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By Michael - March 28th, 2012 In 1981, The Walt Disney Story – the attraction which once occupied the area in the Magic Kingdom where the Town Square Theater currently resides – took a brief absence as its queue, theater area, and postshow area were appropriated to become The EPCOT Center Preview Center. In the year leading up to EPCOT’s October, [...]
By Michael - June 19th, 2011 For those of us in the lowly demographic called “fandom”, true insight is only gained through extreme displays of excess and obsessiveness. This especially holds true when researching older Imagineering projects, and most particularly projects that were somehow altered or never came to be. So little artwork or information escapes from Fortress Disney, that each [...]
By Michael - April 1st, 2011 One of the first attractions to begin construction at EPCOT Center was the Universe of Energy. Exxon had been one of the first sponsors to sign on for Future World, and so the design of the pavilion had been locked fairly quickly. Renderings from 1977 show a concept fairly similar to the building’s final appearance [...]
By Michael - June 27th, 2009 Let’s take a look at EPCOT Center in 1979, three years before it would actually open:
Rendering of EPCOT Center, 1979 (Click to Enlarge)
Slightly different, is it not?
Clockwise from the golden Spaceship Earth in Future World, we have the Energy pavilion (Universe of Energy), the Science & Invention Pavilion, the Transportation pavilion (World [...]
By Michael - March 31st, 2009 The Universe of Energy, as it was in 1982:
Lovely, eh? It’s almost like a geologic formation itself, jutting from the ground with its dynamic and energetic hues. Those original WED art directors knew what they were doing – people like Claude Coates and John Hench knew a lot about the psychological effect color [...]
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Four Decades of Magic

Essays about the first forty years of Walt Disney World, including two pieces by yours truly. Available in print and for Kindle.
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