Bob Gurr: Turning Dreams Into Reality
Ape Pen Publishing / A Quail Ridge Production
Starring
V.P W.D.I Craig Russell, Glenn Austin * Chris Crump * Joel Fritche
Bob Gurr * Bruce Hayes * Garner Holt * Monty Lunde * Marty Sklar
Bob Gurr: Turning Dreams into Reality
The documentary, Bob Gurr: Turning Dreams into Reality, 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 mechanical animation, Pirate Battle Shows, even massive animated 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, Imagineer Chris Crump, and many others.
Bob Gurr: Turning Dreams into Reality is directed and produced by Carlene Thie, President of Ape Pen Publishing.
The documentary stars: Glenn Austin, Christopher Crump, Joel Friche, Bob Gurr,
Bruce Hayes, Garner Holt, Monty Lundy, & Marty Sklar. Run time: 52 minutes.
For more information: http://www.apependisneyproducts.com/#!disney-media-dvds-disneyland/con8
The Making of Turning Dreams into Reality
Carlene Thie, Ape Pen Publishing, over many years has produced and sold numerous DVDs and graphic materials featuring Legendary Disney Imagineer Bob Gurr. Early in 2014, Carlene began the multi-year Dreams project based on the never ending requests for more stories of Bob's creations over his 45 year career, some 250 projects for a wide variety clients from Disney and beyond - Universal Studios Tour, Michael Jackson, Las Vegas mogul Steve Wynn to name a few.
In addition to the Ape Pen Publishing materials, Bob Gurr has made over 500 public appearances, podcasts, video interviews, and live radio talks during the past 35 years. The subjects have always been to answer questions about the creation of these projects, the clients, the teams, and the behind-the-scenes details.
But still the Disney and theme park entertainment fans want to know more. Not just what the project was, but the how of Bob's working methods. Since Bob never had any engineering training, he was an Art Center car stylist at age twenty, just how did he accomplish these one-of-a-kind projects? These fan questions about the how never cease.
Thus Carlene's quest was to explore beyond the what to discover and tell the hidden story of the how. The result is her latest DVD, Bob Gurr: Turning Dreams into Reality.
Asking Bob how he did this work was futile. Many people who have achieved significant accomplishments are puzzled when asked these kinds of questions. To them, what they did was their ordinary work, but a mystery to to others. Bob told Carlene - "Go ask the witness's what they saw".
Eight "witness's" promptly assembled over a weekend in the summer of 2014 where a team of camera and audio technicians led by a director captured many hours of "testimony" as to what makes Bob "tick". At last she had enough evidence to commence a story to answer all the how questions.
Glenn Austin, Christopher Crump, Joel Friche, Bob Gurr, Bruce Hayes, Garner Holt, Monty Lundy, & Marty Sklar all got in their thoughts, and a few digs too. luckily, Carlene and Bob had a lot of suitable photographs that could be used in the documentary. Walt Disney Imagineering also furnished a number of specially licensed company owned photographs.
Bob's Emmy winning professional TV recording engineer nephew Eric Johnston lived near Carlene in Riverside California and volunteered his audio editing services. Eric also arranged for additional location shoots as well as other editing services, equipment, and technical assistance.
2015 saw the long process of documentary production - story writing, further editing, both audio mixing and video media, graphic material permissions, and of course obtaining a copyright license from The Walt Disney Company. The documentary is not connected with or a production of TWDC.
The documentary Turning Dreams into Reality will have a sneak premiere at an advance signing sale July 9th at the Pacific Northwest MouseMeet in Lynnwood, Washington. An official World Premiere will take place on July 15th in Garden Grove California during the DisneyanaMania 2016. A making-of panel discussion will be featured attended by several documentary stars.
