Mousey Movie - The Legacy of Arrow Development

The Legacy of Arrow Development is offered by American Coaster Enthusiasts for free on YouTube!

This 70 minute documentary provides an in-depth history to the creation, popularity, decline and legacy of Arrow Development and its impact on the theme park industry.  Arrow is often the unspoken of partner for Disney parks, developing Imagineering concepts into physical rides.  These legendary rides include The Matterhorn Bobsleds, it's a small world, The Flying Saucers and so many more.  It would not be an overstatement to say that the Disney parks that we know today would not look the same without the contributions of this ride engineering company.

The documentary starts with the formation of the company with veterans of the American industrial machine from World War II.  The founders lacked capital and in some cases experience, but had practical engineering knowledge and a strong work ethic.  The company built a number of offerings, but began to specialize in small amusement park attractions.  Eventually, the Karl Bacon and Ed Morgan led company caught the eye of Walt Disney, who often relied on Arrow Development to make his Imagineering visions into realities.  Arrow Development would continue to grow and would provide attractions to non-Disney parks.  And with the passing of Walt Disney, the company's use of Arrow was largely discontinued.  Arrow then serviced numerous parks, often building large and fast roller coasters.  But with the changing of leadership, numerous sales, and declining market share the Arrow name largely disappeared as the company was sold to another amusements engineering firm.

I do not really watch YouTube, and never for 70 minutes.  But The Legacy of Arrow Development is a true documentary that needs to take notice and kept my attention for the entire time.  The presentation, really highlighted why Arrow was important and how its legacy continues to this day.  Additionally, for the Disney fan that wider impact outside of the Disney parks is sufficiently felt.  And it cannot be forgotten, this is a free quality professional look into the theme park business focusing on one of the engineering pioneers of the industry.  I was worried that it would feel like a fan film.  Instead it is well-researched with interviews from those who worked for and with Arrow.  The film also looks straight on to the eventual fall of the company, with an explanation of why. 

The Legacy of Arrow Development is a Mousey Movie that Disney parks fans will want to watch.  It provides a great historical look at a Walt Disney partner and ally.  As without Arrow Development, the theme park that we have today would not exist. 

Between Books - Roller Coasters, Flumes and Flying Saucers

There is a chance that you have never heard of Arrow Development.  But if you have ever visited the Disneyland Resort or Walt Disney World Resort you probably have experienced their work.  While you are likely aware of the legendary Imagineers who designed and themed the early attractions introduced by Disney, it was Arrow Development Co. which manufactured and built many of the classic rides we still love today.

Roller Coasters, Flumes and Flying Saucers: The Story of Ed Morgan and Karl Bacon Ride Inventors of the Modern Amusement Parks by Robert R. Reynolds documents the growth of Arrow Development from a start-up company to the premier manufacturer of theme park attractions.  Reynolds alternates between narrative sections on the background and history of Arrow Development and founders Ed Morgan and Karl Bacon and transcripts of interviews with Morgan and Bacon.  The author and interviews chronicle how Morgan and Bacon started a small machine shop after World War II, with a truck as one of their most valuable assets and grew their successful business.  Their early jobs included contracts with the U.S. Navy, Stanford Linear Accelerator and a crop dusting company, not entertainment companies.  Morgan and Bacon decided to bid on a merry-go-round in San Jose, California, their first steps into the amusement industry.  Arrow’s later small scale paddle boat, the Lil’ Belle, caught the interests of Disney which was making it own strides into the amusement industry in the early 1950’s with a project called Disneyland.  Arrow would be contracted to build the creations of Disney’s talented designers including King Arthur’s Carousel, Casey Jr., Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, and Snow White’s Scary Adventures for Disneyland’s opening day.  With the success of these attractions and the successful contributions Arrow Development provided, they became a highly influential ride manufacturing firm within the growing amusement industry.  Reynolds outlines the continued successes with both Disney and other companies.  Reynolds’ narrative discusses continued successes such as it’s a small world, the Monorail, and Pirates of the Caribbean working with Disney and other clients.  The author also outlines Morgan and Bacon’s relationship with Arrow Development and Arrow’s legacy today including the roller coaster design firm D.H. Manufacturing led by Ed Morgan’s son Dana.       

I had heard of Arrow Development, but reading Bob Gurr’s Design: Just for Fun hit home for me the key role this company had in the early days of Disneyland.  Gurr made it clear that Arrow delivered what Imagineers dreamt.  And Gurr’s book led me to pick up Roller Coasters, Flumes and Flying Saucers.  Roller Coasters, Flumes and Flying Saucers pays off in providing greater detail in Arrow Development’s early and ongoing role with Disneyland and later the Walt Disney World Resort.  What are especially gratifying are the long sections of Morgan and Bacon in their own words discussing Walt Disney, other Disney personalities and the complexity of designing the attractions and ride vehicles tasked to them.  Their stories literally go into the underside of many of our favorite Disney rides and provide explanations of how they were engineered.  Though Reynolds’ commentary is readable and helpful, it really is the words of the founders of Arrow Development that catch the reader’s attention.  I have seen some reviews that have noted the text is highly technical and unreadable.  I am allergic to math and though some of their explanations were above my head I never found them so distracting that I had to stop reading.  Instead I found the book easy to read and the technical aspects are just a small detour.            

In many ways my thoughts on Roller Coasters, Flumes and Flying Saucers are a value question.  To buy a used copy on Amazon.com at the moment is a minimum of $40 with some copies over $100.  This is collector book territory for me and I expect rarity or a bonus to make the purchase worthwhile.  I honestly could not see ever paying $20 for this book.  I would need a specific research reason to pay this much for a non limited edition autographed collectible book.  Luckily the Between Wife is introducing me more and more to eBooks.  While I cannot see spending $40 for this book, I think the $4.99 for the Kindle version is a steal. 

However, I do want to add that for me there were issues with images reading this text on Kindle apps across several devices, none of them an actual Kindle.  The text includes a number of black and white images.  However, for me they were difficult to see.  They were not scaled well typically not taking up the full screen.  And they did not enlarge well, making it difficult for me to look at the fine details.  I am sure in the print version the pictures are very beneficial but in the electronic form they were almost distracting at times. 

Who is Arrow Development, Ed Morgan and Karl Bacon and why as a Disney fan should I even care?  Roller Coasters, Flumes, and Flying Saucers makes it clear that they were key partners in the foundation of Disneyland and the later expansion into Florida.  Robert P. Reynolds provides us a useful commentary of this relationship, one that relies heavily on the words of the Arrow Development founders.  And at $4.99 for an electronic version readers can add a useful book to their Between Book library.