How Many of Disney’s Greatest Unsung Heroes Do You Know?

Walt Disney rightfully gains much of the credit for the development of the world’s first theme park.

Obviously, the Disneyland founder couldn’t have done it on his own.

Similarly, each Disney theme park comes with its own unique history and a new set of heroes.

These people did whatever Uncle Walt and his cohorts asked to make the Happiest Place on Earth and the subsequent parks such remarkable achievements.

So, how many of Disney’s greatest unheralded heroes do you know?

Roger Broggie

Quick! Name the fastest way someone could endear themselves to Walt Disney! If you answered, “model train discussions,” you win!

Disney’s obsession with trains was an open secret by the 1940s. Roger Broggie learned this firsthand.

The machine shop expert got his big break when he built a rear-projection system in 1932. That’s pretty close to building an iPhone in the 1930s.

Broggie’s technology proved to be that far ahead of the curve. It also opened some doors for him to perform builds for a few Hollywood movies.

Eventually, Disney found out about Broggie’s work and invited him to join the company.

Soon afterward, Walt Disney himself recognized Broggie’s tremendous capabilities. Disney’s new hire created some of his personal train sets!

Now that Disney understood the machinist’s gifts, he assigned him to multiple projects.

The Matterhorn Bobsleds and monorail have Broggie’s fingerprints all over them.

Notably, Broggie returned to his cinematic roots with a later Disney project. He worked on the technology that grew into Circle-Vision 360!

Joe Fowler

During World War II, the United States – and the entire world, really – owed its triumph to vital contributors like Joe “Can Do” Fowler.

A brilliant human being, Fowler entered the U.S. Naval Academy and eventually graduated second in his class.

He followed this achievement by earning a master’s degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Fowler used his natural skill to build things. Specifically, he designed aircraft carriers, including the U.S.S. Lexington and the U.S.S. Saratoga, the two largest aircraft carriers in World War II.

After Fowler’s vessels helped win the war, Walt Disney personally recruited the engineer to join the Disneyland project.

Uncle Walt desired an authentic ship, the Mark Twain riverboat. However, Fowler’s duties expanded far beyond that project. And it happened due to his demeanor.

An optimist and achiever by nature, Fowler believed that anything was possible.

So, whenever Walt Disney asked him to complete a task, Fowler would simply reply, “Can do.” Thus, his nickname…

Fowler eventually helmed all construction at Disneyland and became its general manager for a decade.

Not coincidentally, the name of the dock at Rivers of America is Fowler’s Harbor. Now you know why!

Richard Irvine

One of my favorite Disneyland stories happened before anyone broke ground on the project.

Walt Disney chose a few of his most trusted advisors and asked them to work as liaisons with architectural firms.

Since the animator held no formal architectural training, he selected his people who could speak the language of building design.

Disney recognized an outsider who fit his needs better than his own staff, though.

Uncle Walt poached former Disney employee Richard Irvine from 20^th Century Fox.

Irvine had impressed his boss many years before then, but he hadn’t returned to Disney after World War II.

Upon Irvine’s return, Uncle Walt quickly recognized that Irvine possessed a stronger fundamental understanding of the project than outside architectural firms.

Meanwhile, Irvine pitched the concept that Disney train its own people for the Disneyland assignment.

In the process, Irvine almost accidentally created WED Enterprises or, as we now know it, Imagineering.

Yes, Richard Irvine created not one but two of Disney’s most essential brands: Imagineering AND Disneyland.

Harrison “Buzz” Price

When Harrison Price died, then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner firmly stated that the engineer “was as much responsible for the success of the Walt Disney Co. as anybody except Walt Disney himself.”

That quote should grab your attention and make you wonder what Price did to earn such high praise. And the answer was that he selected the Happiest Place on Earth.

Walt Disney requested that Price research all the possible locations for the future Disneyland.

Disney entrusted his colleague with the responsibility of cycling through all the urban development data available at the time.

Price diligently researched population trends, the regions with the most comfortable clients, real estate costs and the like.

Eventually, Price went to his boss and said that Disneyland should open in Anaheim, California.

If not for this one suggestion, the entirety of Southern California may have developed differently without the signature appeal of Disneyland.

Walt Disney later tasked Price with the same task as the two visionaries debated the location of Project X.

Price reportedly considered New York, St. Louis, and Washington D.C.

Somebody actually paid $27,000 at auction for the blueprints to the proposed St. Louis park.

Ultimately, the engineer preferred Central Florida for its warm winters and cheap undeveloped land.

Herb Ryman

Even before Walt Disney searched for land for what would become Disneyland, he assigned someone a theme park job.

Disney chose Herb Ryman as the artist whose illustrations would provide the blueprint for Disneyland.

Ryman created sketches of how a theme park with Disney family entertainment would appear.

According to Ryman and his boss, the animator spent one weekend drawing what we now know as Disneyland.

Allegedly, Walt Disney stood beside him and provided feedback the entire time.

Ryman’s D23 page explains their dynamic thusly: “Herb had an uncanny knack for translating Walt’s ideas into drawings. Perhaps this was because, like Walt, he was a child at heart.”

Walt Disney personally credited Ryman for the look and style of Main Street, U.S.A, New Orleans Square, and Sleeping Beauty Castle.

As far as one person’s legacy goes, that’s pretty strong.

Betty Taylor

I’ll be blunt about the fact that Disney’s earliest theme park days weren’t the greatest for female cast members and Imagineers. It was an old boy’s club.

Still, one of Disneyland’s earliest performers carved out a niche in a way that wouldn’t have proved possible anywhere else.

Disney Legend Betty Taylor performed at the Golden Horseshoe Revue for 31 years!

Every day on stage, the actress elevated the role of Slue Foot Sue from the 1948 Disney title, Melody Time.

She turned this:

into this:

and this:

Taylor earned her reputation at the start of the longest-running stage show in the world.

Disney estimates that Taylor portrayed Slue Foot Sue nearly 45,000 times in her career!

Notably, she died the day after Wally Boag, who frequently played Pecos Bill in this show.

Before then, she charmed so many people with her talent that Frank Sinatra asked her to play a six-week stint in Las Vegas, and Steve Martin famously revered her when they were fellow cast members.

Jack Wagner

Older Disney fans know this voice well, even if the name or face may escape them.

For multiple generations, Wagner earned the unofficial title of the voice of Disney theme parks.

The smooth-voiced actor worked as a teen actor in Hollywood before Disney officials invited him to Disneyland’s opening.

As a popular radio host in Southern California, Wagner already earned the esteem of Disney workers. So, they asked him to perform some voiceovers.

Wagner started recording introductory narration for the various parades at the park. In 1970, Disney hired him as a “production consultant.”

Soon afterward, the actor became the theme park announcer for many daily events.

His canned dialogue provided a comfort level for guests, many of whom knew Wagner from his other ventures.

He became a Disney Legend, and his D23 page states: “It has been said that no other man’s voice has been heard over so many loudspeakers by so many people.”

C.V. Wood Jr.

Did you know that the London Bridge resides in Arizona? It’s true! The former bridge across the Thames River later moved to Lake Havasu City.

C.V. Wood Jr. supervised this transatlantic transfer in 1968, 15 years after his first attention-grabbing achievement.

While planning the world’s first true theme park, Walt Disney visited Stanford Research Institute, which was only a couple of years old at the time.

Disney encountered two people he immediately liked enough to hire for the project. One was Buzz Price, while the other was Wood.

Both joined Uncle Walt in the creation of Disneyland, although one would become a Disney Legend.

Wood earned the vital job duties of Vice President and General Manager for the Disneyland development. He assisted Price in finding the park’s location.

Later, Wood assisted in purchasing the orange groves that became Disneyland Resort. Then, he partially helmed all park operations during Disney’s first year.

You probably don’t know the name because Disney – and this isn’t a joke – scrubbed his name from the records.

Wood left the company in 1956, and that was it. He largely vanished from Disney’s annals, although he’s a frequent subject in early marketing materials.

This led to the historical oddity that the New York Times mentioned his chili foundation almost as much in his obituary as his Disney tenure.

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Feature Photo: D23