UNSEEN WED PIRATES ART ... Its always a good day here at the Institute when we share some unseen (or at least rarely seen) WED Imagineering art for the wonderful Pirates of the Caribbean attraction. I apologize that it is black and white, but it is from a press photo so the best we can do. It is dated January 1962, so very early. At this point in its development (so the story goes) it was a walk through featuring sort of a rogues gallery of pirates done in wax ( a Disney-fied wax museum if you will). We have a nice collection of historical documents on Pirates here at DHI, and none of the early documents mention a boat ride. And yet here with this art it appears as if there is a bit of a bayou/water concept. The historical record suggests that it was at the 1964 New York Worlds Fair that Walt and his Imagineers learned so much about moving large numbers through their attractions, that Walt ordered what little infrastructure was in place for Pirates torn out. Walt stated that they had learned so much at the Fair that he did not want to run the small crowds through that a walk through was limited by; and thus the boat-ride concept for Pirates was born. Another possibility for the water theme in the art, is it is possible the press photo was stamped with the wrong date, but has been my experience with the thousands of Disney press photos we have here at the Institute that the newspaper industry was very, well, industrious in putting the correct information on their images. Finally, this could have been a wax venue that simply took advantage of the bayou theme. The environment that the pirate is in has a very Marc Davis feel to it; however the pirate is very unlike Marcs style. As such, we do not know for sure who the artist is. Other than that, all I can offer is ... Enjoy!
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 22:59:02 +0000
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