R.I.P. Imagineer Rolly Crump
- Rolly Crump became a
Disney Legend in 2004.
- He has a window on Main
Street U.S.A. that reads;
Fargo’s Palm Parlor - Predictions That Will Haunt You – Bazaar, Whimsical & Weird – “Designs to Die For” – Roland F. Crump – Assistant to the Palm Reader
- In the Tencennial edition of 1965 on Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color (1961–1969), season 11 episode 14, they visited the Imagineers working on their new projects. Both projects Walt would never see completed. They talked with Rolly Crump who was working on concepts for the Museum of the Weird (a canceled segment of the Haunted Mansion), Mary Blair working on it’s a small world facade for its return from the World’s Fair, Harriet Burns working on the Plaza Inn exterior model, John Hench working on a detailed interior model of the Plaza Inn, Marc Davis working on the House of Illusions (later renamed the Haunted Mansion) 282 changing portraits and stretching portraits, Blaine Gibson sculpting the faces for the pirates in Pirates of the Caribbean, and Claud Coats working on the models for Pirates of the Caribbean. (Rolly is at the 7:00 mark)
The Enchanted Tiki Room
- The tiki gods were
designed and created by Rolly Crump. Crump was given the task, by Walt, of
creating a pre-show for the guests to entertain them while they wait for dinner
service, which was later changed to just a show. Crump found a book called “Whispers on the Wind” that was written
by missionaries about Polynesian mythology and about tikis. He used this
book to come up with ideas for his tiki god sketches. When Crump took his
concept art to Imagineer Blaine Gibson to sculpt, Gibson said he was too busy
and for him to do it himself. Crump told him he had never sculpted before, so Gibson
gave him a crash course in sculpting. Crump’s first sculpts ever were these
tiki gods. The warehouse where he was sculpting was so cold it was difficult to
sculpt, so he would roll the clay outside where it was warm and sculpt out
there. His designs helped to popularize the tiki theme among Americans who began flying to the islands more because of the Vietnam War.
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- The attraction was going
to have a shared kitchen with the Tahitian
Terrace, which is now gone. In fact, the base of the fountain is actually a
coffee bar, with usable cabinets inside it. Rolly Crump sculpted it.
- Crump was
responsible for designing and carving about 70% of the tikis in this attraction
and in the pre-show.
- Rolly Crump was lifted 15
feet into the air on a Raymond lift for days on end so he could work on the
bird mobile. He said he was allowed to come down to go to the bathroom or have
lunch.
The
Haunted Mansion
- Originally, Walt put Imagineer Yale Gracey in charge of the Haunted Mansion project, along with Rolly Crump. The production of the Mansion got put on hold as Walt deferred his Imagineering team to the production of the World’s Fair projects. After the fair, they picked it back up. Other Imagineers joined the team along the way including Marc Davis, Claude Coats, X Atencio, Bill Justice, Harper Goff, Ken Anderson, Bob Gurr, Blaine Gibson, Marvin Davis, and Harriet Burns, who all played important roles in the design and construction of Haunted Mansion.
- The first
conceptual story was about a sea captain who drowned at sea, but whose ghost
returned home in a murderous rage to kill his wife. Rolly Crump and Yale Gracey
set up models of what a scene would look like with the sea captain dripping
with water and burying his wife behind a brick wall in the house, only to
disappear and leave behind a water puddle as the skeletal ghost of his wife
flew out of the wall toward the audience. Marc Davis’ conceptual art for the
sea captain can still be seen in Disney
World’s Haunted Mansion. This
scene was only possible if the audience was stationary, and since the
attraction became a ride-thru, it was cut.
- When the
Imagineers were making the rubber face for Abraham Lincoln, in Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, they
turned the face inside out and realized that the eyes would follow them from
side to side because the face was concave. This is how Rolly Crump came up with
the idea for the busts in the entrance whose eyes follow the patrons to the
loading platform.
- When Imagineer Rolly Crump was
designing the Haunted Mansion, he
used aspects from the film Beauty and the
Beast (1946), also called "La
belle et la bête," as an inspiration for the feel and look that he
wanted for this new attraction. Some of the architecture included human-looking
body parts, like the arm holding the torch in the crypt. The continuation of
the project’s design was later handed off to Imagineer and artist Marc Davis.
- One of Crump’s characters
that didn’t make it into the Mansion
was “the candle man,” who was made entirely out of wax and had his fingers
burning like wicks.
- Crump came up with the first sketches of the “stretching portraits,” but then that aspect of the attraction was taken over by Marc Davis who drew the portraits, or a variation thereof, that you see today. Crump had said he did not mind Marc taking over the art aspect, as he was a great animator.
- Crump was also working on
a project called The Museum of the Weird
with Yale Gracey, which was to be in the spill area but was scrapped when the
attraction turned into a ride-thru. They still wanted some of Crump’s ideas in
the attraction anyway, so the changing portraits, the phantom organ player, the
séance chamber, the moving busts, faces in the décor, and some others were
used. Crump once said in an interview that about 25% of his ideas actually made
it into the final Mansion. He also
came up with the idea of an enchanted gypsy wagon, which was later turned into Madame Leota’s Cart in Walt Disney World.
- While Crump and Yale Gracey were working in the warehouse on the Mansion characters, they received a call from custodial advising them to leave the lights on as there would be a janitor going in to clean that night. Before they left, they set up some of the characters to come to life. The next day, Crump and Gracey arrived to a lonely broom lying in the middle of the floor and a phone call from custodial advising them that they would have to clean their own workspace from now on.
- Seekers
of The Weird is a comic book series published by Marvel Comics for Disney. The first
issue was published on January 15, 2014. Seekers
of the Weird was named after the Haunted
Mansion concept, Museum of the Weird,
which was first planned as a spillover area for the guests exiting the
walk-through attraction Haunted Mansion.
Since the Mansion became a ride-thru
attraction, due to the invention of the Doom Buggies, the museum was no longer
needed. All of the odd concepts that were going to be in the museum were
created by the aforementioned Rolly Crump. You can still see some of his creations
in the Mansion today, like the face
wallpaper, the armchair with the face, and the stretching portraits to name a
few, although that last one was redrawn by animator Marc Davis. Marvel
contacted Crump to see if it would be alright to create a comic series based on
his concepts. Crump was thrilled that his concept projects were going to be put
to use after nearly five decades. The comics follow Maxwell and Melody after
their parents get kidnapped. They are thrust into a thrilling race through the
world's strangest and most dangerous museum as they unite with their mysterious and
swashbuckling uncle to save their family, and the world, from an evil secret
society. The uncle was named Rolly to pay homage to the inventive Imagineer.
There are currently five issues available with the most recent one released in
2016.
- Crump also had concept
sketches of faces for the hallway wallpaper, but that too was redone by Marc
Davis, who designed his wallpaper similarly to Crumps. However, if you look
closely at the faces on the wallpaper, you can clearly recognize Crump’s
artistic style.
- Some of Rolly's artwork can be spotted in the movie Saving Mr. Banks (2013).
It’s
A Small World
- When the attraction was first being created, Rolly Crump was one of the Imagineers on the project. He designed and constructed over 200 of the “toys” on the attraction out of Styrofoam and paper mache, some of which are still on the attraction today.
- He created the Tower of the Four Winds windmill contraption for the World's Fair. Walt Disney intended on bringing that back to the park as well, by his Imagineers talked him out of it saying it was too big to fit. The rumors state that it was cut into pieces and dumped in the ocean.
- When the attraction was
installed in Disneyland after leaving the World’s Fair, Crump designed the giant
clock out front.
Mini-Biography
From My Book
Rolly Crump started out
his career as a “dipper” in a ceramic factory before getting hired on at Disney
in 1952. He only had six Saturdays of art instruction at Chouinard Art
Institute under his belt. Disney had an open-door policy, so he wandered away
from animation to check out the other departments and learned from other
artists, sculptors, and Imagineers. With practice and tutelage, he was able to
hone his skills. He worked as an in-betweener and later, assistant animator, on
the films Peter Pan (1953), Lady and the Tramp (1955), 101 Dalmations
(1961), Sleeping Beauty (1959), and others until becoming an Imagineer in 1959.
Crump loved making
propellers and mobiles. He had them on display in the studio’s library. Ward
Kimball told Walt to go check out Crump’s display because it was magnificent.
After Walt saw what Crump could do, he moved him over to Walt Disney
Imagineering, but at the time it was WED. Walt was just starting to build up
his WED department when he added Crump who, at the time, was the youngest
Imagineer there.
Walt met with five of his
Imagineers and told them he wanted a restaurant/dinner show themed with
Tahitian décor. That is how Crump was added to The Enchanted Tiki Room project around 1962. Crump helped come up
with the design of the attraction with Imagineer John Hench. Crump sculpted
about 70% of the tikis used in the attraction, the “bird mobile,” and the
fountain. He was also credited with designing the Tiki Room Preshow out in the
waiting area. After all that work, Walt thought the restaurant was too good to
be just a dinner show, so he made it an attraction.
Due to his design work
with windmills and mobiles, Crump was put in charge of designing the
120-foot-tall Tower of the Four Winds for the World’s Fair outside of the it’s
a small world attraction in 1964. He was with the small world project from day
one. He designed and constructed over 200 of the “toys” on the attraction out
of Styrofoam and paper-mâché, some of which are still on the attraction today.
After the World’s Fair ended and small world moved into Disneyland, Crump assisted
with the setup and layout of the attraction for the park and created the giant
clock out front.
Crump was also one of the
key designers of the Haunted Mansion project in 1961. He and Yale Gracey spent
a year coming up with ideas for the Mansion’s interior. Crump came up with a
multitude of concepts for the Museum of the Weird, which was to be an area for
crowds to walk through but was scrapped when the idea of a walk-thru was
changed to a ride-thru. Crump and Gracey got pulled off the project to work on
The World’s Fair projects. After the Fair is when things changed for the
Mansion’s layout and design, because of the addition of the Doombuggies. This
would take away the need for The Museum of the Weird. In Crump’s estimation,
only about 25% of his ideas were used in the final attraction, including the
séance room, phantom organ player, the changing portraits, moving busts, and a
few others. One of the big losses was the nixing of the Sea Captain’s Room,
which was set to have a handful of special effects. The only remaining idea of
the Sea Captain can be found as a portrait hanging in the Haunted Mansion in
Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. Crump came up with the first sketches of the
“stretching portraits,” but then that aspect of the attraction was taken over
by Marc Davis who drew the portraits, or a variation thereof, that you see
today. Crump also had concept sketches of faces for the hallway wallpaper, but
that too was done by Marc Davis, who designed his wallpaper similarly to Crump’s.
Crump worked on the design for the Magic Kingdom’s Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. The
attraction’s tracks would split into two and the two cars would race each
other. But that attraction was removed to make way for the Winnie The Pooh
attraction. Chris Crump is also an Imagineer and the son of Crump. The only
project the two of them worked on together was the Wonders of Life attraction
in Epcot, which existed from 1989 to 2007. Chris recently worked on The Little
Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure in California Adventure. Crump worked on
and off for Disney over the decades before his retirement in 1996. He is still
an artist today and even has a book out titled It’s Kind Of A Cute Story, in
which he tells stories of his experiences working with Walt and for the Disney
company. Crump had so many stories to tell about his time with Disney that he
released a CD series called More Cute Stories.
To hear Crump speak,
check out my podcast, The Magic Behind
The Ears Podcast, and look up episode #3. It can be found on iTunes,
SoundCloud, the podcast app, FaceBook, or you can listen right from online at www.ThemeParkology.com/podcast.
Thank you Rolly Crump for everything you have done to bring joy to all the visitors in Disneyland.
If you want to read about Rolly Crump in my book, along with 3,700 other fun facts about Disneyland, California Adventure, and Disney Movies, then you need to get a copy of my book.
Seekers Of the Weird comic book
It's Kind of a Cute Story book
New Orleans Square Documentary DVD with Rolly and myself
Tiki Room documentary DVD with Rolly
It's A Small World documentary DVD with Rolly
As a side note, Disney Imagineer Terri Hardin is in the process of recreating Rolly's Museum of the Weird characters as chess pieces, so keep an eye out for that.
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