FROM: Squeak of the Week Published Fridays

There Was a Buzz Before "Buzz"

John Donaldson reveals a parcel (literally, as he puts it!) of untold Disneyland history, with his tale of how Doug Caruthers, not Bob Gurr, should have been the person hired by Walt Disney to build the Autopia cars - should have, but wasn't.

- John Stanley Donaldson, May 27, 2011

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Other than in my biography of Herbert Ryman, here is a parcel, literally, of untold Disneyland history.

With a model called the "Skorpion," Douglas James Caruthers had been first to mix sheeting, a glue pot, and some chicken wire to fabricate a fiberglass, automobile body - predating the Chevrolet "Corvette."

His enthusiasm for anything piston and spark-plug was shared by his seven-year-old son, little "Jimmy". Junior would have a fully fueled car of his own. Boys had made crude, soap-crate racers, with gas-powered, washing-machine motors.

But, Doug Caruthers would define fine design.

Building a one-cylinder, Briggs and Stratton machine, with rack and pinion steering, front suspension, nerfing bars, knock-off hubs, and, of course, sleek, fiberglass form, he gave birth to the first, "quarter midget."

Excitement sold itself. Around a banked, dirt-packed track, children would compete every week in what could only be called the colorful "Jelly Bean Bowl." Governor dropped, a car could be hopped to five horsepower - pedal to metal, easily hitting thirty-five in the straightaway.

Douglas Caruthers is considered the founder of this sport.

Now, given a design and wrench-bending ability, he would seem perfect to create the Disneyland Autopia cars.

Ah, but not so.

You see, as the park was being built, that "Jelly Bean Bowl" sat wedged between what would be north berm and Ball Road.

The one piece of property Walt Disney could not obtain.

So, in what would seem a streak of that stubborn, Missouri, show you attitude, Walt hired Bob Gurr to get the Autopia in gear.

The machine shop of Johnny Hartman, specialist in Chevy street rods, was assigned chassis design, while a body mold was clay-created by Joe Thompson, who had modeled the Model-A.

Gurr saw to mass production, with cart parts assembled from sources all over the Southland.

Use of a Gladden, instead of a Briggs and Stratton.

Fiberglass by Glasspar.

But, Doug Caruthers could have been the entire craftsman.

His cars could have been tuned for the king of cartoon.

Walt Disney, though, rather arrived at a workaround.

Harrison "Buzz" Price has said that he had been first to stand on that land, and to know its location potential. "I'm the first guy that saw that site. Bar none," he would say. You know the story. "It was a bunch of orange groves."

Not so.

His footprints had mixed with those of many families, who had driven many miles for weekends of thrills and spills.

There was a buzz before "Buzz."

The winding, Disneyland track was set toward the back corner. If not for the fifteen-foot, earthen, berm buffer, engines might have been within earshot of Douglas Caruthers.

A rasping raspberry.

Gurrr...Gurrr...Guurrrrrr...

Two years after the park opened, Douglas Caruthers packed up. In a twenty-year deal, his land was leased to Walt Disney to be used for backstage expansion, then later, added attractions.

Foretelling a career, young Jimmy Caruthers would become well known on car-racing circuits, competing four times in the Indianapolis 500, before succumbing to cancer at age thirty.

Today, the name "Caruthers" is highly regarded.

But it should also have been of Disneyland lore.

Doug ought to have built the Autopia.

John Stanley Donaldson, once the protege of Disney Legend Herb Ryman, is the author of Mr. Ryman's biography, Warp and Weft: Life Canvas of Herbert Ryman, which you can purchase directly from the author's site.

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