More importantly, it contains a look beyond the pavilion to AT&T’s other contributions to the park, which were found at FutureCom in CommuniCore West. Long-gone exhibits such as “The Amazing Microchip” and the “Network Map” are shown, as is the still-spectacular Information Fountain and the folk-art (and song!) that were part of the Age of Information show. It really does get across how funky CommuniCore was back in the day, and underscores the pleasant atmosphere that has been lost in years since.

Another nice treat for EPCOT history buffs is the footage of the WorldKey Information System kiosk that graced the bridge from Future World to World Showcase; this is one of the less-remembered WorldKey outposts so it’s good to have this video. I’m fascinated by the clip of the WorldKey system itself that they show during the film – it is not the WorldKey that I recall. The icons are far more primitive, and the voice is not “Bit” – the character who would later host the WorldKey presentations. Perhaps this is a prototype of the system? WorldKey was tested in various Walt Disney World locations in the years leading up to EPCOT’s opening, and I wonder if this isn’t one of those prototype implementations.

This video is one of several posted by the AT&T Archives; I highly recommend that you check out their YouTube channel for a number of remarkable films and videos from the last century. Some are quite amazing – and hilarious.

One of the most famous of these was Monsanto’s “House of the Future”, which occupied a spot right off of the park’s central plaza from 1957 to 1967. As much a World’s Fair exhibit as a theme park attraction, the house used “modern” building techniques to create a unique four-lobed, plastic structure chock-full of the latest electronic amenities.

What must it have been like to visit? What would it have been like to live in such a wondrous home? Well, thankfully, we have this promotional film to show us just what it would have been like if we showed up at the park and just decided to move in. Those thousands of people waiting in line won’t mind; just make yourself at home!

This video is truly spectacular, and joins the pantheon of mid-century promotional films featuring odd hallucinations about having nicer appliances; it’s slightly more grounded than Once Upon A Honeymoon or Design For Dreaming, but still delightfully strange. Amazingly, both those films were made in 1956 – just a year before the House of the Future opened and this short was most likely filmed. In one of the opening shots of the house you can see the large steel support for the Skyway in the background; this would soon be replaced by the Matterhorn which opened in 1959.

So kick off your shoes and pop something in the microwave range – make yourself at home, it’s the future! Just don’t forget to change out of your park-going formal wear before you start dinner…

Good thing, then, that I wasn’t a child in Britain in 1975 when the fourth Doctor, played by Tom Baker, crossed over from Doctor Who to appear on Disney Time; the fusion of these two universes would have been so incredibly cool that I might not have survived. Disney Time was an annual or semi-annual special that appeared on the BBC from 1970-1983 during Christmas and other major holidays. It involved a number of clips from Disney animated shorts and animated or live action features, all linked together by live-action interstitials featuring various celebrities. Baker appeared in character as the Doctor for the Christmas, 1975 special.

The video is of poor quality, and the actual Disney clips have been removed, but you get the idea…

I have to say that aside from wanting more Doctor with my Disney, Disney Time itself is a pretty good concept. The studio is sitting on a vast archive of material, none of which it is utilizing. I grew up on this sort of thing, fed a daily dose of Disney thanks to the syndicated Wonderful World of Disney, but where today will kids get to see True-Life Adventures or Blackbeard’s Ghost? Maybe a regularly-occurring clip show like this would be one answer, and even though Baker has long ago hung up his scarf I’m sure the eleventh Doctor would be glad to make an appearance…

I’m sure between ABC, ABC Family, the Disney Channel, Disney XD, and Disney Junior, they could find some place to put it.

And although I never knew one of my life-long goals was to hear the Doctor talk about the Apple Dumpling Gang, I’m glad to have finally experienced it.

The first thing that always jumps out to me is what a natural “ham” Walt is; as a child he always wanted to be an actor, and he might have actually been a pretty good one. He has the Midwest-deadpan thing going for him, but his timing is really quite good – in fact, he’s better than Benny, who admittedly I’ve never “gotten”. Benny hams it up and plays to the camera, but Walt manages to hit the right notes perfectly.

You have to love how smooth Walt is at promotion. He stages the bit so that it starts with product placement for the then-upcoming That Darn Cat – “The title of the picture is important! You gotta punch it!” You sure do, Walt! Well played. He also drops Mary Poppins in there. And while he doesn’t like to talk about the charity work that Disneyland does, he apparently does keep huge bricks of tickets in his desk just in case!

Just another day at the studio, I suppose. No wonder kids of this era thought Walt was just this side of Santa Claus – he hangs out in his huge office with magical birds, tigers roaming the halls, and deskfulls of free Disneyland tickets. What a life!

While Benny managed to make out like a bandit on this visit, Walt had managed to get some money out of him previously; when Walt’s Celebrity Sports Center opened near Denver in 1960, one of its investors was the tightfisted Benny.

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I hope you enjoy our silliness, and congratulations to Matt and Nate on 100 episodes!

Cartoon Brew posted a link to an autobiographical video written, produced, and narrated by Earle before his death in 2000. It’s a wonderful artifact, and I wish more of the great Disney artists had the foresight and means to leave similar documents.

The artwork is, without a doubt, astounding, as is his animation work.

The video is in three parts, linked below.

What’s fun about this clip is that it’s a very early parody of Disneyland, full of truly over-the-top puns and in-jokes. I can imagine the confused east-coast kids watching this episode, since so much of the silly wordplay and references depend of a working knowledge of Disneyland. And the gag about the submarine presages Walt Disney World’s conversion of the “Submarine Voyage” into 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea!

So while the satire may bite a bit at times, it’s clear that this piece is based in extensive Disneyland experience. Which shouldn’t be a surprise; Wikipedia’s list of the show’s creative staff features many, many individuals who once worked at the Disney studio – some of whom would do double-duty as Imagineers!

Here’s the cartoon, and among all the references and gags note another thing: just how much Clampett’s work has been ripped off by pretty much every “hip” children’s animated program in the last twenty years.