Bob Welbaum: Bruce Gordon and David Mumford: A Tribute to Two Legends
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This started a tradition: each year something would be thrown into the audience. It might be hard candy to illustrate Candy Mountain, a proposed Disneyland attraction that was never built; uncut tickets from the Disneyland �Giftgiver� machine promotion; projector slides announcing a book, leaves from the old Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse; even fake �cease and desist� letters from Disney Legal prohibiting them from throwing things at their audiences (which was also the year someone made little �ghosts� from tissue paper to throw back at them). One year they could be seen walking through the hotel lobby, then on-stage, carrying a large box prominently marked �Stuff To Throw� (it was filled with rolls of toilet paper, which of course they threw). The only exception was 2000, when they brought in small sandwich bags filled with chunks of concrete from the construction site for Disneyland�s new Autopia attraction. Fortunately, these were simply handed out.
Their most elaborate presentation was probably 1991, when they showed original 3-D construction slides of Disneyland, complete with 3-D glasses, which (of course) were distributed by being thrown from the stage. It actually was a very efficient method, except for those that bounced off the glass prisms decorating the ceiling.
By 1996, Bruce and David had run out of ideas for purely informational programs, so they reverted to more entertainment, performing a little skit based on Walt Disney World�s 25th Anniversary. Bruce had just �returned� from Walt Disney World, bringing back plenty of anniversary souvenirs for himself (but none for David) and therefore had become sick of any mention of the anniversary. So what topic did David pick in his �absence�? Walt Disney World�s 25th Anniversary! First Bruce rebelled by sitting in the audience and heckling, then he came onstage to throw the �presentation slides� into the audience. That was how they introduced the real presentation.
The program which required the most preparation was the 2000 show. David was in Tokyo working on Tokyo DisneySea and was not at the Convention. (This was not unexpected; the previous year David had announced he was moving to Tokyo, so the 1999 skit was �auditioning� his replacement.) The creative solution was to stage a �live teleconference� with David in his �Tokyo office.� Various technical problems were �overcome,� but unfortunately the link was unexpectedly broken when Godzilla attacked David�s office. The truth was the entire video had been shot before David had even left California, but it was done so convincingly that many (including me) thought there really was a live connection with Japan.
In addition to their careers as convention speakers, their other major joint venture was forming Camphor Tree Publishers, which has produced such classic collectors� editions as Disneyland: The Nickel Tour, a history of Disneyland through postcards; Walt�s Time: From Before to Beyond, the autobiography of songwriters Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman; Disneyland: Then, Now and Forever ; and Ellenshaw Under Glass or Going to the Matte for Disney by Peter Ellenshaw. The Nickel Tour was first, debuting at the NFFC Convention in 1995. Bruce and David prepared a tongue-in-cheek movie to document their publishing travails, including David and his wife Carole mortgaging their house to raise funds. (Although done in jest, the movie was based on fact: Camphor Tree was founded because no established publisher would touch Nickel Tour -- �no commercial potential,� and David & Carole really did put their house on the line.) After viewing the video, many convention-goers were moved to help�by donating nickels! David was especially appreciative. (�Look! I just got the upstairs bedroom back!�)
This rich legacy of memories made this year�s �Luncheon with a Legend� ceremony all the more poignant. On stage to talk about Bruce and David were Carole Mumford; Tom Morris, a good friend and colleague from Walt Disney Imagineering; and Tony Baxter, Imagineer and an NFFC Disney Legend himself. During their discussions and in all the videos of �The Bruce and David Show� is one common denominator: both had a deep passion for all things Disney.
For example, Tony talked about working with Bruce on Epcot:
Management would like to think that you know everything that you need to know about a show before it�s even conceptualized because then they can lock you into the budget and everything. Then we get to the field, you see all these big black walls that you forgot to design anything for. And normally the production people would say �That�s too bad, if you want a change, you�ll have to get a change order and put it through the process,� and they�ll never give you any more money.
Bruce, on the other hand, would say �I�ll get you a box of chalk. You go in there and on the black wall, you draw what you want to see there, and then at night I�ll work with the carpenters after hours.� And I said �You�re my new best friend!�
In other words, the show came first with Bruce.