FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail

4. Mary Blair

Image: Disney

Business: Center Street Academy of Fine Art – Painting and Sculpture
Location: Magic Kingdom (Center Street)

Mary Blair joined Disney in 1940, just in time to lend her artistic skills to Dumbo. After traveling through South America with Walt and Lillian (and other Disney artists) in 1941 as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor Policy, Walt took notice of Mary’s watercolors and assigned her as an art supervisor for Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros. Color styling credits on Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, and Peter Pan followed, with each film representative of her unique art and influence.

Image: Disney

Walt Disney personally requested that she use her innate sense of color styling to shepherd the new attraction being developed for Pepsi-Cola’s UNICEF pavilion at the World’s Fair: “it’s a small world.”

The rest, they say, is history, as Mary’s colors, shapes, forms, and figures literally defined “the happiest cruise to ever set sail.” That influence continued throughout her career, as she created the central murals presiding over Walt’s New Tomorrowland in 1967, and the iconic 90-foot tall Grand Canyon mural at the center of the new Walt Disney World’s Contemporary Resort.

5. Alice Davis and Marc Davis

Image: Disney

Business: Far East Imports (Marc) and Small World Costume Co. (Alice)
Location: Disneyland (above Disneyana)

As Disney animators got to work on the film Sleeping Beauty, they hired a local model to record live reference footage for the character of Aurora. Because they wanted to see how Aurora’s dress would flow and bunch as she moved, a fashion designer named Alice Estes was hired to create a dress for the model to wear and the animator to study.

That animator, Marc Davis, was one of Disney’s “Nine Old Men” – the original generation of animators. Aside from Aurora and Maleficent, Davis developed iconic and instantly recognizable characters like Snow White, Br’er Rabbit, Mr. Toad, Cinderella, Tinker Bell, and Cruella de Vil. Naturally, Alice Estes and Marc Davis fell in love and were married in 1956, and given their expertise in character design, it’s no surprise that the Davises are often credited in conjunction with Disney’s character-focused attractions (not necessarily “Disney” characters).

Image: Disney

That’s why you’ll likely see their fingerprints across any scene in early Disney history where a comical, playful, musical, funny, or cleverly staged vignette takes center stage. Think, for example, of the comical set-ups on The Jungle Cruise, the whimsy of The Enchanted Tiki Room, the perfectly staged Modern Marvel: Carousel of Progress, the classic Country Bear Jamboree, the mini-vignettes of "it's a small world," and so many more, with Alice creating the costuming for each.

Image: Disney

Marc Davis is often recalled as the counterbalance to the atmospheric, dramatic, scenic work of Claude Coats, providing the lighter, more character-focused, singalong second halves of Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion. In the former alone, Alice created 47 different costumes!

Though they shaped no less than a dozen of Disney’s most renowned attractions, Marc and Alice’s story isn’t complete without exploring “the one that got away” – the never-built E-Ticket he planned to become the signature, epic dark ride of the brand new Magic Kingdom. We sailed through the complete story of his unforgettable masterpiece in its own feature, Possibilityland: Western River Expedition – a must-read for Walt Disney World history buffs.

6. Frank Wells

Image: Disney

Business: Seven Summits Expeditions
Location: Disneyland (above the Main Street Bank), Magic Kingdom (above Crystal Arts), and Disneyland Paris (above the Emporium, as “Main Street Marking Band”)

No history of the Disney Parks is complete without Frank Wells.

Think of it this way – Walt was the dreamer, Roy was the doer. That dichotomy (expressed by both of the Disney brothers) is what was able to make Disneyland a reality. After their respective deaths, Walt Disney Productions entered into a kind of stasis – a period of relative inactivity and loss wherein the company was almost sold off in pieces to various corporations.

It’s well known that the arrival of Michael Eisner saved Disney, reinvigorating the studio. Eisner was a visionary who created the modern Walt Disney Company we know today – a multi-media giant – while using his cinematic ties to turn Disney Parks into action-packed, modern places featuring the characters, brands, and stories people cared about in modern times. But like Walt, his vision would’ve been nothing without Frank Wells as the guiding figure to make it possible.

Michael Eisner and Frank Wells. Image: Disney

Wells was Disney’s President and COO (alongside Eisner and Chairman and CEO), reporting directly to the Board and keeping Eisner’s dreamy, Blue Sky ambitions reasonably grounded.

An avid alpinist, Wells set out to conquer the “Seven Summits” climbing the highest mountain on each continent (Kilimanjaro, Denali, Aconcagua, Elbrus, Everest, Kosciusko, and Vinson). Ultimately he reached them all except Everest, with poor weather sidelining the summit only 3,000 feet from the mountain’s peak.

When Wells died in an unexpected helicopter crash in 1994, the loss seemed to destabilize Eisner, who counted Wells as his best friend and right hand man. Wells’ tragic death is said to be the motivating factor behind Eisner’s sharp decline in esteem, leading to the troubled last decade of his leadership.

Wells is not only immortalized as the proprietor of Seven Summits Expeditions at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World – allusions to his final peak are embedded into Animal Kingdom’s Modern Marvel: Expedition Everest (where his photo hangs among other Everest mountaineers in the Yeti Museum) and the Wells’ Expedition’s cargo is visible on a scene inside Disneyland’s Matterhorn Bobsleds.

 
FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail

Add new comment

About Theme Park Tourist

Theme Park Tourist is one of the web’s leading sources of essential information and entertaining articles about theme parks in Orlando and beyond.

We are one of the world’s largest theme park guide sites, hosting detailed guides to more than 80 theme parks around the globe.

Find Out More About Us...

Plan Your Trip

Our theme park guides contain reviews and ratings of rides, restaurants and hotels at more than 80 theme parks worldwide.

You can even print them.

Start Planning Now...