The other day, fellow blogger and artist extraordinaire Will Bezek mentioned that he had (at one time) about 50 of the miniature vehicles from the Progress City model. Somebody with sticky fingers left him with only one: “I took that box full of cars from The Progress City Model to work when I was doing TV production for use on some long shots and some swine absconded the whole lot while I was away at lunch.” He was generous enough to provide this photo of his one remaining vehicle, a cherished VW Convertible.



Will is also a "legacy”: “My Grandad went to work at the park during initial construction and retired in the early 90's; he was in the sound department. I also had a great grandfather, two uncles, and a cousin who worked there...I grew up at the park basically.” The envy of many a Disneyland blog reader, that’s for sure!

Here’s a 1966 photo of his grandfather with Mickey:



See Will’s INCREDIBLE art at his website.

See more vintage & current Carousel of Progress photos at my regular website.

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For those of you bored with my WDW Trip report, I will offer you a small reprieve with a post about the Progress City model. Formerly part of the Disneyland Carousel of Progress attraction, it now resides in Walt Disney World, visible while riding the PeopleMover...oh, excuse me...the Tomorrowland Transit Authority! The first photo is a vintage shot of the model with the following information:

“In capsulized realism is this 6,900-foot scale model of the city of the future provides a detailed example of city planning using today’s latest technology with more than 4,500 buildings and 2,450 moving vehicles in a myriad of forward looking transportation systems. The all-electric city is a new feature of General Electric’s Carousel of Progress at Disneyland.”

Here are two other vintage shots, showing Walt proudly telling the world about his ambitious plans for EPCOT and Disney World near Orlando:





And to keep things current, here’s the Progress City model today:







See more vintage & current Carousel of Progress photos at my regular website.

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This is where it all began: Edison Square. Early park visitors saw the sign in Town Square proclaiming Edison Square, which was to be a new land at the Anaheim park. Slated to be constructed alongside Main Street behind the Plaza Inn, Edison Square was to resemble a turn of the century neighborhood that displayed the progress of inventions in the American home. By the time of the New York World’s Fair, this concept had been retitled Progressland and had morphed into the theater show that we now know as The Carousel of Progress. Here are some promotional materials from the Fair:



When the show was transported to its new home in Anaheim, a “fifth act” was added to the show, featuring a model of Progress City.



This amazingly detailed model was the actual prototype for Walt’s original vision of what EPCOT was supposed to be: an Experimental Prototype City of Tomorrow. What ended up being built in Orlando bore no resemblance to Walt’s utopian vision of the future.













To all of those who feel that one man cannot make much of a difference, I totally disagree. In my opinion, had Walt lived to see his vision fulfilled, the world would be a much different (and better) place. See more vintage Carousel of Progress photos at my regular website. Interested in learning more about the Imagineers? Check out Jeff Kurtti’s new book, “Walt Disney’s Imagineering Legends.” Available at Amazon.com.

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