Garner L. Holt is the founder and president of Garner Holt Productions, Inc., the world’s largest animatronics company. Garner Holt Productions was founded in 1977 and designs and manufactures animatronic figures for entertainment locations, including

Disneyland Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney in ...

, Knott’s Berry Farm, and the

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. Their best known figures include the 45-foot dragon at Disneyland’s

Fantasmic! ''Fantasmic!'' is a nighttime show at Disneyland Park, Disneyland and Disney's Hollywood Studios. The show formerly operated at Tokyo DisneySea. It features fireworks, characters, live actors, water effects, pyrotechnics, lasers, music, Audio-An ...

show, and the singing characters at

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. Holt’s first experiments in crafting moving figures were showcased in a haunted house built in his parents' backyard in 1974. The following year he built another Halloween exhibit at the

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San Bernardino, California San Bernardino (; Spanish for "Saint Bernardino") is a city and county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States. Located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California, the city had a population of 222,101 in the 2020 cen ...

. Holt's figures are also utilized by museums, visitor centers, and in education. Holt also designs parade floats, scenery, and theming elements and his figures are used for military training. He has also created prosthetic limbs

prosthetics In medicine, a prosthesis (plural: prostheses; from grc, πρόσθεσις, prósthesis, addition, application, attachment), or a prosthetic implant, is an artificial device that replaces a missing body part, which may be lost through trau ...

. Garner is a native of San Bernardino, CA. After decades in San Bernardino, the business relocated to a 100,000 square foot building in nearby Redlands, CA in 2018. Holt has received numerous awards for his entrepreneurial efforts as well as his company's creative achievements. His company has been honored with nearly two dozen of the Themed Entertainment Association's Thea Awards (including Holt's 2014 Harrison "Buzz" Price Award Recognizing a Lifetime of Achievements). In 2016 Holt received the Disneyana Fan Club's (DFC)

Disney Legend Award The Disney Legends Awards is a Hall of Fame program that recognizes individuals who have made an extraordinary and integral contribution to The Walt Disney Company. Established in 1987, the honor was traditionally awarded annually during a spec ...

References

Living people Animatronic engineers Year of birth missing (living people) {{US-business-bio-stub