Pirates of the Caribbean Attraction Part 2

Marc Davis' Pirates drawings went to a whole other level and more artists were brought  in under Marc to flesh out ideas. He no longer had the time to do the work himself. By the time the '64 Worlds Fair had wrapped up in '65, Disney was in full swing creating Pirates of the Caribbean. Walt decided within a year that he wanted it bigger than ever so he added another show building. Due to space restraints, men had to go beneath the berm surrounding Disneyland which also meant that the boats had to go under Disneyland's train tracks. The entire area previously developed for the wax museum was completely dismantled, steel and all, to be redesigned.

No one knew what to do with most of the first building so Walt told WED to put in some caves using the methods and tools they had already developed in the caves for the Ford Magic Sky Highway. The second building was necessary for the addition of a full scale pirate ship and part of a Spanish Fort battle bombardment. Once it was decided that boats would be part of the pirate experience, Bob Gurr was brought in to redesign the boats he had fashioned for the '64 World Fairs It's a Small World attraction. He had his hand in Pirates of the Caribbean as well as so many other things.

Since the boats for It's A Small World were created by Arrow Development, the company was also used to make the boats for Pirates of the Caribbean. Arrow was also used to Fashion The Flume system for Pirates, when you take those drops.

In the fall of '64 Walt, Marc Davis and some others flew up to Arrow Development headquarters to test out the boat in a flume mock-up. Dick Irvine executed the art direction on Pirates of the Caribbean. He was the first to head what is now known as Walt Disney imagineering. Prior to working for Disney he had a robust career in movie set design and all the technical aspects of the day and when you understand that, it starts to make sense why Disney attractions are so often a cut above most of what you'll find at other theme parks. They've always used high-end movie set design layout and lighting etc for their attractions and that started with Dick Irvine.

Irvine was hired not just to be in charge of certain projects or single attraction, but rather the Disneyland and Magic Kingdom Parks as a whole! A lot of the design and force perspective stuff within the parks, is due to Irvine. He personally did the art direction for Pirates in both Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom. Though Bill Martin is also credited for his hand in the art direction, he was the art director of Disneyland's original Fantasyland. Martin also contributed to the Monorail, Sleeping Beauty Castle, Cinderella's Castle, Peter Pan's flight and the entire layout of the Magic Kingdom itself.

Learn more in Part 3.