When Disneyland was a startup project within a larger company, the early Imagineering team had to be scrappy. They had limited time, limited resources, and one big opportunity to “get it right”. The team members who helped make this project happen had to be an equal mix of talented and adaptable, able to work on many different things at once without losing the quality and thought behind each piece. And the perfect candidate for that job was Bill Martin.
Source: Walt’s Folly
Born in Marshalltown, Iowa, on June 15, 1917, Bill Martin’s early interest in design and architecture would eventually lead him to become an integral part of Disney history. After studying architecture and pursuing a career as an art director at 20th Century Fox, Martin received an unexpected call in 1953. It was from none other than Walt Disney himself, inviting him to join WED Enterprises (now Walt Disney Imagineering) to help bring an ambitious new project to life…a project that would become Disneyland.
Martin was one of many talented individuals Walt assembled to translate his dream of a theme park from concept to reality. At the time, Disneyland was an unproven idea. Amusement parks were seen as noisy, unruly places…not the wholesome, immersive wonderland Walt envisioned. But Martin saw the bigger vision, and dove right in.
Source: Disney History Institute
Martin started as art director of Fantasyland, contributing to the castle’s look and designing the layouts of Peter Pan’s Flight, Snow White’s Adventures, and Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. This wasn’t just about art direction; Martin had to translate conceptual artwork into functional ride spaces that would fit within their prefabricated show buildings. Not everything went smoothly, either. Martin once shared that for opening day in 1955, only one side of the Chicken of the Sea Pirate Ship had been painted…the one that would face the television cameras. He was also known to sleep in his office above Main Street’s City Hall frequently, trying to squeeze in as much time on the grounds as humanly possible before the park opened to the public.
Martin’s role continued to grow beyond Fantasyland. As he once put it:
Walt had a way of finding other talents in you.
Martin helped create the layouts and design of New Orleans Square and Bear Country, including the planning of Pirates of the Caribbean. He later became VP of design for WED Enterprises (the early name for Imagineering) and oversaw the layout of the Magic Kingdom in Florida. His work outside the original Disney park was extensive too, including Main Street USA, Cinderella Castle, and the underground “Utilidor” system. He “retired” in 1977, but returned repeatedly to help with more parks projects, including EPCOT’s World Showcase pavilions and Tokyo Disneyland.
Source: D23
Finally, Martin was named a Disney Legend in 1994, and later passed away in 2010. He is honored with a window on Main Street in the Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Florida. But his fingerprints remain all over Disneyland even today, with many of his projects looking precisely as they did when he first designed them.