Yesterday, I posted about the publication of More Cute Stories, Volume 4: 1964/65 New York World’s Fair, an audio memoir of Disney Imagineer Rolly Crump. I’ve been listening to it today, and enjoying it immensely. I wrote to Bamboo Forest, the publishers, and secured permission to share a couple of MP3s from the collection with you.
The first clip is Crump’s hilarious tale of the trip to NYC on the private Disney plane to set up the World’s Fair pavilions. The Disney plane was dry, and when they stopped to refuel in Texas, an enterprising art director ran out and secured vodka and gin for the remainder of the journey, which apparently turned quite hilarious.
But the best is in part two, in which Crump describes his working relationship with the legendary Mary Blair, who came out of retirement to work on the Small World pavilion for the Fair. I love Blair’s work — everything from her Golden Books to her surreal, hyper-modernist version of Alice in Wonderland, but I knew nearly nothing about her as a person. Crump’s lively narration brings Blair into focus as a charming polymath who designed her own clothes, drank martinis for lunch, and squired a wide-eyed kid from California around Manhattan with the self-assurance of a brilliant artist at the end of a long and storied career.
Many thanks again to Jeff and Bamboo Forest for permission to share these.
More Cute Stories, Volume 4: 1964/65 New York World’s Fair