If you visited EPCOT Center in the mid-1980s through the mid-1990s, you might have experienced Horizons and the Prologue and the Promise mural by Bob McCall.
The Horizons tribute poster from the Epcot Experience.
What’s Horizons, you ask?
Although Spaceship Earth was the central EPCOT Center attraction, Horizons was often seen as the heart of EPCOT due to the various themes it encompassed. It was often referred to as the successor to the Carousel of Progress (even featuring “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow” in a scene). Horizons’ themes of progress, futurism, and technology were ever hopeful and it always felt like an attraction Walt would have loved.
Horizons opened on October 1, 1983, as part of the one-year anniversary of the opening of EPCOT Center. The attraction closed for a full calendar year (December 25, 1994 to December 24, 1995) and remained open until 1999 while Test Track was being built.
Mission: Space replaced Horizons and Mission: Space was developed during the time period when Disney felt that EPCOT needed thrill rides to attract the teens and young adults who were more excited about visiting Universal Studios Orlando.
One of the amazing parts of Horizons was at the end of the attraction. After picking one of three endings for the attraction (that was so cool), there was a mural called The Prologue and the Promise. The mural continued the theme of hope of the future from the attraction and was a beloved part of the overall attraction.
Sponsorship was integral to the creation of Disneyland, the Magic Kingdom, and EPCOT Center. Corporations would pay to have their name associated with the Disney attraction, shop, or restaurant in hopes of getting their name and product to the mare affluent guests that visited Disney parks. By the time EPCOT Center opened, corporate sponsorships included a ten year contract in which the corporation paid Disney one million dollars per year. General Electric had been a long standing corporate partner, including sponsoring the Carousel of Progress at the 1964/1965 New York World’s Fair.
General Electric created a glossy publication to celebrate their partnership with Disney and included a section on the artist who created the mural.
Here is the article:
The Prologue and the Promise mural, which adorns the exit of the Horizons pavilion, is the work of Bob McCall, the science artist who has covered almost every NASA space launch, who speaks the language of the astronauts, who worked on the film 2001: A Space Odyssey and collaborated with writer Isaac Asimov on the book Our World in Space.
A man of many worlds, McCall spent close to 10 months planning and then painting the Horizons mural on a 19-by-60 – foot canvas.
“It took about three months to develop the concept for the mural at my studio in Paradise Valley, Arizona,” McCall says. “The second phase, the actual painting, took more than six months. It was done at the Disney studios in Bur-bank, California. With the help of my wife Louise, a fine artist in her own right, I finished the mural in March.”
The Prologue and the Promise, according to the artist, represents the “flow of civilized man from the past into the present and toward the future.”
A detailed painting, it depicts most of the earth’s nationalities, cultures and religions. And it also depicts the McCall family.
“That’s right,” says McCall, “my family is in the mural. If you look close enough, you’ll see my daughters, Cathy and Linda, their husbands and my four grandchildren as well as Louise and myself. And, oh yes, you’ll also see Linda’s pet dog.”
As long as he can remember, McCall has wanted to be an artist.
In the 1960s, he talked Life magazine into assigning him to cover the launching of America’s manned space program as an illustrator. He has since covered almost every space launch.
He has done conceptual paintings for a number of films, including The Black Hole, Star Trek and 2001: A Space Odyssey, and worked with Asimov on a space book.
McCall conceived the idea for the book and then Asimov wrote the story around the artwork.
“I got top billing in the book because I told Isaac that he had written hundreds of books and this was my first,” says McCall.
“With help from his wife, Louise, McCall was able to complete the mural in 10 months.”
Despite his preoccupation with space, history also holds a fascination for McCall. “For an artist trying to guess what the future holds,” he points out, “the study of history becomes very important.” McCall has been greatly influenced by the painters of the Napoleonic Wars. “They painted heroic battle scenes — full of pageantry, romance and drama,” he says. “The paintings are powerful.”
When working on a mural, such as the one at the Horizons pavilion, McCall starts with a sketch and then draws a 10-foot master which he sections off into one-inch grids.
Slides taken of each grid are then projected onto the mural canvas, allowing McCall to sketch a perfectly scaled final version.
One of his murals, The Space Mural: A Cosmic View, is on display at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. It’s nearly twice the size of The Prologue and the Promise.
“Everyone should experience the thrill of learning about our universe,” comments this man of many worlds. “It gives us a sense of where we are, where we’re going.
I’m convinced man’s destiny lies in the stars.”
Do You Remember The Prologue and the Promise?
Check out my video on the Ultimate EPCOT Center book!
