Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Harriet Burns Dies

Harriet. Sweet Harriet. Hard-hearted harbinger of haggus. Beautiful, bemused, belicose butcher. So knowing, so trusting, so lov-ed. He wants you back he screams into the night air, like a fireman going to a window that has no fire, ‘cept the passion of his heart. I am lonely, It’s really hard. This poem sucks. ( From So I Married an Axe Murderer) I dedicate this poem to Harriet Burns. From me - that is the highest form of flattery I can come up with (as my spouse will attest to)


I always wanted to be a Disney Imagineer. In the very first conversation I ever had with my now spouse, I spoke to her about the dream I had to be an imagineer. Sadly, the world has lost one. I know her contributions to Disney certainly inspired me.

Link to the full article here.

(07-29) 16:45 PDT Los Angeles, CA (AP) --
Harriet Burns, the first female artist at Walt Disney Imagineering and a designer of several famous Disneyland rides, has died. She was 79.
Burns worked for Disney from 1955 to 1986, beginning as a prop and set designer for TV's "The Mickey Mouse Club." She designed and built the famous Mousketeer clubhouse, according to a Disney biography.
She later worked on attractions for Disneyland, helping create the models for Sleeping Beauty's Castle and the Matterhorn. She painted underwater figures for the Submarine Voyage attraction, put feathers on birds for Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room, and helped with the design and construction of Pirates of the Caribbean.
She also occasionally filled in for Walt Disney on "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color."
In 2000, the Walt Disney Co. named Burns as a Disney Legend, an honor that acknowledges people "whose imagination, talents and dreams have created the Disney magic."
Walt Disney Imagineering issued a statement this week, calling her "the best-dressed employee in the department."
It also released a quote from Burns in which she described her work for Disney in the 1950s: "I wore color-coordinated dresses, high heels and gloves to work. Girls didn't wear slacks back then, although I carried a pair in a little sack, just in case I had to climb into high places."

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