Gateway of Time

A blog dedicated to Epcot's extinct Tapestry of Nations/Tapestry of Dreams parade. Main Disney blog here: http://disney-universes.tumblr.com/

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Tapestry of Nations themed charity walk event shirt.

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A festive Disc Man puts the star on the tree on this Epcot Holiday Gift Giving Guide from 1999

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Tapestry of Dreams at the 2001 Philadelphia Thanksgiving Day Parade as part of a 100 Years of Magic unit.

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Marking the Millennium, a souvenir video produced for Epcot’s Millennium Celebration featuring a look at Tapestry of Nations, Illuminations: Reflections of Earth, and the really bad version of the Imagination ride.

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A 20 years of Tapestry Magicband produced for a recent Tapestry Cast Reunion, found on eBay for over 300 bucks.

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Millennium Celebration art print

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20 years later, we get some freshly re-recorded “Waylas”

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The Ring Man and the Hammer Man from Tapestry of Nations. Pencil, 5-26-16

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I recently discovered and encoded our families personal recording of the long gone millennium parade at Epcot. Check it!! 

(The small girl with the straight blonde hair is yours truly, age 6)

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Tapestry of Nations at the 2000 Super Bowl Halftime Show

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Concepts for the Millennium Drums by designer Lynn Holloway. The only real float elements to Tapestry, they were meant to capture visions of the past and the future.

Antique astrolabes and compasses inspired the large wheel and various design details and finishes. The 24 Hour Roman Numeral band evokes 1500s astronomical clocks. The drums in the spokes providing the heartbeat of the show represent tribes and nations. The hubcaps feature the moon and sun ordering day and night. The discoball finial at the top pronounces the dawn of the new millennium to “light the way to tomorrow” midway through the evening performances. Overall, they are a symbolic representation of time’s passage, recalling our past and moving us to the future. The port side of the clock moved forward, starboard wound back, ceremonious timepieces to mark time’s passage every thousand years.

Scans from Marking the Millennium and much of that description is paraphrased from there as well.

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Visit Original Link

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An early version of Tapestry of Nations’s opening narration from the Sage of Time taken from a demo that’s circulated on various Disney audio communities. This would be rewritten for the parade’s debut, but this voice was utilized for the Sage of Time in the parade’s first few months of operations. Dialog from this script would be utilized in the script for the Superbowl Halftime Show based on the parade.

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Among the merch offerings for Tapestry of Nations was this souvenir drum. The logo art is actually consistent with one of the few pins produced for Tapestry of Dreams.

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Souvenir medallions for Tapestry of Dreams sold during 100 years of Magic

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CELEBRATE • Michael Curry by Acme Scenic & Display on Flickr.

From a retrospective of Michael Curry's work is this photo of a group of Angel Girls in his warehouse in Oregon. You can also spot some Bird Men in the background.

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After the Millennium Celebration, but before 100 Years of Magic, Tapestry of Nations had a rewritten narration script shifting the focus from the Millennium and the Sage of Time Legend to a general concept of human dreams and creativity.  In essence, what Tapestry of Dreams would revolve around, but nowhere near as sugary.

There is a great and lasting truth about the family of man. A truth which separates us from all the other creatures of the Earth. We can dream.

Through the centuries it is our dreams that have filled the sails of explorer's ships, splashed color on artist's paintings, and brought smiles to children's faces. There is a dreamer within each of us imagining a greater tomorrow .. daring to fly, to build, to cure. Daring to invent, to sing, to love. Daring to believe in the beauty of the world and the beauty within ourselves.

Tonight, in celebration of the dreamer in all of us, we present to you a dream of a better world ... where this circle of nations comes together to rejoice ... proclaiming the great truth that with our vast diversity, we are all dreamers at heart.

Join us as we celebrate the visions of tomorrow .... the pageant of human kind ... the Tapestry of Nations!

(Audio Source)

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Tapestry of Nations at the Super Bowl 34 Half-Time Show, narrated by Edward James Olmos.