A 25-Year Dream...

Dedicated to the spirit

and memory of our dear friend

BRUCE GORDON

April 18, 1951 – November 6, 2007

His devotion, passion, intelligence

and humor informed and delighted

millions of Disney fans the world over.

Those words ring true to the presentation of the newly released 5-CD box set Walt Disney and the 1964 World’s Fair. You might question the need or the relevance of 45-year old audio from an almost disastrous World’s Fair—but you need to remember a few things about a pre-Walt Disney World world. Prior to 1964, animatronics dinosaurs never roamed; the world was not as small; there was not a great, big, beautiful tomorrow; and a long gone president had been silent for 100 years. There was also discussion within Walt Disney Productions of creating a possible East Coast Disneyland; would people visit Disney-style attractions on the East Coast?

This box set was a 25-year dream for Disney Imagineers Bruce Gordon and Dave Mumford. I was fortunate to interview Randy Thornton and Stacia Martin about their involvement with the project. Randy is a Senior Producer with Walt Disney Records and most Disney enthusiasts are familiar with his work—since 1989 he has worked on most audio projects for the parks, including the Disneyland box set and all of the official albums since 2000. Stacia Martin is a Disney Artist and Historian. She spends a lot of her time traveling, talking Disney trivia, creating unique art, writing and sharing her knowledge of Disneyland. Both Randy and Stacie were very eager, open and enthusiastic about the project.

Stacia remembers the twenty-year retrospective about the World’s Fair that Bruce and Dave did in 1984. It was for Disney castmembers and Stacia still has one of the programs for it. She said that Bruce was very passionate about the importance of the Fair and wanted to release the audio. It was fifteen years later before Stacia would hear of the project again.

Randy started at the Disney Company as a clerk in the Disney Music Division. One of his first jobs was to “do something” with the boxes of tape left behind by the previous clerk. He listened to several of them and discovered a demo by the Sherman brothers for Mary Poppins that was thought to have been lost. The first project he worked on was the 1989 release of the soundtrack for Mary Poppins. Since then, he has worked on many film- and park-related projects. Randy spent five years working on the Disneyland box set; Bruce did the layout for the set. In 2001, Randy was asked to be part of the World’s Fair project.

On June 27, 1999, Stacia was involved in a kickoff meeting about the Disney Pavilions where suggestions were made about material and people for the project. Bruce and Tony had just put together the Disneyland Forever kiosks in 1998 and they wanted to release the Fair audio with a pre-printed book. Their hopes were to pay royalties to the musicians and recording staff. According to Randy, one of the hardest and most time-consuming areas is tracking down rights and royalties. With the Disneyland Forever kiosks, there was not an easy way to track down the rights for the Magic Skyways Pavilion. Since the rights couldn’t be paid at the time of purchase and many of the musicians weren’t even known, the project faltered and could not be brought to fruition.

Randy and Stacia both worked on various projects through the intervening years. Randy handles the masters of most recording and pursues the clearances and rights of recordings. He also retrieves clips and prepares them for use—he provides recordings for all of the divisions. As an official historian, Stacia has traveled all over the country talking Disney history and animation. She worked with Randy and Bruce on the Disneyland 50th Anniversary album and book, the Sounds of Disneyland.

Stacia was asked to create the booklet for the World’s Fair set by Bruce, who had set forth a design. She looked into her personal library and the W.E.D. research notes. She wanted to capture the intent of the Fair and the excitement that had been felt within the Company during the creation and implementation of the pavilions. Stacia finished the writing in March of 2001; all that was missing were the track listings. At one point, Stacia remembers that a handheld recording made at the Fair was used to help identify audio cues during the ride for the Magic Skyway. Randy was called into the project in 2001 by Bruce. Together, they put together the audio recordings and tried to find ways of keeping the costs down.

In 2005, Bruce left Walt Disney Imagineering and began working with Diane Disney Miller and the Walt Disney Family Foundation on the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco. At that point, Randy lost touch with the project and hoped to work with Bruce again to get the Fair material released. Bruce passed away on November 7, 2007. Randy mentioned that he thought the project would be over at that time. A few months later, an executive questioned Randy about the CD set and told him to keep the project going. He had promised Bruce that he would produce the project as Bruce had laid it out. One of the problems Randy saw concerned the amount of Progressland material and the lack of the It’s a Small World ride-through. After discussing the issues with Imagineering and the manufacturer, they created a compartment in the set for a fifth disc held underneath the fourth disc. This way, Randy could include the original Carousel of Progress and the Alternate Universe edition.

Author Jeff Kurtti wrote the dedication that appears at the top of this article. It sums up, quite nicely, how Randy, Stacia and many others connected with the World’s Fair project felt about Bruce. Randy and Stacia are very proud of their affiliation and their friendships with Bruce. They both are thrilled and pleased that the project has been released and that that the 25-year long dream of Bruce Gordon and Dave Mumford is available for all of us to share.

You can read my review of the CD Set here.

A special thanks to Randy, Stacia and Jeff Kurtti for all of their recollections and time.