Although the Disney characters never rode an elephant for the show, this is the publicity photo Disney released. Photo: Disney

EPCOT turned 40 this month and the parks vision of technology and culture helping up build a better future has inspired millions of visitors. It has also had its share of failures. One such failure was the EPCOT Daredevil Circus Spectacular. 

Walt Disney loved the circus. He, as a child, saw his first circus in Marceline, Missouri and was hooked. When Walt developed Disneyland, a circus theme seemed like a natural fit. It was not. Holidayland, with a Circus themed area, was built next to  Disneyland and ran from 1957-1961. It closed for lack of guest enthusiasm.

Those of us who worked in Future World at EPCOT Center in the 1980s were surprised to see the CommuniCore fountain torn down and replaced with a circus stage strong enough to  support 36,000 pounds of elephant pachyderms.

The show, The Epcot Daredevil Circus Spectacular, was scheduled to run from 1987 through 1988. Disney promotion described the show with the following language.

“The four-times-daily, eight ring spectacle transforms CommuniCore into a ‘space arena’ for an interstellar cast of spine-tingling acts, plus troupe of Martian Mastodons performing on Future World’s fountain stage."

It was spectacular…a spectacular failure.

• The storyline was convoluted and unintelligible.
• The elephants, cast as “mutant prehistoric pachyderms” were dressed in mastodon costumes they refused to wear.
• The circus performers, thinking the costumes unsafe, refused to wear theirs too.
• The twenty-five-minute show ran an hour as each circus performer took their normal bows.
• The high wire act thrilled but guests would not watch it for more than a minute.
• The ringmaster, StarCirc, was a muscleman  dressed like Conan the Barbarian. He spoke like him too. Arriving on an underwhelming motorized tricycle, he uttered phrases like, “Yo Mickey. Ain’t they bootiful?” Mickey, his voice on tape, took several uncomfortable seconds to respond.
• The character performers had to bend their heads all the way back to watch the action overhead. Goofy almost toppled over.

One of Disney’s greatest strengths is adaptability and it made several fixes to make the show a better experience.

• The storyline was simplified.
• The elephant costumes were discarded.
• The performer costumes were adapted.
• The acts were overlapped.
• The high wire act was offered separately.
• StarCirc was replaced by a real circus announcer.
• Mickey’s taped dialog was severely restricted.
• The character performers were repositioned.

Within a week, the show was passable. It did not, however, become a crowd pleaser and was cancelled without warning after a five–month run. Few guests noticed its disappearance. A circus did, however, finally find a home in the Magic Kingdom as Dumbo’s Storybook Circus.

There are valuable lessons to draw from this experience.

• Even the best people fail.
• Failures are sometimes recoverable.
• If your idea is good, work on it until it succeeds.
• If your idea is not good, and the fixes don’t succeed, walk away from it. Your customers may never notice it is gone.

Although the Epcot Daredevil Circus Spectacular went to the ash heap, EPCOT lives on. Here’s hoping it has many more successful years. May it inspire us all to reach real galactic heights … minus the pachyderms.