Fridays with Jim Korkis: Rolly Crump and Epcot

By Dave Shute

Welcome back to Fridays with Jim Korkis! Jim, the dean of Disney historians, writes about Walt Disney World history every Friday on yourfirstvisit.net.

ROLLY CRUMP AT EPCOT

By Jim Korkis

Rolly Crump started at the Disney Studio in animation, and in 1959 became an Imagineer. He contributed to many of the classic attractions at Disneyland, including The Enchanted Tiki Room, the Haunted Mansion, It’s a Small World and others.

He left Disney to work on outside projects, but returned in 1976 at Marty Sklar’s request to work on Epcot. Specifically, he was involved with the Land and Wonders of Life pavilions but he also contributed to other things.

Imagineer John Hench had been laboring over a master plan for Epcot but Sklar felt that Crump might provide a new perspective. Crump didn’t care for the original proposed plan of the pavilions all looking the same from the outside. He also suggested that the monorail would drop guests off not at the front of the park but at the World Showcase Lagoon at a transportation pavilion sponsored by General Motors.

(c) Disney

All of the transportation methods to, from and around Epcot would go from that pavilion. Crump’s idea for the World Showcase was that it would be a series of islands. Guests would have to take a boat to China and from China take a carriage to India and so on. The various pavilions would be hidden from immediate sight in little valleys and hills. Fierce opposition from Hench crushed that alternate idea.

Crump also proposed having a tower in the center of Spaceship Earth that would have an observation deck for guests to see the entire park. Hench crushed that idea as well.

Crump’s idea for the Wonders of Life pavilion (then called the Life and Health pavilion) would feature the Great Midway of Life. Just like the old-time midways found at a carnival, there would be different entertainments including a Care-of-Self Carrousel which had eight health habits (sleep, diet, exercise, etc.) represented. There would have been a shooting gallery so that when a guest shot at a particular item of food like an apple or piece of cake, it would register how many calories were in it and how long it would take to burn them off.

He also proposed a dark ride for the pavilion through the human body, but unlike the eventual motion simulator Body Wars, it would be a gentle roller coaster where you would slowly work your way up to the top of the head where a brainstorm would send you spiraling back down. Besides the anatomically correct visuals surrounding the vehicle would be a narrator explaining what the guest was seeing.

Before Horizons, Crump and his team worked on a proposal for General Electric for a show hosted by an audio-animatronic Thomas Edison promoting better living through GE. Crump worked with writer and comedian Stan Freberg who suggested the building look like a box that light bulbs came in with the light bulbs sticking out of it. The pre-show would have featured cavemen doing trial and error and eventually inventing an umbrella that was called the “parasol of progress”.

When it came to redesign the Stargate Restaurant in 1994, Crump was tasked with the project. He remembered that an outside vendor had tried to interest Disney in purchasing his electric umbrellas. They were literally electric with lights on top of them. Disney didn’t care for the design or the cost but Crump loved the name.

When he pitched it CEO Michael Eisner, Eisner loved it as well and considered naming the entire building by that name instead of Innoventions. Crump did the interior mural with the neon lights and the fake rain coming down. Crump retired from Disney in 1996.

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Thanks, Jim! Rolly Crump published a brief illustrated autobiography (with Jeff Heimbuch) in 2012—It’s Kind of a Cute Story.

And come back next Friday for more from Jim Korkis!

In the meantime, check out his books, including his new books Vault of Walt: Volume 10: Final Edition,   Kungaloosh! The Mythic Jungles of Walt Disney World and Hidden Treasures of Walt Disney World Resorts: Histories, Mysteries, and Theming, much of which was first published on this site.

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