In the style of Mike Rowe’s “The Way I Heard It” and Paul Harvey’s “The Rest of the Story” this episode of the Piano Parent Podcast brings you a Musical Mystery; the lesser known story of someone or something you’ve likely heard about all your life.
Listen to the full episode here
Today’s Musical Mystery started with a song. I only wanted to learn more about the history of a familiar tune but like most good mysteries, my research took me on a journey around the world and introduced me to some very interesting characters along the way.
The result is less about the origin of the song and more about three ingenious dreamers who refused to let obstacles get in their way.
Commodore Vanderbilt Wood, Jr.
Our first dreamer started his career at the Stanford Research Institute in California but soon found himself becoming the first Vice President of Disneyland, Inc. “Woody” as his friends called him, had always been a ball of energy looking for a target. Earning a scholarship to Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas as a champion trick roper, Woody’s brain was never idle.
When Walt Disney began looking for pioneers to navigate his wild idea of a family theme park, Commodore Vanderbilt Wood, Jr. was the perfect person to lead the charge. Woody was responsible for selecting and purchasing the perfect location for Disneyland. Then he oversaw the design and construction of the park and was the general manager during its first year of operation.
Even though they had a great run for 22 months and Woody helped Walt’s dream become a reality, you can rest assured that the beloved character with Tom Hank’s voice in the Toy Story movies did not get his name from C.V. Wood. For reasons that are unclear to me, Woody and Disney had …. I’ll call it….. a falling out. Woody found himself without a job and he would have to find a new occupation for his busy brain.
Ivan Luckin
Let’s put Woody on pause for a moment and talk about another out-of-the box thinker with a problem all his own. Ivan Luckin might be lost to history if it weren’t for the story I’m telling you now and an article written by Archie Galloway, the son of Ivan’s high school classmate and longtime friend.
After high school, it appears that Ivan’s college career was decorated with his achievements on the track, particularly in the mile and cross-country events. We don’t know exactly what his field of study was, or even if he completed college but his professional career made him a newspaperman, most likely in advertising.
After a brief time serving his country in the reserves, Ivan was back at work at the paper and began serving on various committees in his community. One committee was tasked with revitalizing an historical landmark in their city. This was a monumental task! There was a structure in his city that had stood for over 100 years and had captivated the hearts of children for generations. It was still standing strong; the problem was it had outlived it’s usefulness.
If this Fair Lady had fallen into disrepair or had started to deteriorate, Ivan’s task would have been much simpler; just tear the thing down and sell the parts for scrap. Some committee members suggested they dismantle the monument and sell the fragments as souvenirs. After all, it was going to cost $1.2 million just to tear it down, they had to recoup their costs somehow. Ivan knew that selling her off piece by piece would not give the old girl the respect she deserved and he knew the citizens of his city felt the same way. No, they couldn’t tear her apart. They would have to find someone willing to purchase the whole thing, all or nothing, and move her to a new location and promise to maintain her dignity. Another monumental task. And who would fall for it?
Robert Paxton McCulloch
I’ve saved the biggest dreamer for last. Robert P. McCulloch was living the American dream. He lived life fast and needed a company that could keep up with him. His first company, funded by money he inherited from his grandfather who had worked for Thomas Edison, was McCulloch Engineering Company which produced racing engines and superchargers. After a few years, RP sold that company and started McCulloch Aviation building engines for the U.S. Air Force during World War II.
After the war, McCulloch changed the company name to McCulloch Motors Corporation where he tinkered with the idea of creating his own line of automobiles and personal helicopters. McCulloch’s team revolutionized the chainsaw industry when they introduced a lightweight one-man chainsaw. The company is still going strong and you can buy your own McCulloch Chainsaw to this day. This is not an advertisement for chainsaws! I’m just fascinated by this innovative man who never let good enough be good enough!
In spite of the success of his chainsaw business, McCulloch set out in search of a place to test another project of his, outboard motors. He found the perfect lake on the border between Arizona and California and decided to buy the property around the lake, 26 square miles of undeveloped desert. It was the largest single tract of state land ever sold in Arizona at that time. McCulloch could see past the dry desert to an oasis, a destination for travelers to enjoy the dry climate and cool lake water. He could envision a bustling city surrounding that beautiful lake. Now, he just needed people to buy property and move their families to his new town. Yeah, but who would fall for it?
We built this city!
McCulloch first met Wood on a visit to the Disneyland Park construction site. Wood was hobbling around on crutches having recently injured his knee. McCulloch, not missing an opportunity to build a relationship that might lead to sales, offered Wood the chance to cart around the site on one of his new electric golf carts. I don’t know if that offering led to a contract with Disney to purchase a fleet of golf carts or not but I do know that was the beginning of a long-lasting partnership between the two men.
When Wood left Disneyland, he created Marco Engineering and tried his own hand at developing theme parks which McCulloch’s company sponsored. One of those theme parks is still in operation today in Arlington; Texas, Six Flags Over Texas. After a few failed attempts and some legal entanglements with Disney, Marco Engineering ultimately merged with McCulloch Motors.
After RP McCulloch found the perfect testing site for his outboard motors and secured loads of desert land surrounding the lake in Arizona, he first built a testing facility, airplane hangar, and a trailer park to accommodate guests and test drivers. A big weekend in those days was up to a dozen guests at the trailer park. About this same time, RP passed the torch to Woody to begin the design process, this time it wouldn’t be merely a theme park. This time Woody would be designing an entire city.
RP and Woody began offering free airplane rides and weekend excursions to interested investors from the mid-west and all across America. The tours just happened to be in the winter when many places in the mid-west are covered in snow but the McCulloch Oasis was a lovely 60-70 degrees. Guests would board the plane bundled up in their heavy winter coats only to land in the new desert community with much warmer temperatures. After settling in at the Nautical Inn, complete with it’s beautiful landscaping and waterfall, prospective buyers were given private tours of the lake front area in shiny white jeeps.
Woody, with his infectious enthusiasm, had a powerful one-two punch. He could get an investor excited about the possibility of a project long before he hit them with his sales pitch. He had the ability to help investors bridge the gap between the dry desert they saw with their eyes and the planned community they had to envision in their minds. By the late 1960’s McCulloch and Wood’s little town boasted a few thousand residents.
If we build it, will they come?
Remember, good enough was never good enough for RP. A few thousand residents was a fair start. Many of them came for work in the newly relocated McCulloch manufacturing complex. Many residents came for the climate and water sports. Still others came for the adventure of being modern-day pioneers. To attract more people RP needed a hook, an attraction that would bring more guests to the city, not only as residents but as tourists.
Remember Ivan Luckin? The same time RP was trying to figure out a novelty to attract people to his “Blue-Green Water Oasis”, Ivan was trying to convince his fellow committee members to put their beloved structure up for sale to the highest bidder. Ivan was confident, with his PR and advertising experience, that he would find someone to cover the 1.2 million dollar cost to purchase the heap of stones. The committee chairman all but said, “Yeah but who will fall for it?”
With time running short, Ivan booked a press conference within view of the city’s treasured landmark to announce his upcoming publicity trip from London to America. The press release traveled faster than Ivan could and by the time he landed in New York, he already had a serious prospect, none other than C. V. Wood. Like many of the other free flights C.V. had escorted before, he now whisked Ivan away to Arizona to see the city he and RP had so carefully planned and in which they proposed Ivan’s landmark would soon find it’s new home, Lake Havasu City. (Havasu means “blue-green water” and comes from the Havasupai Native American people group.)
RP calculated the cost for dismantling the monument to be what Ivan had already estimated, 1.2 million dollars. To ensure he was not outbid, he doubled that figure and added a $60,000 bonus on top for a total sale price of $2,460, 000.00 (over $18 million today). Some say the $60,000 bonus amounted to $1000 for every year of RP’s life to that point but he was only 57 at the time. Maybe he rounded up.
As you’ve probably already guessed, RP’s offer was accepted by Ivan’s Bridge House Estates Committee and the agreement to purchase the famous London Bridge was signed on April 18, 1968.
It took an additional $7 million and three years to dismantle the bridge stone by stone, transport it by ship across the ocean and a caravan of trucks across the desert, and reassemble it on the peninsula of land at Lake Havasu. Finally, on October 10, 1971, a grand opening celebration was thrown for the London Bridge with no expense spared. 50,000 guests were in attendance as well as the governor of Arizona, Jack Williams and the Lord Mayor of London, Sir Gilbert Inglefield.
Sir Gilbert is quoted as saying he couldn’t think of any better bond between nations than a bridge, calling it an exchange of friendship and affection. He saw it as a delightful and happy event that London Bridge could be moved from one of the oldest cities in the world to one of the newest.
I would say RP’s investment paid off. As of the 2020 US Census, the population of Lake Havasu City, Arizona is 56,254 with an estimated 1.5 million guests touring the city each year.
Fun Facts about the London Bridge:
- To bypass the requirement for an import licence for the stones entering the United States, they were exempted as antiques, as the bridge was over one hundred years old.
- It was rumored to have entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the World’s Largest Antique but I couldn’t corroborate that.
- Most bridges are built over water. The London Bridge in Lake Havasu City was built over dry land and a channel was dug to go under it transitioning a peninsula in Lake Havasu into an island with a river running under the London Bridge.
- The desert terrain was literally sculpted to fit the archways of the bridge so a foundation could be poured before the stone facade was added. Upon completion of the bridge, the earth was dug out from under the arches.
- Over 10,600 pieces were carefully de-constructed in London, numbered, and re-constructed in Lake Havasu City. I think we could call it the World’s Largest Jigsaw Puzzle.
- To play the famous London Bridge melody you only need six tones in this order:
5 6 5 4 3 4 5
2 3 4
3 4 5
5 6 5 4 3 4 5
2 5 3 1
Final Thoughts
My research started with the intent of learning the history of a song but instead I learned how an song saved a bridge. In most cases, progress pushes forward with little regard for the past. Buildings are imploded and the rubble is taken to landfills to make way for new and improved buildings. In the case of the London Bridge, however, no one had the heart to see the old girl, the Fair Lady, tossed into the dump or even dismantled and sold piece by piece as souvenirs.
It took these three men, men who could see beyond their circumstances to visualize their dreams, men who could ignore the laughter and insults and focus on what really mattered to them to preserve this amazing piece of history.
I told you at the beginning of this story that we would meet three ingenious dreamers who refused to let obstacles get in their way. Now you know that CV Woods, Robert McCulloch, and Ivan Luckin built a bridge over their obstacles.
So I ask you, “What’s standing in your way? How are you doing to build a bridge and get over it?”
More Mysteries
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