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Eddie Sotto is a former Disney Imagineer who worked for the Walt Disney Company for 13 years from 1986 to 1999. He remains one of the top designers and mixed-media producers in the world and is the founder in 2004 of Sotto Studios.

He also worked on projects for Universal Studios Hollywood, Knott’s Berry Farm, and Six Flags, as well as countless other businesses and con- tinues to develop innovative and exciting projects worldwide.

Over the decades, Sotto has been very gracious and generous in sharing stories of his time working in Imagineering with the Disney fan community. That kindness was demonstrated yet again when Jim Korkis interviewed him in June 2018 and June 2019 about his involvement in Disney projects involving the world of tomorrow and New Orleans Square.

Jim Korkis: How were you assigned to rehabbing the New Orleans Square area?

Eddie Sotto: There was tremendous pressure within the company to achieve 20% growth every year and to cut expenses. It was a very austere environment that we were working in. The management of Disneyland was under extreme pressure from corporate. I was at the top of the show master-planning team down there under Tony Baxter. Ops (Operations) philosophy was that we had been adding attractions over the years, adding operating cost, and what we really needed to do was take something away if something was added.

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