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.    

Between Books - Design: Just For Fun

Memories change, fade and play tricks on us.

And sadly sometimes those who spent times with legends pass away without recording their memories.

Over the last several years there has been talk of the passing of the World War Two generation and the loss of their memories and tales.  Some authors and archives made efforts to collect these stories before they could no longer be claimed.  Sadly we are losing another generation of legends.  Only a few of Walt’s Nine Old Men are still with us and there are increasing fewer and fewer Disney Legends who helped Walt Disney build Disneyland.  Who would not have loved a memoir written by Ward Kimball or Marc Davis?  Let’s be honest every Disney fan would enjoy it!  We still have a number of these men and women that we can only call legends available to us and hopefully we will have them for years to come.  And over the next decades I hope we as a Disney community can capture as much of their memory as possible so the Between Kids and their kids can read and hear about what it was like working with Walt Disney, remembering that he was a person and not a company.

Bob Gurr in Design: Just for Fun recounts his life including how he became an Imagineer, the projects he worked on, and his life after Disney which can hardly be called a retirement.  Gurr outlines his childhood and his difficulties with the traditional educational system, urging parents of problem children that they may be parenting a creative.  He recounts how he joined Imagineering as a young adult, with no college degree, tasked to design Autopia.  Gurr would go on to contribute to a list of classic and beloved Disney attractions including the Main Street Vehicles, the Matterhorn, the Monorail, the Ford Magic Skyway, the Abraham Lincoln figure for Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, and the Omnimover used in numerous Disney dark rides to just name a few.  Gurr goes in depth into the design of these attractions, including the choices he made, manufacturing, and performance.  After a long career with Disney, Gurr was laid off or quit depending on the story, and started his own design firm with its own impressive list of accomplishments including the Michael Jackson 1984 victory tour, UFO for the 1984 Olympics closing ceremony, the King Kong figure for Universal Studios, and the Treasure Island Pirate Battle show.  The book finishes with Gurr’s comments on design, how to become an Imagineer and what it was like working with Walt Disney.

Gurr provides tons of insight into how Disney designers and himself created.  A reoccurring theme is his use of stock parts.  In building the Monorail for example he did not attempt to create new components if avoidable, but searched through automotive parts catalogs.  By using this method he could ensure parts with service records and could avoid the need for specialized manufacturing.  One does not think stock parts when considering Disney’s attractions, but was an eye opener to realize how much under the hood was off the rack.  Another realization is the discussion of the use of contractors like Arrow Dynamics to build attractions instead of building in house. 

This book is rich with Gurr having a lot to say based on a long and impressive career.  The book consists of short chapters, rarely longer than four to five pages.  Gurr is a designer and clearly not a writer.  The opening chapters on his early life are somewhat choppy.  And there are occasions where Gurr repeats himself.  Once he enters the chapters covering his design projects the text begins to flow more fluidly.  The writing is at times very technical and somewhat above my head.  Math is hard!  You can really tell he enjoyed his projects and loves building things.  The book is very richly illustrated with fantastic photographs of Gurr’s creations and blueprints.  Three are a few instances where the illustrations are distracting, with pictures dividing blocks of text  and the reader seeking to find the continuation of the thought on the other side of the picture. 

This book is quite expensive.  Personally I had to think through very painfully if I would purchase the title.  In the end, I felt like it was something I could only read if I purchased it for myself.  You will not find this title in a public library.  It is extremely limited to 2,000 copies (1,000 red versions autographed and numbered).  Gurr explained in an interview with Moustalgia that he intended for the book to keep its value for collectors.  He argues he is not only selling a memoir but also a collector’s item.  At the time of this posting, there are only blue editions remaining.  

Design: Just for Fun shows the depth of Bob Gurr’s work in themed attractions and provides his memories of working for Disney and others.  Where else can one read of a Disney legend laying underneath the Mad Tea Party to observe its wear patterns?  Gurr is a legend with fantastic stories to share.  Now fans can keep those stories within your Disney library with Design: Just for Fun.

     

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