As a historian, I was instructed in the art of not believing in the sublime golden age of the past because while there were times where a cultural phenomenon or institution reaches their peak of popularity, the past is a complicated, nuanced subject that must be respected for what it teaches us as a collective. However, such a discussion is a great subject for a different time, so let's get on with this.
Since I'm ranking WED designers in relation to what I admire, this is not an inherently objective list. It's rather a list of my favorites of the Imagineers from the "first generation", as in the generation that not only planned, designed, and built Disneyland, but also participated in the New York World's Fair in the mid-1960's and actualized Walt's last dream in Central Florida. This generation of Imagineering has an overlap with the second generation of designers (as in the kids who grew up with Disneyland and even Disney World) with the design and construction of Epcot Center, Tokyo Disneyland, and the beginning of the Eisner era.
15. Mary Blair
Mary was one of the greatest artists of her time, starting with her career at Disney and Hallmark. She is known for her color schemes. She designed the Grand Canyon Concourse mural at the Contemporary, the three first versions of Small World (NYWF, DL, and WDW), the Tomorrowland murals, and other parts of the parks. She even collaborated with Marc Davis on the never-built Western River Expedition in the late 1960's.
14. Fred Joerger
The rock of the Company, Fred started out as a model-maker alongside Harriet Burns. He designed the rockwork for the Jungle Cruise, Nature's Wonderland, Storybook Land, the Submarine Lagoon, Matterhorn, the whole concrete-and-rock construction of the Pirates at Disneyland, the rockwork of Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom and Polynesian Village, the Canada Pavilion at Epcot Center, and Tokyo Disneyland. He was on-site in 1973 with the construction of the Pirates of the Caribbean at Walt Disney World as well as the rockwork of River Country two-and-a-half years later.
13. Harper Goff
The banjo-playing, adventurous art director of Adventureland in 1954-1955 was known for his contributions to the parks with his work on the Jungle Cruise, early concepts of Main Street USA, and Walt Disney World. However, he worked on Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory in the early 1970's.
12. Bob Gurr
Gurr was the mind behind Disney's many ride vehicles, ranging from the boats used for Small World and Pirates to the cars of AUTOPIA as well as the Monorails, Main Street Vehicles, and the Omnimover. He is still a valuable member of the Disney community as his vehicles are still used on a daily basis after all these years.
11. Herb Ryman
Ryman was a vital asset to the Company from his initial work on Disneyland concepts, the Jungle Cruise, New Orleans Square, Pirates of the Caribbean, the four pavilions for the 1964 World's Fair as well as the initial planning of the Magic Kingdom with Cinderella Castle, Liberty Square, and the Hall of Presidents. He retired in 1971, but he returned to work on Epcot Center and Tokyo Disneyland's Meet the World.
10. Rolly Crump
A lot has been written about Rolly and his bohemian existence at the parks. He did work on a retooling of Fantasyland's dark rides in 1959, Adventureland's remodeling job in 1962, the New York World's Fair with It's a Small World, the Haunted Mansion (this includes his idea for a Museum of the Weird), even the Pirates, New Tomorrowland, and the initial planning of Walt Disney World. He moved on from Disney in 1971 and returned in 1976. The Beary Tales dark ride at Knott's Berry Farm was designed by Crump.
9. Yale Gracey
The master illusioneer of Disney was Master Gracey whose work on the parks spanned from fixing the Fantasyland dark rides in 1959 to working on Tokyo Disneyland in 1979. He did the effects in most of the rides, including the Pirates of the Caribbean, Adventure Thru Inner Space, Haunted Mansion, Space Mountain, etc.
8. Dick Irvine
Despite disagreeing with some of the decisions he made as the leader of WED, I have nothing but respect for what Richard Irvine did accomplish for the parks as well as the sacrifices he made for Disney. His health declined as the designers of Walt Disney World were finishing up the Magic Kingdom in 1971 to the point that he had to return to California months before the park was due to open. However, he was able to continue with WED until 1973 when he retired. Notably, he took some time in 1974 to consult with Disney management. His importance was not only being one of the first advocates of the Pirates being designed as a boat ride in the early 1960's, but he was responsible for design at Disneyland and Walt Disney World from 1967 until his retirement. He was also one of the design chiefs in charge of directing the team of art directors during Disneyland's construction.
7. X. Atencio
A list of Imagineers would be incomplete without mentioning X's contributions to the Disney theme parks. He worked intermittently with WED in the early 1960's until he was hired full-time by Walt to contribute to the Primeval World diorama in 1965. At the time, he was also tasked with scripting the Pirates of the Caribbean, Adventure Thru Inner Space, and the Haunted Mansion followed by working on the Country Bear Jamboree, If You Had Wings, and Space Mountain as a songwriter. With regards to the Pirates and the Mansion, he notably wrote the themes to both attractions and even contributed to the Florida and Tokyo versions of both attractions. He did a lot of work on Epcot Center and later Tokyo Disney before retiring in 1984. Of course, this never kept him from contributing to Disney.
6. Bill Martin
You might wonder who designed the layout for classic attractions like the Submarine Voyage, the three original Fantasyland dark rides, the Pirates, and the Haunted Mansion. Well, it was art director Bill Martin who dictated the feel of the original 1955 Fantasyland, the natural infrastructure of Nature's Wonderland, the kinetic layout of the 1959 expansion, and the track layouts of countless dark rides. He was the art director of Fantasyland from 1954-1955 and was tasked with making the most out of the space. He designed the Carnation Plaza Gardens and he also worked on the various walkways at Disneyland and later Disney World. He did contribute to the Italy and Mexico pavilions at Epcot, the master planning of Tokyo Disneyland, and a number of areas within Disney World's Magic Kingdom, including Caribbean Plaza (and the Pirates ride), Liberty Square (he did the walkways and track for the Haunted Mansion alongside Claude Coats), and Fantasyland (he repeated his 1955 and 1959 successes in Florida).
5. Collin Campbell
Tasked with handling all these projects from California to New York, back to the West Coast, and then returning to the East, Collin Campbell was a busy guy at WED. He worked in Claude Coats' shadow when it came to the Pirates and Haunted Mansion, but his brilliance took over in 1972 when tasked with rendering the environments needed for Marc Davis' redo of the Pirates for the Florida Park. In addition to being that project's in-field art director, he was also given the chance to illustrate the wonders of Ben Gunn's Cave for a never-realized make-over of Treasure Island as well as other water-based projects at the Disney World resort. He also dressed up Main Street as a 1920's American city center when it came to designing Disneyland Paris as well as decorating the MGM Studios Park. I mean he went from painting the backdrop of the Carousel of Progress' finale in 1966 to supervising the construction of the Pirates in 1973 to designing whole lands in 1988. For what it's worth, he did illustrate Tom Sawyer Island for the WDW publications. Not to mention, he also gave Florida's Main Street a wonderful polish.
4. Dorothea Redmond
Dorothea Redmond is a breath of fresh air when it comes to those cozy, inviting interiors with their evocative atmospheres or their exterior counterparts, ranging from her wonderful interpretations of the Blue Bayou, the shops of New Orleans Square, the rustic facades of Bear Country, the public spaces of Walt Disney World (including Fantasyland, Main Street USA, and Adventureland), and the earliest version of Disney World's Tom Sawyer Island to the King Stefan's Banquet Hall, Adventureland Veranda, the Crystal Palace, the Columbia Harbor House, Club 33, and other parts of the Disney park experience.
3. John Hench
The residential philosopher of Disney art director was the mastermind behind Disney's grand futurism. From Tomorrowland of 1955 to the Hong Kong Disneyland park, Hench worked on it all in some shape. He did concepts for Ford's Magic Skyway, Carousel of Progress, New Tomorrowland, Space Mountain, Walt Disney World, etc.
2. Claude Coats
Tied with the number one choice, Claude was a remarkable designer who had an eye for perspective and how to evoke certain feelings with the use of set design and art direction. His early work for WED was helping with the scenery of the dark rides of Fantasyland, the "earth" seen in the Space Station X-1 exhibit in Tomorrowland, and other concepts for the park.
He tackled the design challenges of illuminating the Rainbow Caverns as well as contributed to the design of the fourth Fantasyland dark ride, "Alice in Wonderland" (1958).
One of his greatest achievements in the park was the massive Grand Canyon Diorama he was commissioned to design for the Disneyland-Santa Fe Railroad, which also debuted in 1958. This was only a year after he had worked on the walk-thru dioramas for Sleepy Beauty's Castle. By 1959, he was involved in the expansion of Tomorrowland with the Submarine Lagoon taking shape. Then he worked primarily on the pavilions planned for the New York World's Fair, which includes the cross-country move to Disneyland and the Primeval World section of the Grand Canyon Diorama.
Meanwhile, he worked on the atmosphere of both the Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion. For the New Tomorrowland project, he was one of the top designers of the Adventures Thru Inner Space ride, a task that would prove beneficial in the upcoming months. He notably worked onsite as a project designer for both the Pirates in 1966 and the Mansion in 1969, all while consulting with other artists, writers, and engineers on the Walt Disney World project, which included a number of attractions he was working on.
When it came to the Florida Project, Claude didn't just work on the Mansion, but the whole of Fantasyland and a Tomorrowland dark ride named "If You Had Wings" (1972). One of the few projects and concepts he did with Marc Davis for the Florida Park was "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea", a Small World-style boat ride called "the Enchanted Snow Palace", and a boat ride outside of Florida's Tomorrowland called "the Lost World" that would've recycled the old dinosaurs from the Primeval World diorama.
In addition to his contributions to both Disneyland and Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, he worked on several World Showcase pavilions for Epcot Center as well as a number of Future World attractions ("Universe of Energy", "World of Motion", and "Horizons") before consulting on Tokyo Disneyland and later Disneyland Paris.
1. Marc Davis
Marc's impact upon the parks is still evident and had enhanced Disneyland. It's difficult to choose between Claude and Marc, but when it comes to the sheer ideas Marc had when it came to replicating a Disneyland-style theme park in Florida and the evolution of his art over the course of his 18-plus years of working with enhancing the parks, he is seemingly unrivaled.
What I mean by evolution is simple: he was approached by Walt to add humor to a number of Disneyland attractions and even work on newer concepts. He added humor to the stark wilderness of Frontierland when he added humorous vignettes of animals for Nature's Wonderland as well as turn the Jungle Cruise into the funny voyage it is today (let's just say he got his point across in 1964 when the Lost Safari was located on the banks of that exotic river). He worked on the preliminary ideas of what the Pirates of the Caribbean would be and he had a hand in designing the Enchanted Tiki Room. He also worked on the New York World's Fair with his work being evident in the Ford Pavilion with the Audio-Animatronic cavemen, the singing children of "It's a Small World", and the family in General Electric's "Progressland". 1964 saw Marc being assigned to the Haunted Mansion, which had been in a creative standstill, as well as continuing work on the Pirates and enhancing the Jungle Cruise once again.
By the way, Walt didn't just assign Marc to not Disneyland-related projects or the World's Fair, but a proposed indoor-theme park in St. Louis and the Mineral King resort (both of which weren't realized) as well as the Florida Project. Along with Claude Coats and Dick Irvine, he had to contribute his skill to the attractions of that theme park as well.
He designed the Country Bear Jamboree as well as the Floridian versions of the Jungle Cruise, Tiki Room, and the Rivers of America. As mentioned before, he worked with Claude Coats on the 20K ride, but he was also working with Ray Bradbury on a possible Carousel of Progress-style replacement for the Magic Kingdom. His other early work for the Florida Park included Tom Sawyer's Island and a Wild West equivalent of the Pirates called the Western River Expedition, which is said to be one of the greatest unrealized theme park attractions of all time. In fact, he worked on a version of that ride for Disneyland in the early 1970's. However, he was tasked with designing the Pirates of the Caribbean for Walt Disney World in 1971/1972 and the final product in 1973 was one of his last successful attractions, but on the other side of the country, the Carousel of Progress was moving out for "America Sings". He drew up so many concepts that I can't begin to explain it all and frankly, we likely don't know the half of it!
A lot of the information regarding Marc's career at WED can be uncovered in Chris Merritt's newest book, which is set to be released publicly in September 2019.
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