Joyce Carlson
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Joyce Carlson (March 16, 1923 – January 2, 2008) was an American
artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...
and
designer A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exp ...
credited with creating the idyllic universe of singing children at "
It's a Small World "It's a Small World" is a water-based boat ride located in the Fantasyland area at various Disney theme parks worldwide, including Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California; Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida; Tokyo Di ...
" rides at Walt Disney theme parks around the world. Carlson also worked as an ink artist in the
Walt Disney Animation Studios Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS), sometimes shortened to Disney Animation, is an American animation studio that creates animated features and short films for The Walt Disney Company. The studio's current production logo features a scene fro ...
, on such films as ''
Cinderella "Cinderella",; french: link=no, Cendrillon; german: link=no, Aschenputtel) or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a folk tale with thousands of variants throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsi ...
'', ''
Peter Pan Peter Pan is a fictional character created by List of Scottish novelists, Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and Puer aeternus, never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending ...
'' and ''
Sleeping Beauty ''Sleeping Beauty'' (french: La belle au bois dormant, or ''The Beauty in the Sleeping Forest''; german: Dornröschen, or ''Little Briar Rose''), also titled in English as ''The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods'', is a fairy tale about a princess cu ...
''. She was the lead ink artist for the 1955 Disney film ''
Lady and the Tramp ''Lady and the Tramp'' is a 1955 American animated musical romance film produced by Walt Disney and released by Buena Vista Film Distribution. The 15th Disney animated feature film, it was directed by Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, and Hami ...
''. She spent 56 years working on Disney's animated films and theme park attractions.


Early life

Joyce Carlson was born in
Racine, Wisconsin Racine ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Racine County, Wisconsin, United States. It is located on the shore of Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Root River. Racine is situated 22 miles (35 km) south of Milwaukee and approximately 60 ...
on March 16, 1923. Her family moved to
Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...
in 1938 when she was a teenager. Carlson graduated from
Santa Monica High School Santa Monica High School, officially abbreviated to SaMoHi, is located in Santa Monica, California. Founded in 1891, it changed location several times in its early years before settling into its present campus at 601 Pico Boulevard. It is a part o ...
in
Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...
. She initially did not want to become a designer. After high school she took a job delivering pens, pencils, paints and brushes to animators at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank. She soon became an inker after that. When the inkers were replaced by Xerox, she moved into the imagineering group at Walt Disney.


Career

Carlson first became involved with
Walt Disney Productions The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
in
Burbank, California Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank has a population of 107,337. The city was named after David Burbank, w ...
in 1944, when she took a job in the traffic department delivering mail, art supplies, coffee and other necessities to various departments. She later stated that she took the job at Disney simply because she needed the work. Carlson created a pen-and-ink
portfolio Portfolio may refer to: Objects * Portfolio (briefcase), a type of briefcase Collections * Portfolio (finance), a collection of assets held by an institution or a private individual * Artist's portfolio, a sample of an artist's work or a ...
of her sketches several months after she began working at Disney, and presented it to her employers. She was hired into a position in the Disney studio's ink and paint department. This particular department was nicknamed "the
nunnery A convent is a community of monks, nuns, religious brothers or, sisters or priests. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The word is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican C ...
" at the time because many of its employees were women who sometimes worked 16-hour days in order to finish Disney's feature films on time. Her first work was on short, Disney-produced
training film A training film is a form of educational film – a short subject documentary movie, that provides an introduction to a topic. Both narrative documentary and dramatisation styles may be used, sometimes both in the same production. While most ...
s made for the
United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
during
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. However, Carlson was soon promoted to feature films, which she worked on for 16 years. Her credits included ''The Three Caballeros, Cinderella'', ''Peter Pan,'' and ''Sleeping Beauty''. She was further promoted to lead ink artist during the production of the 1955 animated feature film ''
Lady and the Tramp ''Lady and the Tramp'' is a 1955 American animated musical romance film produced by Walt Disney and released by Buena Vista Film Distribution. The 15th Disney animated feature film, it was directed by Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, and Hami ...
''. By 1960 the technology used in animation had changed, which meant that ink artists were no longer needed in the animation process. In 1962, Carlson joined WED Enterprises, named after Walt Elias Disney, to work on three dimensional characters in Walt Disney's theme parks. WED later became known as
Walt Disney Imagineering Walt Disney Imagineering Research & Development, Inc., commonly referred to as Imagineering, is the research and development arm of The Walt Disney Company, responsible for the creation, design, and construction of Disney theme parks and attra ...
. (The first Disney theme park,
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 ...
, had opened in 1955). Her mentors in the imagineering group were Mary Blair and Marc Davis. One of her earliest projects was the
Carousel of Progress Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress is a rotating theater audio-animatronic stage show attraction in Tomorrowland at the Magic Kingdom theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida just outside of Orlando, Florida. Created ...
where she worked with Leota "Lee" Toombs, who was later the model for Madame Leota in
The Haunted Mansion The Haunted Mansion is a dark ride attraction located at Disneyland, Magic Kingdom, and Tokyo Disneyland. The haunted house attraction features a ride-through tour in Omnimover vehicles called "Doom Buggies", and a walk-through show is displaye ...
. For the show models, Toombs and Carlson were given chewing gum, wires, and earrings to make hinges for the refrigerator and various household appliances. Due to their lack of supplies, secretaries started to bring in bags of their old jewelry. Walt Disney used to show guests new developments in their projects and he'd say, "Do you believe that this whole set was built on earrings?" The Carousel of Progress debuted at the
1964 New York World's Fair The 1964–1965 New York World's Fair was a world's fair that held over 140 pavilions and 110 restaurants, representing 80 nations (hosted by 37), 24 US states, and over 45 corporations with the goal and the final result of building exhibits or ...
as well as Carlson's next project, "
It's a Small World "It's a Small World" is a water-based boat ride located in the Fantasyland area at various Disney theme parks worldwide, including Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California; Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida; Tokyo Di ...
". Carlson helped to create the original models and designs for the "
It's a Small World "It's a Small World" is a water-based boat ride located in the Fantasyland area at various Disney theme parks worldwide, including Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California; Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida; Tokyo Di ...
" attraction, which debuted at the
1964 New York World's Fair The 1964–1965 New York World's Fair was a world's fair that held over 140 pavilions and 110 restaurants, representing 80 nations (hosted by 37), 24 US states, and over 45 corporations with the goal and the final result of building exhibits or ...
. She was one of a select group of artists and designers who were sent to
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
by Disney in order to create attractions for the World's Fair. Within the Disney Company, she became known as the artist who designed many of the famous ride's singing
doll A doll is a physical model, model typically of a human or humanoid character, often used as a toy for children. Dolls have also been used in traditional religious rituals throughout the world. Traditional dolls made of materials such as clay and ...
s. Following its debut at the World's Fair, "It's a Small World" opened first in Disneyland; Carlson later helped bring her signature attraction to
Walt Disney World The Walt Disney World Resort, also called Walt Disney World or Disney World, is an entertainment resort complex in Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States, near the cities of Orlando and Kissimmee. Opened on October 1, 1971, th ...
,
Tokyo Disneyland (local nickname ''TDL'') is a theme park at the Tokyo Disney Resort in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, near Tokyo. Its main gate is directly adjacent to both Maihama Station and Tokyo Disneyland Station. It was the first Disney park to be ...
, and
Disneyland Paris Disneyland Paris is an entertainment resort in Chessy, France, east of Paris. It encompasses two theme parks, resort hotels, Disney Nature Resorts, a shopping, dining and entertainment complex, and a golf course. Disneyland Park is the origin ...
. Following her time working on projects for the World's Fair, Joyce Carlson worked on a team with
Leota Toombs Leota "Lee" Toombs Thomas (born Leota Anne Wharton; August 9, 1925 – December 21, 1991) was an American artist and Imagineer at WED Enterprises, who worked on several original attractions at Disneyland Park. She had an extensive career at The ...
,
Harriet Burns Harriet Burns (August 20, 1928 – July 25, 2008) was an American artist and designer. Burns was the first woman hired in the Walt Disney Imagineering department within the Walt Disney Company. Biography Early life Burns was born Harrie ...
, and Glendra von Kessel to create many of the models and final pieces of attractions such as
Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room is an attraction located in Disneyland at the Disneyland Resort and in Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World, and previously in Tokyo Disneyland at Tokyo Disney Resort. First opened on June 23, 1963 at the Disneyl ...
,
Pirates of the Caribbean ''Pirates of the Caribbean'' is a Disney media franchise encompassing numerous theme park rides, a series of films, and spin-off novels, as well as a number of related video games and other media publications. The franchise originated with th ...
,
Haunted Mansion The Haunted Mansion is a dark ride attraction located at Disneyland, Magic Kingdom, and Tokyo Disneyland. The haunted house attraction features a ride-through tour in Omnimover vehicles called "Doom Buggies", and a walk-through show is displaye ...
,
Country Bear Jamboree The Country Bear Jamboree is an attraction in the Magic Kingdom theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort and at Tokyo Disneyland in the Tokyo Disney Resort. The attraction also existed at Disneyland Park. All versions of the attraction are simi ...
and many others. Additionally, she worked as a costume designer for raccoons, chickens, geese, dogs, etc. on a show called America Sings. The characters were later appropriated for scenes in Magic Kingdom's Splash Mountain attraction. She continued to work on newer attractions at Disneyland, Disney World, Tokyo Disneyland and
Disneyland Resort Paris Disneyland Paris is an entertainment resort in Chessy, France, east of Paris. It encompasses two theme parks, resort hotels, Disney Nature Resorts, a shopping, dining and entertainment complex, and a golf course. Disneyland Park is the origin ...
. She was mentored by Disney's first generation of attractions designers, notably Grace Bailey, Mary Blair and John Hench. In the later years of her career, Joyce moved to Florida in 1982, where she served as the resident “It's a Small World” expert (even developing new dolls for the attraction, including those representing Israel and Korea), helped maintain audio-animatronics figures and even helping Disney Legend John Hench select the color palette for the Park's iconic carousel horses. Additionally, she supervised the installation of The Haunted Mansion in the Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom. She became the first female Disney employee to reach the 50 and 55 years of employment milestone in 1994. She was working at Walt Disney World as a senior show
production designer In film and television, the production designer is the individual responsible for the overall aesthetic of the story. The production design gives the viewers a sense of the time period, the plot location, and character actions and feelings. Wo ...
at the time. Carlson officially retired from her full-time position at Disney in 2000, but remained at Disney World part-time until at least 2006 and continued to mentor Disney Imagineers through 2007. She was declared a "
Disney Legend 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 speci ...
" in 2000 and honored with a window on
Main Street, U.S.A. Main Street, U.S.A. is the first "themed land" inside the main entrance of the many theme parks operated or licensed by The Walt Disney Company around the world. Main Street, U.S.A. is themed to resemble American small towns during the early 20t ...
at the
Magic Kingdom Magic Kingdom Park, previously known as Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom (1971–1994) and The Magic Kingdom (1994–2017), is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando, Florida. Owned and operated by The W ...
in Walt Disney World. The commemorative window, which is Disney's version of a
hall of fame A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or Wiktionary:fame, fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actu ...
, is a rare honor bestowed on employees who have made significant contributions to the company and its
theme parks An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central ...
. Carlson's window, which is on the second floor of a structure along Main Street U.S.A, reads, “Dolls by Miss Joyce. Dollmaker for the World. Shops in New York, California, Florida, Japan and Paris. Owner and Founder Joyce Carlson.” Another tribute was made in her honor when imagineers created a Joyce Carlson doll that is featured in the Florida attraction.


Death

Joyce Carlson died of
cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...
at the age of 84 at her home in
Orlando, Florida Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Greater Orlando, Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, acco ...
on January 2, 2008. She was survived by her sister, Veryl Jones. Her husband predeceased her.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Carlson, Joyce 1923 births 2008 deaths Walt Disney Animation Studios people American artists Puppet designers Deaths from cancer in Florida Artists from Wisconsin People from Racine, Wisconsin Disney imagineers Women of Walt Disney Imagineering Puppetry in the United States