Post #160637 by Palama Tiki on Sat, May 21, 2005 8:03 PM

i just read this interview with Rolly Crump who helped design the Tiki Room, among other Disney attractions. Thought you might be interested in reading his story firsthand (source: http://www.startedbyamouse.com)

"The next thing, after I got done working on the Haunted Mansion and the illusions for that, our next involvement was to do the Tiki Room. The Tiki Room was originally designed to be a restaurant. And so I remember - and these are the things that I remember that are so special - our sitting in a room with Walt when he would come up with an idea. And then all of a sudden it was one of the attractions at Disneyland. Being there when the idea was first kicked off was very special.

One thing that happened was Walt said, "I want to do a little Tiki Room. I just want a little Tiki, Tiki Room for over in Adventureland. We're re-doing Adventureland." So we said, "Okay, fine."

So John Hench, one of our lead art directors was asked to do a rendering of what the Tiki Room would look like. And John did. He did a beautiful rendition of birds in cages and the interior of this thing and Walt took one look at it and said, "John, you've got birds in there." And John said, "Yeah," and Walt said, "Well, you can't have birds in there." And he said, "Well, why not?" "They're going to poop in the food." Yeah, he really said that.

And John said, "No, no, no. They're not real birds, they're stuffed birds." And Walt said, "Disney does not stuff birds." And John said, "No, no, no ... they look stuffed. They are little mechanical birds that cheep." And Walt said, "Oh, little mechanical birds that cheep. Well, maybe they can cheep and cavort with each other." And that's how we started the Tiki Room.

And then we went on and on and on and then all of a sudden we started to develop the works of these little guys and the sounds and everything. So all of a sudden that was in production.

And then Walt said to me, "Rolly I want you to design the pre-show Tikis outside so that the people waiting to go in ..." See at that time, it was still a restaurant. "... While they are waiting to go in, there will be a little show that goes on." So I say, "Okay, fine."

So I started doing these little sketches and I got all this information out of the library about the different gods and goddesses of the islands of the Pacific so I'd be authentic because Rongo was the god of kite flying, Pele was the god of fire and everything, so I did all these little sketches and for one of them I got an idea. In the Orient, they have where they drip water into a little piece of bamboo and when it fills, it dumps. And when it comes back, it hits a log and scares the rabbits and the deer away. I thought, "Yeah, I'll do that." Supposedly, what he hits on top is his wife and that's the way the story goes, that's his wife between his legs.

So anyway, I'm showing all these pictures to Walt and Walt looks at them and says, "Are these all authentic, Rolly?" And I said, "Yes, sir, they are." "What's that the god of?" And he pointed right to the one with the bamboo. And I didn't know what to say. Luckily John Hench was standing next to me and said, "That's the god that tells the time." And Walt said, "Oh, okay." So when the meeting was over, John said, "You better find out who the god is that tells the time," which I did. I went to the book and it's Maui.

So anyway, Maui was then designed. All these were were little quick sketches that Walt bought off on. They weren't even in color. They were just little line drawings. And Walt said, "Build 'em." So I took them to the head sculptor and said, "Will you get started on these? Walt bought off on them." And he said, "Rolly, I'm too busy. I don't have time for that." And I said, "Well, who's going to sculpt them?" And he said, "You are." And I said, "I am? I've never sculpted before in my life." I want you to know that the first piece of sculpture I did in my life is Maui in the pre-show of the Tiki Room.

Anyway, what happened was, I said, "Okay, fine." And he started telling me how to build the armatures, how to put the clay on. And it was plasticine clay, an oil-based clay. And when it's cold, it's really hard to work with. And this is in the springtime and it was really cold in this little barn that we worked in. So I take them and put them on wheels and push them into the parking lot. And I actually put the clay and sculpted them in the parking lot. So I want you to know that all the pre-show Tikis before you go in there were sculpted in the parking lot. They were not sculpted in a beautiful studio with north light.

And from there, I sent them to Disneyland and they made them out of fiberglass. They sent them back to me. Once I got them, I painted them. Painted them all up. And then I took them to Disneyland, and I actually took a wrench and installed them. If you were to have that done today, you'd probably have about 50 people. There would have to be renderings done and engineering done. In those days, and that's why I call them my naïve days, we just did it. We did whatever it took to do it. In those days, again there were only 30 of us and that included the janitors and the people who worked in the accounting department and everything. So, it was marvelous.

The humor also carried on in this first building that we were in. I had this motorcycle and I had been riding it at lunchtime. And I came back in and I was just getting ready to park it when one of the secretaries said, "You know, I've never ridden a motorcycle before." So I said, "Get on the back and I'll take you." So I went through the building, right up to her desk and dropped her off. Well, Dick Irvine, the lead art director, opens up the door, looks out and says, "Oh, it's just Rolly," and shuts the door. That's because there was this constant fun that we had and it continued on forever.

Okay, now the next thing is that after we finished up the Tiki Room, and Walt basically said after we were designing it, "No one will leave the restaurant, so we're going to make a show out of it." So when you sit on those chairs, I want you to know those chairs were purchased for a restaurant. Because if that was meant to be a theater, there'd be bench seating all the way around.

And the other thing was that I sculpted the birds, actually, I sculpted 80 percent of the Tiki Room. The bird mobile that comes out of the ceiling, well, they sent me up on a Raymond Lift because I had to work on it 15 feet up in the air. And they sent me up and they let me down only when I had to go to the bathroom and when I wanted lunch. So that was kind of fun doing that. And again, like I said, they sent it over to the machine shop that made this damn thing that opens up and they sent it over and said, "Okay, Rolly, sculpt it." So anyway, that was that."

[ Edited by: Palama Tiki on 2005-05-21 20:07 ]