Podcast Episode 90: Computers at Walt Disney World

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Welcome to Episode 90 of the RetroWDW Podcast: Computers at Walt Disney World – We appreciate your support and hope you have been enjoying each and every episode. Be sure to check out some of our previous shows from over the years. We have visited multiple parks, resorts, and just about everything else in between.

Listener Mail

We open the mailbag monthly and are ready to hear from you. Be sure to reach out with questions, stories, memories, and more. You never know if your letter will be read on a future episode: podcast@retrowdw.com

  1. Our first letter is from Chris and he checks all the boxes to take over the show for us. His question though is all about theme park music and the official albums that come out. We get into this and our theories regarding his inquiry.
  2. Melanie is our next letter, and she likes the idea of a contest episode and brand promotions.  Stay tuned for next month Melanie!
  3. Our next message is from Marianne, all about Pleasure Island in the later years.  These pictures she sent are amazing!  Check them out in our Pleasure Island album.
  4. Jared wrote us about Planet Hollywood and how his bubble was burst when he learned about all the props.  Finally, Jared tells us a great story about losing his tooth on the Empress Lilly! Thanks so much for all of this Jared.
  5. Finally, we go through all of our listeners’ replies to our request: Tell us the most unique place you have listened. We received six responses and they are all amazing.  Thanks everyone for sending us these!

Main Topic

Brian takes this lead for this episode and we are super excited to get into all of the areas where computers innovated and impacted the first couple decades at Walt Disney World. After awhile, computers became common all over, but through the 70s & 80s, these innovative pieces of tech helped WDW in many ways. We start off with some pre-opening documentation, which is on DisneyDocs. RCA had a huge plan for the communication system of the entire property, so be sure to dig into this doc, it is amazing!

Next up is communications and we discuss the switchboard inside Cinderella’s Castle, which actually was a real thing. We also get into the water monitoring in Reedy Creek, which were powered by solar panels, relaying information to a satellite dish in space. The entire process is insane and super innovative for the era.

Brian and How get into the old DACS system, how this worked, and even discuss some of the old school techniques used at Disneyland and the World’s Fair. Brian mentions the Honeywell 516, which is insanely vintage and absolutely massive.  Take a look at this thing! Brian also digs into the changes in cash registers because in the early days, they were super archaic. After a little time though, they got upgraded to a newer and fancier register from NCR.  We also discuss our own experiences with early tech at home, home computers, and more. The world has changed so much and this old stuff in the home was so neat for the time.

The big change in computers at WDW took place at EPCOT Center. The computers turned towards the guest and were not just used to run things behind the scenes. Sperry, Bell, General Motors, and nearly every sponsor at EPCOT attempted to incorporate advanced technology into their exhibits. Brian also talks about how they filmed the movie D.A.R.Y.L. at EPCOT Center, which is a fun movie from 1985. If you watch the following clip, you can match up what Brian is saying from an old Twitter conversation, as they filmed this scene right at EPCOT. For another look at some of the computers at EPCOT, take a look at this video on our channel.

This episode has been a blast to record and we hope you enjoyed it too! Be sure to ask any questions or share any computer memories you have from Walt Disney World.

RetroMagic Updates

We celebrated 40 years of EPCOT back in the fall. If you would like to relive that event, all the videos are now live: Click Here.

Our next big event is in the works and we are tentatively planning this for the weekend of 2/14/25-2/17/25. All of this is subject to change, but plans are being developed as we speak. Hope you can join us!

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Samuel Fleming
Samuel Fleming
July 9, 2024 9:36 am

Hi guys, couple of things.
1) The link for the episode actually isn’t here.
2) Once that is fixed, you should also clean-up your Episodes by Topic/Area list since the most recent episodes aren’t showing up on that well.
Thank you

Samuel Fleming
Samuel Fleming
August 2, 2024 9:42 am
Reply to  Samuel Fleming

Thanks for fixing item No.1. When you guys get a chance, please do make sure to fix item No. 2 as well. Thanks.

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