Roger Broggie Jr. was the son of Walt Disney's original
Imagineer. He is my 444th pick to be named a Disney Legend. As a young boy of 11 he began working for the man he called
"Uncle Walt" when he, and his brother Michael, tended Disney's
backyard railway the Carolwood Pacific. He spent his teen years in the brand
new Disneyland, watching it evolve, take shape, and giving a kid stamp of
approval. When he turned 18 Roger joined Disney's company in earnest as an
apprentice in the WED machine shop run by his father.
Roger Broggie Jr. was an audio-animatronics pioneer who mad
made key contributions important Disney attractions laying the foundation for
Disney Parks to come. While working with Disney on the 1964 World's Fair,
Broggie Jr. became well know for his prowess in creating the groundbreaking
Disney robotics known as audio-animatronics.
His influence can be seen in classic attractions that made
the Disney Parks a destination for fun and adventure. He gave life to the
President in Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln. He led the development and
installation of audio-animatronics figures in both Pirates of the Caribbean,
and the Haunted Mansion. His "hands-on technical wizardry" produced a
colorful flock of mechanical exotic avians, and was instrumental in getting
Walt Disney to move his idea of the Enchanted Tiki Room from a restaurant to a
full-fledged attraction.
Disney film fans know Broggie Jr's work as well. His
fascination with cars made him the mechanical wizard who brought Herbie the
Volkswagon to life on the big screen in Disney's 1969 live-action film THE LOVE
BUG. He created upwards of 17 different Herbies, each created and produced to
carry out a special "trick" that brought the car to life.
Over the decades no less than eight members of the Broggie
family, including Roger Broggie Junior, have worked for the Disney Company with
six taking places in Imagineering. You can see Roger Broggie Junior's
contributions to the creation of Disneyland honored on Main Street, with a
second story window. Roger's name appears in the window of the Little Gremlins
Mechanical Toys shop.
Roger Broggie Jr. passed away on Dec. 11, 2012 from
complications of a head injury sustained when he fell while working on a float
for a parade near his home in LaPine, Oregon. His legacy with the Disney
Company lives on.
"Roger was one of the finest mechanical craftsmen who ever worked for the company, an absolute master," Marty Sklar, a retired longtime Disney executive, told The Times last week.
While helping to build several Disney attractions for the 1964 New York's World Fair, Broggie became known for his hands-on technical wizardry while helping to create the now-familiar form of Disney robotics known as audio-animatronics.
Making President Lincoln lifelike for Great Moments, which debuted at the fair, "was particularly challenging because no one had made a figure move like that before," said his brother Michael, a Disney historian.
All of the electronic gizmos had to be contained within the framework of the sculpted head, a task that fell to Roger Broggie. An "interesting cheat" solved the problem, according to Jim Hill, who has tracked Disney history for more than 30 years. The wig was stretched out on the Lincoln head to make room for the bulky first-generation parts.
For the Enchanted Tiki Room, Broggie did an exceptional job building a flock of mechanical exotic birds, Sklar said, and his technical wizardry helped persuade Disney to open the Tiki Room in 1963 as a full-fledged attraction instead of a restaurant.
Broggie also played a lead role in the development and installation of audio-animatronic figures in Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion, which both opened in the late 1960s.
