Wah Chang
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Wah Ming Chang (August 2, 1917 – December 22, 2003) was an American
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 ...
,
sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
, and artist. With the encouragement of his adoptive father,
James Blanding Sloan James Blanding Sloan (September 19, 1886 – October 5, 1975), also known as Blanding Sloan, was an American etcher, printmaker, theatrical designer, educator, painter, and puppeteer. Biography J. Blanding Sloan was the first son born to Alexande ...
, he began exhibiting his prints and watercolors at the age of seven to highly favorable reviews. An online facsimile of the entire text of Vol. 1 is posted on the Traditional Fine Arts Organization website (). Chang worked with Sloan on several theatre productions and in the 1940s, they briefly created their own studio to produce films. He is known later in life for his sculpture and the
prop A prop, formally known as (theatrical) property, is an object used on stage or screen by actors during a performance or screen production. In practical terms, a prop is considered to be anything movable or portable on a stage or a set, distinc ...
s he designed for ''
Star Trek: The Original Series ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry that follows the adventures of the starship and its crew. It later acquired the retronym of ''Star Trek: The Original Series'' (''TOS'') to distinguis ...
'', including the
tricorder A tricorder is a fictional handheld sensor that exists in the ''Star Trek'' universe. The tricorder is a multifunctional hand-held device that can perform environmental scans, data recording, and data analysis; hence the word "tricorder" to refer ...
and communicator.


Early life

The Chang family moved from
Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...
, Hawaii to
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
, California and about 1920 opened the Ho-Ho Tea Room on Sutter Street, which became a favorite venue for the city's Bohemian artists. Wah-Ming's mother, Fai Sue Chang, was a graduate of Berkeley's California School of Arts and Crafts (today's
California College of the Arts California College of the Arts (CCA) is a private art school in San Francisco, California. It was founded in Berkeley, California in 1907 and moved to a historic estate in Oakland, California in 1922. In 1996 it opened a second campus in Sa ...
), where she specialized in fashion design and etching. When she died in 1928, her husband persuaded Wah Ming Chang's art teacher and family friends, the highly respected printmaker, puppeteer, and theatre designer,
James Blanding Sloan James Blanding Sloan (September 19, 1886 – October 5, 1975), also known as Blanding Sloan, was an American etcher, printmaker, theatrical designer, educator, painter, and puppeteer. Biography J. Blanding Sloan was the first son born to Alexande ...
and his wife Mildred Taylor, to become his son's legal guardians. Sloan exhibited Wah Ming's etchings and watercolors in public exhibitions as early as 1925 to favorable reviews in the
San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...
and later in the largest art colony on the Pacific Coast,
Carmel-by-the-Sea Carmel-by-the-Sea (), often simply called Carmel, is a city in Monterey County, California, United States, founded in 1902 and incorporated on October 31, 1916. Situated on the Monterey Peninsula, Carmel is known for its natural scenery and r ...
. The child became part of Sloan's family, traveled in 1926 to
Taos, New Mexico Taos is a town in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Initially founded in 1615, it was intermittently occupied until its formal establishment in 1795 by Nuevo México Governor Fernando Ch ...
for the on-site study of American Indian culture, and in 1928 displayed his block prints in joint exhibitions with Sloan at the prestigious Philadelphia Print Club and in Pasadena, California.


Career

He became a valued assistant in several of Sloan's marionette theatres as well as in productions for the Hollywood Bowl Ballet and the "Cavalcade of Texas." In the mid-1940s Chang formed a joint studio business with Sloan, The East-West Film Company, and produced such memorable films as ''Pick a Bale of Cotton'' (an interview and performance with the legendary blues and folk singer Lead Belly in 1944) and the highly controversial anti-war short (1946–47), ''The Way of Peace'', created in part with elaborate miniature sets and puppets in stop-motion. For ''Star Trek'', Chang built costumes for the salt vampire ("
The Man Trap "The Man Trap" is the first episode of season one of the American science fiction television series ''Star Trek''. Written by George Clayton Johnson and directed by Marc Daniels, it featured design work by Wah Chang and first aired in the Uni ...
"), the
Gorn The Gorn are a fictional extraterrestrial humanoid reptilian species in the American science fiction franchise ''Star Trek''. They first appeared in a 1967 episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, the original series, "Arena (Star Trek: The Or ...
("
Arena An arena is a large enclosed platform, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectators ...
") and Balok's false image (" The Corbomite Maneuver"). He created
tribble Tribbles are a fictional alien species in the ''Star Trek'' universe. They were conceived by screenwriter David Gerrold and first appeared in 1967, in the fifteenth episode of the second season of '' The Original Series'', titled " The Trouble wi ...
s by using artificial fur stuffed with foam, the
Neanderthal Neanderthals (, also ''Homo neanderthalensis'' and erroneously ''Homo sapiens neanderthalensis''), also written as Neandertals, are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ago. While the ...
s in " The Galileo Seven", and the
Romulan The Romulans () are an extraterrestrial race in the American science fiction franchise '' Star Trek''. They first appeared in the series '' Star Trek'' (1966–1969). They have appeared in most subsequent ''Star Trek'' releases, including '' The ...
Bird of Prey Birds of prey or predatory birds, also known as raptors, are hypercarnivorous bird species that actively hunt and feed on other vertebrates (mainly mammals, reptiles and other smaller birds). In addition to speed and strength, these predat ...
(" Balance of Terror"), and the Vulcan harp first seen in "
Charlie X "Charlie X" is the second episode of the first season of the American science fiction television series ''Star Trek''. Written by Dorothy C. Fontana from a story by Gene Roddenberry, and directed by Lawrence Dobkin, it first aired on September ...
" and later seen in "
The Conscience of the King "The Conscience of the King" is the 13th episode of the first season of the American science-fiction television series ''Star Trek''. Written by Barry Trivers and directed by Gerd Oswald, it was first aired on December 8, 1966. The episode tak ...
", "
Amok Time "Amok Time" is the second season premiere episode of the American science fiction television series '' Star Trek''. Written by science fiction author Theodore Sturgeon, scored by Gerald Fried, and directed by Joseph Pevney, it first aired o ...
", " The Way to Eden"; and '' Star Trek V: The Final Frontier''. Chang is mistakenly credited with having designed the phaser; it was actually designed by the Art Director of the original series,
Matt Jefferies Walter Matthew Jefferies (August 12, 1921 – July 21, 2003) was an American aviation and mechanical artist, set designer, and writer. He is best known for his work on the original ''Star Trek'' television series, where he designed many of the s ...
. The Desilu prop department prepared a single "hero" working model phaser, deemed unacceptable by Gene Roddenberry; Wah Chang prepared additional working and dummy mockups of the phaser, as well as other principal props. A Desilu invoice dated August 22, 1966, shows Chang "reworking phasers" for $520.00. Chang's communicator design has been credited as an inspiration for modern flip-type cell phones. His Balok effigy was used in " The Corbomite Maneuver" ''Star Trek'' episode — and at the conclusion of many
closing credits Closing credits or end credits are a list of the cast and crew of a particular motion picture, television program, or video game. Where opening credits appear at the beginning of a work, closing credits appear close to, or at the very end of a ...
sequences of the series. His other film credits include sculpting the
maquette A ''maquette'' (French word for scale model, sometimes referred to by the Italian names ''plastico'' or ''modello'') is a scale model or rough draft of an unfinished sculpture. An equivalent term is ''bozzetto'', from the Italian word for "sketc ...
of ''
Pinocchio Pinocchio ( , ) is a fictional character and the protagonist of the children's novel '' The Adventures of Pinocchio'' (1883) by Italian writer Carlo Collodi of Florence, Tuscany. Pinocchio was carved by a woodcarver named Geppetto in a Tuscan ...
'' which was used as the reference for the animators of the classic
Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...
feature, and articulated deer models for ''
Bambi ''Bambi'' is a 1942 American animated drama film directed by David Hand (supervising a team of sequence directors), produced by Walt Disney and based on the 1923 book ''Bambi, a Life in the Woods'' by Austrian author and hunter Felix Salten ...
''. He designed the spectacular headdress worn by Elizabeth Taylor in the feature film '' Cleopatra''. Other work included building the title object from 1960s movie ''
The Time Machine ''The Time Machine'' is a science fiction novella by H. G. Wells, published in 1895. The work is generally credited with the popularization of the concept of time travel by using a vehicle or device to travel purposely and selectively for ...
'', and the dragon seen (only in the English-dubbed version) of ''
Goliath and the Dragon ''Goliath and the Dragon'' ( it, La vendetta di Ercole, lit=Revenge of Hercules) is a 1960 international co-production sword-and-sandal filmKinnard, Roy; Crnkovich, Tony (2017). Italian Sword and Sandal Films, 1908-1990. McFarland. ISBN 978-1476662 ...
'' (1960). Chang's firm, Project Unlimited, Inc., would win
Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
recognition for its special effects, but Chang was not listed on the award, due to the way the credits were submitted to the academy. Film historian Bob Burns reported that Chang didn't object to this. "He was the most humble, gentle man I've ever known in my life," Burns said. "He never boasted about anything he did, and he just did remarkable stuff." In addition, Chang built the artificial creature in " The Architects of Fear" episode of the original '' The Outer Limits'', some props for the original ''
Planet of the Apes ''Planet of the Apes'' is an American science fiction media franchise consisting of films, books, television series, comics, and other media about a world in which humans and intelligent apes clash for control. The franchise is based on Frenc ...
'' film, the frightening skeleton animated in '' The Power'', the flying machine in '' The Master of the World'', and the
dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...
s in '' Land of the Lost''. Chang's work as a stop-motion animator through the effects company Centaur Productions, operated with fellow artist
Gene Warren Gene Warren Sr. (August 12, 1916 – July 17, 1997) was born in Denver, Colorado, and won an Academy Award for the special effects on George Pal's ''The Time Machine'' in 1960. He also contributed to such projects as '' The Way of Peace'' (1947), ...
, has been enjoyed for years in the cartoons '' Hardrock, Coco and Joe'' and '' Suzy Snowflake''.


Later life

Later in life, Chang moved to Carmel Valley, California, where he produced sculptures of wildlife. In 1941, Wah Ming was diagnosed with polio following flu-like symptoms. After an extended stay at the Twin Oaks Sanitarium hospital in San Gabriel, California, and treatments that included confinement in an iron lung. He eventually would walk again, but for the rest of his life, never had enough strength in his lungs to be able to blow up a balloon. While his earlier creative efforts were concerned with special effects and film related wonders, his more mature artistic creations were delightful bronze sculptures and whimsical statuary. The latter ranged from a life-sized 3.5 foot tall Dennis the Menace, commissioned by creator
Hank Ketcham Henry King Ketcham (March 14, 1920 – June 1, 2001) was an American cartoonist who created the '' Dennis the Menace'' comic strip, writing and drawing it from 1951 to 1994, when he retired from drawing the daily cartoon and took up painting ...
and displayed in Dennis Park in Monterey, California, to the smaller statues such as ''Girl and Frog'', which is owned by a private collector in
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
.


Death

Chang died on December 22, 2003 in Carmel Valley at age 86. A public memorial service was held at the Community Church of the Monterey Peninsula in Carmel.


Documentaries

Chang produced the educational 1970 short film ''Dinosaurs: The Terrible Lizards'', a stop-motion feature which discussed life in the Mesozoic Era. It would later gain a "Revised Edition" in 1986. Chang appeared in the documentary '' The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal'' (1985) (Produced and directed by
Arnold Leibovit Arnold Leibovit (born June 18, 1950) is an American director, producer, and screenwriter of feature films and musical productions. An acting member of the Producers Guild of America, he has produced, directed, and written several feature films. ...
). Mr. Chang was featured in the documentary '' Time Machine: The Journey Back'' (1993), produced and directed by Clyde Lucas.


Sculptures

Chang produced bronze sculptures in collaboration with Henry "Bob" Jones after meeting at Disney.


Publications

* *


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Chang, Wah 1917 births 2003 deaths People from Carmel Valley, California Artists from Honolulu Artists from San Francisco American artists of Chinese descent American animated film producers Stop motion animators Prop designers American designers American sculptors American animators