What if Walt Had Gotten His EPCOT?

 

One of the most tantalizing questions related to the legacy of Walt Disney that I’ve ever pondered concerns his plans for EPCOT as an actual community and how it would have turned out had he survived and managed to make it happen.

 

It’s no real surprise that following Walt’s death Roy scotched the plans for EPCOT and redirected focus on the Florida project to The Magic Kingdom and accompanying hotels.  That’s not a criticism of Roy Disney at all.  I believe that were it not for Roy’s capabilities, many (if not most) of Walt’s visions would not have come to pass.  Clearly, Roy didn’t have the same attachment to the idea of EPCOT that Walt did and probably couldn’t begin to fathom all the things that needed to be incorporated from a creative standpoint.  By the same token, was there anyone in the organization at that time or since who could have taken up the torch and brought Walt’s vision to fruition?

 

It is plausible, however, if Walt had lived another half dozen years that he could have willed EPCOT into existence.  Let’s face it, Snow White, Disneyland and countless other accomplishments seemed like true uphill battles at the outset.

 

I also imagine that, like Disneyland, EPCOT would have evolved significantly from the original vision.  For anyone who has seen the film from the fall of 1966 in which Walt outlines the project that it was enormously sophisticated.  The circular design featured the highest density population at the center, with green belt surrounding (with single-family homes, etc.) and Monorails and PeopleMovers connecting the entire thing so that there would be no need for roads and personal autos (with motorized vehicles traveling beneath the city). 

 

This orientation with respect to transportation is unique on its own – never mind any other innovations (which certainly would have sprung from Walt’s mind during the process of further planning and construction).

 

However, here is the big question on my mind:  How would a community designed by Walt Disney and run by his company have functioned when it went live, 24/7?

 

The closest approximation of dealing with a large group of individuals is the execution of theme park and resort operations.  Even still, people who stay for two weeks at one of the resorts and move between theme parks at WDW eventually go home, back to the personal space that they call their own.  Sure, staying in a hotel room allows one to make that their private area for a brief time and act as they would in their own domicile, but is it really the same thing?  You don’t decorate your hotel room, you’re not responsible for cleaning it, don’t have stacks and piles and clumps of personal belongings here and there.  It’s a different mindset.

 

Consequently, EPCOT would be like guests who never leave.

 

People become a little different when they put down roots and consider a town or city their own.  Would there have been conflicts, grudges, protests and resentments?  Would Disney have had to incorporate an ever-increasing set of rules in order to maintain the equilibrium?  We’ll never know.

 

Moreover, if EPCOT as Walt envisioned it had opened in the early ‘70s, how would it have been reflected in the rapidly changing culture of that period? 

 

I firmly believe that every bit of Walt’s inspiration for EPCOT was with the best intentions.  I don’t think he was trying to create a rigid, unforgiving community that demanded complete conformity from its denizens.  I think he wanted to take the talents that he possessed and direct them toward the complications that always arise in modern communities.  I’m just not sure Walt Disney – or anyone else for that matter – has the ability to get around the dysfunction, idiosyncrasies and vast differences between people that create these things to begin with.

 

Considering the degree to which the Disney Company must exert control over the environments within the theme parks, there’s no way it could have been avoided in an actual community.

 

Some may point out that Disney did end up building a community – Celebration – in the early 1990s.  There is, however, a distinct difference.  Celebration followed the model of master-planned communities already well-established in this country.  Moreover, Disney relinquished basic control of the community upon its completion (although they still have an interest in the utility companies providing services if I’m not mistaken). 

 

EPCOT, as Walt envisioned it, could not have functioned that way.  He would not have been able to allow the citizens to make choices about the general direction of the community or the way in which it was run.  (I recall reading at one point that Walt’s possible solutions to this included having the residents rotate – a limited period of time for each person/family.)

 

Consequently, I’m left wondering how much Walt would have altered his vision I the process of building it to allow for greater individual freedoms on the part of EPCOT’s citizenry.  I also wonder if he would have abandoned the idea entirely or transformed it into some other stratification of a prototype community.

 

All such conjecture, of course, is academic.  EPCOT became a theme park where the name – when expanded from the familiar acronym – bears little resemblance to what actually exists within its confines.  This is not to say that EPCOT doesn’t contribute significantly to the full spectrum of offerings at WDW.  Still, what attracted Walt most about the Florida project in the first place was not a repeat performance of Disneyland and similar attraction/exhibit-based entities.  He was reaching for that next, seemingly impossible challenge and, I suspect, would have become bored with the process if his community of tomorrow was excised from the Florida project.