February 9, 2009

Righter Than I Knew: Rolly Crump's Tower Of The Four Winds

small_world_tower_gorillas.jpg

A couple of years ago, when I posted about the Solar Do-Nothing Machine, created in 1957 for Alcoa by Ray and Charles Eames, I mentioned that though the single prototype didn't survive, its spirit lived on in the facade of It's A Small World.

The Solar Do-Nothing Machine by Ray & Charles Eames

Little did I know. While surfing around for a picture of the original Small World ride when it was the Pepsi Pavilion at the 1964 New York World's Fair and called by its full name, "It's a Small World - A Salute to UNICEF," I found the Tower of The Four Winds.

Disney imagineer Rolly Crump created this 120-ft kinetic sculpture, which graced the entrance to the Pepsi/Disney/UNICEF pavilion. Up top, Crump discusses the model with Walt himself in a 1964 promo TV show, "Disney Goes To The World's Fair". [Mice Age has tons of stills, which show the original IASW characters in vivid Technicolor.] That maquette looks like it could poke out a whole schoolbusful of eyes, but it's still awesome enough to keep me watching the dumpsters in Glendale, just in case Disney does some mousecleaning.

crump_fourwinds_miceage.jpg

top image: Tower of the Four Winds, 1964 [gorillasdontblog]
A different look at Disney... [miceage]
Previously: Eames Solar Do-Nothing Toy Does Nothing--And Very Well

4 Comments

Perhaps the model survives; check out this link:
http://ifwecandreamit.blogspot.com/2007/05/contemporary-tower.html

Wow. That is much bigger than the tabletop model Rolly Crump and Walt posed with, but it's still pretty awesome. And random.

Your image of the Tower of the Four Winds was taken from my blog (and is from a scan of a slide that belongs to me)... it would be nice if, when using images from other people, you gave them appropriate credit. Thanks.

I did credit, and I provide a link; it's the first link at the end of the post. And I even included a reference to the source of the image in the filename itself. I am extremely conscientious about doing so.

This post was the first time I've found that relates these important designs and designers, Eames and Crump, and as such, it would be more useful to future readers if the three images are available side-by-side. But if you are somehow still dissatisfied with the way your image and your blog is credited, then say the word, and I'll remove it.

Either way, thanks for taking and publishing an extremely wonderful, informative, and unusual image of an important artifact.

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