2. Epcot Sinkhole: Status—True

Have you ever wondered why Future World and the World Showcase are so far apart? It is true that they were designed to highlight two very different areas of human achievement—science and technology versus culture. Yet the physical spacing between the two is not part of a grand plan designed to highlight their differences. Instead, it is a nod to the fact that Mother Nature trumps all.

Shortly after workers began prepping the site that would become Epcot, they noticed a major problem. Right in the center of the site, parked cars and trucks began to sink, according to John Tishman, owner of Tishman Realty & Construction, in his Building Tall memoir. After consulting with numerous experts and specialists, the contractors and Imagineers came to the realization that filling in the massive, incredibly deep sinkhole, one of the largest in Florida, simply was not an option.

Rather than attaching the Odyssey restaurant to CommuniCore East and building the small World Showcase River next to it, they eventually decided to dredge the muck out of the sinkhole, drop massive concrete pilings to support a bridge, place the Odyssey along that bridge, and create the World Showcase Lagoon on the other side of the sinkhole. Next time you’re walking that bridge, take a moment to peer down into the lake beside you. Who knew it was actually a sinkhole?

3. Frozen Walt: Status—False

Everyone knows that Walt Disney was obsessed with the possibilities of futuristic technology. It is also true that cryogenics, or the process of freezing the human body immediately after death for reanimation at some point in the future, was high-tech science news in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1964, two years before Disney’s death, Robert C.W. Ettinger published his seminal work on cryogenics, The Prospect of Immortality. While it is unknown whether Walt had ever heard of the process, it certainly seems reasonable that he would have.

To the general public, the death of Walt Disney came as a major shock. Although he had been ill with lung cancer for quite some time, he hid the seriousness of his condition from the media, instead claiming to be seeking treatment for a polo injury. Consequently, no reporters were standing by in the hospital, and his death was not announced until several hours after it occurred. His funeral was likewise kept small, quiet, and private, which some fans found strange for such a public figure.

When the first known cryogenic freezing occurred less than a month later, Disney fans began connecting the dots. Surely Walt would have been interested in cryogenics. Certainly he chose to downplay his illness because he “knew” he would be coming back. Of course the delay in the death announcement was crafted to provide enough time for the freezing to occur. There was no public funeral because he wasn’t buried (or cremated) at all! The location of his frozen body changes in every retelling, from below Pirates of the Caribbean to inside his private apartment at Disneyland.

It is only natural for grieving friends, relatives, and fans to concoct stories that help them deal with their grief. In the case of the Frozen Walt story, all the details seem to hang together. Nonetheless, the story simply is not true. According to numerous Disney family members, they honored his wishes for a quick, private funeral followed by cremation, and his ashes were interred at Forest Lawn Cemetery. All of the available documentation, including his death certificate and records of the cemetery plot purchase, supports the family’s version of events.