- “I was given artists' drawings of an interior set or a building and interpreted them into models. It's very easy to make something like the Haunted Mansion look good on paper, but if you don't get it into three-dimensions first, you may have a disaster. Well, my job was to create the model to avert disaster, which was fun, but a challenge.”
- ―Fred Joerger
Frederick "Fred" Edwin Joerger was an American sculptor, model maker, set designer, and Imagineer, who was responsible for crafting three-dimensional miniature models for what would become Disney theme park attractions, as well as motion picture sets and props.
Born in Pekin, Illinois, on December 21, 1913, Joerger lived with his parents, Frederick Carl Joerger and Ada May Losch, and brother, Clell, before attending the University of Illinois where he graduated with a Fine Arts degree in 1937. He then moved to Los Angeles and joined the art department at Warner Brothers building models of movie sets.
In 1953, Walt Disney hired him where he contributed to "Project Little Man", an experiment to create and refine what would become the first Audio-Animatronics® figures in Disneyland. He, along with Harriet Burns and Wathel Rogers, comprised the original "model shop". As Burns remembered: "Most anything at Disneyland, Fred created as a model first." Joerger also built miniature sets and props for motion pictures, such as Mary Poppins, Darby O'Gill and the Little People, and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea where he created intricate models of the submarine Nautilus.
The first model Joerger made for Disneyland was of the steamboat Mark Twain as well as three-dimensional renderings of Main Street, U.S.A., Carousel of Progress, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, and The Matterhorn. He also designed several versions of the Sleeping Beauty Castle, for instance, changing each design, moving the turrets around, changing colors. Using forced perspective, Joerger was able to make things seem bigger, such as placing small objects at certain angles, such as making trees smaller and smaller the higher they were to make mountains appear higher.
Joerger continued to incorporate forced perspective for attractions, like the Submarine Voyage, the Mountain Railway, the Jungle Cruise, and the original Pirates of the Caribbean, The Haunted Mansion, and Tom Sawyer Island. In time, he became a field art director and set the standards for making sure that the rides achieved the look Disney's Imagineers envisioned. He was also known as the shop's "rock specialist", his unusual knack for creating gorgeous rockwork out of plaster can be seen in the Jungle Cruise and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World Resort. In addition, he designed almost all the rocks and stones that can be seen in Walt Disney World, including the atrium waterfall at Polynesian Village Resort.
In 1979, after 25 years with the company, Joerger retired. However, he briefly returned to his role of field art director for Epcot prior to its 1982 opening. In 2001, he was honored as a Disney Legend. He died at the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills at the age of 91. He was survived by his niece, Gloria Penrose; a grand-niece and a grand-nephew.
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Trivia[]
- Walt valued Joerger so much that for months he supposedly had him flown daily on his short commute to Disneyland, just so that gentle and quiet Joerger wouldn't be stressed by the LA traffic.
- Walt liked Joerger's finalized model the Sleeping Beauty Castle with the blue roof because he thought it would blend in with the sky and made it look taller.
- Joerger lived in a very special house that he had painted and decorated by Disney Imagineers.
