Ryan Dorman (Content Director and Columnist): In recent years, Imagineers have been lifted to a pedestal of celebrity status. Fans throughout the community regale such individuals as curators of their childhood, developing the experiences that many hold dear for their entire lives.
However, while many in the Imagineering community are widely glorified, many other artists and contributors to Disney history can be overlooked, missing the impact such engineers had on the parks we know and love.
One Imagineer that comes to mind when analyzing the golden age of Disney Parks is Xavier “X” Atencio. As an individual who worked with Walt Disney, his contributions to the company rivaled no other.
Before working with in the Theme Park division of The Walt Disney Company, Mr. Atencio had worked as a high ranking animator in both Fantasia and Mary Poppins, with assorted other projects in between.
By 1965, Walt had asked Atencio to join him at WED Enterprises, focusing his efforts on Disneyland. While Atencio didn’t think of himself as an engineer (or even one who could write music), it seemed that Walt did.
Some of the fantastic additions to the Disney Parks that Atencio had a hand in include the Primeval World showcase at the Disneyland Railroad, Yo Ho, Yo Ho, A Pirate’s Life for Me as well as Grim Grinning Ghosts on Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion respectively, contributions to If You Had Wings and Space Mountain, and significant impact on attractions at EPCOT such as Spaceship Earth, World of Motion, and the Mexico Pavilion.
After 47 years with the company, X Atencio retired in 1984, being immortalized as a Disney Legend in 1996, and as an important asset to the Disney legacy.
Jim Denney (Columnist): My favorite Imagineer? I can only pick one? I refuse to choose!
There are so many Imagineers of whom you could say: subtract his or her contribution, and Disneyland isn’t the same.
Can you picture Fantasyland without the genius of Ken Anderson? What would Pirates of the Caribbean and The Haunted Mansion sound like without X Atencio’s scripts and songs? What would Disneyland look like without the brilliant, exuberant color palettes of Mary Blair and Claude Coats? Would Disneyland be the same without Roger Broggie’s hand-built railroad trains and his contributions to Audio-Animatronics? And how could Disneyland exist without Harriet Burns’s models of everything from Sleeping Beauty Castle to New Orleans Square?
Would The Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean, or The Haunted Mansion be the same without the whimsical imagination of Marc Davis? Would The Haunted Mansion be such a unique blend of screams and laughter without the illusions of Yale Gracey and Rolly Crump? Could any other sculptor but Blaine Gibson have created the Audio-Animatronics figures and the Partners statue? What if John Hench or Herb Ryman had never been born? And what if Tony Baxter had never arrived in the post-Walt era to build the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Splash Mountain, and Indiana Jones Adventure?
A favorite? How can I choose? But if I must choose only one Imagineer, let it be —
Bob Gurr.
More than anyone, he understood the soul of Walt Disney. He knew that Walt was fascinated by every form of transportation imaginable, from pirate ships and steam trains to rocket ships and Monorails. Bob’s mind meshed with Walt’s like the gears of a high-performance transmission.
When Ub Iwerks introduced Bob Gurr to Walt Disney in 1954, Bob was just twenty-three years old, and had just returned to California after a brief stint as a designer for the Ford Motor Company. After one brief conversation with Bob, Walt placed him in charge of vehicle design for the entire Park.
Bob Gurr designed the Autopia cars, the Main Street vehicles, the Disneyland Monorail, the Submarine Voyage, the Matterhorn Bobsleds, the PeopleMover system, the Haunted Mansion Doom Buggies, and much more. You can hardly go anywhere in Disneyland without riding in a Bob Gurr vehicle.
So hats off to the Imagineer who set Disneyland in motion, Bob Gurr.
_________________
Jim Denney is the author of Walt’s Disneyland: It’s Still There If You Know Where to Look; he blogs at https://waltsdisneyland.wordpress.com.
Zach Perilstein (Editor-in-Chief): It’s hard to just pick one. Especially when it takes a team of people to make something magical. If I only had to go with one. I would have to pick Tony Baxter for continuing the creative spirit. Tony Baxter oversaw the construction of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Splash Mountain. He’s also the true reason Disney got involved with Lucasfilm. Not to mention his brilliant never used Mary Poppins ride concept. I also love his story of being a ice cream scooper to being the Senior Vice President, Creative Development at Walt Disney Imagineering. The true definition of hard work.
Bonus: I know I wasn’t suppose to pick two favorite Imagineers but as the boss I can do whatever I want.
As a writer I feel inclined to include Marty Sklar as one of my favorite Walt Disney Imagineers. Due to Marty being a writer. He was the editor of The Daily Bruin newspaper in college. After graduating he went on to create The Disneyland News and wrote many pieces for Walt Disney himself. Sklar’s books have inspired me and the staff at Boardwalk Times. His legacy is incredible and will forever be cherished by Disney fans alike.
Nathan Houtz (Columnist): Tony Baxter.
Tony Baxter has always been a personal favorite of mine due to his work on concepts for The Land pavilion at EPCOT Center as well as his help in the creation of my all time favorite character Figment. However, it is his smaller projects towards the end of his career at Imagineering that push him above the rest for me. Disneyland has lost many classic attractions over the years due to poor management decisions, lack of funding, and just plain bad makeovers. A few of these attractions seemed doomed to be lost forever, if not for the work of Tony Baxter and his teams at Walt Disney Imagineering.
How many people realistically thought that we’d see the Submarines return to the lagoon in Tomorrowland again? Who really thought Disney would open the small walkthrough in the castle? Tony Baxter’s work to restore Disneyland classics is what put him at the top of my list. I’ve heard that internal political conflicts at Walt Disney Imagineering may have lead to Tony’s limited sized projects towards the end of his career, which makes me sad. However, Tony did not waste this time. His smaller projects were to restore extremely important pieces of Disneyland’s history to their former glory. Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln’s return to Main Street USA means more to me than any project at the resort since. For that I say, “Thank you Mr. Baxter.”
Traveling Salesman (Columnist): It’s kind of a cute story: that’s how Roland “Rolly” Crump begins one of his many stories about his time in Imagineering. Hard-working, artistic, whimsical and steadfast with a sense of humor, Rolly wowed Walt early on as an animator with his intricate mobile displays. Quickly, he moved on to WED creating the famous “Tower of the Four Winds” display for the 64 World’s Fair.
A not-so-cute story goes as Walt demanded to hear what Rolly thought, and upset that the engineers botched his model work in the translation, straight up told him “it’s shit.” Even though Walt was dismayed to hear that, he admired Rolly’s honesty, which kept him going throughout his tenure. Managing to continue to earn Walt’s respect throughout his tenure with the Adventureland Bazaar, Enchanted Tiki Room, Small World facade and the unbuilt-but-legendary Museum of the Weird, Rolly was able to solidify himself as a renowed designer.
Other accomplishments include both the 1982 and 1992 incarnations of The Land at Epcot, the late Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride at Magic Kingdom and even a magical display in the country of Oman. Crump may be retired, but his style and wit lives on, from the love of the old Mr. Toad, to the beautiful balloons in the Land pavilion, Marvel Comics centered around the mysterious “Weird” museum and especially the iconic clock tower adorning the entrance of It’s a Small World. His humor, jubliance and knack for capturing strange out of the mundane, and the childlike wonders that can be possessed in anything. Truly a happy Imagineer, which indeed makes him my favorite. I highly recommend checking out a copy of his autobiography “It’s Kind of a Cute Story” and the documentary “The Whimsical Imagineer.”
The Boardwalk Times is the Destination for True Disney Parks Fans. This was a group piece that featured writings from Editor-in-Chief Zach Perilstein, Boardwalk Talk hosts Ryan Dorman and Ryan O’Reilly (Traveling Salesman), Columnist Nathan Houtz, and Author and Columnist Jim Denney.
