Yesterworld: The Troubled History of Epcot's Abandoned World Showcase - The Original Disney World

[Music] welcome to Epcot Center where soon you'll be able to immerse yourself into the 20 countries of the world showcase from life down under in Australia to the relaxing beaches of Costa Rica and even ride a magic carpet aboard sorry you have an early script they removed a few of the countries let's roll again welcome to Epcot Center where soon you'll be able to immerse yourself into the 15 countries of the world showcase from the quaint villages of Holland to the mighty jungles of Africa and even take a ride on a cable car to the lost city of sorry they made a few more changes let's do it again welcome to Epcot Center where soon you'll be able to immerse yourself into the 12 countries of the world showcase from the well this is awkward welcome to Epcot Center where soon you'll be able to immerse yourself into the nine countries of the world showcase wait wait only nine countries what happened to the others well the history of Epcot's World Showcase is a troubling one from the original version that never came to be and what led to the creation of Epcot itself it's filled with an incredible but unrealized pavilions abandon attractions cancelled expansions and a lot of unkept promises and constant revisions so one more from the top hello [Music] [Music] the story begins in 1955 with the opening of Disneyland and more specifically on Main Street USA you see as we've covered many times in the past the park fell victim to many budget constraints during development and forced Walt Disney to put a number of lands and attractions on hold one of them was International Street and was set to be located on the corner of Main Street USA in fact when the park opened visitors could actually get a peek at this future edition International Street was to be a place where guests could essentially immerse themselves into the shops restaurants and overall atmosphere of countries from all over the world however within a couple years this was seemingly abandoned in favor of Liberty Street which I covered in a previous episode but I used the word seemingly because unknown to the average visitor International Street wasn't abandoned but instead evolved into international land instead of Main Street this version was to be constructed in between fantasy lands and Tomorrowland which at the time was the amazing attraction of just a giant Hill the larger section of property would allow for the countries to be far more elaborate and built at a much grander scale for an even deeper level of immersion however international land was abandoned just a short time later as it turns out the giant Hill was a much more fitting location from Matterhorn mountain in 1959 so the idea for an international something was put on the back burner but then in the mid 1960s Disney began developing his experimental prototype community of tomorrow or Epcot Epcot will always be a showcase to the world for the ingenuity and imagination of American free enterprise I don't believe there's a challenge anywhere in the world that's more important to people everywhere and finding solutions to the problems of our cities within this futuristic city was to be a sort of international Street 2.0 simply listed as the International shopping area of course the specific countries Walt Disney had in mind is up for speculation but through conceptual renderings we can at least get an idea of what could have been now it's really tempting to go down a huge bunny trail about Walt Disney's original vision for Epcot but for simplicity's sake as it pertains to this episode it was the driving force behind the Florida project aka Walt Disney World and the Magic Kingdom theme park was only to be a very small portion of the much larger picture Walt Disney had in mind everything in this room may change time and time again as we move ahead but the basic philosophy of what we're planning for Disney World is going to remain very much as it is right now unfortunately Walt Disney's untimely and tragic passing in 1966 put up caught on indefinite hold so the focus was placed on the Magic Kingdom theme park but fast-forward to within a year or so of the Magic Kingdom's opening as executives turned their attention to the prospect of finally building Epcot however they soon realized that without the personal guidance of Walt Disney the initial vision had to be abandoned and reimagined or at the very least simplified and thus was born the Epcot future world themed center in the Walt Disney World Showcase future world themed center was to be constructed several miles away from the Magic Kingdom with an emphasis on showcasing technology communication and the progress of mankind the World Showcase however was initially planned to be near the entrance of Disney World Drive but eventually it was decided to instead build it near the Magic Kingdom at the ticketing and transportation center this was envisioned as a quote-unquote permanent international showcase a place where nations or individual countries from all over the world were able to demonstrate their culture and their products the original vision was to have a whopping 30 separate countries or nations represented by separate pavilions the catch was that each country bore nation would have to be sponsored by their governments or a corporation representing the territory in other words it would be their responsibility to provide the vast majority of the funds to build and maintain the pavilions this would also include the restaurants shops and as we'll get to in a bit attractions unfortunately this was a much tougher sell than Disney originally thought so over 20 ambassadors and dignitaries were invited to the Magic Kingdom for a four-day all expenses paid vacation basically to Wine and Dine them into becoming sponsors however while Disney reportedly spent over 1 million dollars hosting the honored guests by the end of their vacation only eight of the representatives showed interest in committing nevertheless Disney was still optimistic that they could have 30 nations four countries represented at the World Showcase and pressed onward but then the US economy took a nosedive due in part to the Vietnam War the Watergate scandal and the energy crisis in America so building both the Walt Disney World showcase and future world themed Center as separate tourist destinations became incredibly unrealistic but legendary Imagineers Marty Sklar and John hench had a solution in which they quite literally pushed the two separate physical models of both parks together and dubbed Center was born Epcot will be a community of ideas a public forum for information transfer about emerging new technologies prototype systems and promising new concepts initially Epcot centers World Showcase was still planning on having 30 separate countries but with a number of negotiations still ongoing and only a handful of official commitments this number was scaled down to a more realistic 20 but even this version of the World Showcase was still envisioned as having every single pavilion connected to each other and rather than individually designed show buildings they would have all been housed within the same massive structure the reason for this was then-president card Walker who felt the showcase should have a unifying theme on the outside with the country's individual theming on the inside however artists an Imagineer Harper goth strongly disagreed as he felt that each country's cultural history and architecture should influence the design of the pavilions so thanks to a far from accidental incident tour investors were somehow shown as detailed renderings during a tour their enthusiasm for his version of the showcase won over however the plan was to still keep the now individually designed showcases interconnected but eventually this was abandoned in favor of completely separate pavilions and that brings us to more or less the final initial vision for the world showcase which would evolve or devolve into what eventually came to be the experimental community will be divided into two major areas the World Showcase where many nations will be able to present their cultures commerce and architecture and future world which will present the challenges and alternatives man will have to face beginning the tour the first country was initially going to be America and kind of as this pavilion was purposefully uh themed to be a sort of bridge from future world into the world showcase featuring the American adventure but the attraction wasn't originally a theater show but a ride using an omni mover vehicle system we went through six object failures before we got to an American adventure that we all felt comfortable with for example one designer decided that the American adventure should be a happy fun right through that one designer was actually Imagineer Marc Davis whose vision for the American adventure was quote an illustration of American life and what makes America different from every other country however this version was ultimately rejected so he designed a more serious theater show as a celebration of American heroes and icons and while this version would also ultimately be rejected it would provide the foundation for what eventually came to be from the American adventure the tour of the World Showcase officially begins and in our case we'll be going in a clockwise direction also I took the liberty of adopting the layout from 1977 to the 1978 model as well the countries remain the same a few pavilions were in a different order the first country on our tour is Costa Rica what's interesting about this one is that the original scale was pretty minimal however soon it received a major facelift in the size of the pavilion dramatically increased though no traditional attractions are planned it would have featured cascading waterfalls and luscious gardens it would have also had an aviary a place to do a little fishing with at least one restaurant and shopping destination next would have been Morocco which similar to Costa Rica was initially pretty small and overall scale however this evolved into a much larger country and was to feature entertainment plenty of shops and a massive two-story something though some plans do indicate it would have been some sort of movie theater slash dining experience in fact as originally envisioned Morocco would have been one of the largest pavilions in the entire world showcase after that would have been Taiwan but like a handful of others on our tour based on the size of the pavilion it would have likely been limited to small shops and quick service restaurants next was to be the Australia New Zealand pavilion and while it seems no attractions are planned the size indicates it would have had plenty of restaurants shops and places to explore you then would have arrived to the Switzerland pavilion and is tempting as it is to dive into its planned attraction and experiences right now that was still a good 10 years away so we'll come back to this one next was to be Holland which is one of the ten countries where expansions are planned from the very beginning and not as part of the absolute disaster of Alcott's infamous phase 2 but I'm getting ahead of myself we then finally arrive to the first real showstopper on our tour the Germany Pavilion [Music] now if you're a longtime subscriber to the channel and if not why aren't you you know that I have a special sort of obsession with Epcot's Germany pavilion why because of the Rhine River cruise this mysterious boat ride was to be one of the signature attractions of the World Showcase taking visitors through Germany's cultural heritage in folklore specifics are pretty difficult to come by but I recently stumbled upon some amazing conceptual models which even without context gives you an idea of this incredible unique adventure that being said if anyone is in possession of this detailed right specification document that was auctioned off in December of 2008 how'd you like to become my new best friend up next was to be the Brazil Pavillion but very little was known about the original intention beyond a simple conceptual model we then arrived to the Japan pavilion which aesthetically is more or less what became a reality but not so much with its attractions one of them was a motion simulator in which visitors boarded would appear to be a bullet train is that were taken on a tour through Japan's historically significant locations another was an omni mover dark ride which would have taken visitors through iconic environments of japan this was first imagined as Japan's signature attraction and possibly only attraction for the initial vision of the world showcase for this later version judging by the concept art it was still a major consideration that is until the focus was placed on meet the world this massive theatre show would have taken guests on a journey through japan's history and cultural heritage featuring the use of state-of-the-art animatronics projections and others ston assuring effects within a revolving theater basically a Japanese carousel progress we [Music] after Japan was to be the Poland pavilion but much like the hoenn pavilion it would have more than likely just featured the typical assortment of shops and restaurants after crossing a bridge in viewing a very impressive water fountain we move on to Italy Italy was originally going to feature a two-story building which was to house a signature restaurant as well as the entrance and cue for a gondola darkride the restaurant was to use both floors of the building with a beautiful waterfront which featured nightly entertainment however very little is known about the specifics of the gondola dark ride though would have also featured a Roman ruins walkthrough next was the United Kingdom pavilion or more specifically Great Britain as can be seen in early conceptual models within the country's gigantic show building was to be a state-of-the-art animatronic theatre show now I feel like a broken record but very little was known about the specifics other than it being based on a Christmas carol although we do know that it was scheduled as a day one attraction and was still the plan very far into the world showcases development next is Safari Africa or is later known Equatorial Africa as described by Disney the pavilions architectural motif is a treehouse and which visitors will overlook a jungle watering hole in a simulated nighttime environment where even the sense of the forest will be recreated these elements will be blended skillfully with a rear projected film to convince visitors they're actually in the heart of Africa the pavilion was also to feature an elaborate theatre show called the heartbeat of Africa with an equally elaborate pre-show there was also to be another show called Africa rediscovered and supposedly the movie portions for both of these attractions were actually filmed in preparation the expansive pavilion would have also featured a safari zoo with live animals as well as a museum with African artifacts and exhibits finally there was to be a recreation of an African village featuring authentic traditional performers next on the tour is the Saudi Arabia pavilion but once the other nations showed interest in joining this was revised into the United Arab Emirates pavilion in addition to the name change the pavilion was also given a pretty drastic redesign to appear less specific to one particular country and along with the usual restaurants and shops was to be one of the showcases signature attractions a magic carpet ride over sideways no no no this was many years earlier here visitors would find themselves soaring over physical sets and locations showcasing the region's past and present history there also could have been a people mover attraction but much like Japan's Omni mover this was also originally part of the earlier vision for the showcase up next was France but - the exterior of the pavilion very little would end up changing from its initial vision we move on to Scandinavia which as you'll see later is one of the few pavilions to be both abandoned and realized but for now you just need to know that initially this was to encompass Norway Sweden and Denmark is one massive pavilion this is why so much empty land was left as expansion space but like some of the other countries the story continues further down the timeline up next was to be the Israel pavilion and what doesn't seem like any rides were planned we can see that it would have featured the typical World Showcase treatment an assortment of shops restaurants and a theater show next would have been South Korea but as I'm sure you can probably guess little to no information is surfaced about what was specifically planned for the pavilion we then travel past Canada as other than the outside little would be changed the same cannot be said for Mexico as originally the temple was to have glass walls a massive water fountain in the entrance Plaza and a much larger waterfront this was for Mexico's boat ride attraction les tres culturas de Mexico here you a journey through pre-columbian Mexico Spanish colonial Mexico and modern Mexico I know it doesn't sound too different from what eventually came to be but this version would have been nearly twice as large and far more elaborate with a mixture of outdoor and indoor sections and state-of-the-art animatronics now there are a couple additional pavilions that were in development around the same time but are mysteriously absent from every layer model I've ever come across one of them was a Venezuela pavilion which was a big contender from the very beginning and supposedly got very far long this is further evidenced by the incredibly detailed conceptual artwork which is among some of the most extensive of any of these pavilions there is even a very detailed description of its main attraction but for some reason the entire pavilion was abandoned within months of the World Showcase press reveal but then back on the table within a single week of Epcot's grand opening but I'm getting ahead of myself one last pavilion to quickly mention was the Philippines pavilion which like the previous country got very far along and development however even despite a press release with a surprisingly detailed description of its pavilions and attractions for some reason this was also left out of the finalized ich 1978 version and with that we finish our circle tour of the original vision for the Epcot World Showcase and the first part of this two-part series I know I know I really didn't want to put this into two parts originally I've wanted the second half of this episode to finish the stories of everything we just covered but it just kept finding even more abandoned pavilions and attractions of the World Showcase later in its timeline and realize that I just couldn't do them all justice in a single episode so rest assured part 2 will be out next week and if you're watching this sometime in the future or the parks back open yet and you can find the link in the description below and we'll see you again very soon in yester world you [Music]

Channel: Yesterworld Entertainment

Views: 436,991

Keywords: Yesterworld, Yesterworld theme park, epcot world showcase, Epcot center world showcase, Yesterworld: The Troubled History of Epcot’s Abandoned World Showcase, disney world epcot world showcase, disney world epcot world showcase pavilions, epcot world showcase attractions, TPMvids epcot world showcase, the countries of epcot world showcase, the countries at epcot, epcot countries attractions, history of epcot world showcase, disney world epcot history, disney world epcot

Id: bEOCNyMHgXA

Length: 19min 45sec (1185 seconds)

Published: Fri May 08 2020