Disney parks conceptual art, lost attractions, and surrounding dead leeches

Chances are this thread will be ignored by everyone but me, but I can't get enough of the conceptual art of E.P.C.O.T. (the city), "Vacation Kingdom" (the original post-Walt WDW concept), and Epcot (the park).

Also in love with lost Disney attractions, and moreover, goofy sideshows outside of Disney that didn't survive (Kissimmee's Xanadu, for example).

Please post pics and descriptions if you care to join me in compiling all of this.

Some key sites:

http://www.omniluxe.net/wyw/wyw.htm
http://www.lostparks.com/thelist.html
http://www.yesterland.com/

EPCOT city's transportation center

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f185/PappaWheelie/EPCOTstransportation_4.jpg
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f185/PappaWheelie/EPCOTstransportation_5.jpg
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f185/PappaWheelie/EPCOTstransportation_6.jpg

A better view

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f185/PappaWheelie/EPCOTstransportation_7.jpg

The original Space Mountain painting, with tracks exiting the building

http://www.jimhillmedia.com/mb/images/upload/jhench_space_mtn.jpg

Mary Blair concept art for It's a Small World

http://www.cuckoocomics.com/concept_art_img/fs/Blair-SW-4.jpg

Disneyland restaurant poster

http://davelandweb.com/frontierland/images/CasadeFritos_poster.jpg

Disneyland's Flying Saucers

http://davelandweb.com/tomorrowland/images/flyingsaucers/CT_3_64_N19B.jpg
http://davelandweb.com/flyingsaucers/images/65_66_N11_N12.jpg
http://davelandweb.com/tomorrowland/images/9_64_KT_N08.jpg

http://www.imagineeringfiles.com/carton/phototheque/discoveryland_usa/012.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v470/bananaphone5000/GORILLLAS/FlyingSaucers1-62.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/05/Disneyland_Flying_Saucer_poster.png/200px-Disneyland_Flying_Saucer_poster.png

Epcot, as Fantasy Island

http://www.boingboing.net/images/_gimages_epcot.jpg

Epcot, as Love Boat (docked)

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kcOhS_A3tnc/SKCaGABLBHI/AAAAAAAAAvU/AiaWDLo1xtk/s1600-h/epcot+rend+1.jpg

(try this again)
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f185/PappaWheelie/epcotlove.jpg

Epcot's Horizons, future music
http://www.mpimages.net/wdw1/compressed/Parks/Epcot/Future_World/Horizons_grandfather-goldhaber.jpg

Horizon's, citrus farm (complete with hover vehicle)

http://www.mpimages.net/mp/compressed/contributed_general/Horizons_hovercraft-mcginnis.jpg

Epcot's Journey Into Imagination sparkling concept

http://bp1.blogger.com/_2sYXHRFeJNk/RvEgC7JrJ-I/AAAAAAAAB7Q/4jmVll6bMYo/s1600-h/FW+Postcards+JII.jpg

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f185/PappaWheelie/journey.jpg

Progressland, Disney's Carousel of Progress at the NYWF64. The EPCOT model was on the 2nd level (now on the PeopleMover/TTA @ WDW)

http://thisdayindisneyhistory.homestead.com/files/GE_Progressland.jpg
http://www.drakkar91.com/disney/pavillon.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v470/bananaphone5000/NEWGORILLA/Progressland.jpg

http://allears.net/tp/mk/cop53.jpg

wow @ this one

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f185/PappaWheelie/NYWF64.jpg

http://davelandweb.com/tomorrowland/images/Spaceman_126_60s.jpg

House of the Future

http://retrorenovation.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/futurehouse_disney.jpg
http://www.craphound.com/images/eamesmonsanto.jpg

great thread

not totally related but my grandpa was bros w/ Robert McCall who did the poster art for 2001 and a lot of NASA stuff:

http://www.linesandcolors.com/images/2008-04/mccall_450.jpg
http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Social/frontier/SH4G5.jpg
MOONFARM.GIF:
http://teamster.usc.edu/~dteam/images/art/MOONFARM.GIF

grandpa took me to his house once when i was like seven because i was really "into art" for a seven year old and he wanted me to meet a "real artist."

^^^ relevant

The original pre-show for Epcot's Universe of Energy

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f185/PappaWheelie/radok1.jpg
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f185/PappaWheelie/radok.jpg

The interactive (by phone) robot, SMRT1, at Communicore, Epcot, before Innoventions

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f185/PappaWheelie/1982SMRT-1conceptartpaleofuture.jpg
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f185/PappaWheelie/smrt1.jpg
http://waltdatedworld.bravepages.com/5173dd40.jpg

My fave Communicaore concept art

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f185/PappaWheelie/communicore3.jpg

Communicore's concepts

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f185/PappaWheelie/communicore1.jpg
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f185/PappaWheelie/communicore2.jpg
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f185/PappaWheelie/communicore5.jpg

an INCREDIBLE Xanadu site:

http://www.neozaz.com/articles/xanadu.html

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f185/PappaWheelie/xanadugreatroom96.png
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f185/PappaWheelie/xanadugreatroom962.png
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f185/PappaWheelie/xanaduspa96.png

EN-NER-GEEEEE!

On International Drive in Orlando, SKULL KINGDOM: A HAUNTED FAMILY ATTRACTION

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/68/223868110_404c86d5a0.jpg

International Drive's Ripley's Believe it Or Not (not quite the same as St. Augustine's Odditorium, which is located in Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' Castle)

http://i.pbase.com/o6/66/28966/1/83778627.gmnYlcdI.Orlandomisc1.jpg

This "Fun N Wheels" was highly visible for years behind a Burger King on I-Drive

http://www.pjchmiel.com/photo/elements/funnwheels3.jpg

Had the original Vacation Kingdom idea came to fruition, the hotels planned were wow.

The Aisian
http://home.cfl.rr.com/omniluxe/asianrn.jpg

Jim Hill's piece on Asian, Venetian and Persian hotels

http://jimhillmedia.com/blogs/jim_hill/archive/2007/04/20/why-for-did-wdw-s-asian-venetian-and-persian-resorts-never-get-built.aspx

River Country, one of the lesser touted pieces actually built to Vacation Kingdom (and eventually closed)

http://disney.timetrip.net/wdw-guide-page59.jpg

(although it was part of the monorail spiel)

Epcot/Journey into Imagination's Image Works of the past (the upstairs, electric playground)

http://land.allears.net/blogs/debwills/jyipcc5.jpg
http://allears.net/tp/ep/imag27.jpg

The demolished Stars Hall of Fame, Orlando.

http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/asimov/20/orlando2.jpg
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f185/PappaWheelie/StarsHallOfFame.jpg

TS: Circus World vs. Boardwalk & Baseball (I-4)

http://history.amusement-parks.com/CircusWorld/arrowcoaster.jpg

Mystery Fun House

http://www.bigfloridacountry.com/mysteryfunhouse.htm

For those not yet aware, Re-Imagineering is a great Imagineer-centric blog:

http://imagineerebirth.blogspot.com/

off topic: deric did i hear ira glass say your name at the end of this american life last week?

this is the one:

Progress City

awesome thread

was trying to find pictures of the tiny ass amusement park called "kings castle land" near where i grew up in MA and found this site:

http://theimaginaryworld.com/PARKS3.html

where i found one picture of king's castle land:

http://theimaginaryworld.com/parks28.jpg

old disneyland photos: http://theimaginaryworld.com/dtour01.html
other cool shit: http://theimaginaryworld.com/page4.html

pappa, as a floridian, i feel u.

i totally have been inside Xanadu

and Mystery Fun House

i have so many pictures of me in this shit http://allears.net/tp/ep/imag27.jpg

wow i have a picture of me and my sister in this same cut out!

http://theimaginaryworld.com/snaps19.jpg

i ate the pea soup there too

That was part of the original "Vacation Kingdom" plan.

If anyone cares about early WDW concept...

After Walt unveiled the original EPCOT as a city plan, then died, the committee had to figure out what to do with the purchased property.

Walt planned for a city to have it's own magic Kingdom a small monorailk ride away from the the epcto city, but I don't think he had much beyond that. So the committee decided a monorial and magic kingdom would continue to be built, but scrapped the idea of a city.

Instead, they blossomed it into a really cool concept. Dig a man made lake, surround it with either theme parks or themed hotels, and link everything around the lake by monorail so that no matter which hotel you chose (Asian, Persian, Future, whatever), you could ride the monorial to other hotels and parks.

The attraction was supposed to be the lake...so they built discovery island in the center of the lake, River Country on the lake (even installing a wave machine), rented boats and such to hotel guests, etc.

They even made a promo video for vacation kingdom, despite only having phase one completed (which is warped to sureeal at this point):

The thing is, they could only afford a few attractions in "phase one"...the Polynesian resort, the Contemporary hotel, Discovery Island, River Country, and Magic Kingdom. The Persian, Asian, the Epcot park, etc., were all planned for phase two or three, and again, were all supposed to be surrounding the lake.

Then the oil crisis hit, and stalled the idea of vacation kingdom.

When they revived the plan, they kinda got over the lake and the idea that it'd all be part of one small tight thing, spreading it out all over buena vista county.

I used to have a solid timeline of vacation kingdom

Another surreal vacation kingdom era tv spot

too excited to proof read

River Country was so fun. Growing up on the coast of FLA, it was the first time I'd been in a lake. I know it was filtered, but it was still a lot yuckier than the ocean water I was used to. Pretty good slides too! Though it can't compete with Adventure Island at Busch Gardens in Tampa, at least as I remember it in the 1980s.

The Contemporary has been fixed to make it look more, um, Contemporary. Thankfully, the area through which the monorail passes is still called -- in the last holdover from its days sporting a futuristic Tex-Mex theme -- the Grand Canyon Concourse.

http://allears.net/acc/faq_hot.htm

ok that Walt Dated World page is blowing my mind. It's like seeing the dead rising again.

Yeah, I went to Adventure Island in 1985, and was FLOORED by how cool it was.

Thinking back, it seems remarkably quait now.

But IT HAD A ZIP LINE!!

I've still never stayed in a WDW hotel. As kids we just drove back home after a visit, and I haven't been since 1990. But oh how I would like to! Riding the monorail through the Contemporary---that hotel was what true luxury, and the future, meant to me. Probably still do.

if you live in Florida, you can get great discounts on the Contemporary, Polynesian, and the other "deluxe" hotels. Staying as a group, you wind up paying peanuts a night.

fuck yes the zip line, I was so scared of it for years, but got the nerve to do it finally and made it all the way!

We used to leave our picnic food at a picnic area at the top of the slides, and then go swim etc with the food and gear unguarded. It's funny, but I would never think of doing that today. I wonder if people still do it?

Oh, here's something to think about.

The Contemporary and Polynesian were designed and built by US Steel. They came up with the idea of prefab rooms that could be slid out when they become dated, and have new, completed rooms to be slid in all completed at a later date.

US Steel was also designed and built the court of flags resort in Orlando to take on WDW overflow, using the exact same ideas.

Court of Flags was demolished recently. They never could replace rooms at court of flags because the slid-in rooms shifted and collected mold between the wall and room. This is why prefab modualr hotels never caught on:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Court_of_Flags_Resort

So what does this mean for the contemporary & polynesian?

I have lots of family in Florida still, and one of these years I'll head down and bring my fam to WDW. And we'll do the hotel thing, finally.

from the Contemporary wikipage: During 2005-06, Disney completed a renovation of all guest rooms and many public areas throughout the resort. The decor changed little through the resort's history and has been replaced with more modern decor and furnishings.

so maybe they $olved the problem?

I've still never stayed in a WDW hotel. As kids we just drove back home after a visit, and I haven't been since 1990. But oh how I would like to! Riding the monorail through the Contemporary---that hotel was what true luxury, and the future, meant to me. Probably still do.

― Euler, Monday, December 1, 2008 6:29 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

The restaurant on top of Contemporary is fucking great, and you don't need to stay there to eat there (although reservations are required, I believe).

My last trip was after I moved to NY. I literally just went after the park, ordered a scothc at the bar, and watched the light parade and fireworks form the panoramic window while slowly getting toasted.

yes -- the California Grill. Zagat rated!

Actually, WDW food is far, far more sophisticated than when we were kids. The hotel restaurants are top-flight.

http://land.allears.net/blogs/debwills/land4.jpg

Let's listen to the land we all love,
nature's plan will shine above,
listen to the land, listen to the land.

^^^ I sing this still and bewilder everyone who hears b/c they don't know what the fuck I'm going on about

it's funny to think you could watch the parade from up there---the distances seem wrong in my head but I'm sure you're right.

and as a lame vegetarian that i am, california grill is notable for cooking with seperate grills/utensils for veg fare.

boma @ animal kingdom lodge remains my pick though. i mean, how many different desserts can one man eat in a sitting?! And i had no clue there was that many types of hummus.

it's funny to think you could watch the parade from up there---the distances seem wrong in my head but I'm sure you're right.

― Euler, Monday, December 1, 2008 6:36 PM (40 seconds ago) Bookmark

This one:

Still haven't visited AKL or the Animal Kingdom. Jiko at AKL has the largest selection of South African wines in the US, apparently.

Have you eaten at Artist Point at Wilderness Lodge? The cream of Portobello mushroom soup is out of this world.

I am moving to Paris next year and am pumped to try out Eurodisney. Usually when I go to Europe it seems ridic to spend a day at Disney, but if we're living there, wtf not.

oh, not the Main Street Electrical Parade. I get it. I've never seen the water pageant.

From the California Grill window:

ok so who's been to DOLLYWOOD
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3285/2599535416_454918bc00.jpg
love this fukkin place

I went to Dollywood when it was still a Silver Dollar City. Fire in the hole!

Still haven't visited AKL or the Animal Kingdom. Jiko at AKL has the largest selection of South African wines in the US, apparently.

Have you eaten at Artist Point at Wilderness Lodge? The cream of Portobello mushroom soup is out of this world.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, December 1, 2008 6:39 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

I think Jiko and Boma are the same food, but Jiko is not buffet style. The wine factor could sway me though. I know on the staircase down to both, there's a bar on the mezzanine.

If I know anything, it's where the bar is. This includes the cafe in the rear of the Moroccan pavilion in epcot that serves coffee liqueurs.

I've heard good things about Artists' Point, so you have just completely swayed me to try it shouold I ever go back.

I am moving to Paris next year and am pumped to try out Eurodisney. Usually when I go to Europe it seems ridic to spend a day at Disney, but if we're living there, wtf not.

― Euler, Monday, December 1, 2008 6:39 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

I went, once. Their California Grill was not very California, but was very French. I remember an outstanding cheese plate, but this was also like 9 years ago, so I can't vouch for it today. The park was kinda weird. Their space mountain was UNBELIEVABLE!

gr80 i drove passed dollywood, but sadly, have not been yet.

i remember gatlinburg (is that it) was, like, OMG MINI GOLF EVERYWHERE

something about Epcot's The Land and Imagination reminded me of Willy Wonka's factory

loads of gems in this vid

<33

Walt Disney World Information Channel 1987 (part 1)

Walt Disney World Information Channel 1987 (part 2)

GOD. I watched this during our first Polynesian Resort stay in 1987.

not totally related but my grandpa was bros w/ Robert McCall who did the poster art for 2001 and a lot of NASA stuff:

WAU at this. I've still got my copy of Our World In Space

Is anyone familiar with the mosaics by Mary Blair in Small World and at the entrance to Tomorrowland? She was an amazong artist well ahead of her time, and while she did art for things like peterpan and I think Alice in Wonderland, what always fascinated me were the mosaics at D-land. Culturally significant and really lovely works of art.

I am such a sucker for D-land. It never fails to bring out the child in me and delight me. Anyone else share this feeling?

This isn't the most glamorous photo, but it's the only one I could find of the interior of the old "Mission to Mars" attraction at D-world. I have fond memories of how primitive it was. Kids actually had to use their imaginations...

http://www.yesterland.com/images-tomorrowland/moonrocket_mars2.jpg

I'm sure this ride was scrapped a long time ago.

Wow this is depressing. Apparently 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea closed in 1994.

Great thread and art though.

Is anyone familiar with the mosaics by Mary Blair in Small World and at the entrance to Tomorrowland?

They're gone, I think -- the only Blair artwork to survive are the dolls in "It's A Small World" and the huge mural in the Contemporary Resort's atrium.

the old Mission to Mars was pretty lame; along with the Hall of the Presidents, it was a good place to sit in the AC for a little while, but not much more.

I'm sure it was lame. But as a kid, I was into it. And that's my point.

Hello lost Tomorrowland fans and/or New Age music fans and/or Smooth Jazz fans.

Space Mountain TV (SMTV) Audio Loop [Part 1]

Space Mountain TV (SMTV) Audio Loop [Part 2]

just got back from a brief Disney trip

they have a new restaurant called T. REX CAFE that's all dino'd out

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3530/3239955892_b928f526d7.jpg?v=0
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/features_orlando/images/2008/10/14/dsc02857.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3172/2959598151_e44b27c332.jpg?v=0
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/features_orlando/images/2008/10/14/dsc02873.jpg

we just walked through, but i'm super tempted to eat there next time. totally crass but over the top enough to blow our minds.

i'm guessing either
a) the energy ride at EPCOT shut down and they needed a place to store all dem dinos
b) there was a meeting and someone said, "Eh, kids fuckin love dinosaurs, right?"

I thought you were posting the news about the monorail shutdown and death!

RIP Robert McCall

I am such a sucker for D-land. It never fails to bring out the child in me and delight me. Anyone else share this feeling?

― Wiggy Woo, Tuesday, December 30, 2008 3:36 AM (2 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

http://www.lostparks.com/SunspringsE.jpg

pappa, u ever see gomek in st augustine

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/56/Gomek.jpg/484px-Gomek.jpg

GOMEK GONE/OUR GATOR DEAD

i can say from personal experience, gomek was a big fucking croc

http://mousetalestravel.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/lesportsac-iasw-summer2012.jpg

Mary Blair inspired Le SportSac Collection.

https://YouTube.com/watch?v=QVFO9ZJ612I

i dunno kinda wish i was at 1991 Epcot right now