Progress City, U.S.A.

When the announcement was made that Merlin Entertainments had purchased Florida’s fabled yet troubled Cypress Gardens to convert it into LEGOland Florida – exciting news for those of us who share a love of LEGO and an interest in preserving as much of ol’ Cypress Gardens as possible – my mind immediately went elsewhere. A trip down memory lane through the last several decades reveals a long, mostly unconsummated, flirtation between Disney and LEGO.

Like two stars orbiting each other in a gravitational embrace, the two companies have been intertwined for ages. But instead of drawing closer, it appears that at last they’ve catapulted each other into interstellar space.

Allow me to explain my tortured metaphor.

One of the most vigorous and undying Disney rumors in the early days of the internet was that the fifth gate at Walt Disney World would be a LEGO park. I’ve no idea how realistic these rumors actually were, but there were several legitimate attempts to bring LEGO into the existing Disney parks. Most prominently, these involved efforts to bring a Denmark pavilion to EPCOT Center. The Denmark pavilion has popped up here in the past; it’s one of those rare unrealized ideas, much like the Spain pavilion, that have been hinted at publicly at certain intervals since well before EPCOT’s opening in 1982 to almost the modern day. While many of those iterations probably didn’t involve LEGO, some did. Let’s take a look back, starting in 1983…

John Sullivan, the president of Lego’s American subsidiary, said in an interview here that shipments were up in 1982 but not as much as the company had expected. Overall, the toy industry was hurt by the economic downturn, and Lego fared reasonably well compared to other companies, Sullivan said. But, particularly in the United States, video games are a major new long-term factor in an industry already crowded with products. In only a few years, electronic toys have garnered 32 percent of the market, and their attraction is increasing as prices go down, he said.

…

Lego is an unusual international company because it is so closely held by the founding family and because it operates from this remote corner of Scandinavia. It was once written of Billund that it was a “god-forsaken railway stopping point where nothing could thrive.” The railway is gone, the surrounding flatlands still offer an uninviting vista, but Billund appears to be flourishing as the home of one of Denmark’s leading companies and largest exporters. Although no sales figures are published, one informal estimate puts total turnover at about $250 million annually.

The local airport is among the country’s busiest, although the population remains only a few thousand. Many of the travelers are among the 900,000 people who each year visit Legoland, the amusement park where almost everything is built of Lego pieces. It has become Denmark’s second most popular tourist attraction after Tivoli, the famous gardens in Copenhagen, according to company officials.

Lego is negotiating for a niche at the new Disneyworld Epcot Center in Florida, where it would feature more of the amazing giant-size Lego creations, Sullivan said.

- “Lego’s Market ‘Clutch Power’; Electronic Games Pose New Challenge”, The Washington Post, March 31st, 1983

Obviously, that didn’t happen. The Denmark pavilion begat the Scandinavia pavilion which begat today’s Norway pavilion. So, take two…

LOOKING FOR a good Danish? If you’re not too hungry to wait, try Walt Disney World, where the next country represented in Epcot’s World Showcase is likely to be Denmark. Disney is close to signing a contract with the northern European kingdom, says Walt Disney Attractions President Judson Green. Now, with Norway already in place, Epcot need collect only Sweden to have the complete Scandinavian set.

- The Orlando Sentinel, December 20, 1993

Disney chairman Michael Eisner announced that Denmark would build the 12th foreign pavilion at Florida’s Epcot Center.

- “Disney meet upbeat”, Daily Variety, February 23rd, 1994

That’s from the annual shareholders’ meeting! You can’t get much more definitive an announcement than that. And yet…

Finally, despite CEO Michael Eisner’s announcement at February’s annual meeting, Expansion Plans with Copenhagen Only Tentative.

Eisner told shareholders that the deal to add Denmark to World Showcase was all but signed, but talks continue six months later.

”Both parties are re-evaluating,” Warren said. ”It still may happen, but it also may not.”

- “EPCOT: Expect Park Changes Over Time”, The Orlando Sentinel, August 15th, 1994

Uh oh…

Q. Whatever happened to Walt Disney World’s plans to add a Denmark pavilion to World Showcase at Epcot ‘95?

A. The addition seems a lot less likely than it did a year ago, when Disney officials were saying they were close to signing a contract with Denmark on the project.

Pam Brandon, a spokeswoman for Epcot , said the idea hasn’t been dropped altogether, but there is no timetable for moving ahead with it.

“Denmark is definitely on hold,” Brandon said. “The thought at Epcot right now is that we’re doing more media in entertainment rather than building big buildings.

“Right now, especially in World Showcase, we’re looking more at entertainment that’s outside and giving it more a sense of place.”

Word of Walt Disney World’s interest in bringing Denmark to its World Showcase got out in late 1993. It would have been the 12th country to be featured at the park.

- The Orlando Sentinel, February 3rd, 1995

Swing and a miss.

So, let’s fast-forward then, to early 2001 – before that year’s recession, attendance downturn, and terrorism-induced attendance collapse:

Contrary to Internet speculation, Lego probably won’t open a new theme park at Walt Disney World.

But the Danish construction-toy maker might have a presence on World Showcase Lagoon.

Lego officials said last year the company was talking to Disney, Universal and SeaWorld officials about possible sites for a proposed 125-acre theme park. The privately owned company already operates parks in Billund, Denmark; Windsor, England; and Carlsbad, Calif.

Instead, the toy maker has talked to Disney officials about opening a new Lego-themed attraction and store in Epcot, said a source familiar with the project.

The attraction would display various landmarks, such as the Pyramids, made out of Legos.

The two companies already have strong ties. Lego operates a store in Downtown Disney in Orlando and just opened a similar store in Anaheim as part of the new California Adventure theme park. Lego also produces a line of toys for Disney.

Disney would not comment on the project. A Lego spokesman said the company has no immediate plans for an attraction at Epcot, but wouldn’t rule out the possibility.

- “EPCOT, LEGO ARE IN TALKS”, The Orlando Sentinel, February 19th, 2001

Strike three?

So now LEGO is coming to Cypress Gardens, after thirty years of flirting with central Florida. EPCOT, of course, hasn’t seen a new World Showcase pavilion in twenty-one years. But hey, you can’t say they didn’t try.

You might notice the sad lack of images in this story, and as with most stories on the internet This Story Is Useless Without Pictures. But there has been a surprising lack of artwork from this project released or leaked over the years. Of course, if anyone wants to drop me a line with some info…

In today’s entry in the “How’d that work out for ya?” file, we have this headline from the April, 1979 edition of the Disney Times.

An African Pavilion for EPCOT Center’s World Showcase came a step closer to reality with the recent receipt of a letter of intent from Kenya. Two other African nations, Senegal and Ivory Coast, are expected to send similar letters soon.

Definitive agreements with these nations are still being negotiated by representatives from Disney and the respective governments.

The African Pavilion will promote tourism in the participating nations and will feature authentic food and merchandise of each country. There is a strong possibility that other nations may also participate as co-sponsors of the pavilion, according to Jack Lindquist, Corporate Vice President who’s heading the EPCOT team in seeking out participants for both Future World and World Showcase.

“Map of Africa shows possible participants in the new African Pavilion” (Disney)

Kenya, with 14,340,000 population, is slightly smaller than Texas. Under British control since the 19th Century, it became independent in 1960. Acting President is Daniel Arap Moi. Tourism is the main industry, with coffee, tea and cotton the chief crops. The capital is Nairobi (pop: 736,000).

Ivory Coast is the most prosperous of the tropical African nations. A bit larger than New Mexico, with a population of 5,150,000, Ivory Coast became independent in 1960 after being a French protectorate since 1842. Coffee, cocoa and bananas are chief exports. The president is Felix Houphout-Boigny. Abidjan (pop: 800,000) is the capital.

Senegal, about the size of South Dakota, has a population of slightly more than five million. It, too, became independent in 1960. Peanuts, millet and corn are its chief crops. President is Leopold Senghor and the prime minister is Abdou Diouf. The capital is Dakar (pop: 600,000).

Now, didn’t you just learn so much? Imagine how much you’d have learned had the pavilion actually been built!

Of course, political instability and economic woes kept these nations from sponsoring a pavilion. Kenya’s president Daniel arap Moi became something of a dictator, surviving a coup attempt in 1982. The nation’s page on Wikipedia includes the following phrase: “In rural areas like Kisii District the cases of people being burnt as witches is on the rise.” Well, ok then.

Côte d’Ivoire has had similar issues; President Houphouët-Boigny was another long-serving benign dictator, and following a decade of economic woes in the 1980s and the death of Houphouët-Boigny in 1993 there has been a military coup and a civil war. All of which would make for a very awkward World Showcase experience, and one wonders what missions Kim Possible would assign you in that pavilion. Senegal has fared better by comparison, despite a militant separatist movement, but it remains overall a very poor nation.

A later rendering by Herb Ryman of the proposed Equatorial Africa pavilion

All of this makes these nations’ intended participation in World Showcase that much more ambitious, and I would love to know the details of those negotiations. These nations’ woes are, of course, mostly unfortunate from a humanitarian perspective, but the collapse of these plans are also a shame because this would have been an interesting and unusual pavilion. Its design details remain intriguing today.

Mostly, though, the pavilion’s potential was in introducing a western audience to the cultures of countries that most people couldn’t find on a map. Perhaps it’s an idea worth revisiting.

How do you tell a Disney nerd? This is how.

So, at the Theme Park Review site, they have this swell thread about early EPCOT Center. Of course, its swellness is enhanced by the fact that it says nice things about Progress City, but I digress. The point is, this thread contains thrilling and exciting pictures of something that I’ve been diligently seeking for literally years. And I’m not joking. I nearly jumped out of my seat when I saw this – take a look at this picture from their discussion of the creepy giant characters that used to inhabit World Showcase:

That’s racist.

Cute, right? But do you see it? Do you see it?! Let’s take another look:

A Scandinavian giantess in World Showcase, 1982. Don’t make eye contact!

Here’s another of the big-heads, but this one seems to be of some vague Nordic origin. I guess it makes sense for her to be standing in front of Germany pavilion. Or, wait… is that Italy? Or the U.K.? Wait, where is this picture taken? Without all the trees and plants grown in – this is 1982, after all – it’s hard to tell where these pictures take place. Do you recognize it? Oh I’ll bet you do!

EPCOT’s Norway pavilion, present day. Look to the left of the picture, and prepare to have your world rocked.

Boom. It’s the Norway pavilion. Look at the picture of the little girl, and then look at the picture above. The Norway pavilion. But wait, you’re saying – the Norway pavilion opened in 1988! Willard Scott was there! And you’d be right. The building in the pictures from 1982 isn’t all of the Norway pavilion – just the bathrooms. While Norway, Gateway to Scandinavia opened in 1988, its troll-friendly bathrooms have been accommodating guests since 1982. Don’t believe me?

World Showcase in 1983. Between Mexico and China lie the lonely bathrooms that would eventually bloom into the Norway pavilion

As you can see on the above map, when EPCOT Center opened in 1982 there was a free-standing guest restroom between the Mexico and China showcases. This was a vestigial remnant of earlier plans, which called for an actual pavilion to be built on this spot. With the rush to finish EPCOT and the trouble lining up sponsors, these plans were delayed. In preparation for the park’s second phase, though, Disney had installed the necessary plumbing infrastructure and were able to open the restroom facilities before their pavilion could even be designed. I’ve known this for years, but never been able to find a picture. Until now!

Looking towards Mexico, 1982. Note the little lonely bathroom cottage next door.

What’s really strange is that these bathrooms were not born Norwegian. They were originally intended to be part of a still-unbuilt Denmark pavilion. As late as 1983, Disney was in talks with LEGO to help fund the pavilion. During the development of EPCOT Center, at least two different sites were designated for the Denmark pavilion – one between the current France and United Kingdom pavilions, and another where the bathrooms were eventually built. In this 1979 rendering, you can see Denmark depicted where China stands today.

Oh Norway bathrooms, why do you taunt me with your elusive multi-national origins?

The path these bathrooms took from their Danish origins to their current Norwegian residence is long and winding. When negotiations for a single Denmark pavilion fell through, Disney pursued a deal for a Scandinavian pavilion that would cover the cultures of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Somewhere along the way we lost Denmark and Sweden, but Norway stuck around and opened their pavilion in 1988. Finally, the nomadic bathrooms of eastern World Showcase had a home.

Disney would flirt with a Denmark pavilion again in the early 1990s, but we didn’t even get a port-a-potty out of that one.

So, I win. Thanks, Theme Park Review! And let this be a lesson to the rest of you – remember to take you family vacation snapshots in front of random bathrooms. It might be important one day!

Note: The pictures of the Norway pavilion in the article come from a random internet search. If one of them belongs to you, let me know and I’ll provide appropriate credit. Thanks!

Artist’s concept for possible Arab nations pavilion, World Showcase

This rendering is for yet another unbuilt World Showcase pavilion, this time with the rather nebulous theme of “Arab nations.” This is not one of the well-known abandoned concepts for present day World Showcase, but rather an attraction intended for the original separately-gated iteration of the Showcase that would have been built near the Transportation & Ticket Center. The rendering dates to early 1976; later that year, the World Showcase concept would be combined with that for the Future World Theme Center and start to resemble the park that would eventually open in 1982.

The original design for World Showcase consisted of two large, multi-level semicircular buildings. Between ten and thirty nations would be represented in these structures, occupying wedge-shaped pavilions of various sizes. The buildings would be linked by WEDway PeopleMovers, which as you can see in the rendering would also pass through the show buildings.

This original World Showcase was supposed to begin construction near the Seven Seas Lagoon in 1977, with an anticipated opening date of 1979.

This trip to the misty moors of Never Never World is less entertaining than most, as it lacks that most important element of any good story about unbuilt attractions – pictures! Unlike many of our other stories, too, this is not a project that Disney had committed to building or negotiations that they initiated themselves. Still, it’s an interesting and poorly known event in EPCOT’s history and certainly caught my eye.

After Walt Disney Productions announced the World Showcase project in 1974, they approached dozens of nations about participating in the new development. Over the years, though, this recruitment proved difficult. The 1970s weren’t a time of economic prosperity for anyone, and it was difficult to convince politicians to part with millions of dollars for theme park attractions when they had to worry about their next election. When the EPCOT Center concept was re-announced in 1978, with a combined Future World and World Showcase, Disney abandoned attempts to recruit governmental participation. Instead, they selected a short list of desirable nations and focused on approaching corporations in those countries who were used to spending money for advertising purposes.

This approach allowed Disney to recoup some of the costs of building the international pavilions, which weren’t able to profit from the deep pockets of American industry like the Future World attractions, and it allowed EPCOT to feature some key nations whose governments hadn’t been willing to participate. Unfortunately, it also limited the scope of the pavilions to what could be supported by willing sponsor companies; this generally meant the elimination of intended ride attractions in favor of shops and restaurants. It also meant that nations without willing companies, like Spain, were left for later; the long-planned Equatoral Africa showcase was abandoned because the only companies Disney could find to sponsor the pavilion were located in apartheid-era South Africa.

After Phase I of World Showcase had been built, later additions were supposed to have been funded by the nations themselves. This can be seen by the Moroccan government funding their national pavilion, but the scheme was obviously abandoned as Norwegian corporations helped support that pavilion’s construction in 1988; no other pavilions have been added to the park since.

We know the most prominent failed attempts to build pavilions afterwards; the 1990s saw talks break down with the Russians and the Swiss, and there was another botched attempt to bring Spain to EPCOT earlier in this decade. These were Disney-initiated talks, as far as I can tell; the only public attempt that I can recall of an outside party trying to solicit participation was also in this decade, when Korean businessmen spoke to the press about trying to interest Disney in a South Korea pavilion.

Then there’s this story, which dates all the way back to 1986. Back then, when Disney was still in the business of adding to World Showcase, there were serious attempts by the Indian government to secure their own place in EPCOT.

INDIA APPROACHES DISNEY ABOUT EPCOT PAVILION
THE ORLANDO SENTINEL – Thursday, December 18, 1986
By John Hill of The Sentinel Staff

Representatives of Walt Disney World and the government of India will meet Friday to discuss the possibility of that country opening a pavilion at Walt Disney World’s Epcot Center, both groups said Wednesday.

But the spokesmen cautioned that the discussions are preliminary and that no agreement is likely soon.

”We have been working at it for quite some time,” said Vijay Kumar, political officer at the Indian Embassy in Washington. ”We have been in touch with Epcot , but it is still in the very basic stages.”

P.K. Kaul, India ’s ambassador to the United States, will meet with Disney officials Friday, Kumar said. Kaul could not be reached for comment.

Kumar said the Indian government has no specific plans for a pavilion but wants to find out what Disney would require if one were built.

Bob Mervine, a Disney spokesman, said the company gets inquiries from foreign governments and developers ”regularly” about building new pavilions in Epcot ’s World Showcase. While the company is satisfied with the 10 pavilions it has now, he said, there is room for seven or eight more.

”At this point we are basically reacting to queries that are coming to us,” Mervine said.

Any addition would have to complement the existing pavilions in the Epcot complex, Mervine said. It would have to be an entertaining exhibit in itself, he said, and would have to provide its own financing.

The 10 existing pavilions at the Epcot complex represent Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Japan, Morocco, the United States, Germany, Italy, China and Mexico. An eleventh pavilion, for Norway, is under construction.

Mervine said Disney has heard suggestions for pavilions featuring Africa, Spain, Israel and Soviet Union but has no plans now to build any of those.

As I mentioned, Disney would later take second looks at adding both Spain and Russia to their roster; India, though, hasn’t been mentioned publicly since. I’m sure that the original plans for EPCOT in the early 1970s involved some discussion with India, and it’s possible that some design work was done at that time, but aside from this article the participation of India really wasn’t mentioned after the final official pavilion lineup was announced in 1978. Personally, I think this is a shame. India is a nation rich with history, art, architecture and folklore. And really quite wonderful food. There would be a wealth of material from with to draw; more than a single pavilion could hold. While India now gets some slight representation in the Animal Kingdom, that has more to do with architecture and animals than with the culture itself.

India is one of the world’s largest nations, and has become a burgeoning economic engine in recent years; it’s a market, in fact, that Disney has doggedly attempted to penetrate. Perhaps, in all these megamillion-dollar deals for film distribution, merchandising and television outlets, a case could be made for a pavilion at EPCOT?