I got an e-mail this past weekend from a longtime Disney fan
who I won't name. Mostly because he had some very unkind things to say about
Bamboo Forest Publishing's latest audio effort, "More Cute Stories, Volume
3 : Museum of the Weird
."
Copyright 2014 Bamboo Forest Publishing. All rights reserved
Here's a brief excerpt from that e-mail:
"This recording features all sorts of mean-spirited stories
about Marc Davis, Roger Broggie and Dick Irvine. According to what Rolly Crump
says on this CD, Marc, Roger and Dick were all supposedly extremely jealous of
Rolly's close relationship with Walt. Which is why they then deliberately went
out of their way to trip up Crump projects like Museum of the Weird.
I just think that it's extremely irresponsible of Jeff
Heimbuch & Leonard Kinsey to have
released this recording. Especially since the men that Crump is criticizing on
this CD are long dead and now can't defend themselves or refute what Rolly says."
(L to R) Jeff Heimbuch & Rolly Crump. Copyright
Bamboon Forest Publishing. All rights reserved
Well, I've listened to "More Cute Stories, Volume 3:
Museum of the Weird" twice now. And while some of the stories that Rolly
shares on this CD may be hard for some Disney diehards to hear, me personally,
I don't really have a problem with Jeff & Kinsey putting this recording out
there.
Why For? Because the tales that Crump shares on Volume 3 of
the "More Cute Stories" CD series are true.
Look, here's the hard truth that most Disney Company histories
step around and/or deliberately avoid talking about: Walt had his favorites.
People like Rolly Crump & Marc Davis & Wally Boag that Disney doted on.
Offering them the opportunities to work on extra-special personal projects like
The Enchanted Tiki Room, Country Bear Jamboree and The Tower of the Four Winds
at the 1964 New York World's Fair.
Rolly & Walt stand with the model of the Tower of the
Four Winds for the 1964 New York World's Fair.
Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc.
All rights reserved
And when the other folks at WED saw plum assignments repeatedly
being awarded to folks like Rolly, Marc & Wally … Well, these early
Imagineers were only human. And just like every other person on the planet does
when they're faced with a workplace situation like this, these WED employees got
jealous.
And when Disney passed away in December of 1966, the payback was terrible. Those
people who had previously been Walt's favorites gradually found themselves
being frozen out. In Wally Boag's case, this meant that he stopped getting
calls from WED to come help write the scripts for their new theme park shows. For
Marc Davis, this meant that all of the big projects that he did design work for
after Pirates of the Caribbean and The Haunted Mansion
(i.e. Western River Expedition, The Enchanted Snow Palace, a revamped Mine
Trains Through Nature's Wonderland) never made it off the drawing board. And in
Rolly's case.
Well, here. I'll let Crump — in an excerpt from "More Cute Stories,
Volume 3" — explain:
Rolly with many of the models that Jack Fergus built of Crump's out-there designs
for Disneyland's never-built Museum of the Weird. Copyright Disney
Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved
The next thing I know is that all of the other guys — all of the other art
directors get assigned to work on the Mansion. And they come up with their
concepts. And it was interesting that I was not invited at all to continue with
the Museum of the Weird. And that's because of good old Dick Irvine. I don't
think that Dick wanted me around there at all. And that's really true, because
the next thing I know he's decided to make me the supervising art director of Disneyland
in maintenance and sent me to Disneyland. So he got me
out of the building.
Now let me stress here that I have nothing but respect for
Dick Irvine. This is a man who made the ultimate sacrifice for The Walt Disney
Company. Dick pushed himself so hard during the construction phase of The Walt
Disney World Resort that he basically burned himself out. Which is why — just
months prior to the October 1971 opening of Project Florida
— Irvine
was pulled out of the field and then sent back to Southern
California. All with the hope that the folks at Saint
Joseph Hospital in
Burbank might then be able to do
something to restore Dick's health. Which — sadly — never happened. And after
several years of attempting to return to work at WED only to then have his
health fail yet again, Irvine
passed away in March of 1976.
But that said, Irvine
was of a different generation than Crump. And it's easy to see how — back in
the mid-1960s — the 50+ year-old Dick might have bumped heads with 30+
year-old Rolly.
If you just compare Rolly's wardrobe to what (L to R) Claude
Coats, Bill Cottrell, Walt Disney, John Hench, Dick Irvine
and Don Edgren are wearing, you can already see the
makings of a generation gap / culture clash.
Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc.
All rights reserved
And here's the other ugly truth that current Mouse House managers
don't like getting out about the Company's founder: That Walt often encouraged
this sort of behavior. During the early developmental phase of a new project, Disney
would deliberately pair up people that he knew wouldn't get along. All with the
hope that something magical might then come out of that conflict.
So if that's not the vision of Walt Disney that you want in your head — that
here was a man who could take the dysfunction that was rampant in 1960s-era WED
Enterprises and then turn that into fun for his theme parks — then maybe you
shouldn't listen to "More Cute Stories, Volume 3: Museum of the
Weird."
On the other hand, if you can handle a warts-and-all take on what really went
on behind-the-scenes during the design & construction of The Haunted
Mansion and Disneyland's 1967 version of New Tomorrowland, then I urge you to
pick up a copy of this new Bamboo Forest Publishing audio release. Because
Rolly is really in rare form on this recording. And I can guarantee you
that there are stories shared on this CD
that you have never heard before.