October 4 - Yale Gracey

On this day, in 1975, Imagineer Yale Gracey retired after 36 years with the Walt Disney Company. Yale  was born on September 3, 1910 in Shanghai, China. As the son of the American Consul there, he was educated at an English boarding school. After graduation, he moved to the United States and would attend the Art CenterSchool of Design in Los Angeles. In 1939, Yale became an animator at the Walt Disney Studio as a layout artist. But his real talent wouldn’t emerge until years later.

Yale was fascinated from an early age by two things: building gadgets and magic. Popular Mechanics magazine had published a set of books called The Boy Mechanic in the early 1910s. The books contained hundreds of projects boys to build (the only picture of a girl in any of the books was of one building a lampshade). One page might feature a tie rack, the next would explain how to build your own coal furnace. Some of the plans, like the ones requiring sulfuric acid, would never be shown to boys (or girls) today. But those books fostered the tinker in Yale and resulted in some pretty spectacular effects in Disney attractions.

Yale worked on Pinocchio and Fantasia before creating layouts and backgrounds for the Shorts Department. During his lunch hours, he would work on various little gadgets and always had several cluttering up his desk. One day, when Walt was poking around the offices, looking at what everyone was working on, he saw a setup on Yale’s desk that gave the illusion of falling snow. Walt was impressed and basically gave Yale carte blanche to work on creating more effects. When the Shorts Department was phased out soon afterward, Yale was one of the few people who stayed with the company.

From 1959 on, Yale was a member of WED Enterprises, the division of the company that later became Imagineering. He frequently teamed up with Rolly Crump, updating effects in rides like the volcano scene in Peter Pan’s Flight. His contribution to the Carousel of Progress for the 1964 World’s Fair was something he called a pixie dust projector. It blocked out everything on stage during  scene changes and was used again in Space Mountain to make the coaster’s structure disappear. He created the illusion of fireflies for the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, even though he'd never actually seen a firefly. His most beloved effects, though, were of a spookier nature.

One of the projects in The Boy Mechanic was for an illusion called “Pepper’s Ghost.” It had been developed in 1862 by Henry Pepper for his magic act. Yale would perfect this illusion for the Haunted Mansion. All the ghosts in the dining room area, that appear and disappear, are done using this simple yet highly effective method. The original Hitchhiking Ghosts at the end of the ride were also done that way. From the skeleton trying to escape from the coffin in the conservatory to the single floating candlestick in the infinite hallway, Yale and Rolly created enough eerie effects to fill a Haunted Mansion twice as big as what was built, even though most of them would never be used. When the attraction was changed from a walk-through to a ride-through, a lot of their effects had to be cut because they had cycles that were too long. Years later, Rolly still lamented the loss of a room with a skeletal sea captain and the bride he’d bricked into the fireplace. And while Yale enjoyed the comedic haunts he helped create, he always wanted to do a really scary attraction saying “Some of the illusions that weren’t used in the Haunted Mansion would send chills through anyone I know.”

Now anyone who is a fan of the Haunted Mansion might be saying to themselves “Wait. I’ve heard that name Gracey before. Isn’t that the former owner of the mansion whose portrait hangs in the foyer?” The answer is yes, you have heard that name in connection with the Mansion before but no, he is not the man in the Dorian Grey-like picture just inside the front doors. This is a myth that I myself have been guilty of perpetuating. To honor all of Yale’s contributions to the attraction, Xavier Atencio, lead Imagineer on the project, did give him a gravestone in the queue. It reads “Master Gracey, laid to rest, no mourning please, at his request.” The word master, however, is not designating him as lord of the manor. Instead it means a boy who isn’t old enough to be called a Mister. This is a reference not only to Yale’s boyish enthusiasm but to the fact that his obsessions with magic and gadgets as a boy made the Haunted Mansion what it is today.

Following his retirement, Yale, like a lot of folks integral to the early years of Disney, continued to consult on projects for years to come. He would even add effects to attractions at EPCOT Center, including the “CenterCore” finale to World of Motion. His life, though, would meet a tragic end. On September 5, 1983, two days after his 73^rd birthday, he would be murdered in his sleep, his wife critically injured. No motive or suspects were ever uncovered. In 1999, Yale would become an official Disney Legend, fondly remembered as the self-taught gadget guy who could make the impossible come true.

Also on this day, in American history: John B Kelly Sr