The new management’s still getting it right!

The first thing I noticed as I hopped off the tram was the banners proclaiming merchandize featuring the retro designs of the artist Shag. This brightened my day immediately, since I was already wilting under the heat and oceans of suntan lotion scented visitors. I thought having this one of a kind artist was a good choice. Over the last year, the new management team at TDA has shown that not only fresh blood is flowing through hardened bureaucratic veins, but they seem more in tune with the artistic ghosts responsible for Disneyland’s greatness. They and that corny old man are the vapors the company has been living on through the 1990’s.

Why Shag, and why is he a good choice? Now take one jump back. The 1950’s. A time of great optimism. The United States had just emerged as the mightiest industrial nation on the planet, beating back the darkness of fascism in the west and east. The returning veterans, who had survived the collapse of their economy, plus a world war staggering in the cost of human life and ideals, sought to enjoy their hard won peace. They wanted quiet, rayon shirts, and an excellent martini.

As the manufacturing industries changed from bombers and flak jackets to refrigerators and airstream trailers, the new technologies that made mass production easier showed off the optimism by the new colors and designs. Where once it was a “once-size-fits-all�? culture, now appeared choices of different kinds of appliances for differing tastes. All jostled for your attention and the economy boomed. Boomerangs, kidney shapes, star bursts competed for the bucks. Houses were no longer dreary Victorian affairs. New designs burst onto the scene to create a new, jazzy feel to compliment the self satisfied sense of victory. Housing exploded, moving out of the city into ever widening circles of suburbia. It was the era of the ranch house and pool. The smell of BBQ and chlorine.

No where was this more evident than in the new jazzy sounds that went glove in hand with the new exciting mood. Denny Martin merged jazz with the Polynesian fetish that surrounded the admittance of our 50th state into the union. Singers like Frank Sinatra, Bobby Darin, Peggy Lee and Julie London were hip, worldly and carefree. From the smoky dens of Stan Kenton, the music had come to mean the individualistic optimism to make your life into whatever you want. What is American civilization but jazz: Individual solos coming together into one heartfelt composition separate yet working in rhythm, never to be repeated in quite the same way?

And graphic design exploded. Magazines, movies, cartoons were filled with innovative artists staking out their own turf in the dizzy freedom. Animators then and now love the Fifties. It’s either the can-do optimism, or the wild jazzy designs of everything from plates to automobiles. Boomerangs, fins on cars, horn rimmed glasses, ladies hats, tiki torches and bongos. I believe it’s all the above. The designs of the Futura era are just plain fun. And animators are nothing if not obsessed with fun. The heavily graphic style burst onto the scene by a group of renegade Disney artists who started their own studio, UPA (United Productions of America). Hamstrung by only drawing Mickey and Pluto cartoons, the new studio stretched its creative muscle devising colorful cartoons of Pete Hothead, Mr. Magoo, and Gerald McBoingboing. Influenced by a confluence of expressionism and primitivism (Picasso was a strong proponent of this style, as well as Marc Davis and Mary Blair), the highly designed characters and backgrounds worked well with constrained budgets, as well as the new medium of television. Two directors from the MGM animation studio capitalized on the style and limited animation into a powerhouse cartoon factory churning out shows for television. Their names were Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera.

And the centerpiece of the Atomic Age pop entertainment is, of course, Disneyland. The opening of the park was a seminal event on the cultural landscape so huge it turned the name “Disney�? from a noun to a verb. The park itself is a living monument to optimism. The theme of the place is exploration. Exploration and discovery of the unknown regions of the mind such as dark jungles, the windswept frontier, America at the dawn of electricity, fantasy, and naturally, infinite space. Forward, backward, upward or downward, surrounded by a chugging train and that is forever arriving.

Walt Disney was not much of a fan of the new graphics Ward Kimball had been doing. Walt was too much of a traditionalist as far as animation went, but he was savvy enough to know the style was popular with his animators and audiences. Kimball’s “Toot Whistle Plunk and Boom�? won an Oscar, and his “Man in Space�? series was very popular on television.

This is why I enjoy the merchandize of Shag. It is simple and direct and smooth and cool. I have been aware of his artistry for years. I really enjoyed his take on the 40th birthday of the Enchanted Tiki Room. The purples and oranges work well the ideas of the tropical paradise of Adventureland celebrating the first audio-animatronic show. I bought several packages of the post cards and write letters or birthday wishes on them. I keep another package tucked away in pristine condition.