It’s a Small World is a big deal these days.
That’s because yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the beloved boat ride’s grand opening at the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair.
After the Fair closed in the fall of 1965, the attraction’s dolls and sets were shipped West to Disneyland, where it has been a Fantasyland fixture since it opened there in 1966.
It’s a Small World debuted in Walt Disney World with the rest of the Magic Kingdom on Oct. 1, 1971. It has been replicated in ever other Disney park worldwide, including Tokyo Disneyland, Disneyland Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland. And it’s currently under construction in Shanghai Disneyland, due to open in late 2015.
At the time, the world — or at least much of Europe — was in the throes of World War II. Although the United States wasn’t a participant at that point, it clearly recognized that South America was a prime target for Nazi infiltration.
Nelson Rockefeller, as head of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs (CIAA), a new government post created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940, asked Walt Disney to travel to several South American countries in late summer and early fall of 1941 in an effort to bolster pro-U.S. sentiments and serve as an antidote to Nazi propaganda.
Disney agreed to the visit, but only if it could be less of a public relations tour and more of an effort on the part of his team to seek out new ideas, learn about different cultures and drum up diverse plots for future animated films ... sort of an elaborate location scouting trip.
Another reason Disney agreed to the trip was to get away from the troubling labor strife which had erupted in his own backyard. Disney Studios artists had gone on strike earlier in the year, which Walt’s daughter Diane Disney Miller called “an incomprehensible slap in the face” to her father.
Wherever they stopped in South America, Walt Disney was treated like royalty. And at every stop, the members of El Grupo — including the Blairs, Frank Thomas, Herb Ryman, Ted Sears, John Miller and Charles Wolcott — would record the event, either on film or on their sketch pads.
Mary Blair, in particular, was immensely influenced by what she saw in South America. Both Mary and her husband had joined the Disney Studio in 1940 after stints at the Ub Iwerks Studio.
During the weeks-long goodwill tour, both Mary and Lee worked tirelessly on concept art which would form the groundwork for the Disney animated feature films “Saludos Amigos” (released in 1942) and “The Three Caballeros”(1944).
Mary was credited as the art supervisor on those films and she became one of Walt’s favorite animators — which was saying quiet a lot, considering that at the time, the vast majority of female artists were relegated to just the ink-and-paint aspect of the animation process.
It was during the trip to South America where Mary developed her unique style, using colors and shapes in ways that had never been done before.
As her reputation grew, Disney tapped her to provide the color stylings to the classic animated features “Cinderella” (released in 1950), “Alice in Wonderland” (1951) and “Peter Pan” (1953).
After finishing work on “Peter Pan,” Mary left Disney to pursue a career as a freelance graphic designer and illustrator. She worked in advertising, illustrated a number of children’s books and even designed sets for holiday productions at Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan.
Although she was gone from Disney, she was clearly not forgotten.
When Walt committed the company to an attraction featuring children of the world at the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair, he asked Mary Blair to lend her talents to the project. The happiest cruise that ever sailed —which also employed the talents of Blaine Gibson, Marc and Alice Davis, Rolly Crump, Bob Gurr and Dick and Bob Sherman — was an instant classic.
Mary Blair would use the influences she had honed during the South American trip to create other memorable works of art for Disney, most notably the 90-foot-tall floor-to-ceiling mosaic inside Disney’s Contemporary Resort, the fiesta scene in El Rio del Tiempo in the Mexico pavilion in Epcot and a spectacular tile mural for the Tomorrowland Promenade in Disneyland.
She also designed the distinctive “clockwork” art that is featured on the facade of Disneyland’s It’s a Small World attraction. An homage to that design was added to the inner queue area of the attraction at Walt Disney World in 2006.
At a time when women artists were largely ignored, Mary Blair not only made a name for herself, but created a niche for her very special talent.