Yale Gracey
Always interested in devising gadgets and building models, layout artist Yale Gracey's office at The Walt Disney Studios in Burbank was always cluttered with some of his lunch-hour experiments. One Saturday afternoon, as Walt Disney made his rounds through deserted offices to see what his staff was working on during the week, he came across one of Yale's mock-ups, featuring the illusion of falling snow. Impressed, Walt later asked the gadgeteer to help research and develop attractions for Disneyland.
John Hench, senior vice president of creative development, recalled, "Whenever we needed a special effect, we went to Yale. Sometimes it took a while to get what we were asking for, however, along the way he'd develop other marvelous effects we could use. I remember one time we asked him to create a particular illusion and in the process of experimenting he developed a gopher bomb, which we all used in our yards. It worked very well!"
The son of an American Consul, Yale was born in Shanghai, China, in 1910. He attended an English boarding school and after graduation, moved to the United States, where he attended the Art Center School of Design in Los Angeles.
In 1939, Yale joined The Walt Disney Studios as a layout artist working on the animated classic "Pinocchio," followed by "Fantasia." He also contributed to the layouts and backgrounds of animated shorts featuring Donald Duck and other characters.
In 1961, Yale began the second and most profound stage of his Disney career, as a special effects and lighting artist at Walt Disney Imagineering, then called WED (Walter Elias Disney) Enterprises. With no special effects training other than his own hands-on experimentation, Yale worked as a research and development designer creating illusions, such as the "999 grim, grinning ghosts" featured in the Haunted Mansion and the flames of the burning city in Pirates of the Caribbean. He also contributed to the 1964-65 New York World's Fair attractions, including the Carousel of Progress, for which he developed a pixie dust projector that blocks out everything on stage (during scene changes) via the illusion of glimmering pixie dust, the only light source in a darkened theater. The technology is also used in Space Mountain to block out the surrounding roller coaster structure.
fter 36 years with the company, Yale retired October 4, 1975. He continued to consult on special effects and lighting for attractions at Walt Disney World and EPCOT Center in Florida.
Yale died in Los Angeles on September 5, 1983, at the age of 73.
John Hench, senior vice president of creative development, recalled, "Whenever we needed a special effect, we went to Yale. Sometimes it took a while to get what we were asking for, however, along the way he'd develop other marvelous effects we could use. I remember one time we asked him to create a particular illusion and in the process of experimenting he developed a gopher bomb, which we all used in our yards. It worked very well!"
The son of an American Consul, Yale was born in Shanghai, China, in 1910. He attended an English boarding school and after graduation, moved to the United States, where he attended the Art Center School of Design in Los Angeles.
In 1939, Yale joined The Walt Disney Studios as a layout artist working on the animated classic "Pinocchio," followed by "Fantasia." He also contributed to the layouts and backgrounds of animated shorts featuring Donald Duck and other characters.
In 1961, Yale began the second and most profound stage of his Disney career, as a special effects and lighting artist at Walt Disney Imagineering, then called WED (Walter Elias Disney) Enterprises. With no special effects training other than his own hands-on experimentation, Yale worked as a research and development designer creating illusions, such as the "999 grim, grinning ghosts" featured in the Haunted Mansion and the flames of the burning city in Pirates of the Caribbean. He also contributed to the 1964-65 New York World's Fair attractions, including the Carousel of Progress, for which he developed a pixie dust projector that blocks out everything on stage (during scene changes) via the illusion of glimmering pixie dust, the only light source in a darkened theater. The technology is also used in Space Mountain to block out the surrounding roller coaster structure.
fter 36 years with the company, Yale retired October 4, 1975. He continued to consult on special effects and lighting for attractions at Walt Disney World and EPCOT Center in Florida.
Yale died in Los Angeles on September 5, 1983, at the age of 73.