Roger E. Broggie

Roger E. Broggie (October 22 1908-November 4 1991) was a creative American mechanical engineer who worked with Walt Disney and the Walt Disney Company. Inducted as a Disney Legend in 1990, he was one of the most influential imagineers to ever work with Walt Disney. His background and early work experience was technical rather than artistic. It was Broggie's mechanical ability that blended well with the visual imagineering that Walt Disney needed to build the Disney Empire.

Early life, working in films

Roger E. Broggie was born in 1908, in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. He graduated from Mooseheart High School in the western suburbs of Chicago, Illinois in 1927. With vocational machine shop training, he moved to Los Angeles, California where he worked for companies such as Technicolor and Bell and Howell. He worked at General Services Studios with film industry pioneers including David O. Selznick and Charlie Chaplin.

A Disney Legend

In 1939, he joined the Disney Studios as a precision machinist. Broggie's initial assignments included installing the famous multiplane camera at the new Burbank studio, working with Ub Iwerks on special effects. In 1949, Roger Broggie worked with Walt Disney to create model trains for Disney's 1/2 mile-long Carolwood Pacific Railroad located in his backyard. Broggie is credited with supervising the building of the "Lilly Belle", a one-eighth scale miniature working live steam locomotive named for Disney's wife Lillian.

Promoted to head of the Disney Studios Machine Shop in 1950, Roger Broggie became the transportation specialist. He created the special effects for the film "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" and as the plans for Disneyland were developed in the early 1950s, he oversaw development of the Santa Fe & Disneyland Railroad, the Disneyland Monorail, and the Matterhorn Bobsleds at Disneyland.

Broggie's mechanical genius touched many other acclaimed attractions at Disneyland and the 1964 New York World's Fair. He and his machine shop coworkers developed the first fully functioning audio-animatronic human figure in the form of a seated Abraham Lincoln. Between 1973 and 1975, Broggie worked on the Epcot project at Walt Disney World in Florida. After retiring to Carmel, California, he continued to consult for Walt Disney Imagineering.

Roger Broggie was named a Disney Legend in 1990. He died on November 4, 1991.On March 30, 2007, he was honored with a window on Main Street USA at Disneyland. The text reads: "Can Do Machine Works"; "Mechanical Wonders"; "Live Steam Engines"; "Magical Illusions"; "Cameras"; "Roger Broggie, Shopmaster"; "Advisor to the Magic Makers". Location of the window is on the east side of Main Street USA above the Magic Shop. A souvenir card and pin replica of the window was given to the invited attendees of the ceremony, which featured talks by Ed Grier, president of Disneyland Resort; Marty Sklar, executive vice president and ambassador of Walt Disney Imagineering; and, Michael Broggie, son of Roger Broggie. Approximately 150 guests attended the event including five generations of the Broggie family including Doris Broggie Gibb, 93, sister of Roger Broggie.

Heritage

On October 21, 2003, Walt Disney World Railroad Steam Engine #3, the "Roger E. Broggie" was re-dedicated in honor of the late Roger Broggie, who was named a "Disney Legend" in 1990. It was longtime Disney imagineer Roger Broggie who had built the original "Lilly Belle" for Walt's backyard Carolwood Pacific Railroad, where much of the fun began over 50 years ago.

On March 30, 2007, a window above the Magic Shop on Main Street USA at Disneyland was dedicated to Roger's memory. A picture of the window is posted at www.carolwood.org.

Roger Broggie's son Michael Broggie, founded the Carolwood Pacific Historical Society, and in 1997, published a book about Walt's interest in Live Steam Railroading and how his hobby evolved into Disneyland: "Walt Disney's Railroad Story: The Small-Scale Fascination That Led to a Full-Scale Kingdom." The book is dedicated to the memory of Walt Disney, Roger Broggie, and Railfans Everywhere.

References

*Broggie, Michael, (1997) "Walt Disney's Railroad Story: The Small-Scale Fascination That Led to a Full-Scale Kingdom" The Donning Company Publishers, Virginia Beach, Virginia/Walsworth Publishing Company, Marceline, Missouri, ISBN 1-57864-309-0.

External links

* [http://disney.go.com/vault/legends/main.html Disney Legends website]
* [http://www.disneylandtoday.com/Legends/rbroggie.htm Roger Broggie webpage]
* [http://www.mouseplanet.com/more/mm031126khl.htm Walt Disney World Dedication of Steam Engine # 3 "Roger E. Broggie"]
* - Patent for a high speed ski lift for the never completed Disney Mineral King project.