Fridays with Jim Korkis: Claude Coats: Walt Disney’s Imagineer

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.

YOUR PERSONAL DISNEY LIBRARY (55)

By Jim Korkis

• Claude Coats: Walt Disney’s Imagineer by David Bossert

There are many Imagineers who worked directly with Walt Disney but are little known today. Significant contributions were made by talented people like Bill Martin, Bruce Busman, Fred Joerger and others yet few if any Disney fans would be able to identify anything they did at any Disney theme park.

For over half a century, Claude Coats, who was six feet six inches tall and known at the Disney Studio as the “Gentle Giant,” worked for the Walt Disney Company but perhaps the only thing most Disney fans know about him is he clashed with Marc Davis over the direction of the Haunted Mansion. Coats wanted it more atmospheric and scary while Davis wanted it focused more on characters and humor.

That struggle resulted in compromises that created one of the most iconic attractions at a Disney theme park. That wallpaper with the faces in the attraction is the work of Coats.

Coats did major design work for Disneyland, Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Paris, but he considered that his “second career” since his “first career” was doing backgrounds for Disney animated shorts and features including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

For Walt Disney World, Coats was responsible for design work on Snow White’s Scary Adventures, Mickey Mouse Revue, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, If You Had Wings, Universe of Energy, World of Motion, Horizons and many unmade attractions that I have documented in past columns. Coats was also responsible for the exterior design of the Walt Disney World Haunted Mansion.

Claude Coats: Walt Disney’s Imagineer is 264 pages and its 12 by 9 inches size refers to the fact that it is done in a landscape format, wider than it is tall, allowing for a much better display of some photos and artwork.

Readers know that I love Disney books that feature photos and artwork that go beyond the usual standard ones that seem to pop up constantly in books and websites. This book, thanks to the generosity of the Coats family, features things I never knew existed, like a photo of the Pirates of the Caribbean auction scene set up at the Disney Studio that was the final one that Walt himself saw.

On another page is the original colorful map of the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction filled with intricate details done by Sam McKim for a Disney executive. On yet another page is Coats’ sketches for unproduced attractions at Disneyland like one of Walt’s favorite, the Uranium Hunt, where guests would use Geiger counters to search for low grade radioactive rocks.

A few have complained that the book concentrates too much on Coats’ impressive work for Disneyland and the 1964 New York World’s Fair but the book does cover his work painting backgrounds for some of the classic Disney animated feature films like Pinocchio as well as an entire chapter devoted to Coats accompanying Walt Disney to NASA in Huntsville, Alabama in 1965 to meet with Werhner von Braun.

For me, I am grateful to have all of this information in print even if there is not a full chapter devoted to his innovative work on Walt Disney World’s If You Had Wings attraction like the speed tunnel.

Bossert worked for the Walt Disney Company for over thirty years as a an artist and a writer and I am particularly fond of his books on Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and the story behind Destino with Walt and Salvador Dali. For this book he worked closed with Alan Coats, Claude’s son and also an Imagineer. His text is clear, accurate and informative.

Bossert struggled to get Claude Coats: Walt Disney’s Imagineer published because publishers responded, “No one knows Coats so they won’t buy the book.” Here is your chance to prove them wrong.

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Thanks, Jim! And come back next Friday for more from Jim Korkis!

In the meantime, check out his books, including his latest, Final Secret Stories of Walt Disney World and Disneyland Historical Highlights!

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