"An EPCOT Generation Manifesto" Revisited

My family is getting tired of hearing me whistle Listen to the Land and hum It’s Fun to Be Free. I get it. These melodies and others from the EPCOT Center songbook seem to run on a constant loop in my head right now. The repetition, I am sure, gets old, but these tunes from my childhood do make me feel better.
 
I can only speak for myself, but I feel the twenty-first century has been pretty dystopian so far: the tragedy of September 11th and the “war on terrorism,” economic collapse, global pandemic, and increased political tribalism and cultural fragmentation, which make solving shared, complex public problems ever more difficult. These things weigh me down intellectually and emotionally, sitting like a cloud overhead that just will not move on. A child of the 1980s, I remember a time in my life when I was far more optimistic, hopeful, and energized to engage in positive ways in the world, and as I look back, EPCOT Center, I think, had a lot to do with creating that attitude I feel I have lost.
 
And I don’t think I am the only one.
 
Inspired by Walt Disney’s vision of an experimental prototype community of tomorrow, EPCOT Center opened October 1, 1982, the second theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort. Walt Disney World was an annual destination for my family. Even as a young child, I recognized EPCOT Center as a marked departure from the fantasy of the Magic Kingdom. Comprised of two areas, Future World and World Showcase, Disney designers grounded EPCOT Center in reality and possible futures.
 

Your writer and his family at EPCOT Center, probably 1984.

I am clearly part of what Disney historian Foxx Nolte calls the EPCOT Generation. Nolte’s “An EPCOT Generation Manifesto,” published over a decade ago, identified the EPCOT Generation as all those kids who passed through the park gates in the 1980s and early 1990s who were “deeply, personally affected by their experiences there,” the ones who absorbed the park “on some deeply felt level.” Nolte argues for thinking about the park on a macro-level. More than the sum of its parts – the dinosaurs, the Hydrolators, SMRT-1, Maya dancers, and the rest – EPCOT Center was on a mission to instill an attitude of curiosity, inquiry, and possibility in its visitors. And somehow, it hit just right for many members of Generation X.[1]
 
Ray Bradbury, science fiction writer, EPCOT Center consultant, and perhaps it best spokesman, hinted at the park’s mission in an interview when the park opened, saying “The function of Epcot is to excite people to potentials, and to be as accurate as possible – not to educate fully, of course, but to be on the rim of educating, so that when you leave, your life is changed forever.” The goal, Bradbury said, was to “make you an educable human being, because you will be so excited about the world you live in that you'll solve its problems.” Through EPCOT Center, we were made aware of global challenges but also the possibility of addressing them. With the park – and Disney – as communicator, we were introduced to new ideas and new technologies and developed a greater global understanding. For Nolte and other members of the EPCOT Generation – myself included – it was mission accomplished. We walked away inspired.[2]
 
At the moment, it feels so past tense.
 
“An EPCOT Generation Manifesto” concludes with a call – to Disney, to members of the EPCOT Generation – to recommit to EPCOT Center’s mission. And that call invites an opportunity to better understand why EPCOT Center made an impact on so many of us. Determining how to recommit in our dystopic time, I believe, necessitates looking at how the original mission came into being and was acted upon.
 
I see parallels between the historical moment from which EPCOT Center emerged and our own. Walt Disney Productions broke ground on EPCOT Center in October 1979. Just a few months before, that July, President Carter addressed the nation, asking why, as a country, we were unable to get together and solve our common problems, the energy crisis in particular being the one that prompted Carter’s speech. At the end of a turbulent decade, addressing a public that had, as Carter saw it, lost confidence in its ability to shape its future, the president warned of the dangers of increased fragmentation and implored his fellow citizens to choose a path of common purpose. EPCOT Center, a project aimed squarely at instilling a faith in our shared human capacity for problem-solving, and the “crisis of confidence” Carter described, existed side-by-side.
 
Recognizing the social and cultural context from which EPCOT Center was born, in our dystopian moment, it may be worth reconsidering EPCOT Center and investigating why it worked for so many of us. Does EPCOT Center and the experience of the EPCOT Generation have anything to teach us now? And if so, what? And, in this particular moment, is it possible for the “Spirit of EPCOT” to move us again?

Project Description
 
The project is an inquiry into the development of EPCOT Center, how park-goers – particularly those often identified as Generation X – experienced it, and how it continues to be experienced more than forty years after its opening.
 
The inquiry is guided by these questions:
 
How did we end up with the park we did? And how did we, and how do we continue to, experience EPCOT Center?
 
Why was/is EPCOT Center a source of inspiration and/or optimism for those who experienced it in the early 1980s? How was its mission manifested?
 
EPCOT Center emerged from a particular social and cultural context. How did its social and cultural context affect the final outcome, and what does it mean for us now?
 
A well-cited, fact-based history of EPCOT Center, one that brings together diverse perspectives, is much needed. I think, for the most part, when the EPCOT Center origin story is told, it is told solely from Disney's perspective, and within that, largely from the design perspective as opposed to other viewpoints, e.g. operations, public affairs, outreach, etc. But this park, perhaps more than any other Disney created, is the result of lots of additional voices: sponsors, consultants, outside artisans, trained technicians, and others.
 
Projects like EPCOT Center, which are so expansive in scope and content, are always the outcome of collective endeavor, even when there appears to be a lead person. The park is also the outcome of multiple forces, sometimes conflicting, meeting each other: old/young WED designers, sponsors, advisors/consultants, “authenticity,” Florida/political forces, and Walt Disney/EPCOT ’66, among others.
 
I am not an unbiased researcher. As an unapologetic member of the EPCOT Generation, I love this park. It affected me deeply in positive ways. I am also not uncritical. And the critical lens I bring to bear on the project is shaped by the social theory work of the Frankfurt School intellectuals and the social and philosophical ideas of John Dewey. These shaped my interests – community and democracy, freedom and individuality, inquiry and problem-solving – and my approach to these topics. What this means, in part, is that the project is more than a strict history. As I twist and turn the object of inquiry, I want to ask about how EPCOT Center engaged in questions of community, democracy, problem-solving, and individual growth and freedom.
 
Resources/Method
 
A substantial amount of resources exist to support the research.
 
Archival and manuscript collections provide access to contemporary textual and photographic evidence. These materials might include memos and correspondence, internal descriptions, notes, press releases, photographs and artistic renderings, among other things.
 
Preliminary research revealed significant collections in colleges and universities across the country, including those of advisors and consultants involved in the development of EPCOT Center’s pavilions. Papers of advisory board members and consultants provide access to project summaries, discussions around ideas, etc. Of particular significance is the Ray Bradbury archives at the University of Indiana. The Norman ‘Buddy’ Baker Papers at New York University provides a good example of manuscript collections donated by Disney artists and staff that provide details on the development of pavilions.
 
Corporate archives illuminate how corporate sponsors engaged with Disney in the development of EPCOT Center and provide a way to understand how these participants presented their involvement to various publics, including their own employees and customers. AT&T, American Express, Coca-Cola, General Motors and other corporate participants exist that may document how these companies engaged with Disney in the creation of EPCOT Center and may reveal how they understood their sponsorship and its value to their customers.
 
Amateur Disney historians, thankfully, publicly share various finds. DisneyDocs.net, in particular, is a tremendous resource for archival and manuscript materials. For example, collections of materials from Disney designer Harper Goff and film director Joseph Mankiewicz, both bought at auction, are available on the DisneyDocs site.
 
Publications contemporary to the creation and early years of EPCOT Center supplement textual and photographic materials found in archives and manuscript collections. These fall into three broad categories: in-house publications from Disney and other corporate participants; trade publications; news accounts and commercial publications.
 
First person accounts of EPCOT Center’s creation and operation are a significant source of information for the project. Disney historian Didier Ghez correctly says the story of EPCOT is foremost “the story of the men and women who created it.” These individuals include artists and designers, engineers and technical specialists, landscape architects and scientists, consultants and subject specialists, publicists and cast members and others who have never been included in histories of EPCOT Center.
 
Many substantive interviews, primarily with people associated with the Walt Disney Company, are readily accessible. Any Disney historian should be grateful for the Walt’s People series edited by Didier Ghez. The series provides access to interviews with Disney artists and designers, many of whom have long since passed away.
 
Another valuable resource for first-person accounts of EPCOT Center’s creation are interviews conducted by amateur Disney historians and published on podcasts and websites such as Progress City Radio Hour, RetroWDW, and others. These are interviews with major and minor figures, including designers, voice talent, song writers, and others.
 
Finally, autobiographies by Disney artists, designers, and managers provide another point of entry into understanding the EPCOT Center story.
 
One problem with many of these interviews and other first person accounts, however, is often they are career-spanning in scope and therefore rarely provide any deep dives on any one topic, in this case, EPCOT Center. Any interviews conducted for this project, on my part, will be focused on this one park and be part fact-finding – asking further who, what, when, and where questions – and part seeking explanations, impressions, exploring processes, discussing challenges and opportunities.
 
Many WED designers have not been interviewed, particularly individuals who only worked at Disney during the EPCOT Center project and either left or were laid off at its conclusion. People on the operations-side and members of the technical teams in The Land and The Living Seas pavilions are one focus of future interviews, as these EPCOT Center participants are not often discussed. These are the individuals who animated EPCOT Center after the designers moved on to other projects and include entertainers, World Showcase fellows, and others. I also want to interview those outside of Disney – consultants, sponsor representatives, and others – who, again, are not often included in accounts of EPCOT Center’s development.
 
First-person accounts are essential for addressing the research questions, but these must be used in connection with contemporary documentation. Memories fail, and documents do not provide the full truth. Together, however, the documentation fills in details long forgotten – e.g. when did something happen – and first-person accounts provide insight into the why and how of events and correct and fill in gaps in the documentation.
 
Secondary sources add context to the research. EPCOT Center as part of the corporate history of the Walt Disney Company is addressed in a number of works, including but not limited to John Taylor’s Storming the Magic Kingdom and Ron Grover’s The Disney Touch. Married to the Mouse by Richard Fogelsong is an example of works that discuss EPCOT Center as a component of the larger Walt Disney World project in Central Florida.
 
Home movies, while less traditional, are a fantastic resource for understanding how EPCOT Center was experienced.
 
In terms of scope, the project primarily covers the period after Walt Disney’s death in 1966 through roughly 1986 when The Living Seas opened, Spaceship Earth received its Cronkite narration, and Magic Journeys was replaced by Captain EO, an attraction that is a marked departure from the “Spirit of EPCOT” that shaped the park’s early years.
 
Further, I want to explore how we experienced and continue to experience EPCOT Center years after its transformation into the Epcot we know today. Case studies may provide the best method for engaging in this topic. Examples of case studies may include an analysis of the park’s Official Album, EPCOT Outreach/Educational Media Program, entertainment, the Dreamfinder/Figment comics, and projects that digitally reconstruct the park, e.g. FuturePort 82. Another idea is to survey those who identify as part of the EPCOT Generation.
 
As I research, I am constructing two “tools”: a list of individuals who participated in the creation/operation of EPCOT Center and a timeline of activities based on documented evidence. As a Disney theme park fan/enthusiast, the opportunity the project provides to gather facts (and minutiae) about EPCOT Center is not lost on me. My background in library and information science honed my skills at evaluating diverse points of data and organizing information.
 
As of this writing, I am working with a list of over 1200 names of designers, consultants, advisors, sponsor representatives, and many others. The list will continue to be refined as research continues. The timeline is more of a challenge. Verifying dates requires dated textual resources, e.g. memos, correspondence, etc., which may be difficult to locate or access may be restricted.
 
Output
 
At this point in the project development, I am unsure of the final output of the research. I am fond of saying that the “good old codex hasn’t failed us yet,” referring to printed books. But there is clearly enough materials – and questions – for three books, in this case. Any publication would have a niche market and therefore may not be easily taken on by a publisher. A series of shorter pieces, perhaps in the form of blogposts, similar to Passport to Dreams Old and New, could serve to get the research findings out to the public.
 
However, the research does have an underlying structure. It clearly has three facets: a macro-view of EPCOT Center, focused on its mission and how that was manifested; a micro-view focused on the development of the individual pavilions; and reflections on how the park was experienced by the EPCOT Generation. These three facets potentially influence how any output might be organized.
 
Challenges
 
There are a number of challenges to telling the EPCOT Center story in a way that accounts for all of the various forces at work in development.
 
Will anybody talk to me? My background is not as a Disney historian, and I do not have an existing set of relationships what would help build a network of individuals who can provide insight into the creation and operation of EPCOT Center. This will need to be built from the ground up.
 
Will I be able to access resources? For example, while the General Motors Heritage Archive generously provided samples of assets available to research, the AT&T Archives were more hesitant, requesting further development of the project before any access would be provided. So, work must continue to ultimately answer this question.
 
Will you be able to construct an even story? In regards to treatment of individual pavilions, I am concerned about uneven coverage. For example, while there appears to be a tremendous amount of information regarding The Land pavilion, far fewer resources appear to exist concerning Universe of Energy.
 
Will you be able to tell the story you want to tell? EPCOT Center, its development and creation, is the intellectual property of the Walt Disney Company, which has a vested interest in protecting its assets. Epcot and nostalgia about its earlier incarnations remain commodities for the Walt Disney Company. Disney may or may not support this project.

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[1] Foxx Nolte, “An EPCOT Generation Manifesto,” Passport to Dreams Old and New, October 17, 2012. https://passport2dreams.blogspot.com/2012/10/an-epcot-generation-manifesto.html. Accessed July 4, 2024.
[2] Robert L. Sample, “The Exciting World of Epcot Center,” Administrative Management 43.11 (November 1982), 49.