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Call number	NAU.PH.99.3.1.7.103
Item number	18679
Creator	Nichols, Tad, 1911-
Title	[Major Brady reclining on his sleeping bag on the beach.]
Alternate title	San Juan River/Glen Canyon - the "Disney Trip" [constructed title] 1955 (6/21/55 to 6/30/55)
Date	1955
Type	Image
Description	CONTENT: Boatmen Frank Wright, Willard Wright, John Harper, and Eldon MacArthur took passengers Tad Nichols, Lloyd Smith, Donald Sayner, Major Brady, Horace Haskell, Harry Dahl, Ruth Young, and 3 young boys (Donald Mayfield, Jim Lubach, and John Cunningham) down the San Juan River, through Glen Canyon, to Lees Ferry on a filming trip for Disney. Scenes include the Mexican Hat Expeditions boats (Wahweap, Nokai, Piute, and another); an abandoned stone cabin; old mining machinery; movie cameras and other photographic equipment; geological tools and equipment (including a scintillometer); several beach camps; a variety of camping gear; Penny, the canine passenger on the trip; rock formations; petroglyphs; and various canyon hikes. Notable sites in these images are Hidden Passage, Mystery Canyon, Twilight Canyon, Rainbow Bridge, the Klondike Trail, and Labyrinth Canyon. [Six photographs from this trip appear in Tad's Glen Canyon book: NAU.PH.99.3.1.7.143 on page 100;.191 on page 142;.194 on page 144;.198 on page 140;.206 on page 138; and.220 on the title page.] BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY: For about two years in the mid-1950s, Tad Nichols worked for Walt Disney Productions on the short travelogues that were used in the Mickey Mouse Club Show. Tad and fellow photographer, Lloyd Smith, had one segment of the show in which to portray kids on various adventures. In June of 1955 they took 3 young men (referred to as 'the Disney boys') and some scientists on a San Juan/Glen Canyon adventure. They all rode in typical San Juan boats: 'double-ended boats, as distinguished from cataract boats, the Grand Canyon boats. They didn't have any watertight compartments because they didn't need it...' Tad and Lloyd used sixteen millimeter Bolex cameras, and produced a film called 'The Old San Juan.' After the trip, the film was turned over to Disney editors, who trimmed the footage to 1 1/4 hours long, in order to air in 15-minute segments over the 5 days of one week. Tad filmed several other adventures for the show, including one in the High Sierras, one in the Mohave Desert, and even one in the ocean off the Catalina Islands. He considered his time at Disney as 'The best job I ever had.... It paid us very well.'
Collection name	Nichols, Tad
Finding aid	http://www.azarchivesonline.org/xtf/view?docId=ead/nau/nichols_tad.xml
Repository	Northern Arizona University. Cline Library.
Rights	ABOR
References	Tad Nichols Manuscript Collection - NAU.MS.332; Glen Canyon: Images of a Lost World, Photographs and Recollections - by Tad Nichols
Subjects	Camping--Equipment and supplies Naps (Sleep)--Glen Canyon (Utah and Ariz.)
Places	Glen Canyon (Utah and Ariz.)
Physical format	Black and white polyester film negative
Physical dimension	6x6 cm
Master file size	38047582
Master mimetype	image/tiff
Master file format	tif
Hardware	Imacon Flextight 848
Software	Photoshop 6.0
Master color scheme	Grayscale
Master image bit depth	16-bit
Master resolution	2040
Master pixels horizontal	4387
Master pixels vertical	4336

[Major Brady reclining on his sleeping bag on the beach.]

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