In the final months of his life, Walt went before studio cameras to unveil his greatest vision yet.
For any Disney fan, the scene is iconic—Walt Disney in a room decorated with models and artistic renderings, describing his concept for the futuristic city of EPCOT. This experimental community would prove to be his last and greatest dream, and the “EPCOT Film”, shot on October 27, 1966, would be one of his final on-screen appearances.
Production sheets show the small crew that was summoned to Stage 1 on the Disney lot that day to document Walt’s EPCOT pitch. Director Arthur Vitarelli was a Hollywood veteran and frequent second unit or assistant director at the Disney Studio, working on a long list of films including Mary Poppins and The Shaggy Dog.
In these rare photographs, you can see the filmmakers and Walt setting up for production. While based on the top-secret EPCOT planning rooms at the WED Enterprises campus in Glendale, the film’s sets were custom built on a Disney soundstage for the production.
