ORLANDO, Fla. – Imagineering was never just a man’s club at Disney World.
Some of the most indelible and iconic images guests know from the Magic Kingdom and beyond were created by women.
For many decades, theme park and resort design was largely seen as a boy’s club.
This was never the case for Disney’s Imagineering.
Some extremely gifted female Imagineers were among the first generation recruited by Walt Disney.
Mary Blair
One of the few artists most Disney fans know by name is Mary Blair.
Her unique design flair and color sense heavily influenced a long list of favorite animated features: “Cinderella,” “Alice in Wonderland,” “Peter Pan” and “Lady and the Tramp.”
It’s a style she developed for 1944′s “The Three Caballeros.”
This would be the launching point for her Imagineering projects.
Twenty years after Blair’s round-faced children debuted in the film’s “Los Posadas” Christmas sequence, they were adapted as animated figures from across the globe in “it’s a small world.”
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The colors and design of the ride’s backdrops and props are largely Blair’s work.
Blair designed a few new areas for the Florida version of the ride, but her largest impact on…
