HONOLULU, HAWAII.- Artist Wah Ming Chang, 86, died. He won an Academy Award for the special effects at the movie “The Time Machine”. He was also a sculptor. Wah Ming Chang was born on August 2, 1917  in Honolulu Hawaii. His family moved to San Francisco in 1919 and his parents soon opened the HoHo Tea Room on Sutter St. Wah’s mother, Fai Sue Chang was herself a talented artist and had graduated from the California School of Arts and Crafts. Art supplies were always available and soon Wah began to put them to good use as well.

After finishing at the Peninsula School, Wah moved into a trailer at the Hollywood home of Blanding and his wife who now had their own four year old son. At age sixteen, while attending High School, Wah was given the responsibility of creating sets for shows at the Hollywood Bowl.

In 1936, Texas born Blanding Sloan was put in charge of lighting and appointed director of the Cavalcade of Texas, one of many attractions planned for " The Texas Centennial Fair". Wah, now finished with high school, joins Sloan as a staff artist. While working on the Cavalcade, Wah met and worked with Glennella (Glen) Taylor. Wah stayed in Texas after the Cavalcade ended and tried to start a business with a friend. The business didn’t succeed partly due to the depression during the 30’s.

Wah returned to Hollywood and soon heard form his father who had remarried and was on his way to China. Wah met with his father in Honolulu and stayed for a year before returning to San Francisco at the request of a friend who wanted him to work at the San Francisco World’s Fair. Among the work Wah did during the year was making his first stop motion film, his animation skills were self taught.

1939 saw the release of Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Disney was about to begin it’s second animated film Pinocchio and Wah applied for work. At age 21, Wah was the youngest member of Disney’s Effects and Model Department. Wah was making wooden models of the characters so the animators could study body movements. During Wah’s summer vacation he went to Indiana to pick up a car he had bought and drove to Texas to visit Glen. Shortly after his return to Disney, Wah was hospitalized with what was thought to be the flu. In actuality, Wah had come down with Polio. It would be at least ten years before medication would be developed to prevent and treat this debilitating disease. After twenty-one days in the hospital and loss of use of his legs, Wah was released to a sanitarium to learn to walk again.

Wah was hired by George Pal where he worked on the Puppetoons and here he met Gene Warren. After working for George Pal and later John Sutherland, he and Glen started their own studio in 1945 and produced educational films.

Blanding Sloan teamed up with the Changs to do an animated Anti-A-Bomb film titled The Way of Peace. The film debuted at Constitution Hall in Washington DC with President Truman and Albert Einstein in attendance

Work slowed up for the Changs company so Wah joined with Gene Warren and formed Centaur, an effects company. The company worked on several projects, from commercials, costumes, props, and even a toy line.

In 1956, Wah, Gene and Tim Barr started a new company, Project Unlimited. It was through this company that Wah and Gene would work on the projects for which they are best remembered.

The first major work would be for George Pal’s production of tom thumb in 1958. George Pal had finished principle photography on tom thumb and was looking for someone to do the stop motion sequences for the film. One company submitted a budget which was too high and George had looked for Wah and Gene’s company Centaur but by then they had closed that company. The story goes that George met Gene walking down the street one day and they struck a deal then and there.

The next year would find Project Unlimited working on The Time Machine. The Time Machine earned Gene Warren and Tim Barr an Oscar for best special effects. Wah was left out due to the way in which the credits were submitted to the Academy. See our page on Project Unlimited for more on the Oscar winning special effects used in The Time Machine. Other projects undertaken were: Pilsbury Doughboy, Planet of the Apes, Master of the World as well as major props and costumes on The Outer Limits television series.