Thursday, May 14, 1998
Small World
ART: Paintings, drawings and models
in the Armand Hammer’s new exhibit explain why designing Disney
theme parks is a lesson in Americana
By Terry Tang
Daily Bruin Contributor
A trip to Disneyland has become a childhood initiation. A walk
through the Haunted Mansion or a flight through Space Mountain
might compare to the first day of school.
Disney fans and museumgoers of all ages can see the original
blueprints that sparked cultural icons like Sleeping Beauty’s
Castle and Main Street, U.S.A. in the latest exhibition at the
Armand Hammer Museum, which runs through Aug. 23.
With at least 350 paintings, models and drawings from the
archives of Walt Disney Imagineering, "The Architecture of
Reassurance: Designing the Disney Theme Parks" maps out the Magic
Kingdom. The center exhibit focuses on the early designs of the
royal castle, while colored walls divide the show into sections.
The exhibits range from Fantasyland – where drawings of attractions
like Snow White’s Scary Adventure adorn light pink walls – to
Adventureland – where photos and notes on the new Animal Kingdom in
Florida hang.
The exhibition also gives an inside glimpse at why Walt Disney’s
dreams stretched beyond making animated films like "Snow White and
the Seven Dwarfs" and "Pinocchio."
"One of the things that Walt is famously quoted as saying is
that, ‘When you get a movie finished, it’s over.’ It is a kind of
disappointing thing," says Karal Ann Marling, curator of the
exhibition. "Whereas a park, he thought could always be improved in
some way or changed."
Although the prosperous film producer felt a void in his work
and thus, in his life, Disney did not build anything right away.
Instead, he manifested a desire for control though building a model
train, representing a vanishing industry, along with a track in his
backyard overlooking the UCLA campus. However, Disney realized his
vision after a 1948 trip with colleague Ward Kimball to the Chicago
Railroad Fair.
"On the way home from the great Chicago Railroad Fair, Walt
turned to (Kimball) and said ‘You know, I’m going to build a
park,’" Marling explains. "(The park) was to hold the railroad
train. He had visions of himself driving around his own park in his
own railroad train."
As a young farm boy growing up in Missouri, the animator
cherished elements of urban life. Saturday trips to town, for
Disney, felt like exotic expeditions. Models and sketches of
Disney’s incipient designs of Main Street, U.S.A., reflect Disney’s
wish to cling to a past lifestyle of simple pleasures.
"Main Street revivifies the old ideals of main street which is
participatory, rubbing elbows with our neighbors, enjoying the
pleasures of walking and looking," Marling says. "I really think
Disneyland is one of the major sources of the American preservation
movement."
The studio mogul also wanted to preserve the family unit. Early
map designs show Disneyland as a utopia separated from the outside
world by an earthen barrier, revealing Disney’s desire to create a
heaven on earth for the ultimate family vacation. Aside from
offering a number of fun lands, the park would give its visitors a
sense of reassurance with huge landmarks like Sleeping Beauty’s
Castle.
"Spatially, you can always tell where you are in a Disney park.
And this is again something revolutionary in the mind of Walt
Disney, as a city planner," Marling explains. "As opposed to a
conventional city in which if you are going to point A to point B,
you need to use a road map. There’s nothing to tell you how far
something is from you."
Aside from showcasing the models for the rides and monuments
typically enjoyed at Disney’s amusement parks, the exhibition
reveals Disney’s might-have-been ideas, such as a Russia land where
the central building resembles the Kremlin.
Only showing in New York and Texas after departing Los Angeles,
the show marks first-time public viewing access to the Disney
Imagineering vault.
"For many years, Walt Disney Imagineering was kind of a secret
organization in the company, if you will – not exposed to the
public," says Marty Sklar, vice chairman and principal creative
executive of Walt Disney Imagineering. "A show like this is based
on the idea that the artists in our organization really inform the
design of all our buildings and everything that’s done in the
Disney theme park is initiated by a conception, by someone that
addresses that blank sheet of paper."
With a treasure trove of more than 50,000 objects to pick from,
Marling, a professor in art history at the University of Minnesota,
and her three graduate students coordinated the entire selection
process. They also wrote slide show presentations, composed
narrative headphone guides and edited the video footage of Walt
Disney, supplementing the exhibition.
One of the graduate students, Adam Harris, hopes viewers will
understand how evocative architecture can be. Akin to UCLA,
construction in Disney’s amusement park franchise is a continuing
work in progress.
"People will take away a greater understanding of the way
architecture can affect your feelings," Harris says. "In a big
city, you can feel alienated. But, in a cozy, small town, a real
Main Street makes you feel like someone else."
ART: "Architecture of Reassurance" shows at the UCLA Armand
Hammer Museum through Aug. 23. Admission is $4.50, $3.00 and $1.00
with UCLA I.D. For more information, call (310) 443-7000.
(Above left) The World Bazaar, with Sleeping Beauty’s castle in
the background, is part of Tokyo Disneyland. (Right) A model
depicts the Chateau de la Belle au Bois Dormant in Fantasyland,
Disneyland Paris.
Photo courtesy of Canadian Centre for Architecture