Bob Gurr

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With Bob at Club 33 in 2012

 

We first met Bob Gurr at a D23 getaway at Smoke Tree Ranch in 2012. While Tim went off to get a beer, Bob came over, stuck out his hand and said, “Hi! I’m Bob Gurr, Disney legend.” We’ve chatted with him a few times since then. Most notably at an exclusive Christmas event at Disneyland’s Club 33 and then at the first Van Eaton Disney auction, where Bob marveled that he couldn’t even afford to buy his own drawings. He then handed me his business card.

We’ve also heard him speak several times as part of Disney conventions, etc. Bob is a wonderful raconteur, telling funny and fascinating stories about creating Autopia, the Monorail, the Matterhorn bobsleds, and other rides for Disneyland. (His motto: “If it moves at Disneyland, Bob Gurr probably designed it.”) I would go just about anywhere to hear him speak.

Last night was even more special than usual. Bob was the guest of honor at a fan event in Santa Ana and so had the entire evening to himself. He relayed how he was hired in 1954 to design the Autopia cars less than a year before Disneyland opened. The cars were stylish, but by the end of the park’s first week, all but two were inoperable, prompting Bob to ask Walt to hire a repair crew! Like much in life, early Disneyland just sort of came together along the way.

During the Q & A, Bob debunked the notion that Disney was the first person to ride the Matterhorn. After watching a successful run of the bobsleds filled with sandbags, Walt turned to Bob and said, “Gurr, you designed it, now you ride it.” Luckily, the bobsleds worked!

He also allayed one audience member’s fears of the Monorail ever jumping its tracks. Trains, he explained, run by touching their tracks less than an inch. There’s no way the Monorail could ever jump a track that’s 2.5 feet tall.

When asked what Walt would think of all the changes made to Disneyland over the years, Bob criticized those who try to second-guess what went on inside Disney’s head. “I worked with the man for 12 years,” Gurr said, “and never knew what he was thinking!”

My latest favorite Disney collectible:
die cast metal replica of the Monorail, signed by Bob Gurr

Broadcasting from the Queen Mary

 

The ship entrance

 

When Tim used to work for KABC radio, he often accompanied Peter Greenberg, TV's "Travel Detective," on remote broadcasts around the world (e.g., Midway Island, Hong Kong, Alaska, etc.). Sometimes I got to go, too. But that was long ago.

So it was a pleasant surprise when Tim was asked if he'd like to help Peter do a remote broadcast from the Queen Mary yesterday. It wasn't Lima, Peru, but at least we could drive to the show site. Plus the Queen offered to comp us a room for the night. We were there!

For those who don't know, the Queen Mary was once the most fabulous ocean liner on the open seas. Retired in 1967, she was bought by the city of Long Beach, where she has served as a hotel and tourist attraction for almost 40 years. Although in desperate need of a face-lift, she nonetheless provides an historic look at a time when travel really was glamorous. The Queen's interior is covered in glorious wood and her ballrooms are works of art. While Tim managed the radio equipment for Peter's broadcast, I ran around the ship, snapping pictures (click on images to enlarge).

 

Tim checking the radio equipment

 

Hallway to the staterooms—our room was

on the left

 

Ballroom fireplace

 

Wall ornamentation

 

Art deco clock

 

Shops on the main promenade

 

Enclosed deck on the promenade level

 

Sun deck

 

Smoke stacks (topside)

 

The bridge

 

Looking toward the front of the ship

 

Looking back from the front

 

Long Beach (from topside)

 

Stateroom bathtub faucets: hot and cold

salt and fresh water!

 

Long Beach through our stateroom porthole

 

Sunrise (topside) the next morning

 

Spectacular!

Home Improvements (Den/Library)

 

Den remodel—note the old heater vent being disassembled

next to the closet on the right

 

Now that Tim and I are retired, we've decided to reorganize and de-clutter the house, room by room. First up: our guestroom/den, where guests were invited to sleep on our semi-comfortable queen-sized sofa bed. This is also the room that houses my Arthurian fiction* collection, which I've collected for 40 years. Numbering now around 1000 volumes, the collection reached critical mass several years ago with books piled up all over the den in no particular order. It was driving the librarian in me crazy. So I suggested removing the sofa bed—which was taking valuable wall-space—and buying more bookshelves. After all, in the nearly 20 years we've lived here, only a handful of people had ever spent the night. Tim agreed: my books, which are with us 24/7, won-out over the occasional family member or friend, who might want to sleep-over. We would turn the guestroom into a full-blown library.

 

Not mold, but 70 years of various paint coats on the ceiling, 

including dark green

 

 Removing the old paint coats, now on the floor (yikes!)

 

The den was also in desperate need of repainting. In the house's 70-year history, its rooms had been painted countless times. So many times, in fact, that big pieces of the latest ceiling coat had chipped and fallen off, revealing multiple layers of pink and dark green paint. We decided to hire professionals to remove the former coats and repaint the entire room. While there, they also dismantled an old wall-heater we were always too scared to use. Thus making room for even more books, should the need arise.

 

No more wall-heater

 

IKEA furniture in boxes

 

Tim building the new loveseat, while our cat Jack

supervises

 

Taking a break

 

Covering the loveseat cushions—no wonder IKEA 

furniture is so inexpensive—and, yes, that's Jack 

supervising once again

 

While the painters worked, we took a field trip to the Burbank IKEA to look for shelves and a possible loveseat. I had estimated the need for two 6-foot shelves: one for my book overflow and one for my Disney collectibles, which were strewn all over the house. After spending Christmas night shelving all the books in a nice, neat order (finally!), there still wasn't room for seven books (ack!!) and so back we went to IKEA on December 26. Now, after a month, our new library/den is our favorite room in the house. Next project: the nightmare that I call my office!

 Our wonderful new library!

More books

 

Disney collectibles

 

*Arthurian fiction: novels and short stories that are set in Camelot and/or feature characters and/or themes from the Arthurian legend.

Disneyland Train, Adieu

 

Disneyland Railroad

 

We spent the morning at Disneyland because, now that we're retired, we can do just about whatever we want! Actually, this was the first big test of Tim's Disneyland retirement privileges. Luckily, all is well and we're still able to get into the parks for free. Phew!!

I also wanted to ride the Disneyland Railroad one last time before it stops running, this Sunday, for two years while the new Star Wars land is being built. The train looms large in my family's history, as the Main Street station is the site of one of my favorite childhood photos:

Uncle Louie, me (age 4), my sister Vicki (age 3), 

and Mom (June 1958)

Perhaps even more importantly, the railroad is the first ride that Walt envisioned, telling his imagineers to design an amusement park that "will be surrounded by a train." Indeed, the rail runs along Disneyland's famous 20-foot "berm" that surrounds the park and shields visitors from the outside world. In addition to stopping in New Orleans Square, Toontown/Fantasyland, and Tomorrowland, the last leg of the train ride features a still-spectacular Grand Canyon diorama, plus the animatronic dinosaurs Disney designed for the 1964 World's Fair. You truly travel back in time when you ride the Disneyland Railroad around the entire perimeter of the park.

 

Tim on the train

  

We were so early (9AM), the train was empty—not so later

in the day

  

Grand Canyon diorama 

 

Animatronic dinosaurs

  

Long before Jurassic Park there was Disney's

Primeval World

On our way out of the resort, we stopped at the Disneyland Hotel to use the restroom and ran into these two characters!  

 

Me with Chip (Dale?) and Goofy 

El Niño

 

Sneaking in one last BBQ before the El Niño deluge begins!

 

Funny Facebook photos to the contrary (see above), the weather phenomenon, known as El Niño, is no laughing matter. Despite our historic drought, no one wants it to rain day-in and day-out. After all, perpetual sunshine is one of the reasons most people live in Southern California.

Today was our first El Niño storm. TV news was full of rain footage of jack-knifed trucks on the freeway and water-damaged buildings—what Tim likes to call "weather porn." Closer to home, at the end of our block, we have the Ballona Creek, a cement waterway that, most days, has no more than a trickle of moisture running through it. Not so this afternoon. 

 

 Last week: a truck driving down Ballona Creek

Storm waters today: Ballona Creek bike path 

flooded on the right

 

I had Tim take a "before" photo last week, when the creek was so dry a truck was able to drive along the water bed from the beach to Sepulveda Blvd. It's a completely different story today. See for yourself:

Hear the water roar: rain-swolen Ballona Creek

at the end of our block