EPCOT

When I was Commanding Officer at Langley AFB Hospital, I had a visitor. He was a retired Air Force pilot. After his retirement he became Walt Disney’s personal pilot.

I recently watched the story of Walt Disney World on the History channel. It was not originally called Walt Disney World. That was the name Roy Disney wanted to honor his brother.

On the show, I watched Walt Disney flying over swampland in central Florida. I knew who the pilot was flying that plane. I had met him in person.

It was as the pilot explained to me. They scouted out the land they wanted to buy. They then bought 27,000 acres of it using shell companies so no one would know it was Disney. The original Disneyland was 160 acres. 

Walt Disney did not call it Walt Disney World. His vision was to build what he called an Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT). EPCOT would be a city with a downtown location that included shopping and other amenities. There would be a central industrial complex for creating things to be used in the new Magic Kingdom.

The workers would all live in a ring of houses surrounding the downtown location. There would be parkland around that. More housing would be on the other side of the parkland. All cars would be stored underground. Travel would be by monorail. Unfortunately, Walt Disney died in 1966. The original EPCOT idea died with him.

I found that out early on. I thought being a pediatrician in EPCOT would be a wonderful idea. So I wrote to Disney asking them what the plan was to provide medical care for children in EPCOT.

They answered me. They told me to contact Orlando Children’s Hospital. It was at that point that I realized that Walt Disney, who had died while I was still in college, would never have his dream realized.

EPCOT ultimately opened. However, it was a theme park. Under Walt Disney’s original idea, the people who worked there would live in the city. They would come to work via monorail. They would return home to be with their neighbors from all the other countries represented at the theme park.

Ultimately, a city was built. It is called Celebration Florida. However, they are just homes. There is a small downtown area. There is no monorail. There are plenty of cars. The medical care is provided at a hospital on the outskirts of the city.

I ultimately joined the Air Force. I lived on base for most of my 20 year career. That allowed me to be close to the hospital. It allowed me to provide pediatric care to people who were my neighbors. I still got the chance to live out my dream. It was just not at EPCOT.