Between Books - Designing Disney's Theme Parks

I have heard a lot about Designing Disney's Theme Parks: The Architecture of Reassurance edited by Karal Ann Marling over the years.  Honestly, I've often understood it to be next to John Hench's Designing Disney as a classic of the field.  So when I found a used copy of Designing Disney's Theme Parks I knew it had to find it a spot in the Between Library.

Designing Disney's Theme Parks: The Architecture of Reassurance edited by Karal Ann Marling serves as a companion to an exhibition at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in the 1990s.  As such, the book is focused heavy on design.  The text includes articles on Imagineers as artists by Marty Sklar, design, Disneyland and culture and setting.  The essays are surrounded by the many images including design sketches, model pictures and images of the park in action.  Overall the general theme stresses the importance of understanding design in Disney Theme Parks and learning from them in other projects.

Honestly, I do not believe that Designing Disney's Theme Parks will be a go to book for me.  The book does a good job of discussing design.  But a lot has changed since the 1990s.  The images includes many that at publication date would have likely been new to the reader, but today they have been published in numerous other books.  But the difference between this volume and more recent is accessibility.  This text really speaks to designers, and converses to them as professionals.  Other offerings have a more general audience, speaking to many different fields.  Additionally, I had hoped that a major theme of Designing Disney's Theme Parks would be movement.  Honestly this is touched on but not empathized to the level I had expected from other commentators.  Perhaps that fact this is a collection hindered the ability for it to maintain the consistent theme.

Designing Disney's Theme Parks: The Architecture of Reassurance edited by Karal Ann Marling is an important Between Book.  It served as a predecessor for many of the design books that we have now, using pictures to help tell the Disney story.  Hard-core Disney history fans need this volume.  However, more casual readers may want to seek out a less technical book.

Between Books - Walt Disney’s Imagineering Legends and the Genesis of the Disney Theme Park

Jeff Kurtti in Walt Disney’s Imagineering Legends and the Genesis of the Disney Theme Park outlines the lives of 30 Imagineering legends, both official Imagineers and unofficial ones, that help build the Disney theme parks that we love today.  Kurtti begins with Walt Disney himself, whom Kurtti labels as the original Imagineer.  Kurtti follows with themed chapters including The Prototype Imagineers, The Executive Suite, The Place Makers, The Story Department, Masters of Mixed Media, The Model Shop, The Machine Shop, The Music Makers, and The Unofficial Imagineers.  The book concludes with a section titled The Renaissance Imagineer which provides a slightly longer biography of John Hench.  Most of the biographies are less than five pages and filled with photos and illustrations from the legend’s career.   

The text itself is factual, well researched and a valuable resource for the lives of these Imagineering legends.  Each biography provides a quick overview on each figure spotlighted.  The biographies are more than just bland facts, with the Kimball chapter discussing the low points of Walt Disney and Ward Kimball’s relationship and another explaining why Yale Gracey is a mysterious figure in Disney history.  The only difference between the quality of information and style I have found in Walt Disney’s Imagineering Legends and the Genesis of the Disney Theme Park and academic historical books and articles I have read is the sources which include fan magazines, which for Disney legends are an excellent resource for their past interviews.  Some readers may find the writing an obstacle since it is academic in nature.  Therefore, it can be difficult to “get into” each biography if one was hoping for a hook to pull you into the story.  

Walt Disney’s Imagineering Legends and the Genesis of the Disney Theme Park is an essential volume for any Between Books library.  In less than 150 pages it provides an introduction to 30 key players including Walt Disney himself.  I personally have consulted this volume a number of times to verify and clarify information.  Due to its size and writing style it will never be a book one packs up to read poolside, but it is a book one will consult again and again as you ask yourself questions about these men and women.  If anything I hope Kurtti would consider another volume in the future including new Imagineering legends not included like Marty Sklar and Tony Baxter.