So, today on the podcast, we continue our story of Disney legend Mary Blair, the person many

people consider to be Walt's favorite artist. As we left off last time, Mary, Roli Cromp, and

others were finalizing those five large. It's a small world stages so they could be trucked to the

New York World's Fair at the start of 1964. And that is exactly where we pick up our story today,

as the center of activity shifts from California to New York,

into spaces where Mary again will bring in Lee

into social areas around her work with Disney.

And so, if you're ready, let's go.

Music Let's go. Now that the small world stages were finalized, the focus was on moving the attraction stages

from California to New York.

Every set and figure was built in California, Mary Blair explained, taken apart just as

a set is when a show is on a road and shipped east by truck for reassembly here.

Disney had never shipped attractions across country, the usual route was from either the studio

or wed over to Disneyland, often at night,

a little less than 40 miles.

Even with this short distance, if a figure or stage was delicate,

they would transport it in a slow truck after midnight when the roads were empty.

The concern now was in protecting all four of the Disney

rides for the World's Fair as they were transported across country about 2,800 miles. When

employees assumed that many attraction pieces would make the trip with little difficulty,

the enormous mechanical dinosaurs for the Ford Magic Skyway, the full-size human animatronics for both the

carousel of progress and great moments with Mr. Lincoln, and of course the enormous tower

...