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Watercrafting – Layin’ Keel, 1975

One of the many operational issues facing Walt Disney World when it opened in 1971 was inadequate transportation capacity. Walt Disney Productions simply ran out of time before the resort’s debut, and so the Magic Kingdom opened without enough operational monorails and watercraft to bring visitors in from the Transportation and Ticket Center. Every moving […]

Lake Buena Vista Chronicles: Selling The Magic, 1972

Despite the fact that the Lake Buena Vista area is a critical element of the early Vacation Kingdom aesthetic, it often seems that Disney itself had a poor handle on what, exactly, the development was and why it existed. Trying to track the history of the Lake Buena Vista village’s intended purpose is a […]

Reedy Creek Randomness, October 1973

Walt Disney World was awesome.

OK, maybe “hilarious” is the word. Whatever the case, cast publications in the early years included pictures like this:

"Don Poole instructs Sylvia Tait (right) and Willie Willis on how to use a fire hose at Orange Vista Hospital."

Walt Disney Productions was pretty excited that they suddenly […]

The Horizons Story, Part II: Robert McCall

The 1983 General Electric promotional booklet for Horizons contains a brief feature about artist Robert McCall. McCall, a renowned illustrator of science fiction and science fact, was a constant presence in space-related publications during the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. His highly-detailed work helped define the look of futurism in that period, so it was […]

A Very Special Disney Fever Dream, 1995

There is no way I could adequately prepare you, so just watch.

Why? Seriously, why?

This video was distributed at General Motors dealerships in 1995, to people who came in to test-drive cars. G.M. was, at the time, sponsoring World of Motion at Epcot Center, which was preparing to give way to Test Track. Where […]