Sample lyric:
"He's got a great big memory like an elephant, utilizes knowledge without end,
That's why I'm a rooter for me computer, everybody needs a friend."
If guests learned anything during this presentation, it was to not come back. Disney
evidently recognized this show's potential quickly and closed it in January 1984. A
month later it was replaced by Backstage Magic, a show that replaced the
Englishman with Julie, a girl-next-door-type hostess and her electronic sidekick
I/O. They presented a slightly more intelligent take on the computer story that ran for
nearly ten years before closing in October 1993.
Elsewhere in Computer Central were
interactive displays that were popular
with guests. SMRT-1, a purple and
chrome robot set on a rotating pedestal
surrounded by telephones, involved a
never-ending stream of guests in trivia
and guessing games. When your turn
came up, SMRT-1 asked you (in its
synthesized child voice) to speak your
answer loud and clear through the
phone. It also spent some time
ad-libbing and singing between games:
"If I keep this up I might graduate from
Solid State." SMRT-1 was probably
related to BIT from the WorldKey
Information System and ORAC-1 of the
Magic Kingdom's WEDway Peoplemover,
all congenial and genderless electric
beings that seemed to want their digital
faces slapped for being supercute. Of the
three, SMRT-1 was definitely the least sugary and accordingly the most tolerable.
SMRT-1's shell, long silent, can now be found in the Contemporary Resort Hotel's
Grand Canyon Concourse in one of the restaurants.
VISIT THE OMNILUXE WDW SOUNDS ARCHIVE TO HEAR
A FEW SECONDS OF SMRT-1'S BANTER
Nearby was the "Compute-A-Coaster" exhibit where guests could assemble their
own roller coaster on a video screen. In doing so, they were coached by a lisping
cartoon beaver who sounded just like the gopher from Winnie-the-Pooh. While the
number of final coaster outcomes was extremely limited, it was hard to resist taking a
simulated ride on your own creation. The simulation was accompanied by the
beaver's aural "play-by-play," and he was always impressed by what the guest had
built.
Other displays in this area included the Great American Census Quiz, Get Set
Jet Game and the Flag Game, all of which used the same touch-screen technology
found elsewhere in Communicore and across Epcot. In 1982 this technology was
brand-new to many people, whereas fifteen years later it seems pretty common. At
the entrance to EPCOT Computer Central was the Population Clock, where an
ever-circling row of wooden humanoids tended to a length of revolving numbers
depicting the U.S.A's current citizenship.
Across the hall from Computer Central was the Travelport, presented by American
Express. A large red globe sat at the entrance, and images of foreign sights were
projected from within the globe onto its glass walls. Beyond this, guests could enter
booths and play with touch-screen previews of travel destinations around the world. A
Caribbean video preview was one of the more popular with little boys in the know, as
it displayed what at least appeared to be one or two topless female sunbathers on the
beach. Around the corner there was an American Express Travel Service desk where
guests could obtain more detailed information from live hosts and hostesses.
Further down the
quadrant was Exxon's
Energy Exchange, a
vast room full of
computerized and
three-dimensional
displays revolving around
the theme of
(guess). Large metal
pinwheels and other
gearlike apparatus hung
from the ceiling. Down on
the floor, guests could
pedal bicycles and see
the results of their labor
measured in
watts. Another exhibit
allowed guests the chance to spin a handle and, based on their speed and dexterity,
generate the electricity required to light a bulb in front of them. A large model of an
oil rig anchored another corner of the room. There was also a touch-screen video
game where guests controlled the flow of a car through digitized city streets in pursuit
of optimum fuel economy. Hands-on? Undoubtedly. Fun? Hmmm...
VISIT THE OMNILUXE WDW SOUNDS ARCHIVE TO HEAR
AN EXCERPT FROM THE ENERGY ACCESS EXHIBIT
The adjacent Stargate Restaurant is the only section of the northeast quadrant
that hasn't undergone wholesale change (i.e. removal) with the arrival of
Innoventions. The restaurant is now called the Electric Umbrella, and the dressings
within it have been updated, but it has retained its original layout and feeling.
The southeast quadrant has always been the home of Centorium, Epcot's largest
store. There have been some changes within, but it is largely the same as it was on
opening day.
 Just down the hall, the
Electronic Forum was
the site of the Future
Choice Theater, wherein
was administered the
highly entertaining (albeit
sedate) EPCOT Poll.
Guests would enter the
theater and find seats with
pushbutton panels on the
armrests. A cast member
at the front of the room
would prompt the guests to
use these buttons in order
to first break the audience
down into a group of
demographically diverse
individuals, and then to
register their opinions on a
variety of topics (none too controversial). The results would then be displayed on an
overhead screen, and often broken down using the demographic statistics to point out
disparities in the votes of males and females, children and adults, U.S. residents and
international visitors, liberals and misanthropes, and so on.
Unfortunately, the EPCOT Poll only ran until March 1991. Beyond that point just its
foyer, with multiple kiosks full of TV screens receiving satellite broadcasts, continued
to operate. This was also where guests could, for a short time, cast their votes for
person of the century.
COMMUNICORE WEST
Across the plaza in the center of Communicore, past the fountain that used to be the
source of a lot less attention than it has been lately, was the northwest quadrant. This
was home to EPCOT Outreach and FutureCom.
EPCOT Outreach, later Ask EPCOT and, finally, the Epcot Discovery Center,
was an educational cul-de-sac where guests could investigate at length any of
EPCOT Center's major themes, or other Disney-related information. Graphic displays
lined the walls leading up to a counter where a staff of researchers (plus one
librarian) would attempt to answer queries ranging from "What music is played at the
start of the film at the France pavilion?" to "Did the bobcat in the flash-flood scene at
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad come from Disneyland's Mine Train Through Nature's
Wonderland ride?" (Saint-Saens' "Aquarium" and yes) They usually had the answer
ready, but would gladly mail information later on if it wasn't immediately
available. There was also a Teacher's Lounge hidden away here, where educators
could sit in a room and look out through darkened glass at guests who couldn't get to
them.
 FutureCom, first
sponsored by the
Bell System and
later by AT&T, was
similar to
EPCOT Computer
Central and Energy
Exchange in that it
was a large room
filled with interactive
exhibits. The theme
here was
communications
technologies,
especially those
involving phones or
phone lines. On the
north wall of the
room was a
sprawling animated diorama called the "Age Of Information." It was a unique
display comprised of stylized wooden sculptures (like those shown here) of varying
sizes that went through rudimentary movements in time with a song about the coming
wonders of the modern telephone. This song (which I've been told suffered some
dramatic editing shortly after Epcot opened) should have made it to the park's official
album.
VISIT THE OMNILUXE WDW SOUNDS ARCHIVE TO HEAR
AN EXCERPT FROM THE AGE OF INFORMATION SONG
If any of Communicore's exhibits could be deemed prescient, the Age of Information
was the one. It essentially forecast the services of the internet (booking travel
arrangements, research capabilities, home shopping, uploading data) a full thirteen
years before most of us were first toying around with the technology. This was 1982,
and at that time touch-tone phones were still a "new" thing. While RCA's Home of
Future Living in the Magic Kingdom did suggest a similar array of services when it
debuted in 1975, the Age of Information delved further into the specifics. Neither
preview was dead on accurate, but here we are in 2001 basically doing all the same
things these presentations suggested.
FutureCom was also home to the Fountain of Information, another kind of kinetic
sculpture. Here objects culled from all fields of communication media were thrown
together into a pileup of lights, color and motion. Nearby, a wall-sized electronic
map of the U.S.A. illustrated the country's network of phone lines and demonstrated
the concept of teleconferencing. A series of yet more games gave some insight on
the relationship between phones and computers. One of these that was added in the
late 1980's, Phrasers, allowed guests to type a series of words into a computer and
then hear it repeated back by one of several on-screen characters.
VISIT THE OMNILUXE WDW SOUNDS ARCHIVE TO HEAR
AN EXCERPT FROM THE PHRASERS MACHINES
Changed little since the conversion from Communicore to Innoventions are the
southern quadrants.
 The southwest quadrant spent
many years occupied by nothing
other than the Sunrise Terrace
restaurant. A large part of this
area was initially slated to become
the Tron Arcade, but that venture
never panned out. Instead, that
same space became the home of
Expo Robotics in February
1988. This featured robots
performing feats of precision
maneuvering - such as balancing
tops along the edge of a samurai
sword - and "artistry," in as much
as they would translate a
computer's view of guests' faces
into souvenir portraits. Sunrise
Terrace has since been broken
down into the Pasta Piazza
Ristorante and Fountain View Espresso and Bakery. The room once housing
Expo Robotics had a brief post-Communicore stint as the Walt Disney Imagineering
Labs, but is no longer being used.
Communicore was truly a mixed bag, and without question geared largely toward
promoting the good name of its key sponsors. But it did so without being loud and
off-putting. As a whole it was passable entertainment allowing for the leisurely
dispensing of a couple hours interest. And Communicore definitely contributed to the
more relaxed and optimistic atmosphere of EPCOT Center - an atmosphere that has
since given way to the remarketing of the park.
* Strangely enough, nowhere in Communicore or the rest of EPCOT Center were there any true
references to the specifics of Walt's intentions for such a community. The best information you
could find on that topic came from EPCOT Outreach (more information below), where a small
segment of Walt's 1966 EPCOT film was used in the introduction of a videotape presentation on
EPCOT Center - a tape only viewable on request.
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