Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Vanishing Walt Disney World, #5

Since I have a lot of smaller pieces I want to do left in the ether I'm going to be posting them in rapid succession this week rather than stretching minor material out over a long period of time. So I'll be posting Friday also; be sure to check back late this week for more... stuff!

Today we take a side trip out of Walt Disney World to visit the most important loss to the Disney community in a long time, and it's something nobody seems knows about.


Yes, it's a movie theater. It's gone out of business, who cares? It's a movie theatre at the intersection of Lee and Orange and Winter Park, FL. Winter Park is one of the oldest communities in Central Florida, and the first to actually be a planned city. It features colleges, Northeastern style brick structures, and more. In short, it is the art and culture center in its' part of the state.

Essentially, it'd be the place to let everybody in Central Florida know what you were up to in, say, 1966. Here's a shot I took of the lobby through the closed doors.


Look to the right there on the bottom... Yes, that's right. This is where Walt Disney's EPCOT film played in 1967. The theater and the area around it is today nigh-unrecognizable, having transformed into a multiplex by the 90's, and since fallen into vauge seediness. By the last few months it was one of the few second-run houses left in Central Florida, and tickets were dirt cheap. Then, suddenly, it was gone.

It's going to become a Lifestyle Fitness Center soon; be sure to stop by sometime and pay your respects.