Gratitude: How the 'worst' artist Walt Disney ever employed shaped Disneyland forever

The self-described "worst" artist ever worked with by Walt Disney who went on to help produce three of Disneyland's the majority of precious tourist attractions and shape Knott's Berry Farm has passed away after a kooky, whimsical and brave profession as a theme park designer.

Rolly Crump passed away Sunday, March 12 in his Carlsbad home at the age of 93, according to the Walt Disney Company.

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Rolly Crump shows off his vision for the Haunted Mansion that included a "Museum of the Weird" throughout a 1965 episode of the "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color" television program. (Disney).
Crump assisted develop It's a Small World, Haunted Mansion and Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room-- 3 of Disneyland's most enduring tourist attractions.

" I wasn't that much of an illustrator," Crump said in the 2016 documentary "The Whimsical Imagineer." "I think Walt liked my creativity.".

Influenced by cartoons and comics, Crump began drawing as a kid in the 1930s while attempting to imagine the psychological pictures painted in his head by radio serials like "Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy.".

Crump got his start at Disney's animation studio in 1952 working for Eric Larson, among Disney's Nine Old Men.

" They told me I most likely had the worst portfolio of anybody that was ever hired in animation at the studio," Crump stated in the documentary. "I still hold that record I believe.".

Making $35 weekly, Crump took a significant pay cut to work as an in-betweener animator on "Peter Pan," "Lady and the Tramp," "Sleeping Beauty" and "101 Dalmatians." He decreased bricks and combined mud on weekends, building drain manholes to supplement his earnings.

When a spirited propeller exhibit Crump set up in the studio library captured Walt Disney's eye, his huge break came. In 1959, Crump relocated to WED Enterprises-- the precursor to Walt Disney Imagineering-- to help bring to life the brand-new Disneyland tourist attractions the boss was thinking up.

" The something Walt taught me more than anything else was the big image," Crump stated in the documentary film. "He had a vision and knew exactly what it was going to be and how to get there.".

Crump immediately set to work on a field of flowers with prop petals for Ozland, a "Wizard of Oz" land imagined for Disneyland that never emerged.

Crump made his very first substantial imprint on Disneyland with the Enchanted Tiki Room. Initially visualized as a dining establishment, the Tiki Room featured a brand-new development for the park: audio-animatronic birds.

Crump stated the birth of the Tiki Room in the Disney+ documentary "The Imagineering Story" and told an extremely un-Disney story about Walt's colorful concerns about early strategies that conceived of the bird program as a restaurant.

" Walt always desired a tea space, but instead we're going to do a little dining establishment," Crump stated in the Disney+ documentary. That's precisely what he stated. John said, 'No, no, no.

For the 1964 New York World's FaIr, Crump and his group developed more than 350 toys for It's a Small World. Once again featured Crump's signature props, the marquee Tower of the Four Winds entry sculpture. The tourist attraction relocated to Disneyland after the World's Fair and to this day a parade of wood dolls march around the facade's clock tower every 15 minutes.

The Haunted Mansion was Crump's crowning achievement. He worked with Yale Gracey and a number of Imagineers on the strange and dark flight, which was originally imagined as a walk-through destination. Some of Crump's bizarre concepts for a never-realized Museum of the Weird dining establishment made their way into the Haunted Mansion.

Beginning in 1958, Crump and Gracey developed haunted home unique results based on 19th century magic illusions and "Popular Mechanics" books for innovative kids.

During a 1965 episode of the "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color" television show, Crump laid out his vision for the Haunted Mansion that consisted of a "Museum of the Weird" with a casket clock and a melting candle light man to name a few oddities.

Crump took a look at the world through a different lens than the majority of people. He desired a Haunted Mansion that broke the mold. Walt Disney imagined the Museum of the Weird functioning as the entry and exit experiences for the Haunted Mansion.

Disney passed away in 1966 before the Haunted Mansion was finished and prepare for the ghost home altered and progressed-- but components of Crump's unrealized Museum of the Weird still exist today in the wallpaper, furnishings and paintings of the Haunted Mansion.

The Rolo Rumkin tombstone in the Haunted Mansion graveyard commemorates Crump with the inscription: Rolo Rumkin lived and passed away a friendly bumpkin.

During a break from Imagineering, Crump designed the original Knott's Bear-y Tales dark ride that opened in 1975. A brand-new 4-D interactive dark ride that pays tribute to the initial Bear-y Tales destination opened in 2021 at the Buena Park theme park.

Crump stated in "The Whimsical Imagineer" documentary. To be asked to do something you've never ever done prior to. And that's about as exciting as you can get.

Born Roland Fargo Crump on February 27, 1930, in Alhambra, California, Rolly got his special nickname from Walt Disney who struggled to keep in mind Roland.

Crump was named a Disney Legend in 2004 and got an honorary palm reader window on Disneyland's Main Street U.S.A. promising whimsical and weird predictions that will haunt you. His 2012 autobiography, "It's Kind of a Cute Story," has spawned several follows up.

Crump is made it through by his other half, Marie Tocci, his children Christopher, Roxana and Theresa and three grandchildren.