Friday, September 21, 2007

The EPCOT Pre-Opening Postcards - Future World

Among the souvenirs made available at the EPCOT Center Preview Center prior to the park's October 1982 opening was a series of postcards that featured concept art from nearly all of the attractions and pavilions. The now-famous aerial view painting featured above was distinct in that it carried no tag-line on the reverse side. The cards themed to Future World featured the line The Future Begins October 1, 1982 (pictured above), while the World Showcase cards stated The Newest Wonder of the World Opens October 1, 1982. Featured today are the Future World postcards with their corresponding back-of-card captions.

FUTURE WORLD THEME ATTRACTION Contained within a 17-story "geosphere," Spaceship Earth features a ride through the evolution of our communications networks.

PARTNERSHIPS WITH THE LAND Covering nearly six acres, The Land will offer guests some food for thought about nutrition, and a chance to set sail for "Tomorrow's Harvest."

WITH A SPARK OF INSPIRATION. . . Colorful realms of creativity will be explored when guests board ride-vehicles for a Journey Into Imagination.

"FREEDOM OF MOBILITY" In World of Motion, guests will ride through more than 30 Audio-Animatronics scenes about transportation's evolution, shown here in artwork and models.

UNDERSEA ADVENTURE The Living Seas, opening during Phase II of EPCOT CENTER in 1983, will reveal the wonders of our aquatic frontier at "Sea Base Alpha," a working research station.A LOOK A TOMORROW . . . TODAY In Horizons, guests will ride into three-dimensional future habitats, including a cityscape and space colony.


Universe of Energy was not represented in this The Future Begins October 1, 1982 series of cards. A card featuring concept art of the pavilion's exterior was subsequently released, but displayed the line Discover the Newest Wonder of the World.

Universe of Energy in Future World A gleaming array of 80,000 photovoltaic cells of the building's roof help guest to "ride on sunshine" through Universe of Energy, where they explore energy choices and challenges for tomorrow.

I was able to feature this particular card here with the much appreciated assistance of Brian Martsolf. Brian has the best online resource for Walt Disney World postcards. Check out his very extensive and comprehensive site. You won't be disappointed. Thanks, Brian!

Coming up: World Showcase!

3 comments:

Disneyana World said...

I'm so jealous of you. I have been trying to get a complete set of these forever.

Jeff said...

That first postcard looks vaguely familiar . . .

:)

bigbrian-nc.com said...

You know there are two versions of that first (aerial view) card, the earlier one has the gold dome that early versions of the Living seas artwork had and deciduous trees lined the island that screens the parking lot tram stop whereas the later view has the living Seas pavilion more or less as it was later built (it opened in 86) and the deciduos trees were changed to palms, there may be other changes as well, but these are the ones that stand out to me, you can see both versions on a page on my site:
http://www.bigbrian-nc.com/wdw-pc28.htm