In a small movie theater near Orlando, Florida, U.S.A., in February 1967, several hundred business and political leaders watched a private screening of an unusual film.
It featured Walt Disney, the man who revolutionized animation and the theme park industry. Before Disney died two months earlier, he had spent his last days putting his latest dream on film. In it, he described his plans for the 11,340 hectares (28,000 acres) of Central Florida pasture, swamp, and farmland 32 kilometres (20 miles) south of the city, which his representatives had purchased over a period of years.
"There will be another theme park similar to Disneyland [the first theme park Disney built in Anaheim, California, U.S.A., in 19551," he announced. "But the most exciting and by far the most important part of our Florida proj-ect will be our Experimental Pro-totype Community of Tomorrow. We call it Epcot."
Disney envisioned Epcot as a working and living center that would demonstrate how free enterprise could make the world a better place. It would draw the "new ideas and new technologies that are now emerging from the creative center of American industry."
Epcot was never built as Disney originally planned. But his successors have made it an immensely popular attraction at what today is called Walt Disney World. […]
