For those who wonder why so many of us who were there at the time are completely obsessed with the EPCOT Center of the 1980s, how about this – a simple souvenir button, which probably cost 50 cents or less at the time, with absolutely spectacular art. The artwork combines elements from conceptual art for Spaceship Earth, Horizons, The Living Seas, and Journey into Imagination, and really does get across the vibe that the park had in those early days.
I’m not sure if there’s any park-specific merchandise on sale in Epcot these days, but I can imagine that any similar button they’d be selling today would have Mickey and Minnie floating around in spacesuits, with maybe Pluto in a fishbowl helmet and Donald yelling angrily at some alien in the background. Thus, our collective nostalgia, for an era with big, big ideas… even on a simple button.
Today’s story on Progress City is somewhat unique and calls for a different kind of introduction. This, as you may recognize, is the Contemporary Resort Hotel – or is it? And if so, from when? And why?
"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings: Look on my hotel, ye mighty, and despair!"
For many years now, I’ve been trying to dig for information on this peculiar rendering by architect George Rester, an individual who did much design work for Walt’s original EPCOT city and the Walt Disney World resort. Sadly, the date has been cut off in my copy of the artwork, but the piece seems to depict an early concept for the Contemporary Resort Hotel – a concept that looks to be far more fanciful in its futurism.
I’m especially intrigued by the colossal statue sitting outside the hotel’s entrance, reminiscent as it is of the seated statues of Ramesses II at Abu Simbel. Who would have the statue been based on? Colossal Walt? Abe Lincoln? President GARCO? Who knows.
It’s interesting that this early concept – again, assuming it’s the Contemporary; it couldn’t be an idea for EPCOT city, could it? – actually looks far more “futuristic” today than the hotel’s final design. The swooping lines of the balconies, the mixture of curved and angular lines, and the various layers of recessed surfaces much more resemble Disney’s current take on futurism than the straight, mid-century lines of the actual Contemporary. In addition, the glassy, curvilinear outbuildings remind me of features of the early renderings for the Journey into Imagination pavilion.
One strike against this design, though – there’s no monorail!
It’d be interesting to see how this design fit into the evolution of the Contemporary. Unlike its counterpart the Polynesian, we’ve really only ever seen artwork for the Contemporary that shows it as it was eventually realized. It had to come from somewhere, right? Hopefully some day we’ll see more renderings released that will show just how early Walt Disney World development progressed.
And, strangely, if Disney ever wanted to build another futuristic hotel somewhere, they could look back more than forty years to Rester’s early designs.
We recently showed a picture of the Epcot model from 1978, which included the “Transportation” pavilion that would later become World of Motion. I’ve come across this rendering of that same pavilion, which I believe to be by Imagineering artist Collin Campbell, and I thought it would help to shed a little light on that earlier design for the attraction.
The Transportation pavilion was the first of the Future World attractions to find a sponsor, and it was the backing of General Motors that helped give Disney C.E.O. Card Walker the confidence to move forward with the Epcot project in October of 1978. Early concepts for the show building mirror the eventual attraction’s cylindrical shape, but you can see in this early rendering that the original concept was for there to be semi-circular “bumps” extending from the perimeter of the building. The atrium at the building’s core was, for a time, meant to be enclosed by a glass wall, and you can see that the ride’s omnimover vehicles were to pass in and out of this atrium several times. In the final attraction, of course, vehicles would make a single loop through an outdoor atrium before entering the show building.
Hopefully, we can find out more about this interesting early take on Transportation in the future…
Yesterday, Foxx from Passport To Dreams Old & New tweeted a link to this great cartoon from the 1962 Beany and Cecil animated program. The Beany and Cecil characters were invented by former Warner Brothers animator Bob Clampett, and were originally featured in a televised puppet show called Time for Beany which ran from 1949-1954. They were revived for this animated program nearly a decade later.
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.
From the Progress City archives comes this collection of 33 tall tales and true from Disney history. Available in paperback, hardback, and ebook formats.
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