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Disney Designer retires after decades of creating magic
Joyce Carlson, whose talents were key in making the dolls of It's a Small World, eases into retirement from the Walt Disney Co. at age 83.
Scott Powers | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted March 29, 2006
Turned out, it wasn't such a small world after all.
At least not for Joyce Carlson, who took an office job with Walt Disney during World War II then spent 62 years helping make animated movies and attractions from California to New York City, Orlando, Paris and Tokyo.
Carlson, who just turned 83, is now easing into retirement from Walt Disney Imagineering, the company's theme park attraction design division.
Mentored by the first generation of legendary Disney designers such as Grace Bailey, Mary Blair and John Hench, Carlson may have left her most enduring mark on the classic children's ride that she helped create for the 1964 World's Fair in New York, It's a Small World.
The attraction is known as Blair's artistic masterpiece since she defied convention by infusing modern art styles into a family theme ride. But Carlson is known as the artist behind many of the singing, robotic dolls -- not just at the original show, but in every reproduction of Small World since.
She figured the show would be a hit. But she never thought it would thrive more than 40 years and spread around the world, taking her with it.
"It was fabulous, because of the song and the characters. The little audio-animatronic figures, the way they were moving. The costumes were beautiful," Carlson said. "Everyone, grown-ups and kids would just love it."
Partly to spread Small World to new Disney parks, Carlson kept moving. She worked on other attractions too, and along the way she preached, to the next generation of Disney designers, the message of artistic precision that she had gotten from Hench, Blair and Bailey.
"Without a doubt, Joyce influenced a whole group of us about the importance of detail. It's all in the detail. And the authenticity," said Patrick Brennan, 52, Disney World's director of show design, who last year oversaw the rebuild of Small World. "And color. . . . She would have you remix a color 10 times if it was required. You learned that it wasn't arbitrary."
Carlson was always a creative person, but she wasn't looking for a Disney career or a chance to make cartoons when she took a job in 1944 running mail, office supplies and coffee at Walt Disney Productions. She just needed the job.
Before long, though, she was helping ink animated films, including Cinderella, Peter Pan and Sleeping Beauty. By the time her favorite, Lady and the Tramp, was produced in the mid-1950s, she was the lead ink artist, coloring in the main characters in animation cells.
But copying-machine technology upended the animation process, and by 1960 ink and paint artist jobs were disappearing fast. So Bailey got Carlson to move into attraction design. Her first assignment was to create details for the Progress Energy show, which became Disney's Carousel of Progress in the theme parks. Not long after that she was turning blank robotic dolls into children of the world.
Her place at Disney is set. She's one of roughly 200 Disney people, ranging from actors such as Dick Van **** to park designers such as Marv Davis, who have been declared "Disney Legends," the company's hall of fame honor.
There's a subtler and more endearing tribute to Carlson on Main Street in the Magic Kingdom. Visitors who take in detail of the streetscape might notice a second-floor shop window painted for her: "Dolls by Miss Joyce," the window advertises, "Dollmaker for the World."
Joyce Carlson, whose talents were key in making the dolls of It's a Small World, eases into retirement from the Walt Disney Co. at age 83.
Scott Powers | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted March 29, 2006
Turned out, it wasn't such a small world after all.
At least not for Joyce Carlson, who took an office job with Walt Disney during World War II then spent 62 years helping make animated movies and attractions from California to New York City, Orlando, Paris and Tokyo.
Carlson, who just turned 83, is now easing into retirement from Walt Disney Imagineering, the company's theme park attraction design division.
Mentored by the first generation of legendary Disney designers such as Grace Bailey, Mary Blair and John Hench, Carlson may have left her most enduring mark on the classic children's ride that she helped create for the 1964 World's Fair in New York, It's a Small World.
The attraction is known as Blair's artistic masterpiece since she defied convention by infusing modern art styles into a family theme ride. But Carlson is known as the artist behind many of the singing, robotic dolls -- not just at the original show, but in every reproduction of Small World since.
She figured the show would be a hit. But she never thought it would thrive more than 40 years and spread around the world, taking her with it.
"It was fabulous, because of the song and the characters. The little audio-animatronic figures, the way they were moving. The costumes were beautiful," Carlson said. "Everyone, grown-ups and kids would just love it."
Partly to spread Small World to new Disney parks, Carlson kept moving. She worked on other attractions too, and along the way she preached, to the next generation of Disney designers, the message of artistic precision that she had gotten from Hench, Blair and Bailey.
"Without a doubt, Joyce influenced a whole group of us about the importance of detail. It's all in the detail. And the authenticity," said Patrick Brennan, 52, Disney World's director of show design, who last year oversaw the rebuild of Small World. "And color. . . . She would have you remix a color 10 times if it was required. You learned that it wasn't arbitrary."
Carlson was always a creative person, but she wasn't looking for a Disney career or a chance to make cartoons when she took a job in 1944 running mail, office supplies and coffee at Walt Disney Productions. She just needed the job.
Before long, though, she was helping ink animated films, including Cinderella, Peter Pan and Sleeping Beauty. By the time her favorite, Lady and the Tramp, was produced in the mid-1950s, she was the lead ink artist, coloring in the main characters in animation cells.
But copying-machine technology upended the animation process, and by 1960 ink and paint artist jobs were disappearing fast. So Bailey got Carlson to move into attraction design. Her first assignment was to create details for the Progress Energy show, which became Disney's Carousel of Progress in the theme parks. Not long after that she was turning blank robotic dolls into children of the world.
Her place at Disney is set. She's one of roughly 200 Disney people, ranging from actors such as Dick Van **** to park designers such as Marv Davis, who have been declared "Disney Legends," the company's hall of fame honor.
There's a subtler and more endearing tribute to Carlson on Main Street in the Magic Kingdom. Visitors who take in detail of the streetscape might notice a second-floor shop window painted for her: "Dolls by Miss Joyce," the window advertises, "Dollmaker for the World."
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