Stromboli's wagon - three-dimensional model

My friend Kevin Kidney just had an article he's written about the late-1930s Disney Studio Model Department published on The Walt Disney Family Museum page. Take a moment to read his fantastic expose by clicking on this link.

In his article, Kevin published a photo of the great puppeteer Bob Jones posing beside a three-dimensional model of two of Stromboli's wagons.

Master puppeteer Bob Jones poses with a model of Stromboli's wagons. A maquette of the sadistic coachman who was in-charge of Pleasure Island can be seen on the left side of the photo. Image courtesy Kevin Kidney.

This weighted model was complete with a working suspension system. Here's an image of the evil taskmaster's wagon about to be filmed.

You can see wooden sticks placed on the "road" the wagons will travel. This was designed to capture the movement of the wagons as they bumped along the cobblestone alleys and roads in Geppetto's town.

My friend Dennis Books and myself have long wanted to write a book on the Model Department. Many years ago, Dennis interviewed several of the artists who worked in that magnificent department. Dennis also owns many wonderful related artifacts, including maquettes, photos, original and photostat model sheets. 

Over the next few weeks I'll be publishing Model Department artifacts on the blog, so stay tuned for some great images and stories.