Disney shared a new video of Disney Legend and former Imagineer Bob Gurr reflecting on Main Street U.S.A., one day after releasing a video in which he reflected on 70 years of Disneyland. Gurr joined Disney before the opening of Disneyland in 1954 and designed the Autopia cars, among many other ride vehicles.
Bob Gurr on Disneyland Main Street U.S.A.
In honor of the 70th anniversary of Disneyland (which was last year, though the celebrations have been continuing), Bob Gurr shared some fun facts about the early days. He starts by saying that before park opening, Walt Disney would drive his favorite fire engine all around the park to check on what he’d like to improve.
After this, he explains that Main Street U.S.A. is actually scaled down, so to design a fitting Omnibus, he had to scale that down too, although he had some issues fitting people in that way. He managed to find a trick in order to fit enough people in, which he invites you to keep an eye out for.
After this, he moves to the train station, where he elaborates that the excursion train he designed is a copy of the Narragansett historic type of train that used to take people on picnics.
The next clip shows him driving the fire engine he designed, in which he tells us he drove it down the freeway in 1958 to deliver it to Disneyland.
He closes with a fact about the monorail, where he explains he was the designer of the first operating monorail in the entire Western Hemisphere in 1959. The Matterhorn, the first tubular steel roller coaster, was designed by him as well.
Watch the video below:
Gurr also designed the Main Street vehicles, Haunted Mansion Doom Buggies, Disneyland Monorails, and Submarine Voyage. He worked on the Abraham Lincoln Audio-Animatronic figure for the 1964 World’s Fair.
He retired from Disney in 1981 and was honored as a Disney Legend in 2004. Most likely, these videos are being released to promote the new Disneyland Handcrafted documentary, which premiered recently.
Two years ago, Disneyland confirmed a plan to switch Autopia from gasoline cars to fully electric vehicles, a project that Gurr supports. Disney stated at the time that the switch would be complete by fall 2026, although there has been no more news.
What do you think of this video, and do you hope Disney releases more starring the Imagineer? Let us know in the comments and on social media.
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