When Roland Fargo Crump Jr. was born in 1930, who could have foreseen that so many of his creativeendeavors would bring smiles to millions of people? A fortune teller’s window above Disneyland’s Main Street U.S.A. provides some retroactively clairvoyant insight into the amazing reach of the 90-year-old artist’s legacy of imagination. At “The Happiest Place on Earth,” Rolly’s iconic environmental creations (including the joyfully clock above Small World) have delighted visitors young and old for well over half a century and counting… tick… tock. Rolly was a master mischievist in all of his endeavors. From his family-friendly Disneyland creations to his counter-culture Beatnik designs, the art of surprise was as much a part of his repertoire as were drawing, painting, and sculpting. No matter the medium, humor played a major part in Rolly’s artistic alchemy. In his early days at Disney Animation, Rolly made an array of ornamental propellers from metal eraser clips. What started as a creative pastime turned into an in-studio art exhibition and eventually led to the creation of the colorful “Tower of the Four Winds” for the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair and the twirling gold whirligigs and ever-spinning thingamajigs that adorn the famous façade of “It’s a Small World” at Disneyland. Rolly’s creative sorcery has always had a way of spiraling upward and outward to transform simple ideas into grand accomplishments.
