Bruce Bushman: Hanna-Barbera & Kings Island
Cartoonsville. That was the plan for Hanna-Barbera’s new theme park. Bruce Bushman, lead designer, had arrived at HB after a stint with TV producer Ivan Tors. Before that he spent several years at Disney Studios as an artist, then transferred to WED to oversee the design of Fantasyland for Disneyland when it opened in 1955.
Bruce brought his whimsical, child-friendly design ideas to the wonderful cartoon world of Hanna-Barbera. He was perfect for the job and set right to work on concepts for various lands and attractions. I have not dug too deeply to see if any of his concept art might be preserved at HB, but it’s doubtful. Much of it has shown up on online auction sites over the years, such as these wonderful pieces scanned from an auction by ImagineeringDisney.
Around this time, a highly popular and successful amusement park in Cincinnati was going through some soul-searching after being drowned yet again by the Ohio River. Gary Wachs, the park president’s son, finally decided enough was enough and convinced the powers-that-be to search for a monied partner who could help them build a new, better park. The white knight was Taft Broadcasting, based there in town and a very powerful media empire at the time. They had just bought the Hanna-Barbera company in 1967 and was wondering how to follow Walt’s lead—incorporate their precious IP into a theme park. Then Gary came a’calling, and so the plan changed. HB would not build their own park, but would instead partner with the Coney folks to build Kings Island.
Bushman was the primary conceptual designer for the park; along with the Happy Land of Hanna-Barbera, he was instrumental in the design of International Street with its very Disney-like themed facades. Gary had the idea of the majestic fountains and flags, inspired by his research trips to Europe; Bruce had the background to take such ideas and conceptualize them into something that could be refined into construction drawings.
Now, lots of hands touch these designs along the way. I’ve found four different concept maps from before the park opened. I shared one from Kings Productions lead art director Ron Riegler in an earlier Duell Loop; it was displayed at Coney Island as a preview for the upcoming park. Three can be found in my Kings Island: A Photographic Journey coffee table book: The beautiful piece used for the book’s cover, another on page 39 from an unknown artist, and facing it on page 38 is another from Bruce Bushman.
Along with International Street, it’s certain Bruce adapted many of his previous ideas for Kings Island’s HB Land, although there’s no documentation on any of this. I dug up several pieces of concept art from the Kings Island archives when I was working on the book, but none of them indicate who drew them. I could guess at those that look like Bushman; here’s one from Int Street, but I’m not certain who did it.
Sadly, Bruce passed away in February of 1972…mere months before the park opened. There’s very little written about him, even his time at Disney, which is a total shame. Someday I’ll poke a bit deeper and talk to a few Disney historians who might know more, but for now at least this gives us an idea of his amazing work. As always, if you know more, or have information from original sources, let me know.
But before we go…there was one other nugget in Bruce’s portfolio…after DL opened, Nat Winecoff, former Disney marketing guy, started his own company to design parks. He got hired by Jack Haley (Tin Man in Wizard of Oz) and Donald Duncan (Duncan Yo-Yo) to build Bible Storyland, a never-built theme park slated to open in 1961 in Cucamonga, CA. Bushman was brought in to help conceptualize their ideas, which centered around a heart-shaped layout with six lands. They had lots of interesting ideas, most of which were actually, you know, sort of Biblical. But they ran afoul of local clergy who protested the cavalier treatment of the Bible. Land was being cleared in 1960 when the project got canceled. Bruce (who was only designing what the owners wanted) went on to other stuff, including Hanna-Barbera. There’s a documentary on the park, if you’re interested. Just search “Bible Storyland.”
The fabulous Bushman concept art pieces for the originally planned HB park was scanned for an online auction. The images I used are from ImagineeringDisney.com.
