February 28th, was a showing of the documentary, Bob Gurr: Living by Design, and also planets visible at the Griffith Park Observatory! Bob Gurr is the designer for many attractions in Disneyland, the monorail which always impresses me, Autopia, Main Street Vehicles, the Matterhorn Bobsleds. In the Q&A, Gurr said it now carries less people forced by the safety lawyers and designed by engineers. Originally Gurr said he sat on “a mock up visualizing every force that was going to happen in that car.” There was also the Haunted Mansion Doombuggies, the King Kong Encounter at Universal Studios, the sinking pirate ship for the Battle of Buccaneer Bay at Treasure Island, Las Vegas and creations for Burning Man in 2010! Bob Gurr is the host of his show, The Bob Gurr Show, with episodes on Youtube, check out: https://www.fandomproductions.com/the-bob-gurr-show.
The documentary premiered on April 2025 at the Alex Theatre. There has been several showings of the documentary with plans to have it on home media. The film that screening at the Fine Arts Theater in Beverly Hills was introduced by the director, Frank H. Woodward. Bob Gurr grew up in Glendale, at one point, he visits his childhood home and invited in by the family who lives there. He also visits the Grand Central Air Terminal (GCAT) to see the place where he watched planes as a child. He tours the planes with content creator, Justin Scarred. Gurr went to the Los Angeles Art Center School and then went to work for the Ford Motor Company. He gives a tour of the cars at the Petersen Automotive Museum. There is just history, craftsmanship, and love of cars shown by Gurr. He of course starts designing the Disneyland ride systems.
Bob Gurr on stage with his characteristic red shoes after the Bob Gurr: Living by Design Screening, Fine Arts Theater, author’s photo.
Gurr gives a tour to cast members of the Main Street Vehicles at the park. What becomes clear is that Walt Disney wanted the impossible for his attractions. Gurr’s skills didn’t follow standard mechanical engineering that made it impossible so he was free to make dreams into working creations. I asked Gurr about how the new technology rides break down while his designs still are in operation from 1955! He said “Here’s the problem. The algothrimic curve of improvements get harder and harder and cost more because of the natural competition between theme parks or with the same company with different parks. I’m waiting for the day when someone puts their foot down and say, `Must a minute, let’s back up a minute, this infernal chase for ever more technology and all these things for immersive and all this stuff.’”
Gurr continued, “So why doesn’t someone write a nice story and let’s look at how you might make that into a machine. Think of the terms of what you might build and won’t break.” In 1981, Disney had only licensed designers working on their attractions and Gurr was fired. He turned it around an incorporated himself! Gurr went on to design for other theme parks, the flying saucer in the 1984 Olympics. He made a Disney Legend in 2004. We see Gurr at the Disney Legends Plaza at Walt Disney Studios. He has a talk with Garner Holtand visits the students designing animatronic birds. This was for the Bog Gurr Scholarship Fund and Garner Holt Foundation. There are also the cruises that he takes, hosts the Waltland tours, conventions and other appearances.
Afterwards, there was a Q&A and signing of various posters and other merch. What is also characteristic of Bob Gurr is his storytelling and humor. Also that night, I was interested in seeing the Planetary Alignment, which is said to return in 2040! I eventually thought that Griffith Park Observatory would be the best place to see it. You can visit yourself and still see the planets, I was told March 6th would be a cluster of planets, check out: https://griffithobservatory.lacity.gov/ The alignment was explained by a worker there that it is not a line, but the planets that happen to be visible from our planet. The traffic going to the observatory is challenging so I had only arrived when most of the planets were no longer visible. Still, there was a telescope to see the only planet that could be seen was Jupiter. There were so many people, families, that were at the observatory. I loved that there were so many people excited about science and learning. It was great to see Jupiter through the telescope. A fanastic night seeing the Bob Gurr: Living by Design documentary, also Gurr in person, and also being able to see Jupiter in the night sky!
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