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The Mr. Lincoln exhibit at the World's Fair was Walt's first major Audio-Animatronics creation
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As Walt entered his mid-60s,
he didn't seem to be slowing down. In fact, he appeared to be speeding up.
He decided to create four exhibits for the 1964 World's Fair in New York.
Why? So that he could experiment with new ideas -- particularly Audio-Animatronics
-- while using other people's money. The Mr. Lincoln attraction he developed
for the State of Illinois was one of the hits of the fair, and allowed him
to take Audio-Animatronics a giant step forward. His other exhibits -- done
for General Electric, Pepsi-Cola, and Ford -- were also hits at the fair. Meanwhile,
he was working on other plans for the future: a ski resort called Mineral
King was to be built near the Sequoia National Park. He considered a tourist
site that might be called Walt Disney's Boyhood Home in Marceline, and even
bought up properties there.
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Neither Mineral King
nor Walt's Boyhood Home actually came into being. But his plans for a new
kind of university were more successful. Declared Walt, "A completely new approach
to training in the arts is needed. That's the principal thing I hope to leave
when I move on to greener pastures. If I can help provide a place to develop
the talent of the future, I think I will have accomplished something." He
certainly did. Dubbed CalArts, an amalgamation of the Chouinard Art Institute
and the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music, it would educate students in all
facets of the arts -- dance, music, drama, visual arts, and film. CalArts opened
in 1961 and has been growing ever since. But though Walt was excited about
all of these efforts, their scope paled in comparison to the so-called Florida
Project -- a gigantic effort set for an area twice the size of Manhattan Island
in the middle of Florida.
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The Chouinard Art Institute, merged with the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music, became CalArts
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Walt points to the sheer scale of his vast "Florida Project"
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Of course the Florida
Project would include a theme park like Disneyland, but that's not really
what fascinated Walt. No, he had decided that he could apply his lifetime
of experiences to a brand-new kind of city; a city whose residents would utilize
the best thinking about transportation, communication, and sanitation. "Solving
the problems of the city obsessed him," says John Hench, who began working
for Walt in 1939 and is still with the company Walt left behind. Walt called
his dream EPCOT, for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. He studied,
planned, and sketched ideas for it. On the last trip the Disney family took
all together -- a memorable yacht ride through British Columbia waters --
Walt relaxed by reading books about city planning. Although EPCOT exists today,
it's not the place Walt envisioned. He simply didn't live long enough to see
this dream to reality.
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In late 1966, Walt was
diagnosed with lung cancer. Years of smoking had caught up with him. Walt
told his family that they shouldn't be concerned, that he'd have the cancer
removed and quickly recover. But on Monday, November 7, the surgeon told Lilly,
Diane, and Sharon that the cancer had spread and that Walt had between six
months and two years to live. There were a few more visits to the studio --
which was working on "The Jungle Book" and "The Happiest Millionaire" -- and to WED.
But Walt spent most of the next few weeks with his family, making plans for
the future: "I'm going to concentrate on the parks and building EPCOT," he
told son-in-law Ron. On November 30, he went back to the hospital. And on
December 15, he died. The flag at Disneyland flew at half mast. And as commentator
Eric Severeid said, "We'll never see his like again."
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The flag flies at half mast in Disneyland to mark the passing of its creator
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