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The Progress City Radio Hour – Episode 51 – Communications!

Marty Sklar, John DeCuir Jr., and John Hench discuss an early model of Spaceship Earth

With the recent celebration of EPCOT’s 40th anniversary, it’s time for the Progress City Radio Hour to begin our series of EPCOT-themed episodes! And as befits the park’s main icon, the first episode in our series is all about […]

New Podcasts: Interviews and Snowy Things!

Frank Stanek

The podcast train keeps on rolling, as we have some new episodes of The Progress City Radio Hour for you. For starters, we have an extensive two-part interview with former Disney executive Frank Stanek, who began by flipping pancakes at Disneyland in 1961. He went on to work at the 1964/65 […]

See You At The Fair!

Fifty years ago, in Flushing Meadows, Queens, the 1964/65 New York World’s Fair opened its doors. This grand exposition featured exhibits from around the world in massive mid-century structures; it also included four marquee attractions developed by the Imagineers at WED Enterprises – General Electric’s Progressland, Ford’s Magic Skyway, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, […]

Walt Disney Vs. The Air Pirates

Walt ‘Nickels’ Disney’s Gulfstream 1, preparing for combat. Not pictures: Nickels!

During the 1970s, Frank Stanek lead planning efforts at WED Enterprises and headed the development of Tokyo Disneyland, but back in 1964 he was a young cast member managing the business affairs of Disney’s “it’s a small world” attraction at the 1964/65 […]

it’s a small world war

I feel that I am perhaps the last individual in the Disney blogosphere to post any sort of public comment about the recent controversy surrounding the rumored changes to Disneyland’s version of it’s a small world. This is due to a number of reasons, but mostly, as a grizzled veteran of Eisner’s last decade […]