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From The Model Shop…

EPCOT Center’s Equatorial Africa Pavilion, as seen from World Showcase Lagoon in this Imagineering model

One of the seldom-heralded benefits to the theme park history nerd that the internet provides are the many, many artist portfolios that have appeared online over the years. Disney is notoriously stingy about releasing Imagineering art, especially that […]

A First Look At EPCOT’s Culinary Renaissance

EPCOT Center was well-received upon its debut in 1982, but in the endless amount of press coverage at the time a number of issues frequently bubbled to the surface. Amid all the grumbling about long lines and technical breakdowns, or of a lack of attractions in World Showcase, a glaring and oft-repeated complaint was the […]

The Dream Called EPCOT

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, […]

Neverworlds – EPCOT Center’s Lost Scandinavia Pavilion

"How Not To Be Seen: Bathroom Edition"

We’ve spoken at length – some might say disturbing length – about the fabled “Lost Danish Potties” of World Showcase. Essentially, what are now the bathrooms for EPCOT’s Norway pavilion (opened in 1988) were originally constructed as a stand-alone building in 1982. They were intended for […]

82IF…

"Buddy Baker, Director of Music at WED & MAPO, conducting the National Philharmonic Orchestra inside the EMI/Abbey Road Studio in London"

In 1982 Buddy Baker was a busy man, jetting around the world to record the scores for a slew of new attractions and films for EPCOT Center. For the French pavilion’s Impressions […]