Starport75 - A Disney Podcast

Horizons

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  • Released 2/18/19
  • Opened one year after Epcot on 10/1/83
  • Sponsored by General Electric for the first 10 years
  • The one pavilion that combined all of the themes of Epcot Center together: technology, transportation, communication, food, health, energy, living in future habitats on the land, undersea and in space
  • Unofficially, it was seen by GE and Disney as a sequel to the Carousel of Progress
    • The characters have grown up and moved out
    • When proposing ideas for New Tomorrowland in Disneyland in 1990, Imagineering prepared a proposal to essentially combine CoP and Horizons
    • The show’s theaters would present the concept of the “great, big beautiful tomorrow” starting with “Looking Back at Tomorrow” from the Horizons pavilion at EPCOT Center and continuing through an “1890s Victorian style American living room;” “the kitchen of a 1940s modern home;” “a vacation villa circa 1990;” “an undersea research station;” “a space station orbiting the Earth;” and conclude with the “urban habitat…desert habitat…and space scene” from Horizons. http://auction.howardlowery.com/Bidding.taf?_function=detail&Auction_uid1=5322846
  • Design
    • 1979 was a look at the history of technology and a large exhibit space for GE of today and tomorrow
    • Jack Welch became chairman of GE and he didn’t think the pavilion was futuristic enough
    • The name changed in 1980 to “Century 3” and the design was changed to focus on living in the future with technology
    • GE signed for sponsorship in October 1980 and changed the name again to “Futureprobe”
    • The building was designed to look like a spaceship
      • The rear of the building was “show ready” to be seen from the proposed LVB Monorail
    • By the groundbreaking in February 1982, the pavilion was named Horizons
  • Ride
    • Guests would load in a transport terminal of the future
    • guests would board a car that seated four people and faced left of forward motion
    • The ride started by looking back at dreams of the future over the centuries
      • Included looks at Jules Verne’s idea of a flight to the moon
      • A future look at Paris from 1920s
      • “Easy living” with the robot butler, which was the ‘80s as seen from the ‘30s
      • looking back at tomorrow with movies and television specials of yesteryear
      • The future from the ‘50s where the future was “kinda fun”
    • Then head into bringing our dreams to life: “If we can dream it, we can do it” - the transition between past and future. Two Omnimax theaters that showed images of the space shuttle liftoff, landsat photography of earth, microprocessor, crystals for use in microelectronics, liquid space (underwater), DNA chain, the sun
    • 21st Century living - An “achievable Future” of 2086 (When Disneyland opened, Tomorrowland represented the future in the year 1986)
      • Meet the narrators at their futuristic home
        • Dad is playing a futuristic piano
        • Mom is chatting with her daughter on a holophone
      • Head to the agricultural engineer daughter’s home on the farm in the desert
        • The daughter is overseeing the harvest of l’orange (half lime, half orange)
        • Head into the house where her husband and son making a birthday cake
        • then to the den where the daughter is talking to her boyfriend who is working on his submarine
      • Then go to the maintenance bay where the boyfriend is working on the submarine
      • Continue on to the underwater city where children are getting ready to go deep sea diving
      • Then head to space where we see a space colony where the son and his family live
        • A family just arriving from the shuttle
        • Crystals growing in space
        • Join the family in singing birthday to the grandson via hologram
      • Then it’s time to head back home: you got to vote on the flight path back to FuturePort
        • Space: Omega Centauri
        • Land: Mesa Verde
        • Sea: Sea Castle Resort
  • Additional history
    • Closed in December 1994
    • Reopened in December 1995 because Universe of Energy and World of Motion were both closed
    • Closed permanently on 1/9/99, 20 years ago
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Starport75 - A Disney PodcastBy Chris Grey & Glenn Welch
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