Rolly Crump- Imagineer

One of my favorite Imagineers of all time has to be Rolly Crump. I realize most people don’t have a favorite Imagineer (A Walt Disney employee responsible for creative planning and engineering), but growing up in Southern California, (which means growing up at Disneyland). Then working as a merchandising rep for the park for a number of years makes you grow in awe of the people behind the scenes that had a hand in building it. In this post I have collected a little about his background, and a segment of an interview with him that shows you some of the reasons why I respect this man so much.

“Born February 27, 1930, in Alhambra, California, Rolly took a pay cut as a "dipper" in a ceramic factory to join Walt Disney Studios in 1952, and to help pay bills, built sewer man holes on weekends. He served as an in-between artist and later, assistant animator, contributing to "Peter Pan" (1953), "Lady and the Tramp" (1955), "Sleeping Beauty" (1959), and others. In 1959, he joined show design at WED (Walter Elias Disney), Enterprises, now known as Walt Disney Imagineering. There, he became one of Walt's key designers for some of Disneyland's new attractions and shops, including Haunted Mansion, Enchanted Tiki Room, and Adventure land Bazaar. Rolly served as a key designer on the Disney attractions featured at the 1964-65 New York World's Fair, including It's a Small World, for which he designed the Tower of the Four Winds marquee. When the attraction moved to Disneyland in 1966, Rolly designed the larger-than-life animated clock at the entrance, which sends puppet children on parade with each quarter-hour gong. Rolly left the Company to consult on other projects in 1970. He returned in 1976 to contribute to EPCOT Center. He also participated in master planning for an expansion of Disneyland until 1981. Leaving the company to work on another venture he returns in 1992 to Imagineering as executive designer. Rolly Crump "retired" from The Walt Disney Company in 1996. (From: http://legends.disney.go.com/legends/detail?key=Rolly+Crump)”

Here is an excerpt of an interview with Rolly discussing designing the gods for the entrance of the Tiki Room at Disneyland…

"All these were were little quick sketches that Walt bought off on. They weren't
even in color. They were just little line drawings. And Walt said, "Build 'em." So I took them to the head sculptor and said, "Will you get started on these? Walt bought off on them." And he said, "Rolly, I'm too busy. I don't have time for that." And I said, "Well, who's going to sculpt them?" And he said, "You are." And I said, "I am? I've never sculpted before in my life." I want you to know that the first piece of sculpture I did in my life is Maui in the pre-show of the Tiki Room. Anyway, what happened was, I said, "Okay, fine." And he started telling me how to build the armatures, how to put the clay on. And it was plasticine clay, an oil-based clay. And when it's cold, it's really hard to work with. And this is in the springtime and it was really cold in this little barn that we worked in. So I take them and put them on wheels and push them into the parking lot. And I actually put the clay and sculpted them in the parking lot. So I want you to know that all the pre-show Tikis before you go in there were sculpted in the parking lot. They were not sculpted in a beautiful studio with north light. And from there, I sent them to Disneyland and they made them out of fiberglass. They sent them back to me. Once I got them, I painted them. Painted them all up. And then I took them to Disneyland, and I actually took a wrench and installed them. If you were to have that done today, you'd probably have about 50 people. There would have to be renderings done and engineering done. In those days, and that's why I call them my naïve days, we just did it. We did whatever it took to do it. In those days, again there were only 30 of us and that included the janitors and the people who worked in the accounting department and everything. So, it was marvelous. “(From : http://www.startedbyamouse.com/archives/RollySpeech03.shtml) “

Here is an excerpt from the same interview giving a look at the working environment at Disneyland in the early days…

“The humor also carried on in this first building that we were in. I had this motorcycle and I had been riding it atlunchtime. And I came back in and I was just getting ready to park it when one of the secretaries said, "You know, I've never ridden a motorcycle before." So I said, "Get on the back and I'll take you." So I went through the building, right up to her desk and dropped her off. Well, Dick Irvine, the lead art director, opens up the door, looks out and says, "Oh, it's just Rolly," and shuts the door. That's because there was this constant fun that we had and it continued on forever. ( From: http://www.startedbyamouse.com/archives/RollySpeech03.shtml)”