Last week, I blogged about More Cute Stories: Volume 1, an audio memoir of Rolly Crump, one of the Imagineers who help build Disneyland and maintain it in its early years. I’ve had a chance to listen to it since then and it is fantastic. Crump is a charming raconteur, and he treats us to many fascinating remembrances that shine light on the personalities, engineering, business reality, and weird and wild times that made up the early years of Disneyland.
Crump is especially fascinating when discussing the design philosophy and management of Disneyland, and the never-ending struggle between art, maintenance and profitability that tugged the park’s direction this way and that. The section on fiberglass construction alone is worth the price of admission.
The audio comes from the research on It’s Kind Of A Cute Story, Crump’s print memoir, and the publisher promises more audio to follow.
There’s a delightfully unauthorized and unsanitized flavor to these stories. Crump’s not a Disney employee anymore, and is free to tell stories that are far more risque than anything that would appear in any official history. The nice people at Bamboo Forest Publishing were kind enough to provide us with a free audio excerpt to share with you — my favorite part of the recording, in which Crump recounts all the ingenious ways that Orange County teenagers found to engage in illicit sex on the rides and in the environs, and the popularity of the dear, departed Adventure Thru Innerspace with stoned teenagers who go to great lengths to time their trips to peak on the ride.
More Cute Stories: Volume 1 (DRM-free MP3)
Free excerpt: Crump on teenage kicks