I’ve recently received some response to my “Windows on Main Street”
columns (read parts 1, 2,
and 3) from those even more familiar
with the subject than I. Today, I’d like to share some of them with you.
First, a note from Scott Olsen, nephew of Jack Olsen, “The Merchant
Prince.”
I just got a chance to browse through your excellent research about
the windows on WDW’s Magic Kingdom Main Street.
At the end of part one, you show my uncle’s window (Jack Olsen). Although
he retired from Disney in 1977, he was in ill health at the time and,
unfortunately, passed away in 1980 at the age of 56.
In a follow-up note, he passed along these anecdotes:
I’ve lived in San Diego almost all of my life and my uncle lived (before
he moved to Florida) in Santa Ana. Of course, up until 1979 or so, we
never had to pay to get into Disneyland. Often, we’d call ahead and
just sign for tickets at the Guest Relations window. We always had tickets
to the bleacher seats for the premiere of the Christmas parade, in front
of the train station on Main Street. That is where Walt Disney ended
up sitting behind me for the 1965 Christmas parade (I was 9 years old).
His house and garage in Santa Ana were full of Disney merchandise.
He wasn’t a “collector,” but rather, I believe it was more
due to bringing the job home with him. There was a local importer in
Laguna Beach who used to literally give us boxes of stuff every year.
Most were non-Disney items.
Those were interesting tidbits, Scott. Thanks for passing them along!
The e-mail that had me doing a little happy dance in my chair came from
George McGinnis, honored on The Big Wheel Co. window. You see, George
designed quite a lot of things during his Imagineering career—not
that he’s done. He’s still consulting from outside the company. While
many of them are wonderful, the fruit of George’s labor that is dearest
to the hearts of many a Disney fanatic is his design of the subs for the
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea attraction.
But enough gushing from me. Let’s hear what George had to say:
Dear Mark:
I enjoyed this stroll down Main Street and the memories the Big Wheel
Co. window over the Penny Arcade brings to mind. Residing in an office
next to Bob Gurr, whose name is there (along with Bill Watkins, Dave
Gengenbach and myself), was one of the most important things to my career
at WDI [Walt Disney Imagineering], next to meeting Walt Disney at the
Art Center College of Design in 1966. Walt had come to see my senior
project which was a High Speed Train Concept for the Northeast Corridor.
The acting president at the Art Center that talked to Walt about me
was the same person that put Bob and Walt together ten plus years earlier.
He was John Thompson, former editor of the Ford Times, the little
art magazine. He said he told Walt, “McGinnis will bring his train
over on his back to show you.”
I’ve attached a picture of the train. The person looking at the first
mass transit project at the Art Center is Bill Mitchell, General Motors
Vice President of Styling. We had a thing in common—we both loved
to draw cars in high school; in fact we both graduated from Penn High
School, Greenville, Pennsylvania, although he was 18 years ahead of
me.
George McGinnis, left, shows his model of a proposed high speed train
and shuttle system to Bill Mitchell, Vice President of Styling for General
Motors, in 1966. Photo courtesy of George McGinnis.I had entered my project in an Alcoa contest that semester.
It came in second after an all-aluminum garden cart. This hurt didn’t
last long, for shortly after, John Thompson told me Walt wanted to see
it.
The concept I showed Walt would be considered “far out.” It
was called a “High Acceleration Transfer Shuttle for Simultaneous
Loading and Unloading Passengers of High Speed Trains.”
Two hundred feet underground, at 200 miles per hour, it exchanged passengers
on the fly with shuttles at way stations. Containerized luggage moved
on and off below. At the center of the train was the station car. It had
rotating semicircular compartments as did the shuttle.
Transfer time, two minutes out and return. Actual transfer of passengers
took eight seconds. The shuttle accelerated down a ramp powered by a
linear motor, synchronized speed with train, transferred passengers, decelerated
up a ramp and returned to the station.
The model had micro-switches; little motors with friction drives to
turn the semicircular compartments. Wouldn’t you know, it worked fine
until Walt pushed the shuttle. Yikes! It jammed.
My hand never worked so fast unjamming it. Sensing my frustration, Walt
simply commented, “This would have to be fail-safe.” “Yes
sir!” I responded, pointing to the diagram and the emergency braking
distance.
But all went well that day.
Walt was accompanied that day by Bob, Dick Irvine, Roger Broggie and
John Hench, as I recall. After the meeting, George Jergenson, Art Center
Transportation department head, told me I was invited to WED to see
and ride the WEDway test track. Bob later told me that as he drove Walt
and others back to the studio, Walt said, “We can use another Industrial
Designer at WED.”
While half of my 30 years-plus with WDI were spent on vehicle design,
the other 15 years were on shows, such as concept work on the two Space
Mountains and the Horizons Pavilion. I regard ride vehicles as a show
in themselves. They add kinetics and story to an architectural setting,
something we miss at California Adventure. I have good reason to believe
that this will be added in time.
Just before retiring to become a consultant in 1995, I worked with
Tony Baxter and Skip Lange in creating the Indiana Jones vehicle [for
Disneyland]. It was the first I did on a computer. It was then a simple
matter to redesign it into the Countdown to Extinction vehicle (now
Dinosaur) for Animal Kingdom.
I have just returned from WDW and had the opportunity to take my sons
Reed and Scott on four of the five ride vehicles in Animal Kingdom for
which I did the concepts. (Got drenched on Kali River Rapids raft and
dried out on the Wildlife Express. The Discovery River boats were not
operating.) The Animal Kingdom is a beautifully detailed park and I
was happy to have a part in its creation.
The new Mission: Space Pavilion at Epcot did not disappoint; I wanted
a “real” space ride and that’s what I got. Congratulations,
Mission: Space Team!
Sincerely,
George McGinnis
What a great story! And what’s even better is that I have asked George
if he would consider writing some more about his experiences for our MousePlanet
readers, and he agreed! I’m not sure how often we’ll be able to expect
stories yet, but we’ve got a couple of story ideas that we’re already
working on. Keep your eyes out for some more from George.
