Hi everyone! I hope you all are staying warm during this biting month.
Over the summer, I began working on a project. Growing up in Florida, I had spent many a childhood at the different Disney theme parks (yes, I still have my Mickey Mouse ears and my princess dresses tucked in the back of my closet). While on vacation from school, I came across a couple of Youtube video series about different abandoned buildings from 80’s mega malls to theme parks left to rot. After doing some digging, I began to read into various projects from theme park projects to built attractions that the Disney Corporation has abandoned over the years (sometimes quite literally, other times dismantling rides that grew unpopular and outdated over the years) as well as numerous conspiracy theories and folkloric mysteries (oftentimes associated with the very projects they discarded). I’ve compiled a list of various theme parks and attractions Disney did away with, and now I’m in the (slow) process of assembling them into a digital zine comprised of historical research and archival photographs. Disney has come to define the childhood of so many children around the world, and I thought that, as adults, some of us would appreciate learning about this lesser known history surrounding the theme park organization.
Like I said, it’s a work in progress, and I hope to have it out before this summer. For now, you can enjoy a couple of pages and the cover page below:
Eleonor Botoman 