Defunctland: Walt Disney's City of the Future, E.P.C.O.T.

Oh, and gosh, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for everyone involved, speaking for myself and the entire Disney organization, we're ready to go right now. Wasn't that a dream? Aren't you amazed? Our corporation is dedicated to doing. Walt Disney's dream is a reality, but it can't be done without your help here in Florida. We must have it. This is Roy Disney on February 2, 1967. He is speaking to an audience of over 900 people in Winter Park, Florida. This group of business and political leaders. and members of the press had just attended the first public screening of what would become known as the Epcot movie.

This 25-minute film was Walter Elias' last notable screen appearance. Disney Walt had spent less than two months before the first screening. He from the film on December 15, 1966 at the age of 65. the project he proposed in the epcot movie was his most ambitious dream it was the culmination of his life's work 65 years of a man's life that's a lot to try to get into a presentation but it's not enough to just listen to what

walt

disney

said it's important to understand who he was what was the last thing he planned maybe epcot his last project would reveal something about him the world was still mourning the loss of the narrator the loss of the character, the death of uncle

walt

, all they saw was a great American, one of the greatest, but how was he different from Ford, Hearst or John Doe?

He was as loved, as hated and as talked about as anyone of his time. but when he died he had something in mind called epcot, what does that mean he deserves an investigation? Epcot its origins and its destiny must certainly turn out to be something very simple for the majority of its development Walt's Epcot project was top secret with only a select few people within Walt Disney productions were aware of its existence, one of these people was Harrison Buzz Price Price met Walt Disney in 1953, when Price was working at the Stanford Research Institute, an economic development research firm, Price conducted Walt's initial feasibility study.

Amusement Park Concept Disneyland and Walton Price maintained an excellent working relationship throughout the entire process. This was largely due to the way Price communicated with Walt about his ideas. Price quickly learned that Walt hated being told no, many of Walt's ideas were risky and some were considered ridiculous and impossible. His older brother, Roy, who was in charge of the company's finances, often found herself in the position of rejecting Walt's ambition, which put a constant strain on their relationship. Price always knew how to say yes to Walt's ideas before diving into them. The limitations of the project This simple but ingenious strategy led to a partnership between the two that would last more than a decade and whenever Walt considered a new construction project, he turned to Price to conduct a feasibility study in 1957, two years after for Disneyland to open.

Walt hired Price to do a study for a new project that he called the

city

of the arts or the

city

of the seven arts, the city of the arts would be a combination of a commercial district, an art school and, most interestingly, A planned community, the city of the arts would be a functional city of artists and art students who would live working and showing their creations to visitors, it would have restaurants, shops and model homes. Price was once again tasked with determining a location while Walt began planning his artist community. Walt believed that one of his best skills was bringing together especially creative people, he often thought that he knew what was best for the people who worked for him and that he had the answers to their problems, for example, when Walt built his new studio. animation in Burbank in 1939, he designed every aspect. of space to create a perfect creative environment Walt even considered putting apartments in his Burbank studio for his animators to live in because he believed they would enjoy the comfort and it would result in better work.

This was an objectively terrible idea even without living. On the lot, many of Walt's animators became frustrated with Walt's philosophy and business practices and their resistance to this criticism led to the infamous studio strike in 1941. This did not deter Walt from his city of the arts and the idea of ​​building a community of artists something that Walt felt he was already good at except that time it went terribly wrong despite Walt's self-confidence over time the concept of a city of the arts became reduced to an innovative art school abandoning the planned community aspect that would be the city of the arts it eventually evolved into the california institute of the arts or, as it is popularly known, calarts.

Walt led the project both financially and creatively with price at his side. Price watched Walt design his university with a level of vigor that matched and sometimes exceeded his efforts to build it. Disneyland at one point, Walt explained to the quote that this is what I will be remembered for because it was clear that even in 1958, at the age of 57, Walt had a legacy in mind, death, however, was not in an occasion. He presented some statistics that Walt had not requested regarding mortality rates. Walt exploded at the price for bringing up the topic of death, after which image maker Herb Ryman explained to the quote that death is not an acceptable topic if Walt were ever happy to stake his legacy at Cal Arts.

The sentiment was fleeting as the 1950s came to a close. Walt was in conflict with the public image he had created. He was the great storyteller, the great distractor, but Walt was not happy with this. His personal heroes were titans of industry like Henry Ford. be remembered in a similar way as a contributor to the greater American society he wanted to do something that would change people's daily lives more than a cartoon more than an amusement park and even more than a university walt wanted to do something amazing and as always he simply had the idea that he wanted to build a city, a planned community that would be located in florida, palm beach, florida, in 1959, walt was pursuing nbc to take over the distribution of his television show, nbc was eager to distribute While it was a successful show, but they were interested in even more, NBC and its parent company, RCA, wanted a deal closer to Walt's original deal with ABC, in which Walt created a show for the network in exchange for financing.

For the construction of Disneyland, NBC and RCA wanted to build a second Disneyland on the East Coast, near Walt was interested in New York City and hired Price to do a study on the area. The pricing report was not stellar. The weather in New York would force the park to operate seasonally instead of year-round. There were few plots with enough space and suitable land to build on. the park and most of New York's tourists were on business trips rather than visiting for pleasure, for all these reasons Walt rejected New York's proposal, but this would not be the end of the talks with RCA and NBC soon after. from New York. was rejected a man named john d macarthur entered the conversation macarthur was a multimillionaire businessman and real estate investor who owned about 6,000 acres of land in palm beach florida he was looking for developers and there were none more lucrative than walt Disney.

Walt was excited about The amount of land Macarthur was offering to Disneyland consisted of 160 acres in total, which included the park's parking lot and other facilities. There was little room for Disneyland to grow within the land that Disney owned and after the park opened, Anaheim saw a development boom that was especially notable. Just outside the park, where cheap motels and tourist traps surrounded Disneyland on all sides, this indignant Walt made MacArthur's 6,000 acres more attractive, more than 30 times the amount used for Disneyland. Of course, 6,000 acres was too much for just one theme park which allowed Walt to dream bigger than ever before Walt began sketching out his plans.

He would use 400 acres of land for a new theme park and resort space and the rest would be used for a new planned community or as Walt called it. If it were a city of tomorrow, this would solve Anaheim's problem by surrounding the new theme park and resorts with development of its own design. It would also address another broader frustration of Walt Disney's Waltz, as many people in the late 1950s were concerned about the state. Of many major American cities he was concerned about crime, poverty, education and other issues, but more than anything, Walt Disney was obsessed with traffic throughout his life.

Walt had watched the automobile go from a futuristic technology to a constant nuisance. Cars had flooded American cities and pedestrians. Attempts to mitigate traffic within large cities had become secondary to automobiles and had not worked, and while he wondered how the problem could be eliminated if a city were built from scratch with the automobile in mind, another consideration were the effects of white flight in cities in which middle and upper-class white populations moved en masse out of the city to the suburbs, often to escape the integration and civil rights movements of At the time, this diverted vital resources from inner-city communities, leaving them in a state of disarray.

The problems facing cities were at the forefront of many Americans' minds and would soon consume the mind of Walt, who took up the idea of ​​developing his own community despite having no experience in urban planning, once again believing that He was the best person for the job and he was not alone in this belief. Many prominent urban designers had been pointing to Disneyland's radial design with its hub-and-spoke design as a brilliant piece of urban planning. Walt's popularity and influence among the public was also seen as a great asset that had often led people to encourage him to run for some type of office.

Futurist author Ray Bradbury, a friend of Waltz's, once suggested that he run for mayor. of los angeles because he believed that only walt could solve the city's traffic problems walt responded by quoting why should I run for mayor when I'm already king? It was a joke but not completely false. Walt was used to having control, something he would not have in the political sphere. If he wanted to solve the problems of the urban environment, he needed to be a private company. Palm Beach presented this opportunity. Walt planned for a city that would use cutting-edge technology. and innovative urban design techniques, it was at this point that he began referring to the project as epcot, an acronym for experimental prototype community of tomorrow.

Once again, Price was asked to do a feasibility study as the initial plans were drawn up. One study proposed using 12,000 acres to house 65,000 residents. It would include 23 schools, 21 churches, 15 playgrounds, two parks, two golf courses and three beachfront hotels. The pricing studies were extensive and did most of the work in determining what a city of this size would need to function adequately, and more importantly, through these studies, Price concluded that an entertainment complex on the East Coast would not It would compete with Disneyland. In fact, two-thirds of the American population lived east of Mississippi, but they accounted for less than 10 percent. of Disneyland guests, the East Coast was an untapped market and Price's study showed the promise of such a venture Despite intense research and positive findings, the Palm Beach project quickly fell apart, reportedly, Due to Roy Disney's clash with MacArthur, as expected, the ambitious City of Tomorrow proposal for Palm Beach worried Roy and the deal fell through, but now Walt wanted to build a city and there was nothing that could stop the idea. grew in his mind.

In 1960, with the Palm Beach plans abandoned, Walt was beginning the first stages of work on the pavilions for the 1964 New York World's Fair. It was another important step toward Epcot. While the east was an untapped market, it was unclear whether The population was open to being taken advantage of by Walt Disney and in addition Disney was building pavilions for large corporations such as General Electric and Ford and believed that these types of corporate partnerships would be the only way for a project as large as Epcot to work. Walt hoped that major American companies would help build Epcot.

They would establish a facility within the city and employ the city's residents. The fair also gave him the opportunity to work with them. the man who was considered the most influential urban planner in the world at the time, the fair's president, robert moses, when walt showed moses his firstplans for epcot, moses was shocked to believe that walt's plans would lead to the first accident-free, noise-free, and pollution-free city, this was ironic since moses' approach to urban planning was the opposite of waltz. Moses had focused on adding more and more highways and highways to the densely populated New York City, creating many of the problems that Walt was trying to rectify with Epcot.

However, he didn't have to worry about Moses, as New York had already been crossed off the list of potential locations in 1963. Walt was immersed in the production of the world's fair pavilions, but was making time to look for a location. for Epcot. Walt had studied numerous prices. potential locations washington dc colorado baltimore and new jersey, among others, price was also busy studying a site for a ski resort in california's sequoia national forest and walt was in talks to build an indoor theme park in st louis walt was adding projects at a faster pace than he ever mentioned before at the price that all his projects would keep the organization busy for 40 years legacy engendered by longevity and legacy was on his mind in November 1963 Walt and other executives were jumping from place to place Before heading to the frontrunner for Epcot Florida, however, Walt was no longer looking at Palm Beach, he wasn't even considering the south of the state.

Early feasibility studies had revealed that central Florida would be the prime location for development in the state based on tourism trends as of November 22, 1963. Walt and his team. It flew low over the city of Orlando and outlying areas. Walt noticed a large undeveloped swamp area near the intersection of the Florida Turnpike and I-4, which was under construction at the time and still is today, pointed out the swamp and decided this would be the place to her project. Walt was able to be convinced by his instinct. Roy needed to see the numbers one more time. it's where Price arrived five days after Walt's Flight Price made a presentation to Walt Roy and a select few others, including vice presidents Dan Tatum and Card Walker, about what was known as Project X or Project Winter.

Price's presentation was compelling and the location was established. Disney then embarked on the complicated process of acquiring thousands of acres of land. This was done in complete secrecy to ensure that the landowners did not inflate their prices. Locals soon noticed that a large amount of land was being purchased, leading to rampant speculation as to who. The buyer could be in June 1965, the Orlando Sentinel concluded that it was Disney who was buying the land. Walt's plan had been exposed, so he decided to officially announce his project in Florida. On November 15, 1965, he held a press conference together. to florida governor hayden burns the The press conference was rushed and Walt was clearly in the early stages of developing the project.

He announced very little but did note that he intended to build a new theme park and a city of tomorrow, although I would love to be a part of the construction. the model community, while the city of tomorrow, as you could say, uh, I'm not against the automobile, but I feel that the automobile has moved too much into the communities and I feel the design for the automobile to be there, but still So. putting people back as pedestrians Walt mentioned that he was considering two communities, one that would be named yesterday as a nostalgic city and another that would be named tomorrow, which would be his

future

city.

This concept was rarely mentioned again and Walt explained it almost as if it were. It's a joke, you may come once and stay tomorrow and your friends will say, but you stayed yesterday and they will have to return with the acquired land and the announced project? Finally it was time for Walt to outline his city street. By Street Another key figure in the Florida project and possibly the only man besides Waltz who was closest to Epcot was Marvin Davis Davis had worked at 20th Century Fox for more than a decade before being recruited to the attraction design firm. of Walt Wed Enterprises in 1953.

Davis was given the immense task of planning Disneyland alongside Walt. Together they pioneered the single-gate concept as well as the park's hub-and-spoke design. More than a decade later, Walt returned. to call davis, this time to help him with his master plan for his project in florida similar to price davis learned to work with walt walt knew more or less what he wanted but did not have the artistic or architectural experience necessary to illustrate it davis had This experience so his role was to take the ideas that were in Walt's head and put them on paper. The first master plan for the Florida project was roughly drawn in 1965 by Walt himself on a piece of tissue paper.

The plan had been abandoned. the concept of tomorrow and yesterday instead of just showing a large planned community in the center of the development with a theme park area to the north and an airport and entrance center to the south a monorail line ran through the entire complex and was to be similar which had entertained Disneyland visitors since 1959. The entire project was now referred to as Disney World, a completely new Disney world. Walt continued to outline plan after plan, sometimes handing them to Davis when he was finished, other times throwing them into the trash, forcing Davis to run to the trash can to check on Walt's progress.

Many inspirations for his designs were the satellite cities of Stockholm, Sweden, which were planned developments with a high-density center surrounded by a low-density belt with a central railway line running through it. Walt also read books by prominent urban planners such as Victor Gruins. heart of our cities and ada louise huxtables article outside the fair the latter of which studied the proposed plan for a world's fair in washington with a unique design walt read garden cities of tomorrow by ebenezer howard and walt was believed to have been influenced by the Chicago architect Daniel Burnham, who designed the famous 1893 Clumping Exposition in Chicago and sparked the City Beautiful movement that emphasized the importance of a city's visual nature along with its practical functions.

Walt was also heavily influenced by the world's fairs he had visited and helped make notes not only of their architecture and design, but also of their attractions and accommodations, throughout 1965 and early 1966. Walt Davis and a few other Imagineers worked on to create preliminary plans for Walt's experimental city. A special room was reserved in the Glendale Wet Enterprises with a 16-foot ceiling. Davis plastered his enormous renderings as wallpaper throughout the room. The plans the small team drew up for Epcot throughout 1966 were not concrete, and Walt hoped that Many aspects of the designs would change but what was planned, drafted and simulated were certainly the most audacious, impressive and incredible ideas that Walt had ever dreamed of.

According to Walt's plans, visitors would enter Disney World through the grand entrance complex. This complex had short-term parking for 11,000 cars and was connected to a

future

airport via monorail. It would have been the world's first operating airport with a radial layout. The airport of the future would also have used an experimental baggage handling system and other cutting-edge technologies. A custom communications network later called Wedcom that would be built and sponsored by rca would track everything on the property, from utility management to pollution control in the gate complex. It would allow receptionists to obtain information about resort reservations and billing, which would have been innovative in 1966.

Outside the entrance resort would be motels, trailer parks, and campgrounds. one of which would be located in the western marsh of the property and would be called wilderness camp. After checking in, guests would board a monorail and head north to begin their vacation. The first stop would be the Disney World industrial complex, also designed radially on these 1,000 acres. The complex would provide employment for many of Epcot's residents in the performances put on by Davis and his team. Yesterday a complex with six branches was presented. Residents would exit the monorail station and board a people-mover car. People transportation was a transportation system developed by inspired wet companies.

Thanks to the unique system used to advance the cars in the Ford pavilion that Disney designed for the 1964 New York World's Fair, the People Mover went through many different designs, but it was finally decided to have trains consisting of four cars each. one and each wagon will carry. four people married companies that planned to test the technology at Disneyland and a 5-8 scale people-mover system would be installed during Tomorrowland's renovation in 1967 as one of the area's new signature attractions at Disney World's industrial park. . There will be a different people transport track for each one. branch that would take residents from the monorail line to their workplace or take guests on a tour of the facility.

Each branch would have multiple buildings surrounding the commuter station with parking behind each for commuters. The facilities would be managed by major American corporations with Ge Westinghouse. Monsanto and RCA plan to use the space in attractive park-like environments. The six million people who visit Disney World each year will look behind the scenes at experimental prototype plants, research and development laboratories, and computer centers for large corporations. Visitors will be able to see the inner workings. Of these companies he saw them developing new technology that would be installed in Epcot after the Disney World industrial park. The monorail line would move closer to Disney World's main attraction.

The experimental prototype community of tomorrow. This impressive 5,000-acre city would, unsurprisingly, have a radial layout. The city would have been three miles in diameter and divided into four sections Downtown Epcot would be the city's center of business and commerce Epcot's dynamic downtown will offer the excitement and variety of activities found only in metropolitan cities cultural, social, commercial and entertainment which consisted of the city's icon, the cosmopolitan hotel and convention center, a 30-story, 600-room hotel that would have been the highest point in the city, the hotel and convention center would rest on Epcot's 50-acre business and commerce center a fully enclosed climate-controlled business district and retail space that would have included offices banks service stores warehouses retail space hospitality services and a television studio The business district would prominently feature a storefront international in which Disney World visitors and Epcot residents could shop, dine and see shows in various national pavilions represented with themed facades such as a British plaza, an Asian market and a South American plaza, this was inspired by similar areas that were found at numerous world's fairs, as well as a canceled concept for

disney

land called international street.

Epcot's international pavilions would feature traveling artists from each of the countries teaching guests about their customs Walt hopes the mall and international pavilions will ensure that tourists visit the city instead of just passing by on their way towards the theme park, going even further, Walt floated the idea of ​​placing an indoor theme park in Epcot's central skylights would be placed on the roof of the enclosed district to allow natural light into the top of the structure. A seven-acre recreational pad would include outdoor activities primarily for hotel guests. There would also be additional towers for commercial use, primarily for corporate sponsors.

Use as offices in the center of the structure immediately below the hotel would have been Epcot's transportation concourse, not only would Epcot be separated into four sections, but its transportation would be divided into multiple layers. Let's look at another view of the Epcot Transportation Center and see how traffic flows through the heart of the city on three separate levels. At the bottom of the stack is the truck route reserved for supply vehicles. The middle level is the truck pass. Adjacent to the road are dedicated car parking areas for the convenience of hotel guests. The key feature of Epcot would be the lack of traffic lights, which Walt believed were a major cause of traffic.

The parking lot below the city was reserved for hotel guests andapartment residents, but it would have been prohibitively expensive to encourage residents not to own cars. One idea was to have an extensive electric car rental service for residents who wanted to go out on weekends, pedestrians would wander above the layer of cars, above the pedestrians, people movers and monorails would zip by The transportation concourse was the central hub for all of these modes of transportation immediately outside the The central business district was high-density apartments, as well as other non-commercial buildings, such as administrations, fire stations, post offices, sports stadiums, libraries and hospitals.

Hospitals would have taken advantage of Wedcom, which would have easily stored and quickly distributed medical research and patient data. also be a center for the arts borrowing Walt's City of the Arts concept after high-density housing was Epcot's greenbelt, which would have included parks and playgrounds as well as the churches and schools of the city. Walt had ambitious plans for Epcot education and wanted to reimagine it. the school curriculum that replaces lectures and exams with a game-like learning environment. I would love to be part of building a school of tomorrow with the teaching materials that I think we could contribute, which we have been doing in some ways, but this could become a pilot operation for teaching materials that could be distributed throughout the country and around the world.

Children would take courses on a computer that would access Wedcom's network, allowing them to take classes from nearby universities remotely. There would also have been closed circuit television. that would have allowed corporations to teach classes from the industrial park the green belt would also have two large car dealerships and service areas finally the green belt would have a center for teenagers a feature that walt was personally passionate about teenage crime was a major problem in the cities and Walt felt that the best way to control the wayward rebellious youth was to give them their own supervised and dedicated space.

Davis recalled that, quoting Walt, he had high hopes of using this community as a model way to deal with the problem of teenagers and his idea was to devise a system. by which young people would judge their peers by monitoring their behavior because teenagers in the 60s liked nothing more than hanging out with a group of drug dealers in a building designed by a 60 year old man. It is worth noting that the rebellious generation Walt was attempting the corral was in fact the baby boomers eventually after the green belt would be the low density housing neighborhoods of epcot where most citizens would live like the industrial park.

People transportation routes would take the epcot residence from the city center to their homes. Each of these tracks would have four or five stations along them, one in the center of each dead end, the moving student would only stop at a station if someone on the train or someone at the station told him and the maximum time before a train arrived was said to be three minutes, unlike most cul-de-sacs, Epcot's neighborhoods were free of streets so children could play and walk safely, the space in the The middle of the dead end would have been used as a leisure space with the road system.

Instead of surrounding the back of the houses, the Epcot houses would have little to no private lawn space with most of the greenery surrounding the house reserved for the public, the house itself would be completely self-sufficient according to Admiral Joe Fowler, a long-time Waltz collaborator, every house in Epcot would have been self-powered, possibly using some form of renewable energy. of the house would have been automated similar to the Monsanto house of the future that was built for Disneyland's Tomorrowland. Also at Epcot, a series of underground tubes would carry trash from every home and building and transport it directly to waste management services, a technology called automated vacuuming. collection or avac, this was inspired by Walt becoming increasingly annoyed with garbage trucks outside his own house waking him up at night.

CCTV would also be connected to the homes, allowing residents to watch sports entertainment and school activities taking place on the green belt. The key component of Epcot was Walt's requirement that every resident have a job. Walt said there will be no retirees because everyone must be employed according to their ability. One of our requirements is that the people who live in Epcot must keep it alive. Everyone who lives here will. I have a responsibility to maintain this community as an exciting model of life for the future. A second Epcot satellite community was sometimes depicted in the background of concept art or to the east in master plans.

At one point, Walt was considering the second community as a place for Epcot residents to live once they had moved out. The final section of Disney World was, of course, the theme parks and resorts in most master plans. The new park was represented by a map that looked almost identical to that of Disneyland Bay Lake, a natural lake near the proposed theme park. The theme park would have been expanded with an artificial part that would have surrounded the city. Other features of the theme park complex were an ice rink and skating rink and multiple golf courses.

Walt saw the theme park as a necessity to obtain funding for the project and to attract vacationers to the resort, but his passion for the second theme park only went as far as he could help the development of Epcot when he was pressured to make plans. for the new theme park. Walt supposedly said: "I want to make Epcot the plans for Disney World and Epcot were amazed as the team came up with more and more ideas the budget was increased significantly the northern theme park was estimated to cost $100 million and the rest of disney world would cost 520 million with the city of epcot alone costing around 75 million walt planned for epcot to have 20,000 residents but ultimately wanted the city to grow to 100,000 residents disney world was also projected to receive 6 million. tourists per year Walt Davis and the rest of the Epcot team continued the research throughout 1966.

With Walt constantly coming up with new ideas for the city, sometimes the radial plan was perfect and rigid, other times it was depicted as a natural spiral like a flower on a factory tour with davis walt saw a photoelectric sensor used to help blind people this gave waltz an idea telling him davis quote we will have a small town that will have an underground tram like they have in france no we will have a motorist except one of those devices this device will detect someone ahead and will slow down or stop the tram Walt was obsessed and his team was inspired Davis said quote I spent weeks and weeks developing this plan that I thought was very cool and maybe it was possible that epcot was the last person with knowledge of epcot and a person particularly close to walt himself was the imagineer marty scar scar had first come to disney in 1955 to write for the disneyland news newspaper while still a student at ucla, it was soon revealed.

He made his way into wedding companies by helping with attractions for the 1964 New York World's Fair and became one of Walt's main writers for his presentations and screen appearances. Some refer to Skar as the voice of Walt Scar. He had been close to the development of the Florida project and was working on the Epcot photo plan. I got to see firsthand a changing Walt Disney throughout 1966. Walt's age was showing and his health was declining. He wasn't doing himself any favors for a man who designed an ideal community of people he rarely socialized with and spent most of his time in the studio working at Epcot.

He drank more than ever when he received formal dinner invitations He wrote a big nose underlined in red ink on the page He had few hobbies and seemed to be happiest when entertaining his grandchildren Walt was quieter than usual and acted rather strangely frequently He called to his office to the in-house songwriting duo, the Sherman Brothers, demanding that they play the Mary Poppins number, "Feed the Birds," always crying to the music. Why is it not clear? Walt might have been tired after all those decades of work. Maybe he knew his time was coming to an end and was worried about his legacy or maybe he just liked the song, no matter what the Sherman Brothers sang and Walt listened to him looking out his office window while he spent his time drinking. or playing with his grandchildren or just thinking about space.

They were the breaks from a life dedicated to a single project Epcot Skar noted that Disney's mind was further removed from the studio at Disneyland than ever Skar said he cited that he had already done everything he wanted to do in terms of storytelling and creating cinematic entertainment In Disneyland, in the spring of 1966, Walt was in a good mood traveling around the country meeting with companies to sponsor Epcot. Walt and his team met with nearly 100 major American corporations, most of which were interested in sponsoring the project. Walt also saw interesting concepts that major cities were implementing, like an interesting trash recycling project in Tampa and new shopping centers in New York and Pennsylvania, but as plans progressed and spring gave way to summer and then summer gave way to autumn, ideas were turning into desperation.

Buzz Price described Epcot as a project. he created a quote in the last stages of a man's life in a hurry to do what he said he wanted to do, which is leave 25 years of work for his organization and that organization had concerns with Walt's proposal. Most pressing was Walt's insistence that he had complete control over the city, the team had been able to create the Reedy Creek drainage district, a special district that gave Disney more powers to govern his lands, and the team was courting Florida legislature to create the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which would give Disney autonomy from almost all local and county oversight, efforts to establish autonomy from the various levels of government were only half the battle, the other half was to prevent Epcot residents from having self-government.

Walt wanted Epcot to have permanent residency, however, his lawyers rejected this idea, explaining that permanent residents would want to vote on issues related to the city and hold elected positions of power within Epcot. This was unacceptable. Walt felt that he knew what was best for his residents and if they could vote they could only make things worse for his experimental project. Walt's community needed control not only over Epcot but also over the lives of its residents. Plans outlined for Epcot state that everything from appliances to light bulbs would be constantly updated with experimental technology and it is implied that residents would have no choice as to whether they were trying out the products or not, Walt immediately jumped on the idea. of having temporary rotating residents renting properties with no one staying longer than nine months, this would prevent Epcot from becoming a democracy.

On the other hand, Walt's Epcot would not be run by the people or the elite, but only thanks to Walt Disney did he know what was best for his people, his community was first and most important. The concerns raised by the lawyers sparked further debate within the team. Epcot was going to be a functional city and visitor attraction. from disney world a premise that raised privacy concerns disney advisor ray watson pressed walt on the issue saying quote now you're not going out to get milk in your pajamas you're going to have to dress up and put on a tie because these people who they live there now they are on display Watson went on to explain quote, you need to decide if you are really building a community that is a natural community where people will come to raise their families from their own city government, grow up, etc., but if Yes You're doing this as a venue for an exhibition, so you have to separate that, plus privacy concerns, residents would lack basic freedoms, which some Imagineers saw as a failure for the project.

The imagineer Carl Bongiorno said that everyone knew it couldn't be done. have 25,000 people living in a community and constantly change improve move innovate go to people's homes take out appliances put new ones in control of everything related to the project when you have a one-man democracy andOne vote while the community at Epcot was under scrutiny others doubted the prototype's appearance, as companies were rarely interested in showing off products when they were in the development stage. Disney imagineer John Hench raised this concern, so he remembered that Walt didn't understand how jealous people are about keeping him a secret and not exposing him and then there was the issue of the t at epcot tomorrow tomorrow was always approaching quickly and as demonstrated by disneyland's Tomorrowland it was expensive to keep up with the future Walt's goal was for Epcot to always be 25 years ahead of its time an expensive proposition if possible in All of these were voices of dissent within the Epcot team outside the bubble collaborative.

Opinions towards the project were much more cynical. Many people at the animation studio thought the project was a terrible idea, possibly because it distracted Walt from animation, but also perhaps because it was simply a terrible idea, a long-time friend of Walt Ward. Kimball said, "You can't experience people's lives like you do in Palm Beach." Walt's brother Roy distrusted Epcot and was especially concerned about its scale, but for many inside and outside the company. walt had earned the benefit of the doubt, no one believed that an animated feature film would be successful and just as few thought that waltz could carry out a project like disneyland, at this point everyone had learned the lesson not to underestimate walt disney however the proposal of Epcot was on a completely different level Epcot was unlike anything ever imagined except that it also was not essentially the idea of ​​a company building and owning a city full of citizens whose residency depended on their employment not new in 1884 the industrialist.

George Pullman created Pullman, a 4,000-acre city on the south side of Chicago with more than 1,000 homes and 12,000 residents. Pullman was initially a huge success thanks to its innovative design and amenities; However, like the plans for Epcot workers, they were only allowed to rent and would be evicted if fired and everything from classrooms to libraries was at Pullman's complete discretion. The underlying problems came to a head after the economic crisis of 1894 and after just a decade, Pullman succumbed to a workers' strike after the government intervened, the strike turned violent and killed 30 people. It was then annexed back to Chicago in 1928.

Henry Ford created a rubber factory and a city called Fordlandia in the Amazon rainforest in which he tried to impose his personal ideals on the indigenous workers, dictating their diet and prohibiting alcohol, tobacco and women to increase productivity. Riots and strikes broke out. and ultimately no rubber was made. Company towns like these were once common practice, especially for long-term remote jobs such as mining, but these towns rarely lasted long, especially under the ownership of a single company, two of the most common reasons for the disappearance. of a company city was the lack of ownership or the imposition of a social ideology, both things that epcot would have had epcot was different from other company cities in many ways, but it was alarmingly similar and could very well have experienced the same unrest as other cities experimental.

If historical examples from the company's cities weren't troubling enough, then one might look to Disney's own studio as a warning. It is true that Walt had not failed with his first feature film or with his theme park, but one could argue that he had already tried unsuccessfully to build a community, the 1941 strike at the Disney studio occurred for many reasons, but most of the animators recalled that the moment everything changed was when the company moved from the Hyperion to the Burbank studio, as they later mentioned that Walt had designed the space himself trying to anticipate every need and accommodate each individual in this, he certainly failed.

Despite all of Walt's planning and innovation the new environment had none of the charm of the previous studio and the transition set the stage for tensions among the staff - there was a chance that Epcot would have experienced the same problems. Walt felt that he knew what was best for his entertainers, what was best for his audience, and now what was best for his citizens. He had been right in the past, but he had also been very wrong, and as Epcot progressed, more skeptics emerged with increasing merit. Walt briefly considered a merger with GE and wondered if Epcot might work better in the hands of a company in the urban design space.

The merger could also have separated the project from its detractors in the studio, but in the end nothing would come of these talks. Skar described the plans. for epcot as a date scene that walt was just getting started on, who knew how it was going to end? It is difficult to examine plans that are clearly preliminary and make a judgment of value or effectiveness about them. Walt's plans for 1966 Epcot were superficial and he accounted for them. convenience of the citizens and nothing else, there were few if any plans to address any of the difficult or complex problems facing the cities, and in most cases the solution would probably have been to run them out of the city.

Walt said there would be no slum areas because we didn't allow them to develop, which probably would have been true since everyone needed to have a job and if they didn't have one they probably would have been evicted from the city, but this was not a scalable idea. In fact, Epcot as a whole. It would not have been replicable The project was only viable because it was an attraction The city's main industry would have been tourism so it needed to remain unique Walt knew this and was not looking to build a perfect city that could be reproduced throughout the country but rather An environment to test smaller ideas and technologies, Davis said his philosophy was not to build a city that would solve all urban problems around the world, but to give American industry the opportunity to experiment and show the world how traffic problems and housing could still be resolved even if Epcot wasn't a utopia.

Many wondered how Disney would approach human behavior. What would happen when a sponsor moved or laid off its workforce? Would this result in mass evictions? How would you approach Epcot? the repercussions of a serious crime like murder, how Disney would handle racial integration and race relations, any questions following the Epcot proposal had no answers despite the lack of depth and breadth, Walt suddenly diverted his attention from city ​​planning to announce In the fall of 1966, Walt was racing to distribute as many Epcot ideas as possible with unprecedented speed and determination. Epcot would keep Disney alive. It would be his legacy.

I had to entrust it to Walt. The world for the invention of a mouse Walt Disney needed the world to remember him more as he was showing his feelings now more than ever on one occasion Walt pointed to a section of a map of Epcot which he said quote, this is where the bank will be from the park. where lily and i are going to sit at night and watch all the people who would be happy, who would be a community their community in october 1966, walt approached marvin davis about building a model of the city and asked scar to write a film that explains epcot the film starred walt, who would explain the ideals and concepts of the florida project, there would be two identical films except for their endings in which walt would address the audience directly with a rant addressed to the florida legislature and the other was aimed at corporations.

Walt filmed the film on October 27, 1966. He donned the Uncle Walt character that he had disliked over the years. The character he feared would consume his legacy, but despite being a character, he was a character he could sell. and he sold he did and epcot will always be a showcase for the world of ingenuity and imagination of american free enterprise walk gave an overview of the florida project as well as the plans for epcot in the background an instrument from the carousel of progress theme song there's a big tomorrow, beautiful, scar played, he said the movie was a date, not just a sales job at epcot, it was his shot coming out of his head, a shot of what was on his mind before walt presented a tour narrated by the city concept, he emphasized that these plans were still in their preliminary phases and would change many times and boy was he right, just three weeks after filming the Epcot movie, Walt was admitted to the hospital to undergo a surgery to stop the pain he had been having in his neck and leg, but the doctors found something much more related to spots and a lump in Walt's left lung.

It was cancer. Those who knew Walt knew that he was a chain smoker. The cause of cancer was not surprising, but nothing could have prepared anyone for Walt Disney's death. Walt was the least prepared of them all complaining that the operation would take time away from his job at epcot before going to surgery he yelled at davis and vice president joe potter quote why you're dragging your feet it's because of the money you've been talking to roy roy thinks epcot is a loser but don't listen to him disney world will make all the profits we need for this operation on november 21st after a seemingly successful surgery walt left the hospital early to return to the studio where walt was denial stating that he was ready to return to work some of his staff were optimistic others knew the truth this would be the last day that Walt Disney visited his studio on November 25 Walt flew to his ranch in Palm Springs to rest, but only five days later he flew back to Burbank and was admitted to the hospital just across the street from his studio, on what would ultimately be his deathbed.

Walt continued his work when his son-in-law, Ron Miller, a producer at the studio, visited him. Walt explained that when he left the hospital he would leave the studio to Miller and other executives like Card Walker and Dan Tatum. Walt no longer had time for the studio. He needed to concentrate on Epcot. It was the best thing he would ever do. He told Miller that in the hospital, Walt would draw. Disney World's seventh draft master plan. He worked on it until the day before he died, when his brother Roy visited him in the hospital. Walt pointed to the tiled ceiling above his bed using it as a grate. for a map he traced with a finger he said quote now is where the road will pass there is the route for the monorail walt disney would die the next day december 15, 1966 just 10 days after his 65th birthday the world appropriately mourned the loss of the Entertainment giant and his company left with a media empire and 27,000 acres of nothing but stages and statutes, Davis approached Roy after Walt's passing, bringing with him the latest plans for Walt's experimental city after Walt davis presented walt's final project, roy simply said: quote marvin walt is dead you don't need to say anything else walt disney productions wouldn't build a city, especially not without walt disney roy invested all the resources to make part of the his brother's dream the theme park and resort area for which Roy presented the Epcot movie For the first time, on February 2, 1967, before a group of officials in Winter Park, Florida, the city concept of Epcot remained in conversation over the years and was especially helpful in obtaining favorable political deals, such as the Reedy Creek Improvement District and other powers that might not have been granted to just one theme park resort Roy would rename Disney World to Walt disney world to honor his brother the resort opened with the magic kingdom theme park and two resort hotels epcot was nowhere to be found however elements were present such as the utilidors a system of tunnels on which the park was built and a system of Garbage collection avat similar to the one Walt proposed.

The map Walt drew was the basis for planning the resort and the contemporary hotel, one of two Disney World hotels that Davis would help design, would resemble. Many of Epcot's depictions, both aesthetically and his signature, feature a monorail that passed through the structure. Walt Disney World Resort opened on October 1, 1971. Roy would pass less than three months later on December 20, 1971. Walt Disney Productions was taken over. From Walt's son-in-law, executives Ron Miller, Card Walker and Dan Tatum, as well as the countless other artists who had worked on the company's projects, these would be the people who would have to deal with what would become of Epcot if they didn't. it was like that. a city, what would it be?

The company kept postponing it and put it in a second phase category that was about 10 years away. It wasn't until 1974 that Disney president Card Walker confirmed that Epcot was going to happen, although it would be very different from a city and, therefore, Walt's dream, his last and most intense.passion project was officially dead, but, as was often asked, what would happen to its legacy after its cancellation? Walt's nephew, Roy and Disney, once said, "If you get 40 people in a room," and ask each one to write down who Walt was, you would get 40 different Walts. It's impossible to define a person in one word, especially Walt Disney. walt was a simple man and at the same time he was very complicated a futurist who traded in nostalgia a conservative obsessed with progress a kind mentor with an impatient temperament many of walt's qualities and contradictions can be found in epcot but it does not leave the image clearer perhaps a single project cannot explain a person's life or maintain his legacy perhaps for Walt Epcot was more than just a legacy or urban planning or futurism Why did Walt try so desperately for decades to build a community?

Maybe Epcot was something Walt lost, something he wanted back. Walt Disney left behind a complicated legacy. and Epcot was just a piece in that puzzle, a missing piece, so