On Friday, the world lost one of it's greatest voices in journalism. Walter Cronkite helped make television a respectable news medium. He broke the news of President Kennedy's death, watched along with the country as a human being stepped onto the moon, denounced the Vietnam War, and walked us through the tangled web of the Watergate scandal.
Unfortunately, I was born a few years after he retired from anchoring the CBS evening news. Yet I have a vivid memory of Walter Cronkite. He had a profound impact on my life in an unusual way. Few may remember this, but Cronkite was the narrator for the Spaceship Earth ride at Epcot Center in Walt Disney World. In case you're not familiar with it, Spaceship Earth is a ride through Western history with an emphasis on how communication has developed. As a young child, the ride always gave me a sense of wonder and optimism. It was Walter Cronkite's voice that guided me through it.
My family and I regularly vacationed in Disney World (still do), and I was always fascinated by Epcot. Many will criticize the futurism and excessive optimism of Epcot, and they do have a point. But to a young child, it's a look into a world of wonder, adventure, fun, and new possibilities. I never cared about the practicality of flying cars and living in space. It was just fun to dream and have a tangible manifestation of that dream. With his reassuring baritone voice, Walter Cronkite made everything that much more believable.
Spaceship Earth is the first ride you come across as you enter through the main gate of Epcot. It sits in the middle of Future World, the science and technology themed half of the park. It's literally and figuratively the heart of Future World. The ride is housed in the iconic silver geodesic sphere of Epcot, the "golf ball" as some call it. As you make your way up the sphere, you journey through the history of communication technology, from cave paintings to the personal computer. The ride comes to a climax at the top of the sphere. Coming around a corner in a tremendous dark chamber, you see Earth floating in space overhead. If you can let go of cynicism and arrogance for a moment, it's a humbling experience.
Considering Walter Cronkite's iconic career, it was the perfect role for him. The ride spoke of a world where communication overcomes barriers and promotes a new level of understanding between all human beings. As the voice of the ride, he became the voice for that world. And as a journalist, he understood the power of communication and how it can make that world a reality. Journalists report with the hope that people may understand better than they did before. In fact, understanding is the driving force behind all communication. Be it with paper, painting, printing press, telegraph, telephone, television, or the Internet, communication brings us together and takes us to new places. Even places out of this world.
Today, Judi Dench narrates the ride with a slightly altered script. She does an excellent job, but in my mind Spaceship Earth will always be Walter Cronkite's ride. You can read his script here (scroll down to version 2.0), but I'd like to leave you with this one line. At the top of the ride, after seeing the history of communication and just as Earth comes into view, Walter Cronkite said this:
"We have entered a wondrous new age, the age of information. A time of new promise and new hope for ourselves and Spaceship Earth."