epcotexplorer:

Dick Nunis, Revisionist History, and the Myth of EPCOT Center:

When Walt Disney World opened, it opened under the guise of being the realization of Walt Disney’s “last and greatest dream”.

 When EPCOT Center opened, it opened under the guise of being the realization of Walt Disney’s “last and greatest dream”.

 However, both of these statements, while grand, and sentimental for a lost leader, are half truths and stretches of the real dreams that Walt Disney had for the land he and his cohorts acquired in Central Florida.

As I am sure most of my readers know, the original intention of the Florida property was to be set aside for E.P.C.O.T.- the urban landscape of the future that would be the heart of the property and be ancillary to the “Disneyland East” also planned for the area. But with Walt’s death, and complications in making that “Disneyland East” into a Magic Kingdom worthy of being separate from her older sister, the plans for E.P.C.O.T. City got pushed by the wayside. Instead, Lake Buena Vista was to be the ” host community” and receive the same futuristic treatments (like a WEDWay) that E.P.C.O.T. was to receive.

…and this, too, floundered.

So, when the time came to begin work on expanding Walt Disney World outside her existing par and resorts, the idea, once again, settled on E.P.C.O.T. Only this time, ideology would center around evoking the themes, ideas, and purpose of the original idea. E.P.C.O.T. would no longer be a  city, it would be a park. (At first, two parks, but that’s a entirely different article!) E.P.C.O.T. became EPCOT.

Now, in my mind, none of this is a bad idea. Nor is it a apologist’s view of the company post-Walt. I think the idea of a working city of the future was a viable one, and a fantastic way to make the Florida property radically different and a keystone of Walt Disney Productions. But without Walt, the genius behind this design? I won’t say it would have been impossible, but it certainly would have been much, much harder.

With work on EPCOT beginning, and the largest private construction enterprise underway, one would think that the subsequent history and marketing surrounding Disney’s new venture would reflect the origins of which it came- the city that Walt Disney envisioned. Not so. Instead of branding EPCOT Center as an extension of the concept, or even as a precursor of things still to come on the property, EPCOT Center was promptly billed as the culmination of the dream, and a dramatic realization of the purpose of Disney World.

And so, this major disjunction, this bit of revisionist history, has wedged itself into the actual understanding of what EPCOT is, what it was, and why we now have a park in place of a city. And it was perpetrated by the leaders who knew that molding a city into a park was a good idea. They just weren’t sure of it.

As seen in the letter above, Dick Nunis goes very much out of his way to instill pride and confidence in the property as a whole; Walt Disney World is the epitome of what Walt wanted, EPCOT is the capstone to this great endeavor.

 And although it is a blatant half-truth, can we really blame him? Partially. It’s never good to ignore history, but when investing billions into a entirely new park and concept, unlike the public has seen before on a permanent basis, it might be a least marginally acceptable to crank up the hyperbole machine and dabble in making your product look it’s best.

John Hench famously said that the entire company was living in the shadow of “that EPCOT City painting” and that creating a park based in that idea was seemingly the only way to shirk off the massive responsibility of actually having to build it.

Realistically- this might very well be true. And considering the sheer magnitude of the enterprise and the amount of imagination that went into EPCOT Center, it’s at least a decent trade off.

But historically, ignoring the actual events in the creation of EPCOT Center, and the transition from city to theme park? It just doesn’t sit well. It does no favors to the leaders of Walt Disney Productions that scrambled after Walt’s death to ensure that their company would survive and continue to impress and be innovative. It is a massive disservice to their legacy that one of their greatest achievements, EPCOT Center, is marred by the fact that in it’s creation, it’s origins were stretched and mythologized.

The true story of EPCOT Center is just as impressive and inspiring when considering the milieu of challenge it faced, not the dichotomy it had to undergo.