Is Disney Trying to Reinvent Apple History at Epcot?

The revamped Spaceship Earth ride at Disney’s Epcot Center has a special “Steve Jobs section,” according to the lifthill blog, which tracks news about rides and roller coasters, and was invited to a special preview.

But once at the Steve Jobs area, which is supposed to depict the birth of Apple computer in a garage, the lifthill blogger noticed that the lone figure in the garage looked a lot more like Wozniak than Jobs.

The figure is facing the wrong way, so it’s hard to tell, but it’s wearing the same shirt as Wozniak in a famous early photograph copied below, and has similar hair and beard. Conspriacy theorists note that Jobs is the single largest shareholder in Disney– but I can’t believe he cares that a section of Epcot bears his name or likeness (or not).

Anyway, there’s no second figure in sight, so one of them is slighted. And so too is the third Apple-founder, Ron Wayne, but no one cares about that.

But what is that thing the dummy Woz/Jobs is sitting in front of? It ain’t no Apple I or II — the first and only machines Woz created more or less single-handed. It looks like a big wooden Mac, but none of the Mac prototypes looked like that — they were much more finished.

Higher-res pictures at lifthill.

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About the author

Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac, and author of three books about technology culture: Inside Steve’s Brain, the New York Times bestseller about Steve Jobs; Cult of Mac; and Cult of iPod. Leander has written for Wired, MacWeek, Scientific American, and The Guardian in London. Follow Leander on Twitter @lkahney and Facebook.

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Posted in Apple, Fake Steve, Steve Jobs, Woz |

Electroboy
Of course Disney is going to try and reinvent history. Real history isn’t glossy enough for Disney.
apollo1742
Slow news day, huh?
tcbritt
the character in the exhibit looks like Ben Jahrvi from “Short Circuit”….look it up (http://www.johnny-five.com/images/sc2/misc/cowboyj.jpg)
http://flickr.com/photos/klitaka/ Steve
Could it be something more like Woz’s home-made telnet terminal? I haven’t seen pictures of that, but I imagine that it was probably more like the Apple I box.
And (noting the suspiciously disk-shaped hole) didn’t the floppy drive come along a couple years into the Apple II’s life? And, by that time the Steves had an office.
YodaMac
Seriously? Are you guys looking to “Walt Disney World” for historical accuracy?
Seriously?
I’m speechless…
Dean
Maybe this has the blessings of Disney’s largest share holder?
It’d be a very public/non-public apology.
Sorta like naming a breakthrough computer (Lisa) after a girl that is not your daughter.
Doug S.
Re: Electroboy and YodaMac: Anyone remember the second episode of Futurama, the one with the Disney-like theme park on the moon?
“We’re whalers on the moon
We carry a harpoon….”
DJ Rizzo
Don’t be to quick to dismiss Disney’s desire to teach and influence the teaching of history. A few years ago here in the Washington DC area Disney wanted to build a theme park based on American history. Historians by and large were outraged and the person Disney chose to be the primary history consultant. In the end the park was so vehemently opposed by citizens Disney pulled out.
Google “disney theme park manassas” for more info.
Cameron Talley
They probabaly thought that what they put up there would be a little more recognizable to the intended audience (kids and parents dragged by their kids) than an Apple I box would have. Kids today might not understand that what he was building was a computer without something familiar like that.
John C
Hey, I have one of those coffee cups.