Acquired
03:44:19 · Ben Gilbert, David Rosenthal
[03:44:19] S0: To my mind, the most interesting part about this is how far it got. [03:44:23] S1: Yes. Yes. Yes. So the way that Walt starts working towards realizing this vision is the nineteen sixty four World's Fair in New York. So Walt gets this great idea leading up to the fair that Disney, on the success that they have at Disneyland, can partner with other big American companies and institutions to create Disney sponsored pavilions and exhibitions at the fair that they can then transfer into Disneyland. But even more than that, the New York World's Fair can serve as this sort of undercover test bed for this big idea of an East Coast City that will be a partnership between American industry, Disney, and the public. So the four exhibitions that they create for the nineteen sixty four World's Fair, many of which should probably sound familiar to you. It's a small world sponsored by Pepsi and UNICEF. [03:45:29] S0: Which is actually designed by Mary Blair, who's this famous designer. She brought modernism to Disney. She's the one that basically did all the concept art for Alice in Wonderland, which is why it looks the way that it does. She's kinda responsible for that aesthetic, and she was one of the original team members of Imagineers that came over from Wed, and I believe the first female Imagineer.
03:45:29 · Ben Gilbert, David Rosenthal
[03:45:29] S0: Which is actually designed by Mary Blair, who's this famous designer. She brought modernism to Disney. She's the one that basically did all the concept art for Alice in Wonderland, which is why it looks the way that it does. She's kinda responsible for that aesthetic, and she was one of the original team members of Imagineers that came over from Wed, and I believe the first female Imagineer. [03:45:53] S1: That's right. That's right. And then she's the one who does small world. Yep. By far, the most successful pavilion at the fair that makes its way to Disneyland. So that's one. Two, the Carousel of Progress sponsored by General Electric. Three, the Magic Skyway, sponsored by Ford. And then four, great moments with mister Lincoln, sponsored by the state of Illinois. And that's the last one of which catch that. Is how Disney Imagineering develops audio animatronics Yep. For Abraham Lincoln. [03:46:24] S0: Yes. This whole thing is this amazing test bed for audio animatronics, which Disney kinda invents and then popularizes in Disneyland and then in Disney World. [03:46:33] S1: Yeah. And because it's Disney and part of Disneyland, we think, oh, yeah. Audio animatronics, like Disneyland. Like, these are robots Right. That Disney Imagineering is inventing in the late fifties, early sixties. [03:46:46] S0: Well, David, you you and I have had the privilege of being at some pretty cool robotics conferences, and you meet these, like, PhD researchers who are sort of in and out of Disney. Like, that is still where a lot of cutting edge robotics happens.
03:46:46 · Ben Gilbert, David Rosenthal
[03:46:46] S0: Well, David, you you and I have had the privilege of being at some pretty cool robotics conferences, and you meet these, like, PhD researchers who are sort of in and out of Disney. Like, that is still where a lot of cutting edge robotics happens. [03:46:58] S1: Yes. So all four of those rides after the fair get ported right over to Disneyland because, of course [03:47:04] S0: Three of the four. The Ford one does not. The part of the deal is that Walt says, you have to pay a million dollars to use my name as a part of your attraction, of course, in addition to footing the bill for building it. But I'll forgive that million dollars if you let us put it in Disneyland afterwards Mhmm. Because we wanna get some value of it out after the fair. And Ford says, we'll just pay the million. [03:47:31] S1: Poor decision on Ford's part. [03:47:33] S0: I know. [03:47:33] S1: Okay. So three of the four get ported over to Disneyland, but all of it leads right into planning for the Florida project.
03:47:33 · David Rosenthal, Ben Gilbert
[03:47:33] S1: Okay. So three of the four get ported over to Disneyland, but all of it leads right into planning for the Florida project. [03:47:42] S0: And I think while the Florida project initially is not a theme park, and Walt very much is uninterested in building an East Coast Disneyland. He says it explicitly over and over again. He does have a nagging concern that an East Coast audience is more sophisticated than a West Coast audience, and there isn't demand for a theme park like Disneyland in Florida. I always think he uses that as kind of his, like, emotional defense mechanism air cover for why he's like, oh, I don't wanna just do the same thing again. I think it's like, I'm afraid it'll fail. And one of the big takeaways from the world's fair is, no. People would absolutely love a Disneyland type thing, especially with audio animatronics and all this cool new technology you're developing for the World's Fair. [03:48:31] S1: Well, obviously, if Disney is gonna do anything on the East Coast, it should be in Florida. I mean, it has the warmest year round weather and even more important [03:48:43] S0: Abundant cheap land. [03:48:44] S1: Abundant cheap land all throughout the state. Yep. So Walt, though, like you said, had no interest in just building another Disneyland. What is this Florida project? I had heard about this lore and legend over the years before doing the research. But diving in, it blew my mind, and it will blow yours too hearing about what Walt's vision for it [03:49:04] S0: was. The ambition.
03:49:04 · Ben Gilbert, David Rosenthal
[03:49:04] S0: was. The ambition. [03:49:05] S1: So one, it starts with a brand new airport of the future paired together with a vast entrance complex and park. Two, there will, of course, be a theme park, a new Disney World Magic Kingdom theme park that was initially intended to be five times the size of Disneyland just for just for the theme park. Three, a 1,000 acre industrial park intended to house satellite r and d offices for America's greatest companies. Think everybody that Walt is partnering with at the World's Fair, Ford, GE, Pepsi, all the companies that are corporate sponsors back at Disneyland. He wants them Monsanto. Yeah. Monsanto. Move their most advanced r and d teams to this new city in Florida. And then four, most important, the heart of the whole project is Epcot. But, again, not the Epcot you know today. So Walt Epcot was going to be, in his own words, a living blueprint of the future where people actually live a life they can't find anywhere else in the world, a showcase to the world for the ingenuity and imagination of American free enterprise. And, basically, it is a sci fi city.
03:50:34 · Ben Gilbert, David Rosenthal
[03:50:34] S0: Meanwhile, I gotta say, they couldn't open most of Tomorrowland for 1955 when they opened Disneyland, and they're having a really hard time keeping up with the pace of technology. I walked through Tomorrowland even today, and I'm like, this all feels really dated and nothing like Tomorrow. I think Walt himself has a famous quip on this, which is tomorrow comes a lot faster into today than we can kinda keep up with. So you could imagine if they actually built this thing, it it very quickly would would not feel like the future. I mean, you you plow a bunch of CapEx into concrete and futuristic concepts. New stuff gets invented real fast, and then it's ugly and old. That's a good point. [03:51:11] S1: But perhaps you haven't heard the vision for what this city is yet. [03:51:15] S0: Please. Please lay it