Science fiction writer Ray Bradbury, close friend and disciple of the late Walt Disney, is now busy putting together a kind of futuristic Disneyland in Florida called Spaceship Earth. It is due to open in 1982. He tells why he thinks Disney's pioneer ideas point the way future cities should be built. If you could name the most important man of our century, who might it be? May I suggest Walt Disney? Roll about on the floor, laugh if you must, then rise and come along with me as I offer proof. The trouble with most cities and countries is that they are built by men who have not an ounce of dream, a gram of wit or style. Big Ben keeps better future time than they do. Can an American gent in a mouse-suit do better? Can a man 13 years dead re-invent our cities, revitalize our root-system dreams, save us from our blind selves? He can. He will. He must. In 1976 I was called in as a consultant on Spaceship Earth, the permanent world's fair-type building now being constructed next door to Disney World in Florida by WED. WED means Walter E. Disney, it is housed in a series of rather ordinary-looking buildings lost somewhere in Glendale, California. There is no name on the front. But open its doors and you have the toys, puppets, audio animatronic machineries, rides, murals, sculptures, horticultural displays and voices that stand, lie, sit, sound or move at Disney's twin lands. […]
