biggest problem. Up until 1979, no one had ever attempted to construct a building as a full sphere. The engineers told Hench and his team that doing such a thing would be impossible. Hench solved the problem by treating the sphere as two separate but unequal halves.

The upper 3/4 of Spaceship Earth itself thereby sits on a table, the legs of which extend down and out of the sphere as the iconic structural supports. The lower quarter of the pavilion is actually suspended from the bottom of this table. This creates an equal distribution of weight.

With the pavilion's design problems solved, it was only a matter of time before the entire EPCOT Center project would push themed entertainment forward into a new era.

The major difference between EPCOT and the parks that came before it is essentially the "Spokes of the Wheel" model. EPCOT was the first theme park to be designed as an open, free-flowing experience. Much like an American World's Fair, the park spans out from a central object but it does not follow a pattern.

For that matter, it also does not follow any sort of thematic map. We are introduced instead to a prototype model of the world, where we experience different varieties of science, imagination, industry and nature in a free flow format that takes us through gardens and across visually simple yet stunning structures to the next experience. The story being told is that of the world, so Epcot was originally allowed to occupy space in the real world, and the separation Walt and his team so sought with Disneyland and, later, his predecessors sought with Magic Kingdom Park, here that separation was given a rest.



Spaceship Earth still stands sentinel over an optimistic vision of the future of our world. Today, we also continue our journey aboard (and inside) Spaceship Earth, albeit in a somewhat altered form from its original incarnation.

The End of the World (as we know it)

Atleast thats how some people feel about the changes currently taking place (or rumored to be taking place) at "it's a small world" in Anaheim.

At EPCOT Center, for years and years before the travesties of EPCOT '94 and now Epcot, we were treated to an opening narration set to the music of "We've Just Begun to Dream."

The narration stated the facts about the park that changed Walt Disney World from a resort destination into a science, education and entertainment capital:

"Walt Disney was a dreamer and a doer, a man who believed in the world and it's problems. He believed that people could develop solutions to problems, if equipped with information and technology."

The Latest in Hostile Fannitudes! 

Though the debate has died down considerably while the actual rehab on "it's a small world" at Disneyland progresses, I'd like to take a few minutes and discuss the devil's advocate position on the "proposed" changes to the attraction.

First of all, no one ever said that Mickey and Minnie Mouse would be added, that the rainforest would be replaced or that the scene replacing it would be a tribute to America's cultures and architecture.

These rumors swirled in the rumor mill of the internet until they churned out the other side and straight into Glendale, where they fueled some serious hostility amongst the Imagineers. If your paying public is disowning you the way these people claimed to be, you've got not only some serious creative pitfalls but also a major business problem...

But that was just the thing. These rumors came from the "other side". The so-called "Disneyana" community read into the situation and posted their opinions and thoughts, as internet bloggers (myself included) are prone to do. They may or may not have been accurate in their statements, but it hardly mattered because some of them made a huge fuss and created a serious controversy.

Now, WDI isn't entirely innocent here, either. To add to the speculation, they decided not to respond at all. When they didn't respond with Florida's Mr. Toad and Submarine Voyage, or the Country Bear Jamboree at Disneyland, it meant curtains for those beloved attractions. The "changes" that were "proposed" for "it's a small world" were considered by most to be accurate depictions of the future. They were delivered by a group that, for better or worse and whether I personally agree with their sentiment or not, is rapidly becoming a serious concern to WDI and The Walt Disney Company as a whole: the bloggers.

A few weeks after the Small World debate had really died down, another incident regarding the Florida version of Toy Story Midway Mania fueled serious opposition within the ranks of the Imagineers. A blog posted an article regarding a serious problem with the audio in the attraction, and condemned WDI for not paying enough attention to the details. This opinion was posted just a day or two after the cast previews for the attraction had been completed, so the Imagineers were still very much in the test and adjust period, and were still in the process of handing Toy Story over to park operations.



The Imagineer's response was less than pretty. It was issued to the offending website and to the Orlando Sentinel, who ran the story and created a minor stir. The Imagineer in question called out the Disney "Fan Community" and stated that WDI is not concerned with these people because they aren't the paying guests.

I'd call this response right and wrong. As a company, you should be concerned with every member of your audience. You should care what they say to a degree. When WDI says, though, that they don't build attractions for the "Disney Fan Community", they are 100% correct. As a business, Parks and Resorts caters to families. Disney is still a family entertainment company, like it or hate it, for better or for worse, forever.

The Disney Fan Community may have its share of interested fathers or armchair Imagineers, but the diehards are mostly not from that particular arena. This isn't good or bad. It simply is what it is, and when the Imagineers say they build their attractions with their audience in mind, they are telling the absolute truth. Otherwise, we'd have seen amazing things like WestCOT and Port Disney come to life.

The major issue at Walt Disney World is that less than 5% of the guests there are repeat visitors or from a local audience. The majority of guests are vacationing families, many of them coming from international destinations, so WDI has to adjust what they do in Walt Disney World accordingly. The audio problems in Toy Story Midway Mania were really just the straw that broke the Florida camel's back, and sent WDI over the edge and into an admission that they no longer cared a nickel for what this particular faction of the Disney audience had to say. This was probably because everything they've done in the past fifteen years has been lambasted and thrown into the garbage can by this same group of people.

This is because the audiences' needs have become different from the needs of a repeat viewer. For the same reason film and television are now regarded as two very different mediums, Disneyland and Walt Disney World have different audiences and require different business practices and creative initiatives in order to stay alive.

The sad part is that most of the times in the past fifteen years that Imagineering, and the company in general, has been put to the gallows by the fan community, the fan community has had the opinion that has made more sense. The really, seriously even more sad part is that the paying customers- those aforementioned families and their character-hungry children- haven't agreed often with the fan community.

There was a time when there was no faction. Disneyland, as John Hench stated, "is good for you." It was good for everybody. Disneyland, in fact, still is good for most people. Disneyland's management has made far fewer mistakes than Walt Disney World's, and the reason is as plain as day:

Disneyland is not run as an outpost of the empire, under control of people who make their decisions without taking into account what their "superiors" in Burbank and Glendale might want or think or how they feel...they simply do. Until recently, Disneyland executives had a handle on things that was so in tune with what their superiors in Glendale wanted that there was barely a moment when both parties not only knew what was happening, but they agree that it should happen.



Mary Blair presents a mural to two nuns at the hospital across the street from the Walt Disney Studios, Burbank, 1943. The Mural remained in the Hospital Nursery for many years.

A Designer's Perspective

Thats really where our story begins. There are only a few key points I'd like to make on the creative side of things.

Imagine for a moment that you are an Imagineer. Imagine that you are a WDI Creative Executive. You've been told to look long and hard at Disneyland. While California Adventure has been placed in the more than capable hands of MGM Studios designer Bob Weis, Disneyland has been placed in the care of Tony Baxter and his team- of which you are a member.

As you review Disneyland's overall story concept, its thematic structure, and study long and hard all of its genius elements of placemaking and theory that have been put into place over the past five decades, first by Walt Disney himself and then by three generations of the most creative Imagineers the world has known; you begin to notice the displacement that took place after the conclusion of the 1964/65 World's Fair at Flushing Meadows, New York.

After the fair, Walt (as promised) moved three of the four key attractions intact to Disneyland in Anaheim and moved key set pieces of the fourth to a shed along the Disneyland Railroad. His test for Disneyland East had been successful, but it would still be another three years, an amount of time surpassing what Disney had left, before any land would be purchased east of the Mississippi River.

For now, the UNICEF pavilion desperately needed a home at Disneyland. It was placed near the conclusion of Disneyland's story, between Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. It isn't until late 1992 that this becomes a serious problem. With the January 1993 opening of Mickey's Toontown, the "Small World Promenade" becomes misplaced. It used to lead guests from the fairy tale realms of the imagination into the exciting conclusive statement of the future that was Tomorrowland.

After the addition of Toontown, the attraction sits between a natural extension of Fantasyland and the hulking mass of Space Mountain in Tomorrowland, and it didn't make a whole lot of sense.

If we look at Disneyland as a continuous story experience, we see that the majestic Matterhorn provides us with our final vantage point within the story. It is the last high point before we venture out of the realm of America and into the realm of our futures as people of the world. "it's a small world" made the perfect transition point. It's thematic message was very clear: You've been through turn of the century small town America. You've seen the jungles through a scrim of 1930s American romanticism. You've experience New Orleans, the queen of the delta, the American Frontier and the forests of the Pacific Northwest where animals can talk. We've shown you the stories that are central to our pathos as Americans and as children.

Now, here are the other nations of the world, and as we cross into Tomorrowland, here is what our future together can bring us. With the addition of "it's a small world" to Disneyland, Walt not only had a highly entertaining, high capacity attraction with a knock-out hit song, he also had a point of transition that was setting up what he wanted to do with his new Disneyland East project. The themes of the World's Fair weighed heavily on Walt Disney, and he saw the promise of tomorrow as a major opportunity to create new things; new cities, new experiences in entertainment, new destinations where people could live, work and play without ever getting behind the wheel of their own car. Small World introduced, for the first time in the history of Disneyland, the Global Concept.

Walt Disney stands at the scale map of EPCOT inbetween takes. According to Marty Sklar (WDI Ambassador to the World), the joke here was "If this map is to scale, that makes me 6 1/2 miles tall!"

Fast Forward to 1993. Mickey's Toontown now exists as a natural extension of Fantasyland. Here are the classic fairy-tales from your American childhood (not inconsequentially all retold and put in new forms by Walt Disney and his company), and here are where the most classic of all those characters actually live. Mickey's Toontown is a fantastic story extension onto the whole of Disneyland. After all, in the mythology, this is really Mickey AND Walt's park, and it turns out Mickey was the one who went so far as to offer Walt the land next door to Toontown to build Disneyland!

However, now "it's a small world", with its brilliant but non-specific design, is now a transitional element dropped into the middle of a scene. If we think of Disneyland as a motion picture, where the attraction once served as the fade and the statement between the world of fantasy and the world of tomorrow, we've now taken that fade and dropped it into the middle of the World of Fantasy scene. Not a good thing!

The Official "Seal" of Mickey's Toontown, which opened behind "it's a small world" in 1993 and changed everything.

The Other Side

I'm going to play devil's advocate. While I agree that the inclusion of any sort of "Up with America" tribute scene in the attraction is a major mistake, as is the addition of Mickey and Minnie when so much thematic space is devoted to them just fifty feet beyond Small World's door, I think the addition of some link to Fantasyland is a wonderful idea.

"it's a small world" has sat in a very difficult location for fifteen years. To make Disneyland's story cohesive, and avoid the same issues that have plagued Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom in recent times, something needs to be done to link the attraction with its surroundings. You don't see Space Mountain towering over Fantasyland, and you don't see Splash Mountain plopped down in the middle of Fantasyland.

The Arguments

Argument: You are ruining Mary Blair's brilliant designs!



Answer: The additional Disney characters will be similar to the ones employed at Hong Kong Disneyland, and the dolls will be in the original style of the brilliant Mary Blair.

Argument: Adding Mickey and Minnie is a ploy to sell more toys.

Answer: First of all, Merchandising and their lack of coherent attraction-specific merchandise design is an issue for another post. Secondly, at this point, we are being told that Mickey and Minnie will not be added to the attraction.

Argument: The rainforest is the most brilliant piece of design in the show! You can't remove it!



Answer: I Agree. Removing any part of the show for the addition of something that breaks with the transitory theme of the attraction and compromises its place in Disneyland's story arc is not a good idea. At this point, we've been told that the rainforest sequence will also remain intact.

Argument: Adding an "Up with America" tribute in place of the rainforest is sacrilegious!

Answer: Lets keep in mind where this particular rumor came from. The Hong Kong version of the show, the first to feature characters from the animated films, is in Hong Kong. When bridging cultures, as we saw with The Haunted Mansion's transition to Phantom Manor for Disneyland Paris, Imagineers must alter attractions to reach the cultural limitations of the area the attraction will be constructed in. For example, the French don't relate to ghost stories in the same way that we do, and they associate ghosts more with the old west of America than with the south. Because "it's a small world" is now being placed in a different cultural environment than the one it was designed for, and because in China "Disney" is synonymous with "America", an America scene in Hong Kong is totally appropriate where the same scene in America might not play. In short, its all about the guests and what they can and cannot relate to.



Argument: Any change to Disneyland (or its "classic" attractions) should be prevented in the spirit of preservation.

Answer: (the oldest trick in the book, but its still in the book because it works)

"Disneyland will never be complete. It will continue to grow as long as there is Imagination left in the world."



But the simple fact is this: As a dreamer and a doer, Walt's dreams had the thing that allowed them to become reality. 

They had the ability to change.