This 1978 preview video for Epcot Center features Card Walker, unquestionably the worst chief executive the Disney company ever had at the helm. It’s a trove of awesome flat-pack futurism and great haircuts. Epcot Center 1978 Preview Video Featuring Card Walker READ THE REST
My first thought on seeing the title was “1978? Wasn’t it open by then?” I had to check wikipedia. Epcot opened in 1982, so this really was a preview.
It seems hard to believe that the place was “only” ten years old when I visited in '92. It seemed so hokey and dated. (Heck . . . If I’d gone in '84, after reading Neuromancer, I would have found it hokey and dated)
The only thing I could think at the end was, “Dear Bog, is it OVER?”
I forget the exact year that my family went to Epcot, but I’m guessing it was in the last couple of years of the 80s. I too thought it was super-dated at that time. In fact, my innocent impression/assumption was that it had been built in the 60s or something, with a few updates slapped on over the intervening decades… But not enough to keep it current, let alone futuristic.
What made Card Walker the worst Disney leader? And how on earth did he possibly beat out Eisner for that distinction?
I kept expecting the narrator to say, “Last week, as you recall, Dr. Smith and the Robot…”
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They tell a story of the young Steve jobs taking a trip to Florida to visit Epcot. The Young Steve reportedly ditched his family on Epcot day to go down to the beach and fool around with the pay phones.
oh man! this is excellent. remember the pre-post-apocolyptic vision of the future? Those were the days.
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Was the artwork by Robert McCall? It was difficult to be sure with such a poor quality video.
I Like how, at the monet the song says “Dreams of the future” a couple people go by riding dolphins underwater (with numbers on them… are they racing?). That’s a weird future.
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Epcot is my favorite place in the whole world.
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Eisner isn’t really my cup of tea, but he did bring back movie success to Disney.
Oh to return to the times when Disney actually had ambition.
This is actually an edited and spliced version of two separate videos. One is 1978, but the other is much later - you can see the transition around 2:30 when the new narrator kicks in. That version of Epcot was much more similar to the opening-day shows.
@Bob_Shaw Yes, some of the artwork was by McCall! He worked on the Horizons pavilion, which you see toward the end of the video.
God I loved Epcot…
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