Bob Gurr’s Disney History Trail Bus Tour

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Tim and I know a lot about Disney history. But there’s always room to learn more, especially when the tutor is Bob Gurr, an early Disney imagineer and mastermind behind Disneyland’s Monorail and the Autopia ride.

Bob Gurr’s Disney History Trail Bus Tour starts at Walt Disney’s first L.A. home, which he and brother Roy built in the late 1920s. From here, we traveled a few blocks to the former site of Walt’s first studio on Hyperion Avenue, where Mickey Mouse and beloved classics, like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, were created. Breaks my heart that the site now houses a Gelson's market and parking lot, but some studio "bungalows" still remain.

 Walt's first home on Lyric Avenue, within walking distance

of the now gone Hyperion studio

Our tour guide, Bob Gurr

 

Historical sign noting location of original Disney studio

 

Former studio bungalows (above and below) are now residences

 

 

Next up: the  Griffith Park merry-go-round, where Disney took his daughters every weekend. There are certainly far more beautiful carousels to see and ride—indeed, Walt thought the grounds were dirty and unspectacular. What’s so special, then, about this one? Well, this is where Walt famously began dreaming of someday building an amusement park that children and their parents could enjoy together. Several years later, Disneyland was born.

 Griffith Park merry-go-round

Carousel horses

 

Carousel art (detail)

 

Ticket booth detail (yikes!)

Ridin' the merry-go-round!

 

After riding the merry-go-round and truly soaking in the historical significance of the place, we hopped back on the bus to Walt’s barn, rescued from the wrecking ball by Diane Disney and now a treasured Griffith Park attraction. Originally located in the backyard of the Disneys’ Holmby Hills estate, the barn is where Walt and his imagineers would go to relax and think up new projects, after riding narrow-gauged trains all day. Again, the historical significance of this relatively modest building cannot be overstated.

 

 Walt's barn

Walt's trains

 

Disney cartoon memorabilia

 

The last leg of the tour focused on the Burbank studio—built after the success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs—plus the expanded Disney properties in Glendale. Throughout, our tour guide provided fascinating as well as entertaining insights into the history of Disney—both the man and the company—which Bob was lucky enough to experience firsthand. What a wonderful way to spend a Sunday.

 

The building where Disneyland was designed and realized

 

The MAPO building—so called by the imagineers, because

it was erected using profits from the movie Mary Poppins. The

People Mover and 3d iteration of the Monorail were built here. 

 

Grand Central Air Terminal, L.A. area's first intercontinental

airport, recently renovated by Disney as office space 

 

Landscaped grounds around the old terminal—so

thrilled to see it all looking so beautiful!

 

One of the Glendale campus gates

 

Main gate to the Burbank studio

 

The Seven Dwarfs holding up the Disney admin. building

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