From City to Spectacle: How the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow Became Disney’s Permanent World’s Fair

Date
2017
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Producer
Director
Performer
Choreographer
Costume Designer
Music
Videographer
Lighting Designer
Set Designer
Crew Member
Funder
Rehearsal Director
Concert Coordinator
Moderator
Panelist
Alternative Title
Department
Haverford College. Department of History
Type
Thesis
Original Format
Running Time
File Format
Place of Publication
Date Span
Copyright Date
Award
Language
eng
Note
Table of Contents
Terms of Use
Rights Holder
Access Restrictions
Open Access
Tripod URL
Identifier
Abstract
In 1965, Walt Disney, using dummy corporations, bought up vast tracts of land in central Florida upon which he planned to construct the city of the future, which he dubbed EPCOT – Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. However, the Epcot that stands in central Florida today is not a city, but rather, a permanent World’s Fair. The various architects of EPCOT, from the 1960s into the 1980s, imagined the site as a place where social concerns were mediated. However, the form of this space of social mediation changed with historical and social circumstances throughout the mid-to-late 20th century. It is at this intersection of EPCOT and Disney history, spatial analysis, and American history where this thesis ventures to explain how this space of the future was molded to reflect cultural concerns. EPCOT is considered in three iterations: as an intention and an aspiration by Walt Disney, an adaptation and evolution by the Imagineers, and an unveiled space of the future for the public, made possible by both its intention and adaptation. Devoting attention to these iterations unpacks the park’s complexity as a space of the future for Americans. This thesis demonstrates how EPCOT’s vision for the future is inextricably linked to and influenced by circumstances of its present and perceptions of the past.
Description
Citation
Collections