Disneyland model maker Fred Joerger dies, 91

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Imagineer Fred Joerger, who crafted motion picture sets and props for Disney films before they were brought to full-scale life, died August 26 of natural causes. He was 91.

One of Disneyland's original model makers, he helped realize Walt Disney's visions by crafting 3-D miniature models of Disney theme park attractions. He died at the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, niece Gloria Penrose said.

"He provided the foundations of the park. All of the things that help give it that weird sense of reality are Fred's doing," said Disney historian Jim Hill.

Named a Disney Legend in 2001, Joerger (along with fellow Disney Legends Harriet Burns and Wathel Rogers) founded the original "model shop" when Walt Disney began developing Disneyland. Walt Disney hired the three in 1953, inventing "Imagineering" -- what Disney called the imagination and engineering which led to rides at thema parks.

Born in 1913, he also built miniature sets and props for Disney motion pictures, including the partly animated Mary Poppins, as well as Darby O'Gill and the Little People and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea -- for which he created intricate models of the submarine Nautilus.

Joerger's unusual knack for creating gorgeous rockwork out of plaster led to his reputation as Imagineering's "resident rock expert." Among his rocky mountain high lights: the huge stones featured on the Jungle Cruise and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad -- in fact, most all the rockwork at Walt Disney World Resort for its 1971 opening, including the breathtaking atrium waterfall featured in the Polynesian Resort.

Joerger made miniature versions of Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle, as well as the steamboat Mark Twain, Main Street, the Jungle Cruise, the Matterhorn and much of the rest of the original Disneyland, his niece said. He also built some of the miniatures for Storybook Land Canal Boats and designed Disneyland’s waterways.

In addition, he worked as a field art director. His job entailed making sure that such attractions as Pirates of the Caribbean and Submarine Voyage lived up to the concepts created by Disney's Imagineers.

Retiring in 1979, Joerger went back to work several years later to supervise the appearance of Epcot Center in Florida and the rock arrangements for Tokyo Disneyland.

Joerger had a window on Main Street, USA.