Pheaturing Rolly Crump

Hey, kids, welcome to the Phile... NOT from Walt Disney World as Walt Disney World is closed. But you can enjoy Disney+ still. It has all movies available, including the racist ones... except THAT racist one. Sign-in required just once every 8 minutes. Requires cable subscription, digital subscription, newsletter subscription, valid park ticket. Exclusive content, also called "commercials." So, good news, kids, WDW is now casting character performers! Google "furry fandom" before applying. During the closure, please support the Cast Member side hustles! Amy: making bracelets,  Jorge: restoring vintage guitars, Max: running JewishBankConspiracy.com, Ellie: taxi dancing,  Jolene: selling crack, Greg: murder for hire. As well as character performers WDW is now hiring stilt-walkers for our parade! Mist actually demonstrate walking on stilts, don't just tell them, "Yeah, I totally own stilts and I'll bring them Saturday." The rumors are false! Walt Disney World is NOT closed! They are open only for people who have coronavirus! They're taking measures for your safety! Space Mountain will now end in a giant vat of Purell! Yes, they are building a ride based on our new hit movie! It will open right after everyone forgets about the movie or ages out of it! If your child asks what social distancing is just say its like we're all Elsa in the first one.
It looks like Hobby Lobby is back, this time better than ever, spreading some heavy controversy. The company has decided they will leave their stores open amid the coronavirus outbreak, citing a spiritual message from God. This after more than ninety retailers and essential businesses in the United States have announced they will temporarily shut in an effort to stem the spread of COVID-19. But no, not our favorite and overpriced craft store. How did they announce they were staying open? Well, through a Tweet, because everything is done by social media nowadays. Digital Strategist Kendall Brown tweeted a photo of a note that was allegedly written by Hobby Lobby founder David Green. Green repeatedly mentions the power of God as part of his “justification” to leave all stores open. The conservative Christian businessman wrote that the decision to not shutdown was due to a message from God, that was bestowed upon his wife Barbara Green, who he described as a “prayer warrior.” The letter read, “In her quiet prayer time this past week, the Lord put on Barbara’s heart three profound words to remind us that He’s in control. Guide, Guard, and Groom. We serve a God who will Guide us through this storm, who will Guard us as we travel to places never seen before, and who, as a result of this experience, will Groom us to be better than we could have ever thought possible before now.” Green did note that while the future, in regard to the coronavirus pandemic, remains unclear the company can rest knowing that “God is in control,” adding that Hobby Lobby stores will need to tighten their belts moving forward. Company leaders are said to be doing all they can to balance all needs to keep the craft store strong and in need of all employees. Despite the announcement, Hobby Lobby has yet to make an official statement on the situation but did write a note on its website targeted to its staff. The website states that if a worker exhibits any symptoms they will send the employee to get medical care and will be required to self isolate at home. It did not state whether staff will be eligible for paid sick leave, but according to their benefits summary guide, only salaried employees may be eligible for paid sick leave. This leaves hourly employees without any protection from the coronavirus.
Bill Purdue waterproofs basements for a living, but he has spent the past few days in his buddy’s Washington, Indiana, auto trim and upholstery shop cutting rectangles of cotton fabric that his friend sews into face masks. Fashion designer Briana Danyele left Italy last month to return to her mother’s Greer, South Carolina, home, where she has turned the living room into a mini sewing factory, making masks that she embroiders with the words, “We Got This!” They’re among scores of people answering pleas from hospitals, doctors and nurses so desperate for personal protective equipment amid the viral pandemic that they’ve turned to the public, saying do-it-yourself face masks are better than nothing. And for those sitting at home worrying as the virus strains hospitals and the economy teeters, sewing masks makes them feel less helpless. “Whatever it takes to get the job done, that’s what I want to do,” said Purdue, 57, whose daughter works at the women’s hospital in Evansville, Indiana. He and his friend Mike Rice responded to a Facebook post last week from Deaconess Health System in Evansville asking the public for help. The efforts mirror those in other countries, including Spain, where mask-making volunteers include a group of nuns and members of the Spanish Air Force. Around 500 masks a day are coming off sewing machines at the Paratroop School in Murcia, in the country’s southeast, according to the Air Force’s Twitter account. In Belgium, what began as a one-woman operation about a week ago grew to a small army of home-sewing mask-makers within days. For most people, the new virus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. The vast majority recover. But the virus is spreading rapidly and starting to max out the health care system in several cities. Deaconess spokeswoman Pam Hight said the hospital system realized it could face a shortage if local infections skyrocket like they have elsewhere. So officials produced and posted a how-to video that has being shared across the country. “We had people who wanted to ship them to us from all over the United States and we started saying, ‘Please, please use them in your communities,'” she said. “It makes your heart warm; people are so good.” She said Deaconess expects to collect thousands of masks this week at an off-hospital site and sanitize them before distributing them to nurses and doctors or sending them to local nursing homes and homeless shelters. In a similar effort, Providence St. Joseph’s Health in the hard-hit Seattle area is putting together kits using special material and distributing them to people willing to sew them together as part of a 100-million mask challenge. Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, New Hampshire’s largest hospital, is preparing kits with fabric and elastic and encouraging volunteers to sew face masks for patients, visitors and staff so medical-grade protective equipment can be conserved for front-line health care workers. Federal officials had previously advised hospital workers to use surgical masks when treating patients who might be infected with coronavirus amid reports of dwindling supplies of fitted and more protective N95 respirator masks. “If nurses quit or become too fatigued or even become ill themselves, then we don’t have a front line anymore,” said Wendy Byard of Lapeer, Michigan. She began organizing friends to make masks after learning her daughter, a nurse at a suburban Detroit hospital, was told to wear the same mask all day. Last week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quietly updated its guidance, saying hospitals that run low on surgical masks should consider ways to reuse them or to use them through an entire shift. And if hospitals run out out, the CDC said, scarfs or bandanas could be used “as a last resort,” though some health officials warned cloth masks might not work. Mary Dale Peterson, president of the American Society of Anesthesiologists and chief operating officer at a Corpus Christ, Texas, children’s hospital, said she declined volunteers’ offers to make masks. She said construction and manufacturing industries instead should donate or sell the high-grade masks they have to hospitals. “It would be only an extremely, extremely last resort that I would have my staff” wear homemade masks, she said. “I really hope it doesn’t get to that point in the U.S.” At the Missouri Quilt Museum in Hamilton, Missouri, board members asked local hospitals if masks were needed and “they emphatically said yes,” said director Dakota Redford. Soon other health care providers, including ambulance crews and nursing homes, were requesting masks. “This has been a true grassroots effort that has exploded across the country in the quilting world,” she said. Businesses also are stepping up. Crafts chain Joann Stores is making all of its 800-plus stores available for up to ten people at each location to sew masks and hospital gowns, offering sewing machines and supplies, spokeswoman Amanda Hayes said. Hayes said the number of people allowed in the stores adheres to CDC guidelines, the sewing stations will be six feet apart and staff will continuously sanitize the work areas and materials. The company also has special kits for customers who want to make masks at home. “We’re enabling people to feel like they are contributing at a time when we don’t have control,” Hayes said. In Baltimore, almost 160 volunteers with 414 3D printers between them are making plastic face shields for Johns Hopkins and other area hospitals and dropping them off at a maker space called Open Works. Executive Director Will Holman, who organized the effort, said he laid off 21 part-time employees last week because of the virus but has rehired some to assemble, sterilize and package the shields. Danyele, the South Carolina fashion designer, said she made about 200 masks bound for a local nursing home and hospitals in Florida, Georgia, Indiana and Illinois. “If I’m one person creating 200 masks, imagine what we all could do,” said Danyele, 24. “It’s super sad that we’re at this point, but this is encouraging.”
A pregnant school superintendent in Windham, Ohio has been sentenced to ten years in prison for engaging in a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old male student while she was principal at the high school he attended. Thirty-five-year-old Laura Amero admitted in court to having sex with one student and trying to become intimate with another 16-year-old student while she was principal at Windham High School from 2015 to 2017 before receiving her sentence, which is the maximum sentence allowed in Ohio for her crime. According to authorities, Amero had sex with the 16-year-old student in her office at least once. The incident in question was filmed, for reasons that defy all logic, which is what ultimately lead to Amero’s arrest. The video, of course, spread like wildfire through student social circles at the high school. Amero claimed to officers that she had heard the student she had sex with showed the video to the basketball team. Eventually, a concerned parent got wind of what was going on and reported Amero to the police. Amero initially denied being the woman in the video who looked exactly like her and was having sex in her office before eventually admitting that she was, indeed, the woman in the video who looked exactly like her and was having sex in her office. Amero also admitted to sending sexually explicit Snapchats and text messages to the teenage student. By the time she was caught Amero had been promoted to superintendent of the school district. She stepped down last June, two months after her arrest. Despite her ten year sentence, the judge has delayed Amero’s incarceration until two weeks after she is expected to give birth in April. Amero will have to register as a sex offender once she is released from prison.
Oh look, another challenge that kids are participating in that is putting their life at risk. In case you don’t know what the Skull Breaker Challenge is, well, it’s just that. A challenge that can break your skull. I have lost faith in all teenagers. The stupid stunt is said to have originated in Spain after three students were filmed jumping next to each other. Then, out of nowhere, the two “friends” on the side of the guy in the middle are seen kicking the kid’s feet out from under him. To which yes, this poor kid falls straight to the ground, landing on his back and hitting his head on the concrete floor. Not only that, but you can actually hear the THUMP as soon as this kid’s head hits the floor. Now, I don’t have to explain to you why this is so dumb, right? I mean, these kids could have bled out in a matter of seconds if he would have hit the floor harder! I hope he didn’t get a concussion. Listen, as someone who has written about multiple trends and dangerous challenges on the Internet, and shaming kids for doing them, this by far wins the prize. This is seriously one of the dumbest things I have ever seen on the Internet. It’s not even funny. I didn’t even laugh, I gasped from how worried I was about this kid. You’re literally kicking someone straight to the ground with the intent to harm as a stupid prank. This is even more stupid than any Tide pod challenge. Because yes, you know that they are going to hurt themselves. If your idea of going viral means killing someone, then you’re insane. Continue your idiotic games and land in jail, by all means. Believe it or not, there have been several responses to the TikTok from medial officials urging people not to try it. Even doctors have created their own videos asking people to #StopTheSkullBreakerChallenge, because well, they don’t want them to kill anyone either. Parents are also urging children to stop participating due to several injuries. Through Facebook, Arizona mom Valerie Hodson shared a picture of her son, who was tricked in the stunt by two friends. The boy reportedly landed flat on his back and head, struggled to get up and lost consciousness. She noted, “The school monitor ran to his side, all the while the two boys were snickering and laughing as his stiff unconscious body lay on the asphalt. Fast forward at the hospital, he has a head injury, stitches in his face, severe cuts inside his mouth and two front teeth I have to keep on eye on. This apparently is a TikTok viral prank being filmed and gaining likes on social media.” Days later, a mom in Alabama shared a similar warning, after her son had to get surgery on his wrist as a result of the dumb TikTok prank. TikTok did note the safety and wellbeing of their users is a top priority of the app. “As we make clear in our Community Guidelines, we do not allow content that encourages, promotes, or glorifies dangerous challenges that might lead to injury, and we remove reported behavior or activity that violates our guidelines. To help keep our platform safe, we have introduced a slate of safety features geared towards enhancing our users’ experience, including tools for reporting inappropriate content and for managing privacy settings.” According to Nathan Richards, MD, who spoke with Yahoo lifestyle, the challenge to be associated with a variety of serious and even life-threatening injuries” which include bruising hematoma, next train, skull fracture, neck fracture, concussions and long-term complications of concussion, loss of consciousness, bleeding in or around the brain, paralysis, and death. Richards, who is the physician who specializes in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, explained that although the prank seems harmless to two adolescents and children, they should still be educated on the potential serious consequences it can bring to one. Man, kids need to get back to school.
The COVID-19 outbreak has certainly done a number on the entertainment industry. Not only has it forced studios to postpone the release of highly anticipated blockbusters like The New Mutants, No Time to Die, and Black Widow, it’s also caused the production of upcoming films and series like "Falcon and the Winter Soldier" to shut down to inhibit the spread of the novel coronavirus. While some analysts believe that Black Widow’s delay won’t ruin the timeline that Marvel has set out for Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the delayed production of Marvel Studios’ upcoming project may have an effect on the franchise. According to Murphys Multiverse (via BGR), Marvel just recently informed crew members of its upcoming titles via email that the four-week hiatus would have to be extended for an indefinite period of time due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. The leaked email told crew members that they wouldn’t be employed on their particular contract beginning April 3rd, 2020. Production on the studios’ various projects would restart “when the global health environment allows.” This email was sent out to crew members of the Phase 4 series like "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier," "WandaVision," and "Loki." Seeing how production has been further delayed on these projects, the site suggests that movies in production could be delayed as well. This includes Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. With production delayed, these upcoming Marvel projects could see a delayed-release, affecting the timeframe of Phase 4 of the MCU. Hopefully, the COVID-19 pandemic weakens before the production of these projects are delayed for too long.
You know, when the Magic Kingdom opens again it'll look like this...

Ugh. No social distancing there. This is what Mickey is doing while the parks are closed...

When the parks reopen this is what he'd be doing...

Are you a Walt Disney World Annual Passholder? Did you get one of these magnets?

Haha. Disney uses Fastpasses which will give you a one hour window to come back and ride the ride. Costco it seems is doing the same thing for toilet paper...

Apparently if you need toilet paper it's all over Cinderella's Castle...

I don't think Disney will open because...

Hahaha. Because of the coronavirus they have been making a few changes to Disney movies...

And...

Hahahahaha. Speaking of that Snow White movie... Disney has been teaching us how to avoid get COVID-19 since 1937...

If you need help washing your hands check out this...

So, I wonder what Mulan is up to now...

Of course. So, people are using coronavirus as a pickup line on dating apps.

Dang. And now here's another...

Now from the home office in Port Jefferson, here is...

Top Phive People's Routines While In Quarantine
5. Breakfast, second breakfast, morning snack, pre-lunch snack, lunch, lunch dessert, afternoon snack, water, happy hour, appetizers, dinner, dessert, nighttime snack, pre-bedtime snack.
4. Wake up, wake up, this time for real, self sabotage, send an email... just kidding!, yoga/prayer/meditation, drinking, smoking, and sending nude photos, lights out!, read doomsday articles until morning.
3. Wallow in self-pity, stare into the abyss, solve world hunger tell no one, dinner with me... I can't cancel that again, wrestle with my self-loathing... I'm booked.
2. Pour up, drank, headshot, drank, sit down, drank, stand up, drank, pass out, drank, wake up, drank, faded, drank, faded, drank.
And the number routine while in quarantine is...
1. Wake up in the morning feeling like P Diddy, grab my glasses get out of the door hit this city, brush my teeth with a bottle of Jack, don't stop make it pop DJ blow my speakers up.

Haha. If you spot the Mindphuck let me know. Okay, so you know I live in Florida, right? Well, once again here's a story from...

A Florida man is currently in jail for being… well, dumb. According to Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staley, the man impersonated a law enforcement officer just days after he was jailed on the same charge. So dumb, so hilarious, lock this man for being an idiot. Through a Facebook post, the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office showed the 60-year-old’s mugshot after he was arrested on March 11th after investigators got a tip from a toll bridge attendant. LeRoy Stotelmyer apparently flashed a law enforcement badge to cross the bridge without paying for the toll, which was only two dollars. Another toll bridge attendant told authorities that during his encounter with Stotelmyer, he had presented him with a silver badge. That’s when the toll booth attendant pulled a fast one on him by using the reverse card straight out of the UNO game and showed him an article from the Daytona Beach News-Journal which reported his arrest on March 9th for impersonating a Law Enforcement Officer. So, the guilty man freaked out and quickly put away the fake badge and paid the $2.00 toll. Because at that point, he probably knew he had messed up, and bad. Through a statement Sheriff, Rick Staly stated, “This guy clearly has not learned his lesson and has no respect for the law,” Sheriff Rick Staly said. “Two days after his release and he is already up to his old tricks. We know already that he thinks he can get out of shoplifting and pay tolls with his fake badge. I am happy we were able to get him back off the streets before something more serious occurs. He thinks he wants to be a cop, now he gets to see what its like to be an inmate.” As expected, the Florida man was arrested, again, and charged with felony violation of pre-trial release and impersonating an officer. Jail records do not show a lawyer for him at this time, but according to the Associated Press, he is being held without bond.

So, wanna laugh?

Brenda, pregnant with her first child, was paying a visit to her obstetrician's office. When the exam was over, she shyly began, "My husband wants me to ask you..." "I know, I know." the doctor said, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder, "I get asked that all the time. Sex is fine until late in the pregnancy." "No, that's not it at all." Brenda confessed. "He wants to know if I can still mow the lawn."

Today's guest is an American animator and designer noted particularly for his work as a Disney Imagineer. His book, It’s Kind of a Cute Story is the 117th book to be pheatured in the Phile's Book Club. Please welcome to the Phile... Rolly Crump!

Me: Hello, Rolly, welcome to the Phile. How are you?

Rolly: I'm terrific, Jason, there's no turning back now.

Me: Ha! Before you worked on attractions for Disneyland, you worked on attractions for the 1964 World's Fair in New York, right?

Rolly: Yes, there's funny story about that. I have hanging up at my house this picture of the Word's Fair and my wife Marie is in that picture. Chris, my son, came to the house a couple of years ago and we were talking about doing a reproduction of the Tower of Four Winds for the Disney Museum in San Francisco. So Chris was getting involved in that and be brought down this photo and put it down on my dining room table and he and I were talking and my wife Marie walked by and she looked at the photo of the Tower. And in the photograph we saw some people and she thought, good Lord, she thought that was her. They had been to the Fair in 1964, she's from New Jersey and she had moved to California in 1965 but she did go to the Fair in '64 and she was positive that was her in the photograph and the photograph was taken by the Disney people, it was in their archives and that's how Chris got it. So I guess Marie and I were together long before we knew each other.

Me: That's great. How did you guys meet?

Rolly: That's another long story. Marie was married and moved to California in 1965 and was fortunate to get a job at the studio and she became friends with a gal who worked there as well and Marie and her became like sisters, they were friends for about thirty years. When Marie first met her she had broken up with someone else who worked at Disney and that was me. So we had broken up and we were friends at that point and I met Marie a couple of times on the studio lot, when we were walking around or something. She then introduced me to Marie so fast forward over thirty years they would bump into me and got to know what was happening in my life but never really saw each other. Then Tina, the girl and mutual friend passed away and Marie was living in San Diego and read in the paper I was having a gallery show in Ocean Side. She wanted to tell me about Tina, Tina had passed about three years before that. So she decided to go to the gallery and tell me about Tina which she did and the rest is history. That was about sixteen years ago.

Me: That's a sweet story. Okay, Rolly, you knew Walt Disney... what can you say about him?

Rolly: I think the best story of all, when I first went to WED I'd sit in meetings with Walt and all the other guys I think just for the first three years I'd just sit and listen. I really didn't participate that much unless I had something to say. But what I did I studied Walt, I studied his body language and everything, What happened was I surely and slowly felt comfortable with him because he was very comfortable to be around when I spent time with him. It got to a point where I felt comfortable sitting next to him and whenever the meetings were over him I wasn't afraid, I felt comfortable with him to ask him questions that weren't necessary pertaining to what we were talking about. Anyway, what was happening is we would have a meeting with Walt that would go on for a couple of hours and until he got up to leave and I wasn't sure what the positive line was that he was trying to get across to us. This wasn't every time, but every other time. I grabbed his coat tale every time he got up and he'd turn and say, "Yes, Rolly?" and I'd say, "Would you run that by me one more time?" He'd say, "I'll be glad to, Rolly." So he'd take me through it shortly. I'd then get a strong feeling of the direction he wanted to take. Because sometimes we got confused of the direction he wanted to take. Then sometimes I'd say, "Well?" And he'd look at me and say, "Shit, I don't know." We got into where we had comfortable conversations with him. Because of that that was what was so special about him. Always felt comfortable with him and I think he felt comfortable with me. I have heard somethings after he passed away of things that he said about me that I didn't know about that was very special. 

Me: Did you know his brother Roy at all?

Rolly: Yes, in fact Roy came up to me, we were having brunch at the 33 Club after Walt passed away and Roy came up to me and shook my hand and said, "Are you Rolly Crump?" I said, "Yes." He said, "Well, my brother used to talk a lot about you." That was very special because I thought he would never talk about me if I wasn't in a meeting with him. So I heard a couple of other stories along those lines that really make me feel good and I do know that we had a good connection.

Me: Do you have another stories that stuck out about him?

Rolly: When the Tower of Four Winds was being built they were going to take some pictures of us. Walt said, "We have to stand here and look like we're talking." I said "We're supposed to be talking while they're taking pictures?" Walt said, "Yes." I said, "What are we talking about?" He said, "Anything you want, it doesn't really matter." So that was the conservation while we were having our pictures taken. Here's one of the pictures...

Me: That's so cool, Rolly. What was it like when you first met Walt Disney?

Rolly: This is kind of cute, when I first met him I was invited to work for WED I came up to where he was and I shook his hand and he shook my hand and he said, "Roland, it's nice to have you on board." I said, "Mr. Disney, thank you very much." And he said, "No, Roland, it's Walt... not Mr. Disney and don't you forget it." So I said, "Okay." I remembered that, he called me in a lot of meetings we were in he called me "Roland." Then one day, maybe three months later he called me "Owen." I thought that was weird, then it dawned on me there was a writer that wrote a lot of the scripts for the live actions pictures and his name was Owen Crump. So he got confused with that and I was called "Owen" for a while. Then one day in a meeting he called me "Orland," and I don't know where Orland came from.

Me: It could have been worse, you could have been called "What's His Name." Hahaha.

Rolly: Actually, we were in a meeting on the Haunted Mansion and he was talking to me and Yale Gracey and he'd said, "Yale, I want you and what's his name here to work on the music." I did become what's his name and I loved that. I talked to his daughter about that one time and she said, "My dad always had trouble with names."

Me: I'm bad with names as well. Good with faces, bad with names, Do you remember the last time you talked to Walt before he passed in '66?

Rolly: No, I don't. He came over to WED on a couple of occasions and I sat in meetings with him but there was no conversations that I was involved with. I do remember that he didn't look good. I remember his eyes looked terrible and I thought something was wrong with him. Of course nothing had been said about it at all so I did see him a couple of times but had no conversations with him.

Me: Do you remember the last conversation you had with him?

Rolly: The last conversation I really had with him was we had a Christmas party at WED and I designed the It's A Small World clock at Disneyland and we built a model that had the animation and sound effects exactly what the clock was going to be built. It was kind of a wild party that night, we had an open bar, it was near Christmas time and everybody was really having a good time. Walt came up to me, he had some friends of his with him and he said, "Rolly, would you run the clock for me?" And I said, "Sure." So I ran the clock for him a couple of times so that was probably the last conversation I ever had with him when he was at the party. I think when the party was over with I think it was decided we would never have any more parties like that because everybody got stoned. 

Me: Haha. Did you?

Rolly: I had about there for four Martinis and I was very happy I made it home that night.

Me: Do you ever visit Walt's grave?

Rolly: Oh no, God, no. First of all we didn't know where it was. For years we didn't know where it was. Then I heard through a rumor it was up in Forest Lawn. The interesting thing about the rumor is where he's buried up there it just shows the date he was born, it doesn't show the date he passed away. That's kind of a strange thing, I'm not too sure that's true or not.

Me: You were involved with a few of the animated features, sir. Which ones were you most involved with?

Rolly: Probably One Hundred and One Dalmatians because I was working with Eric Larson at that time, he was one of the Nine Old Men, one of the animators, so I was working with him. He always wanted me to learn to animate and I didn't want to learn to animate. I loved being an assistant. I really wasn't that excited about being an animator for some reason, it just seemed like a lot of work. But anyway, that happened was he had animated the puppies watching television, that was one sequence there. We got it back on the Moviola and everything but the puppet he animated didn't have any spots so he said, "Roland, I want you to do the spots." I said, "What?" I had to go through and design the different spots that when on the different puppies and believe it or not I ended up doing all the spots. I did the major spots, I did the break downs, I did the in-betweens, I did every spot that needed to be done on those puppies and I think it took me six months. I think the scene it was in probably ran for like a minute.

Me: Wow. Holy shit. Did you learn anything about that?

Rolly: What I learnt was if there's spots on a puppy and the puppy moves the spots have to go with the puppy. They cannot slip and slide on me. So, it was great exercise. That's the best piece of animation I have ever did.

Me: I bet you wish the movie was called One Hundred and One Golden Retrievers. Haha.

Rolly: Ha ha ha ha. That's for damn sure.

Me: Didn't one of the puppies have a horseshoe shape spot?

Rolly: Yes, one of the puppies name was Lucky so I put a horseshoe spot on him.

Me: Nice. So, how did you get involved with Imagineering?

Rolly: That's a real long story. When I worked in animation I learnt to make little propellers that ran of the air conditioning in my room and I had probably thirty little structures with propellers on them. This very close friend of mine said, "You know, Rolly, you should have an exhibit in the library with your propellers." All the artists would sign up for a week or two to have a show in the library and that became a little art gallery. So I went up to talk to them and they said yeah, I can have a show in about six weeks, And I said, "Great." So I had these mobiles I made and some kind of beatnik partings I did, and of course I had all my little propellers along with all my marijuana posters. So I had this little exhibit, the marijuana posters were down the hallway, the propellers were in the main room along with the paintings I did and along with the mobiles. Well, Tina who ran the library called me on the phone one day and said, "Walt was up here today and saw your exhibit." I said, "Wow." Of course I had never met Walt, this was long before I ever met him. I said, "Did he enjoy it?" She said, "Yes." I said, "Did he go down the hallway where all my pot posters were?" She said, "Yes, he did," I said, "Well, that did he say?" She said, "Nothing, but he really laughed." He enjoyed my sense of humor which I thought was interesting. Because of that, quite a few years, that were looking for more money to come to work for WED and full people from the animation department. So Ward Kimball mentioned to Walt, "I got to get Rolly Crump to come work for WED. He has a lot of imagination." So Walt said, "Okay, I'll check and see." He called over to the animation department and of course working for Eric Larson, he and I got along so beautifully, when they asked if I could come to WED Eric said, "No, he's too important. He's got to stay in animation." That was passed back to Walt so two weeks later Ward Kimball said to Walt, "So, did you get a hold of Rolly?" He said, "No, he's too important in animation." Ward said, "No, he's not, let's go for him again." They came and they asked me, because prior to that they asked Eric Larson. Eric was in Europe at that time and they asked me, "Do you want to go to WED?" I said, "When?" They said, "Monday." And I said, "I'll take it." I felt very terrible about that but I knew for a fact Eric knew I wanted to get out of animation and of course going to WED was a special thing. He understood and everything turned out okay.

Me: So, at the Haunted Mansion there was supposed to be this thing called Museum of the Weird. Do you have any of the stuff from there?

Rolly: I got pieces of it all over the house. We have this little hallway at the top of the stairs that's devoted to the Museum of the Weird. All my statues of the gypsy wagon and all the little characters that are in there.

Me: I think I saw on the Imagineer show on Disney+ a clip of you walking around with Walt talking about the Museum of the Weird. What do you remember about filming that?

Rolly: All I could remember was what I told you earlier that he was comfortable to be with on television. He made me relax, in other words, I didn't tense up. I didn't think about being on television, it was like I was having a conversation with him and that's the way he treated it. I thought that was absolutely beautiful. I do know they had a monitor of that he was about to show on all of the shows, like cue cards only it was a monitor. And Walt never stayed with it. He said that he wanted to say and in fact he made it up as he went. He came up to me and said, "What is it you're working on?" I said, "A Museum of the Weird." he said, "What's the Museum of the Weird?" And I went in my little dialogue.

Me: So, I have to mention The Enchanted Tiki Room, which I love, but for some reason other people I know don't. Haha. What was your involvement with the Tiki Room?

Rolly: Oh, boy. That can go on forever too. What happened was Walt wanted to do a little tea room on Main Street so his wife can go in and have a little cup of hot tea and also have antiques in there and everything. So they asked me to design a little tea room and I used the theme of clocks. I was going to fill the tea room with all kinds of clocks from around the world. While I was working on that that was when they were redoing the Adventureland area and they decided they would do a little restaurant that would be in that area. They wanted to tie it into Adventureland. So they said let's have a meeting with Walt and then they decided to take the tea room idea and make it into a restaurant for the Adventureland area. So we were sitting in a meeting with Walt, there was only four or five of us, and we started to talk about what would be themed to that area of Adventureland. They asked John Hench to do a rendering of what that restaurant might look like. Well, John did it and brought it back the next week and it was a lot of tiki's and birds in cages and everything. Walt looked at it and said, "John, you got birds in cages." John said, "Yes." Walt said, "You can't do that." John said, "Why not?" Walt said, "Because the birds will poop in the food." That's exactly what he said. John said, "No, no, no, they're not real birds. They're stuffed birds." And Walt said, "No, Disney doesn't stuff birds." John sad, "No, no, no, they look like stuffed birds but they're little mechanical birds." Walt said "Oh, little mechanical birds. That sounds interesting." So by time we got finished with the meeting we talked how the birds might talk to each other through the room or sing together or whatever. So that little thing started as a little rook where birds would talk to each other. Well, that was the beginning of it and away we went. Walt came to me, because it was still going to be a restaurant and said, "You know, Roland, when people are waiting in line I want them to be entertained. So I want you to design a lot of tiki's for the from there that talks to the audience." So I said,"Okay." Hench told me to get a book on tiki's, the tiki's were the Gods of the Pacific and which I did. I did a lot of homework and got the names of all the Gods of the tiki's and I built stories around them. Those are the little tiki stories that would be heard before you went in and had dinner.

Me: Why wasn't it a restaurant after all?

Rolly: As it turned out when we were designing the show and had it almost completed Walt said, "This is too good of a show for a restaurant. Let's just make an attraction out of it." So over night it went from a restaurant to an attraction. That's how it came about.

Me: And you sculpted the tiki's, right?

Rolly: Yes, with a plastic fork from the commissary. I wanted to make it look like they were made by palm fronds. In order to get that texture I would rig the clay with a plastic fork.

Me: That's really cool. Okay, so how did the book come about? I know it came out years ago.

Rolly: I have to thank my wife Marie, who said, "Don't you think you should do a book?" I said, "Oh, yeah, that sounds like a good idea. I always wanted to do that." Because of Marie we did the book and I can't tank her enough. That's it. That's the bottom line.

Me: Where did the title It's Kind of a Cute Story come from?

Rolly: I was told every time I went to tell a story I would say, "Its kind of a cute story."

Me: Haha. Rolly, thanks so much for being on the Phile. This was a big thrill for me.

Rolly: Thanks, Jason, it was good talking with you.

Me: Keep well.

Rolly: You too.

That about does it for this entry of the Phile, kids. Thanks to Rolly Crump for a great interview. The Phile will be back tomorrow with Richard Kline who played Larry on "Three's Company." Spread the word, not the turd. Don't let snakes and alligators bite you. Bye, love you, bye.

I don't want you, cook my bread, I don't want you, make my bed, I don't want your money too, I just want to make love to you. - Willie Dixon