Coming 2016
Disney Legend Bob Gurr Documentry Film.
A Disney TV Special will debut in 2016, focusing on the role that the Disney Imagineers played in the creation of the Disney Theme Parks starting with Disneyland in 1955.
Also to debut in 2016 will be the documentary, Bob Gurr: Dreams to Reality, which tells the story of one of Walt Disney's earliest 1954 Imagineering Legends Bob Gurr. His career spanning 45 years creating 250 projects with Disney and beyond will be explored.
From Disneyland to Las Vegas, Olympic spectaculars to rock star shows, Bob's creations included Monorails, Abraham Lincoln animations, Pirate Battle Shows, even massive figures of King Kong and Godzilla.
Viewers will learn much about how these attractions were created from those who were there sharing these creations. Eight theme park creators who worked with Bob over these years will describe the unique ways in which he created a vast variety of attractions. The cast includes Disney Ambassador to the World Marty Sklar, Imagineering VP Craig Russell, Chris Crump, and many others.
Bob Gurr: Dreams to Reality is directed and produced by Carlene Thie - Ape Pen Publishing.
"Design Just For Fun" Book.
Written By Bob Gurr
Acknowledgements
As a self published book,
" DESIGN: Just for Fun" has been created by a small team, most of which are volunteers. Carlene Thie of Ape Pen Publishing has been the inspiration and my teacher of what I needed to learn to be a publisher.
She, along with her husband John, provided the contacts, obtained image licensing, and supplied other consulting to help me get the job done. Legendary Imagineer Marty Sklar furnished the foreword, Carolyn Burns-Bass did a massive overhaul of my unskilled writing, along with the historic corrections performed by Disney Archive Legend Dave Smith. After all of the manuscript material was compiled and images selected, the task of book design was eagerly accepted by Michael Aronson of Lost Boys Design. Michael has much knowledge of Disney’s history and creative rationale. Thus he has created the visual look of the book which is based on details gleaned from the iconic original Disneyland Monorail. Self publishing requires that the team must furnish all its own shipping functions. Thus my nephew Eric Johnston and his three children, along with other volunteers, function as the DESIGN: Just for Fun shipping fulfillment center.- Bob Gurr
Proof Pages
Disney Legend Bob Gurr Photo's
Disney Legend Bob Gurr
Imagineer Bob Gurr has always been a man on the move. And, for nearly 40 years, he helped move many a happy Disney theme park guest aboard vehicles and ride conveyances of his own design. As he’s often quipped, “If it moves on wheels at Disneyland, I probably designed it.”
And he certainly has. Bob has developed more than 100 designs for attractions ranging from Autopia and Matterhorn Bobsleds to the Disneyland and Walt Disney World Monorails, and more.
Born in Los Angeles on October 25, 1931, young Bob was fascinated with tools, mechanical devices, and cars. He often crawled through a hole in the fence of nearby Grand Central Air Terminal in Glendale to sneak into the cockpits of idle transport airplanes, while at school he decorated his test papers with sketches of automobiles.
Later, he attended Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles on a General Motors scholarship, where he studied industrial design. Upon graduation in 1952, he was hired by Ford Motor Company, but soon purchased a rubber stamp marked “R.H. Gurr Industrial Design” and went into business for himself.
Soon after, WED Enterprises, today known as Walt Disney Imagineering, hired Bob to consult on the design of miniature cars for Autopia. Walt Disney was so impressed with Bob’s knowledge and skill that he invited him to join the Imagineering family, which then was solely dedicated to the design and construction of Disneyland.
Over the next nearly four decades, Bob worked transportation magic developing the memorable Flying Saucers attraction in Tomorrowland, the antique cars and double-decker buses of Main Street, U.S.A., Ford Motor Company’s Magic Skyway, which premiered at the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair, and more. Bob also helped design the mechanical workings of Disney’s first Audio-Animatronics® human figure, Abraham Lincoln, featured in Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln.
In 1981, Bob retired early from Imagineering to launch GurrDesign, Inc., and, three years later, joined creative forces with two former Imagineers to form Sequoia Creative, Inc. The firm, which specialized in “leisure-time spectaculars” and “fantastical beasts” developed King Kong and Conan’s Serpent for Universal Studios, Hollywood.
This is the proof page to Disney Legend Bob Gurr book "Design Just For Fun".
Disney Legend Bob Gurr & I (and my family and friends) went to Disneyland's Club 33 (The new remolded Club 33) There we celebrated Bob Gurrs Bday a few months early. LOL! We went the first week it was open!
I designed a piece of art to display Disney Legends Bob Gurrs proof page he signed from his book "Design Just For Fun". I also published his book.
Great Moments of Mr. Lincoln proof pages from Bob Gurrs book "Design Just For Fun"
Disney Legend Bob Gurr at Club 33. Bob Gurr & Carlene Thie celebrating his birthday at Club 33
Disney Legend Bob Gurr at Club 33. Bob Gurr & Carlene Thie celebrating his birthday at Club 33
Disney Legend Bob Gurr at Club 33. Bob Gurr & Carlene Thie celebrating his birthday at Club 33
Here is Disney Legend Bob Gurr, Ganer Holt and Carlene Thie standing by the Monorail. This day we were celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Monorail, Submarines, and Disneyland's Matterhorn.
I asked Bob to sign a handful of Monorail prints for me.
