Epcot's Opening Day: 30 Years of Discovery - show notes for episode 123
Wednesday, August 1, 2012 at 7:17AM 
Thanks for downloading WEDWay Radio, a show about Disney parks, Disney history and touring. This is episode #123 - Epcot's Opening Day: 30 Years of Discovery.
This episode is our third in our 30 Years of Discovery Series, celebrating the five decades of Epcot, and we chose to look at Epcot's Opening Day and Dedication including the TV Special starring Danny Kaye.
The show is broken up into three parts:
- October 1, 1982
- What was there on opening day
- The TV Special
Watch the ENTIRE TV Special
Enjoy!
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Reader Comments (6)
I'm alive!
Gene Wilder is very much alive . But other than that snafu awesome episode.
I've really enjoyed these shows about the history of Epcot. Thanks for the miracle of You Tube I've been able to see some of those great old attractions that no longer existed by the time I first visited Epoct in 1998.
2 Min into the show "there'll be another series next summer" 30 years of Tokyo DL anyone? or 15 years of Disney's Animal Kingdom?
(both were April openings BTW)
The Bell System was the American Bell Telephone Company and then, subsequently, AT&T–led system which provided telephone services to much of the United States and Canada from 1877 to 1984, at various times as a monopoly. In 1984, the company was broken up into separate companies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bell_System
There has been some discussion about who was the first narrator of Spaceship Earth. Most fans seem to believe that the voice of the original Spaceship Earth narrator was Vic Perrin, an actor who did many voiceovers and was the "Control Voice" on The Outer Limits television show. However, Disney Imagineer Marty Sklar did an interview saying that he didn't understand why everyone said the narrator was Vic Perrin; it was actually another actor named Larry Dobkin.
http://waltdatedworld.bravepages.com/id183.htm
during the 25th anniversary to Epcot they once again poured waters in various decanters "representing" waters from the rivers of the world into the Fountain of Nations. According to Disneyland the Nickel Tour when iasw opened in 1966 they had actual water from various places around the world as per this quote from page 230 " even more proof comes from a file filled with bills for the cost of shipping the water to Disneyland. Why, it cost $21.86 to airfreight a liter of water from Venezuela alone!
The song"listen to the land" does not sound condescending to me, it does make me think of Epcot Center as a great place to take school field trips, all those kids singing and learning to listen to the land.
El Rio Del Tiempo "Bartering" In the words of Diego Montoya "I do not think that word means what you think it means, or at the very least I think the word you were looking for actually was "haggling".
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/haggling
China favorite China story on the earliest pre-opening merchandise there are references to "The Peoples Republic of China" to the Chinese this was a bit offensive as the official position of the Chinese government is that there is only "one China" they did not then recognize the "republic of China" which we know better nowadays as Taiwan "Upon losing the Chinese civil war in 1949, the ROC government retreated to Taipei, and kept control over a few islands along the coast of mainland China and in the South China Sea. The People's Republic of China (PRC) was established in mainland China on October 1, 1949, claiming to be the successor to the ROC.[3]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_status_of_Taiwan
Scary Children of the world walk around Dolls - these were leftover from the 1976 "America on Parade" and got redressed and a fair bit of reuse in Epcot.
I really want to say what a great job you are doing on this EPCOT series!! I enjoyed watching the opening with Danny Kay but have to agree on those giant scary dolls... were they leftovers from the 1976 parade in Magic Kingdom?
Thanks again for all your hard work!
Wow! Gene Wilder listens to our show! ;)