Designer Times
Page 2 of 2
I learned a lot on the tram job......I made the seats of aluminum so they would not need painting and would always look shiny and new. These faced sideways on either side of the tram, rather than forwards like today. But when a driver made a sudden stop, all the ladies dressed in slick Nylon dresses would slide sideways on the polished aluminum into a big pileup. The fix was to place 3M antiskid tape on the seats to grip the dresses.
I made the roof supports out of welded aluminum only to find that this construction would get fatigue cracks after only a few months banging about in the parking lot. Every time we made a welded repair, new cracks would soon appear next to the repair. So again I was getting an engineering education first hand by watching my designs fail in service. Never again would I design something of welded aluminum where there can be a cantilever reversing stress load.
An early sponsor at Disneyland was the Carnation Milk Company. They wanted to have an antique delivery truck parked on Main Street right in front of their Carnation Ice Cream parlor. Walt had me design an antique looking truck, which Carnation built right in their own truck maintenance shop in Glendale.
I based the antique design on a “modern” 1931 Model A Ford chassis. A friend made a custom radiator emblem for it naming the truck.....Gurrmobile. I used to get a kick out of “know-it-all” guests who would tell others how they remember the old Gurrmobiles that were built in Los Angeles long ago. For years it served as a photo-op prop in front of the ice cream parlor. When folks would take each other’s photo seated in the cab, behind them would appear the words “Carnation Milk”......clever publicity.
Next month: Things don’t always work - Disney learns to re-design them.
-- Bob Gurr
Bob Gurr began working with Disney in 1954. He retired in 1981 but occassionally consults for the Company. Since Disney he's worked on the sinking ship at Las Vegas' Treasure Island, Universal Studios' King Kong, Godzilla for the film by the same name and much more. Among his proudest accomplishments he lists "making Walt tickled pink that some of the things he wanted to build actually worked. You could tell how proud he was when he would show off things to his friends and the press. Lincoln and the Monorail were two big ones for him."
Designer Times is normally posted the second Wednesday of each month.
The opinions expressed by Bob Gurr, and all of our columnists, do not necessarily represent the feelings of LaughingPlace.com or any of its employees or advertisers. All speculation and rumors about the future of Disneyland and the Walt Disney Company are just that - speculation and rumors - and should be treated as such.
-- Posted December 13, 2000
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