Rolly Land: The Wonderful World of Weirdness, Imagination, and Laughter

Rolly Land: The Wonderful World of Weirdness, Imagination, and Laughter

John L.

It was late November 2019 when I got to talk with a legend...a Disney Legend, to be specific. Yep, on the 25th of November at 11 o'clock, I received a call I had been anticipating for a week.

Of course, I naturally had to thank him as well as his wife for allowing me to interview him. I especially thanked him for all the contributions he had made as well as all the joy and laughter his work had induced for over sixty years.

To be clear about his career as a designer, he initially began with Disney, eventually contributing many memorable elements to Disneyland and later Walt Disney World as well as the 1964 New York World's Fair, and then he ventured out on his own with jobs ranging from designing shopping malls, regional theme parks, and even the beloved Knott's Beary Tales dark ride for Knott's Berry Farm.

However, his illustrious career with Disney was the primary focus of this interview. Despite his most notable work for Disneyland being the Enchanted Tiki Room, It's a Small World, and the Haunted Mansion, Rolly worked on so many other things for the Park, eventually cultivating a design philosophy that would guide his future endeavors with and without the Mouse.

In terms of theme park design, he began in 1956, but it wasn't until he was formally transferred to WED Enterprises in 1959 that he would start making his mark.

He was teamed up with Yale Gracey to work on the Haunted Mansion as well as major enhancements for the Fantasyland dark rides. So between 1959 and 1961, they worked on the refurbishments for Snow White (1959/January 1961), Peter Pan (1960-1), Mr. Toad (1961), and Alice in Wonderland, all while working on the countless illusions for the Haunted Mansion, which was set to debut in 1963 as a walk thru attraction. An extension of Rolly's work for Disneyland was seen in 1961, he was commissioned to design the attraction poster for the Flying Saucers ride since the usual resident poster artist was preoccupied at the time.

However, his big break came in the form of a failing shop in the heart of Adventureland. In 1962, a lot of the improvements to Disneyland were directed towards the West Side of the Park, including additions to the Jungle Cruise, the construction of the Swiss Family Treehouse and the Tiki Room (which was still seen at the time as a restaurant), and the preliminary work on New Orleans Square and the Haunted Mansion, but one part of the equation was a shop that had been hastily designed and constructed in 1955. The Adventureland Bazaar was, by 1962, long overdue for a remodel since it had been hemorrhaging money and ultimately the taskmaster at WED, Dick Irvine, entrusted the whole shop's reconstruction and redesign to Rolly.

He went on to redesign the Adventureland Bazaar on his own in 1962, all within six weeks, and he consulted with Jack Olsen of Merchandising who formally introduced him to the “boneyard” backstage at Disneyland where they kept the old fixtures, ticket booths, and assorted relics. Rolly had a few of the retired ticket booths installed in the Bazaar as merchandise stands. The Bazaar was successfully reopened in June 1962 and it remained in that glorious state for over thirty years.

At this time, he was heavily involved in the development and creation of the Enchanted Tiki Room. Infamously, he sculpted, painted, and installed the Tikis in the Enchanted Tiki Garden as well as inside the planned "Tea Room". He helped create some of the Audio-Animatronic birds as well as the bird-mobile. In fact, he was at the meeting that turned the nascent idea of a South Seas tea room into a Polynesian restaurant with mechanical birds. He helped develop the unique character and look of the Enchanted Tiki Room from its beginning in 1959 when he was working on a restaurant planned for Main Street all the way through its “restaurant” phase to the final show that debuted in June 1963.

Around this time, he was working on the New York World's Fair, set to open in 1964. He worked on all of the pavilions Disney was responsible for designing, but two in particular are noted for his touch than the others. I’m talking about the Ford’s Magic Skyway and “It’s a Small World”. With Ford, he not only served as a color model for Blaine Gibson’s skin molds, but he only designed the orchestra of automobile parts in the queue for the attraction. However, the pavilion he worked on the most and retained his touch for almost six decades was a “little boat ride” that Walt announced in Spring 1963.

Small World saw the talents of Marc and Alice Davis, Claude Coats, and countless Disney Legends, but it was notably the collaboration of Mary Blair and Rolly that defined the style of the figures, the props, and the sets. Most of what Rolly and Mary accomplished has been documented, but what should be known is Mary was one of Rolly’s idols growing up and it’s obvious that he was inspired by her use of bold color and childlike designs.

Anyway, Rolly was tasked with designing the marquee for the attraction, the Tower of the Four Winds, and Walt loved it, even when Rolly cringed at how it turned out in full-scale.

After the Fair was up-and-running in 1964, the Imagineers refocused on their previous projects for Disneyland, such as the Pirates of the Caribbean, a new Tomorrowland, and the Haunted Mansion. Rolly went back to the Haunted Mansion at this time and he was dismayed with the direction the Mansion was going. Instead of the typical haunted house gimmicks (think sliding panels and secret rooms), he argued that it should be unique. He came up with a ton of weird things to place throughout the Mansion from a psychedelic gypsy cart to furniture made out of strange, disquieting designs. He worked on this in the meantime with approval from Walt and a few puzzled looks from fellow designers.

The plan after the Fair was to move the Small World attraction back to Disneyland and Walt really want Rolly to design the façade. They eventually came to the conclusion that a childlike clock tower and a series of world monuments done in Mary Blair’s style would be erected on the northern end of Fantasyland. The ride was expanded over the original in New York with a “Four Corners of the World” theme added. Rolly worked on-site between June 1965 and May 1966 to get Small World ready for its permanent home in Anaheim. He has a number of stories about that, including how he didn’t like the light poles they installed in front of the façade because he felt they were too large and it was like illuminating a parking lot. Meanwhile, he consulted with the maintenance workers to figure out what worked the best. Initially, Rolly wanted it to be painted in a variety of colors, but Maintenance told him that it would be better if it was painted solid white.

Small World opened at Disneyland on May 28^th, 1966, with Walt Disney in a light suit, a cadre of children from around the world, and several officials from both Disney and Bank of America. Rolly was proud of it and his façade has since been noted as one of the neatest things at Disneyland.

Rolly and his whimsical clock, May 1966.

After moving Small World to Disneyland in 1966, Rolly mostly focused on the Museum of the Weird until Walt came by his office and told Rolly that he wanted him to work on the New Tomorrowland update. Rolly called up Dick and was given a laundry list of various assignments to work on, including a character merchandising location (the Character Shop), two new stages,  new ticket booths, and another shop (the Mod Hatter). He first worked on the Character Shop where he populated the store with old-school Mickey Mouse portraits and other unique fixtures. In fact, the way the lights were lowered almost to eye-level from the high ceiling was entirely his idea onsite. He then proceeded to do the two bandstands, one of which remains at the Park. The stage at the Coca Cola Refreshment Garden (now known as Tomorrowland Terrace) rose out of the ground with Rolly’s whimsical planters and spires. Similarly, the Tomorrowland Stage was designed with Rolly’s signature style and was a tad more temporary as the plans in 1966 were to later add a Space Port in a couple of years. It still held up. Meanwhile, the Mod Hatter was based on an earlier shop in the Old Tomorrowland, but it was redesigned by Rolly with the “World on the Move” theme in mind and it still stands today at the junction of the Autopia, Disneyland Railroad, and Carousel Theater. Likewise, Rolly employed that same overarching motif to the ticket booths. He even did the landscaping in some parts with Bill Evans, namely the entrance.

It was during this period that he got word from John Hench that Walt had died. In light of this, they finished up New Tomorrowland within the next six months. One of the saddest moments of Rolly’s time at Disney was one summer evening in 1967 when a team of WED designers were putting the final touches on the New Tomorrowland and they gathered at the rope in front of the area. It was strange for each of them to know that this was the last thing they worked with Walt on and there was an air of uncertainty that permeated the team at that moment.

July 1967 view of the Tomorrowland Stage, ticket booth, and Flight to the Moon building. The proscenium of the Tomorrowland Stage announces the Country Jubilee.

Show Documentation photo, filed 1968, of the Coca-Cola Refreshment Gardens/Tomorrowland Terrace stage.

Rolly admiring his World of Tomorrow, July 1967.

Sometime between Walt's death in 1966 and the completion of New Tomorrowland in mid-1967, Rolly received word from Dick Irvine that he was assigned to be the Supervising Art Director of Disneyland, a job previously occupied by Bill Martin since 1955. This role entailed supervising any design changes ranging from minor, cosmetic changes (think light fixtures, wallpaper) to major duties concerning rehabs and even some construction. Luckily, his experience with the enhancement of the Fantasyland dark rides, It's a Small World between late 1965 and Summer 1966, and the onsite work done on New Tomorrowland during the Spring of 1967 all prepared him for the task, or at least an understanding of the Park. Meanwhile, work was ramping up at WED to finish the Haunted Mansion as well as designing Walt Disney World (namely the Disneyland-style Magic Kingdom), similar to how the New York World's Fair took the focus off of Disneyland a few years earlier. Bill Martin, the aforementioned art director, went to Glendale to concentrate on the Florida Park around that time. However, another reason for his reassignment, one that Rolly has always maintained, was due to Dick Irvine's disgruntlement with Rolly's wacky ideas as well as his knack for his blatant honesty.

Ultimately, Rolly was WED's man on the ground in Anaheim and he got to work with all the divisions at the Park, ranging from the technicians who ran the technology for the attractions to the maintenance workers who repaired everything mechanical to the janitors in charge of maintaining the spotless appearance. Since it was the first year of operation for the Pirates as well as the New Tomorrowland, they worked extensively in the off-season to fix any hiccups the new additions had. For the Pirates, it was the sound system. As per Tomorrowland, it was primarily the updated lobby for the Bell Circle-Vision exhibit as well as the People Mover. 

Around this time, he instituted a "design order system" that made sure that Disneyland was receiving the attention it needed and he'd hand-deliver it to Dick during their weekly meetings. Speaking of meetings, during the off-season, Rolly had meetings on Mondays and Tuesdays with the various divisions and he eventually got permission to drive around the Park in his own car.

Since Rolly's team was responsible for maintaining and designing new facilities at Disneyland, he was involved in a handful of enhancements to onstage and backstage areas. He designed the Dixieland at Disneyland stage, the Time Tunnel of the Administration Building, the New Orleans Square cast cafeteria, and more. So all the facilities added to the Park during that time had Rolly's magic touch.

One of Rolly's more bright ideas came from a mandate that Dick Irvine had regarding the lighting situation at Disneyland. Dick noticed that lighting was something that had been neglected at Disneyland and assigned Yale Gracey and Rolly Crump to the project. Yale and Rolly divided their tasks with Yale taking Main Street, Fantasyland, and Tomorrowland. Meanwhile, Rolly worked on the West Side of the Park with particular attention given to Frontierland and New Orleans Square. Yale’s solution was to reduce the lighting in Tomorrowland by taking half of the lighting out, which had been a sore spot for Crump since it opened. Yale also took care of the Matterhorn by changing the color of the lighting from the amber glow it had known since 1959 to a light blue. The problem on the other side of the Park was the opposite. It was too dark. Frontierland’s illumination mostly came from the storefronts and a few of the other attractions. Rolly started with the Frontierland area and made his way west to the entrance to the Indian Village. So Rolly’s team’s major improvement was notably New Orleans Square. Extending from the Aunt Jemima Pancake House to the uncharted wilderness beyond the Indian Village, that entire area was very dark at night. The only light provided was from the few gas lamps that were put there as well as some of the windows of New Orleans Square. Rolly thought that the lighting should be placed closest to the light sources (i.e. the street lamps) and they used patterns with leaves to enhance the upper floors. They cross-lit a lot of the balconies, using hotter light for the lower floors, and placing lights in various balconies. Rolly went into the Pirates of the Caribbean and did the same thing with placing small spotlights beneath various lanterns throughout the ride to illuminate certain areas. Back outside, Rolly and his team went over to the Haunted Mansion and did the same thing for the exterior because that building was not given any exterior lighting when it was built. They uncovered these lights that were covered by leaves and debris on a hill either near the Indian Village or at Nature’s Wonderland and spent an entire night uncovering all these lights. He worked on a lot of those small tasks that really make a difference. He designed these themed popcorn figures for the Park as well as design new facilities.

In 1968, he worked on the theme of the New Orleans Square Cast Cafeteria by adding a prop he had designed for The Love Bug and he then oversaw the design of a corridor within the Administration Building with a young woman from Marketing named Sara Ann Hanlon. The theme of the corridor was a tribute to Disneyland’s history and it was completed by January 1969. In June 1969, his team built a merchandise location on the edge of the Motor Boat Lagoon near Small World. Rolly designed it to be a continuation of the childlike look of Small World by using the same architectural scheme as the façade and clock tower. Nearby, an ice cream cart he designed in June 1968 could be found.

From the January 1969 issue of the Disneyland Insider, we see Rolly and a young staff artist named Sara Ann Hanlon working on a "time tunnel" underneath the Administration Building. Courtesy of JaimeMaas on Twitter. 

He did all this while participating in certain parts of the development of the Florida Park as well as other Disney projects. He clarified that he ultimately designed Small World and Toad, despite the fact that Dick Irvine initially assigned all the Fantasyland dark rides to be done by Rolly. Rolly did plot out a number of dark rides he wanted to see open in 1971 at the Florida Park. He wanted to see the trio of opening day classics from Disneyland as well as a redesigned Alice in Wonderland and a few other dark rides. Notably, it was in 1967 when the decision was made to include "It's a Small World" as an opening-day attraction at Walt Disney World. Early on, Marc Davis and Rolly were working on it before Mary Blair rejoined them the following Fall (1968) where they collaborated on the attraction that would open three years later in Florida.

Initially, Rolly was tasked by Dick Irvine to design all the dark rides for Walt Disney World’s Fantasyland. He was looking forward to enhancing the originals at Disneyland for the Florida audience when he began designing Mr. Toad in 1968. He was set to design not only Toad or Small World, but Snow White, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, and a few other dark rides. After all, he worked on Peter Pan before it was released in 1953, he enhanced the ride at Disneyland with Yale Gracey just eight years or so before, and he was amazed by its beauty (that being the key mood Walt Disney wanted with Peter Pan’s Flight). He wanted to do these new dark rides a justice by “plussing” them for Florida. When he started working on Toad, Dick Nunis told him to do a duplicate of the ride to account for the capacity needed for Disney World. It was, after all, the most popular dark ride in Fantasyland at the time. So Rolly decided that instead of creating two identical Toads, he’d create two different experiences all while starting the motor mania in Toad Hall and ending it in Hell. He noticed that kids would exit the ride laughing, despite the imagery of Hell and the Devil, so he incorporated that humor towards the new version and this actually forms the bedrock of his design philosophy. Claude Coats may be the moody master of darkness and Marc Davis may be the clownish caricaturist of Disney family fun, but Rolly went the weird and wild route with Toad. Speaking of Claude Coats, the management at WED took Rolly off of the other attractions and assigned them to Claude to give him something to do for Disney World, notably Snow White.

While working on Toad, Rolly researched the character models at the Disney Archives to use the profiles for the residents of both Toad Hall and the surrounding environs and he even recycled some of the old lampposts from New Orleans Square for the Town Square scene. He staged the ride at one of the studios before it was shipped to Florida for installation. He added his signature touch to Mr. Toad's Wild Ride with subversive themes and quirky designs that would've likely populated the Museum of the Weird had it been built.

With his mind focusing on not only working at Disneyland nor designing Walt Disney World, he worked on a live show that toured the United States and later other countries called Disney on Parade. He was the art director and set/prop designer.

At the end of the day, Rolly felt that the infighting and the lack of cohesion in the wake of Walt’s death, especially when it came to designing Walt Disney World, was too much and after he finished up all his projects in 1971, he quit and consulted full-time with Design 27, a company he created back in 1970.

After leaving Disney for the second time, Rolly worked on a number of projects around the United States, such as designing the County Fair area for Astroworld in Houston, redesigning Busch Gardens in both California and Florida, consulting on the ABC Wildlife Preserve in Maryland, developing the Wet-n-Wild water park in Florida, and doing a ton of work on Circus World in Florida. There were definitely other projects that are further explained in Jeff Heimbuch's wonderful book, but the real test of what Rolly learned with Disney paid off when Marion Knott contacted him in September 1974 to assist her in revitalizing the unpopular Gypsy Camp area. He was specifically tasked with designing a dark ride for the area. The ride's design shifted from a gypsy camp and fair set-up to an attraction with bears taking over as the owners of a berry factory. When the area was re-branded as a Roaring Twenties boardwalk, the final form of the ride was populated with a lovable cast of bruins, a not-so-lovable coyote, and a ton of critters on a trip through a boysenberry factory (with scent intact), a forest, a gypsy fair in true Crump fashion, a network of caves, the woods, and finally the fair, all within the confines of the era that Walter and Cordelia started their own berry business.

They built the sets, the characters, and the props with help from Fantasy Fair, a company founded by an old Disneyland window display designer. During the installation process, the building was still under construction and the contractors were Union-affiliated. Meanwhile, Fantasy Fair was not a Union business, increasing tensions at the time, and Rolly met with Marion over the debacle. It seemed to have been taken care of until the evening of March 26th, 1975, when a fire erupted in the building. It was ruled to be an arson since it was started in five areas within the building. This obstacle made it difficult to open it up on time in June, so the deadline was set back a month, and it finally opened up on the Fourth of July, 1975.

However, it's what Rolly did that really made it successful and memorable. Rolly worked extensively after it had opened to make sure it was always operating properly. Yet it's the decisions he made in the beginning that really made the ride unique. One of the greatest achievements of that particular ride was the use of scent. While the nearby Timber Mountain Log Ride had been using scented pine for the interior scenes since 1969, Rolly revisited his 1967 idea of adding a charcoal scent to the burning city in the Pirates of the Caribbean as well as consulted Bud Hulburt who designed the 1969 Log Ride to achieve that effect for the Factory scene. He reused his other ideas from Disney to redefine the dark ride experience. He mixed black-light and incandescent lighting in the ride. The incandescent lighting was used in the first few scenes and the last, all to have the guests' eyes adjust to the scenery. When doing the dark rides for Fantasyland, management insisted on only using black-light because they felt dark rides shouldn't use incandescent lighting. Rolly encountered the unique mixture in the early 1960's when visiting the Movieland Wax Museum. One of the last takeaways from Disney was the construction of rockwork for the Thunder Cave section. Rolly credits that to the rock-solid work Fred Joerger did on the Pirates of the Caribbean (pardon the pun). It should be noted at the time Rolly was working on Knott's Beary Tales, WED was revisiting the overall look of Fantasyland just down the road. They would use incandescent and black light in the updated dark rides, part of the New Fantasyland in the early 1980's.

Around this time, he was working with casino mogul Steve Wynn on redesigning the Golden Nugget when he returned to the Mouse in 1976. At the time, Disney was trying to get all the help it could get for the Epcot Center project, including retirees and other former Imagineers. Rolly worked extensively on the Land pavilion as well as the planned Health and Life pavilion, which would eventually open in 1989 as the Wonders of Life pavilion. As per the rest of the projects, he worked on the New Fantasyland addition in its early stages as well as some of the work done for Tokyo Disneyland (specifically Small World). His specific work on the Land, namely the interior and associated boat ride, turned out to be very valuable. He worked with a professor from the University of Arizona on the technology used inside the ride. Since it's one of my favorite pavilions at Future World, it's no surprise that some of my gratitude and awe is owed to Rolly and his team.

In the early 1980's, he eventually left Disney once again to pursue consultant work where he got involved with the Cocteau family and their patronage of oceanography, the government of Oman, and other clients. He eventually made his way back to Disney for a few years in the 1990’s when he was tasked with remodeling Epcot Center. He spends his days now as an artist who shares the tales of his wonderful life and career with the next generation of creatives, such as yours truly.

Ultimately, what I learned from Rolly is that these attractions are to be done like Broadway shows with the proper lighting, sets, audio, etc. His design philosophy is simple: have fun. He has been creating memorable attractions ranging from his work at Disney to one of the greatest dark rides created, Knott's Beary Tales, and beyond. Lessons he learned from Animation translated to ideas at WED and later into realities for audiences in New York, California, Florida, and Japan. Whether it's a souvenir stand or a major dark ride, Rolly took charge and created countless memories for millions around the world. It doesn't matter if you were one of the lucky visitors at the New York World's Fair marveling at an orchestra of automobile parts or a kinetic skyscraper of propellers or a first-time visitor to Disneyland in 2019 or 2020 seeing the hypnotic Clock Tower of Small World. Some of his work has been sadly relegated to the memories of one generation, but fortunately his work and legacy is available to all.

Special thanks to Rolly and Marie Crump, Howard Bowers, Mike Lee, Dave Ensign, Foxy from Passport2Dreams, Jim Moore, Christopher Merritt, Tom Morris, and countless others over the years. I'd also like to personally thank my parents, especially my mom who's been mesmerized by Rolly's work at Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm since the 1970's.