By author and historian Michael Crawford

In 1976, Imagineers attempted to decide what the scale of their project could be, given the resources available. The nation again found itself in the midst of an energy crisis and economic malaise, and despite extensive recruitment efforts, it began to appear that not enough corporations and foreign governments could be recruited to make both World Showcase and the Future World Theme Center economically viable.

Proposals to scale down the concept continued throughout the year. In late 1976, with executive review pending, legendary Imagineers Marty Sklar and John Hench famously pushed the models together and EPCOT Center was born. The new park would now have two main areas: Future World and World Showcase. One would be a showcase for the latest innovations of American industry; the other would be a permanent international exhibition. But while this EPCOT Center sounds familiar, it had major differences from the park we know today.

Guests would enter this EPCOT Center through World Showcase, which would serve as the park’s Main Street. Resembling the World Showcase proposal announced a year earlier, the wishbone-shaped complex of modernist buildings surrounded a central plaza housing performance areas and gardens as well as waterways and a Tower of the Four Winds sculpture. A variety of attractions planned for the international pavilions included a Rhine River cruise through Germany, a cable-car ride past Venezuelan waterfalls, and an Omnimover trip through sumptuous Japanese gardens and scenery.

Facing World Showcase across a large central lagoon and past a cluster of towering spires was Future World. Here, the EPCOT Theme Show would serve as the introductory presentation of EPCOT Center. Focusing on man and his spaceship earth, the show offered a moving experience combining a one-of-a-kind theater with film and automated techniques. Afterward, guests could learn about the future of a number of fields by visiting other Future World shows and exhibits. They could even take in a panoramic view of the park from a restaurant and cocktail lounge in one of the spires overhead.

While many of these ideas never came to fruition, some concepts—and menu items—made their way into the park on opening day. For Canada, planners even projected a menu for the Canada “buffeteria” that included cheddar cheese soup, a modern-day favorite. Plans for the Germany pavilion included a Munich beer hall atmosphere similar to today’s Biergarten, and although the World Bazaar never made it into the park, the name was re-used for Tokyo Disneyland’s entrance area in 1983!

Future World’s pavilions were grouped into two major areas on the east and west sides of the park. They were connected to the CommuniCore by two “malls” and featured pavilions devoted to related fields of study. The East Mall connected to the bio-science-related pavilions of Oceanography, Health, and Food/Agriculture; the West Mall led to technology-based pavilions including Energy, Transportation, and Space.

A major shift in EPCOT planning occurred between April and May 1977, when Imagineers decided to “flip” the positions of Future World and World Showcase. This marked the advent of what the company announced as Master Plan 5. Heralded as a “conceptual breakthrough,” it presented a park similar to the one we know today. Imagineers now had a clear vision for most of the Future World pavilions. For the first time we see attractions based on The Land, The Seas, and the rest that feel familiar.

Spaceship Earth, an evolution of the earlier EPCOT Theme Show, was now the dominant visual icon of the park, its enormous golden dome facing the entrance plaza. Providing the gateway between Future World and World Showcase was the U.S.A. pavilion—soon to be known as The American Adventure. Resembling something of a cross between a UFO and a modern art museum on stilts, the circular pavilion served as the introduction to World Showcase.

World Showcase now circled a lagoon instead of a plaza, although it still resembled the sleek semi-circle design of previous schemes. This would change in 1978, when legendary Disney art director and Imagineer Harper Goff designed a World Showcase based on individual buildings heavily themed to the architecture of specific nations.

After much courting, Disney finally had a critical breakthrough on January 6, 1978, when General Motors signed an agreement to sponsor a Transportation pavilion in Future World. The G.M. deal signaled a vote of confidence in the Imagineers’ plans and gave Disney’s management leeway to proceed. Soon after, on January 27, Exxon signed a deal to sponsor the Energy pavilion.

In October 1978, Card Walker made a final announcement that the company intended to proceed with EPCOT Center. Speaking in front of Cinderella Castle to 2,500 delegates of the International Chamber of Commerce at their 26th World Congress, Walker declared that EPCOT Center would open October 1, 1982, and revealed that G.M., Exxon, Kraft, and AT&T had signed letters of intent or contracts to participate in Future World. Ten nations had expressed interest in World Showcase, including the United States, Mexico, Japan, West Germany, France, Canada, Israel, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, and Italy.

Finally, after years of planning, ground was broken for EPCOT Center on October 1, 1979. A golden outline of Spaceship Earth, standing 178 feet high, was suspended from construction cranes while a massive 40-ton General Motors Terex truck delivered the first ceremonial load of dirt for construction. Then Florida Governor Bob Graham was on hand for the festivities, as were former governors Haydon Burns, Claude Kirk, and Reubin Askew; these men represented a continuous line of state executives stretching back to Walt’s first Disney World press conference in 1965.

And so work began on what was, at the time, the world’s largest private construction project. Three years later, amid a wave of fanfare and a torrent of international media, Epcot Center (as it was named upon its debut) was officially unveiled on time, on October 1, 1982. A month of ceremonies followed, as each pavilion and attraction had its own special debut festivities. Other attractions and facilities would come online in the months and years that followed. While there were some bumps along the road early on—after all, the park’s many attractions were among the most complicated ever devised—the kinks were eventually worked out and record-setting crowds flocked to witness the 21st century made real.

By author and historian Michael Crawford

Imagineers had long considered incorporating an internationally themed area for their parks, dating to 1955 when International Street was announced for Disneyland. Although never built, this winding thoroughfare would have included a number of facades representing different nations. The concept grew until, in 1956, an entire International Land was proposed for an area between Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. Also known as Little Europa, the land would sit amid the Rivers of Europe, on which excursion boats would pass scenic vistas from a number of European nations. Walt eventually decided to instead use the expansion space for the Matterhorn in 1959.

A decade later, EPCOT’s downtown area was designed with an internationally themed shopping area; conceptual renderings show old-world facades with futuristic PeopleMover vehicles swooping overhead. Different blocks would feature different cultures and would include imported merchandise, foreign cuisine, dinner shows, and roving entertainers native to many lands.

Reports in October 1972 told of plans for an “international mall to serve as a theater, shopping, and special-event center in the Vacation Kingdom.” In May 1972, Disney executive Vince Jefferds suggested that an International Exhibit Area could be presented as “a permanent ‘World’s Fair.'” This permanent, expandable international area would be located on the monorail line in the existing resort area—possibly on Bay Lake.

From this slow evolution emerged the World Showcase. This name played off Walt’s 1966 statement that EPCOT would be a “showcase to the world.” In this “permanent international showcase,” Card Walker said in May 1974, “the nations of the world may participate on a permanent basis to demonstrate their culture and their products.”

Renderings show a pair of semi-circular buildings located across the Seven Seas Lagoon from the Magic Kingdom in an area adjacent to the Transportation and Ticket Center. Themed environments would be housed entirely inside the pavilions, leaving the exteriors uniform and of similar frontage. Because of this, individual nation pavilions would not compete with each other for the attention of visitors. The WED team conceived the complex as a coordinated series of attractions housed in two semi-circular and modular structures. In the center of all this was the Courtyard of Nations, where cultural events were to be staged along with a major theater complex.

Staffing this new World Showcase would be young adults from all over the world who would come and stay on Disney property to study in the planned EPCOT Satellites. Housed in an International Village near Lake Buena Vista, they would occupy what Card Walker envisioned as a cross between an Olympic Village and the United Nations.

By December 1975, Jack Lindquist, Disneyland and Walt Disney World vice president of marketing, claimed that the favorable response to World Showcase extended “all the way from Russia to the Philippines” and had caused the company to push forward its plans for the project. World Showcase, Lindquist said, would now begin construction in 1976 for a targeted opening date of October 1, 1979. Plans had already been shown to 27 nations, and although no contracts had been signed, Disney expected 10 national participants by the 1979 opening. Eventually, they hoped, 30 countries would be represented.

By author and historian Michael Crawford

On July 14, 1975, in front of media and visiting dignitaries, President of Walt Disney Productions Card Walker and Disney Board Chairman Donn Tatum announced Walt Disney Productions’ new vision for EPCOT. This new concept had three key elements. The first, the EPCOT Satellites, would debut as previously planned with the World Showcase. The second idea was a Theme Center where guests could learn about EPCOT activities. The third was the EPCOT Institute, which would facilitate participation in EPCOT’s scientific endeavors.

This independent nonprofit organization would provide the administration required to recruit and enable participation in EPCOT. The EPCOT Institute was designed to maximize the benefits from EPCOT-related research and share it with the sponsors of EPCOT and the public. Expert advisory boards would help establish the technical credibility of projects undertaken.

Two prominent new executives came aboard to provide a public face for EPCOT. Gordon Cooper, scientist and member of the fabled Mercury 7 astronauts, was named vice president of Research and Development for EPCOT. C. Langhorne Washburn, the assistant secretary of Commerce for Tourism, resigned his position in the Nixon administration to join Disney as the World Showcase vice president. Washburn coordinated the diplomatic efforts required to recruit international participation in the EPCOT project.

Advisory boards were to be formed for the Satellite projects in fields such as oceanography, agriculture, education, medicine, and communications; EPCOT would recruit world leaders in each field to participate in the development, testing, and evaluation of these pilot projects.

Rounding out the three concepts announced in July 1975 was the Future World Theme Center, an entirely new attraction acting as the hub of all EPCOT-related activity in Walt Disney World. This concept would eventually evolve into Epcot Center’s Future World area. For the first time, the notion of individual pavilions themed to various fields of study appeared.

Planned for the area where Epcot Center would eventually be built, and connected by mass transit to the existing Walt Disney World Resort, the Theme Center would provide guests a glimpse at the activities underway in the EPCOT Satellites. It would provide a forum for showcasing new concepts and systems as well as opportunities and challenges. The new facility would use advanced communications techniques, including motion picture technology, models, multi-media exhibits, and ride-through experiences, to inform millions of people each year about what is being done in the creative centers of science and industry around the world.

While the EPCOT Institute would provide administration, coordination, and funding, and the Satellites would conduct research and development and test and demonstrate prototypes, the Theme Center would then showcase and communicate these efforts to the world.

The Theme Center’s high-capacity guest facilities would expose a large daily audience to the cutting-edge work underway in EPCOT’s Satellites. Some of the Satellite facilities might have small guest capacities or be off-limits entirely. By summarizing their activities at the Theme Center, Disney researchers would be able to show what was happening daily in a number of facilities all at once. Guests would not be charged to visit the Theme Center, but Satellite facilities (including World Showcase) would require an admission fee.

A two-story Transportation Hub served as the entrance to the Theme Center and led to the CommuniCore, a Communications Corridor. In this “Main Street” of the future, according to company records, “the visitor will be exposed to a series of entertaining and instructive information experiences and communication techniques.” Designed to “introduce and demonstrate new systems of information gathering, processing, and disseminating,” CommuniCore would also provide a focal point for visitor orientation to EPCOT and the EPCOT Information Network that would reach out to homes and offices around the world.

These areas of Energy, Transportation, Food Production, Finance, Education, Information, Health Care, and Oceanography eventually formed the basis of Epcot Center’s opening roster of pavilions. Plans from April 1976 estimated a 1980 opening date for World Showcase and the EPCOT Theme Center. By 1985, World Showcase would be expanded to its full complement of 30 nations, and three-to-seven Satellite centers would open across Walt Disney World; another three-to-five Satellites would be added by 1990. But it remained to be seen whether Disney could recruit enough participants to make EPCOT a reality.