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By Michael - October 26th, 2010  Concept art for shopping street in the Israel pavilion at EPCOT Center by Herb Ryman Another press release from the sad file of fruitless announcements, this excited blurb comes from November of 1981:
ISRAEL JOINS COMMUNITY OF NATIONS AT EPCOT CENTER
Representatives of the State of Israel and Walt Disney World signed an agreement for the design of a major pavilion representing that country in the community of nations in World Showcase at EPCOT Center.
EPCOT Center is our vast new showplace for the nations of today and the technology of the future, currently under construction. It is scheduled to open October 1, 1982, and cost $800 million. More than 120 million guests have already visited our Walt Disney World Vacation Kingdom since opening in October 1971.
The agreement was signed by Joseph Wolff, special advisor to the Minister of Finance for Israel and President of the Tourist Industry Development Corporation, representing the State of Israel. Carl Bongirno, President of WED Enterprises and Executive Vice President of EPCOT Center, and Howard Roland, Corporate Vice President of Contract Administration, signed the agreement for the Disney organization.
The agreement, following months of negotiation, is the beginning of design for this latest addition to the World Showcase area of EPCOT Center. The pavilion is scheduled to open in 1983.
Wolff was part of a team from Israel, which also included Samuel Ben-Tovim, Consul and Trade Commissioner to the U.S. for the State of Israel and Jeshaja Weinberg, Director of the Museum of the Jewish Diaspora in Tel Aviv. The group has been consulting with our Disney organization to finalize their countries’ participation in World Showcase.
The pavilion of the State of Israel joins eight other countries in the circle of nations surrounding the World Showcase Lagoon. They are: Mexico, the United Kingdom, France, Morocco, Japan, Italy, Germany and Canada. American Adventure, a dramatic presentation dedicated to the “American Spirit, ” will stand at the center of World Showcase and will be presented jointly by American Express and Coca-Cola. Additional pavilions currently under development for future representation in World Showcase include Denmark and Africa.
This never happened, of course, for reasons that will be obvious if you’ve watched the nightly news at any point over the last seventy years. But Disney seemed so certain that the pavilion was going to happen that a sign appeared in World Showcase around 1983 marking the future spot of the attraction:
 “The Old Meets the New in the ‘Land of The Bible'” Seeing that blurb, it’s not hard to imagine why the pavilion didn’t happen. The sign features another lovely Ryman rendering, though, as did the other World Showcase “Coming Soon” signs.
Israel did eventually make it EPCOT, in the form of an exhibit at the Millennium Pavilion which sat between the Canada and United Kingdom showcases from 1999-2001. The $8 million exhibit featured a truly strange motion-base film attraction called Journey to Jerusalem, which provided a tour of historic sites in the holy land. Thankfully, by the advent of the 21st century such an attraction was greeted with the even-handed acceptance that a subject of such fascinating shared historic and cultural relevance deserves. Oh wait a second, never mind – it was actually a total PR nightmare, with threats of boycotts from the Arab League and various Arab American cultural and business groups, and Israeli officials adopting the “you’re not helping” strategy of rubbing their choice placement in a widely-seen Disney attraction in the faces of their political and cultural enemies.
Perhaps that’s a clue to the reason why Disney has continued to flirt with the idea of a Spain pavilion – another of those lost 1983 attractions – over the years, but we haven’t heard a peep about Israel since the days of Card Walker.
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By Michael - October 22nd, 2010 It’s October, which means that it’s Walt Disney World’s birthday month. This year, of course, the resort turned thirty-nine, an anniversary mostly overlooked as Disney musters its resources to prepare to overlook the fortieth anniversary next year (“I gave her Indiana Jones Adventure, she gave me a pen.”) But maybe we can fit in a little celebration before the month is over, eh?
Usually when I post old video I try to come up with some wacky introduction, or try to convey my bewilderment at whatever horrors it contains – be it Clinkers, giant babies, or whatever. But this one has me beaten. I just don’t know what to say. Is it as spectacularly horrible as the Clinkers? Well, no… And yet… It’s very… of an era. Let’s just watch, won’t we? Meet up after the break for discussion.
Continue reading A Krafty Birthday
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By Michael - October 21st, 2010 Another month, another story about how negotiations for Shanghai Disneyland are almost… almost… at an end. Again.
The Shanghai Daily is reporting that construction on the new resort will begin next month, following the closure of the Shanghai World Expo on October 31st.
Preparations on the ground have been underway for some time now, with some infrastructure upgrades already complete and, most noticeably, the forced eviction this year of residents from the site. Despite the years of negotiations, though, there’s still not a final deal with the Chinese government; Shanghai Daily quotes Fan Xiping, deputy secretary general of the city government, as saying the negotiations are in the “final stretch.”
Meanwhile, Disney Imagineers have been working in secret over the last several years on concepts for the project; current plans for the new park call for something along the lines of a traditional Disneyland-type “Magic Kingdom” but with several new and unique features. Many former Imagineers have been brought in to contribute to the project, and the skies between Los Angeles and Shanghai have been busy shuttling Disney creative and business staff back and forth. Disney has so far refrained from releasing any information about the new park, but certainly one would expect that to change when the final agreements are reached and construction begins. At least, one would hope so.
So, after years of hearing that the final agreement for Shanghai Disneyland is just a handshake away, is this the really-for-real final countdown? We’ll see what happens at the end of the month. But it certainly seems like the wheels are in motion…
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By Michael - October 21st, 2010 With the focus of the automotive world ever-so-slowly shifting towards more sustainable vehicles, and the increasing popularity of hybrid-electric vehicles, this news from Disney is a welcome reminder of Walt Disney World’s ambitious origins:
ELECTRIC VEHICLE TEST PROGRAM AT WALT DISNEY WORLD PROVES SUCCESSFUL
About two months ago, Walt Disney World began participating in a special Electric Hybrid Vehicle Program with the federal government. This program involves using a special test vehicle in an area usually served by a gasoline powered vehicle… in this case a pickup truck operated by the Facilities area.
Welcome news indeed. Except for the fact that – oh wait – this news is from thirty-one years ago. Oh, it’s true.
 Pedro Arcia and Larry Danielson, Walt Disney World Machine Shop Cast Members, examine the Electra-Van 1000P while thinking of new verses for Convoy incorporating references to fuel cell technology That sweet ride is an Electra-Van 1000P – a Chrysler pickup converted to run on 24 6-volt lead acid batteries. Part of a Department of Energy pilot study, these vehicles were tested by Disney and other corporations in the wake of the late 1970s gasoline shortages. The pilot was such a success that Disney agreed to buy 20 additional electric vehicles – pickups, vans, and, most impressively, three converted AMC Pacer Wagons!
It’s a little slice of Progress City in the real world. The full article, from September 29th, 1979:
ELECTRIC VEHICLE TEST PROGRAM AT WALT DISNEY WORLD PROVES SUCCESSFUL
About two months ago, Walt Disney World began participating in a special Electric Hybrid Vehicle Program with the federal government. This program involves using a special test vehicle in an area usually served by a gasoline powered vehicle . . . in this case a pickup truck operated by the Facilities area.
Walt Disney World was one of several hundred companies who expressed interest in participating in the program and was selected along with four other companies (Consolidated Edison, Long Island Lighting Co., A.T. & T. and EHV Distribution Inc.) to test these vehicles under actual usage.
The specifications required of the test vehicle resulted in the identification of certain areas of Walt Disney World where electric vehicles could be used … specifically our pickup trucks used in the Maintenance areas. An Electra Van Model 1000P was purchased and put to work. The pickup (pictured above with Pedro Arcia and Larry Danielson from our machine shop) drives and handles very much like a regular truck. It has a three-speed shift and an engine response similar to a gas-powered truck. The chief difference is obvious when you raise the hood to find it full of batteries …. and not the engine.
As a result of the two-month test it has been decided to purchase 20 additional vehicles . . . 14 additional pickups, 3 sedans (converted AMC Pacer Wagons) and 3 cargo vans. The test has shown that these vehicles are reliable and reduce dependence on oil. No waiting in line at gas stations for the owners of vehicles like this but beware the person who forgets to plug his truck in overnight!
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By Michael - October 19th, 2010 I encourage everyone to check out a superb recent story on Passport to Dreams Old & New about the various newspapers printed for Walt Disney World guests during the 1970s. It’s so good I’ll even forgive Foxx for beating me to the punch on the story.
But one of my favorite elements singled out in that story is something that has long amused me as well – the pen names under which various Disney newspaper columns were written in the 1970s. I’m thinking specifically of “Murph”, the mysterious author of the “Green Scene” golfing column. But, the story asks, who is the mysterious Murph? I was excited to find this question, because I knew the answer – at least, I thought I knew.
Murph rang a bell because I knew full well that there was a running column in Eyes and Ears, the Walt Disney World cast newspaper, during the 1970s that covered cast activities and intramural sports. The title? “Murph’s Sports Line.” Surely, I thought, this must be the same Murph – a sports-crazed cast member turned cub reporter that spent his time in the swinging seventies writing about the recreational activities onstage and off. But as I went to find a few key facts so I could post this tale, I came across a shocking discovery – MURPH WAS NOT MURPH!
At the last moment, I came across this passage in an Eyes and Ears from November 21st, 1975:
The EYES & EARS brings you “Murph’s Sports Line” each week. The “Line” is written by Thom Murphy of Cast Activities. Our sports column is not to be confused with the sports column “Green Scene” published in the WORLD NEWS by our Marketing Division and written by Craig Murray who uses the pen name of Murph.
Aha! So Murph wasn’t even Murph! For some reason, Craig Murray in the marketing department decided to swipe the manly yet mysteriously moniker for himself, leaving the actual, legitimate Murph – Thom Murphy – to have to explain himself in his own column!
I’m just so excited that, in the wonderfully mom-and-pop Walt Disney World of the 1970s, someone felt it necessary to sort this out. Don’t go thinking that this Murph is the same as that Murph! I wonder if Murph, for whatever reason, felt it necessary to disavow “Green Scene”? Perhaps he felt it so inferior that he needed to underscore that it was not his responsibility. Whatever the case, history must be grateful that they chose to clear things up.
Now the search begins for Mr. Murray and Mr. Murphy…
Here’s the entire page from the 1975 Eyes and Ears featuring Murph’s column; it really gives an idea of all the shenanigans that were constantly underway back in those days.
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The Progress City Primer
 From the Progress City archives comes this collection of 33 tall tales and true from Disney history. Available in paperback, hardback, and ebook formats. |
Concept art for shopping street in the Israel pavilion at EPCOT Center by Herb Ryman
“The Old Meets the New in the ‘Land of The Bible'”
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