Professor Garrett Reed is a character from the attraction Jungle River Cruise: Curse of the Emerald Trinity.
History[]
Biography[]
Criminal career[]
Professor Garrett Reed was a professor, explorer and archaeologist in the early half of the 20th century. Reed was also a member of the Society of Explorers and Adventurers, a guild of colonial globetrotters. Professor Reed was obsessed with immortality and also frequently commit morally questionable actions in his operations, being described as, "Nefarious" by his contemporaries.
In 1929, Professor Garrett Reed grave-robbed a mummy's tomb in Egypt. The scandal surrounding this event resulted in Reed being stripped of his S.E.A. membership by senior-member Lord Henry Mystic. To continue funding his quest for eternal life, Reed resorted to selling his artifacts on the black-market. This resulted in Reed becoming enemies with fellow archaeologist and professor Indiana Jones. Jones and Reed also fought over an idol in Peru which Jones succeeded in obtaining and sent it to the Museum of Antiquities in California.
The Curse of the Emerald Trinity[]
By the 1930s, Reed was a highly wanted criminal. Reed eventually found a potential source of immortality in the form of the Emerald Trinity, three enchanted emeralds kept in a temple deep in the jungle. If one could take one of these jewels out of the jungle, they would be granted with immortality. However, the magic surrounding these jewels would manipulate the jungle to attack whomever attempted to steal the objects. In addition to this, Reed had to steal the jewels from a temple belonging to a mysterious ancient, "Voodoo tribe".
By the December 8 of 1932, Reed established a camp in the jungle possessing the emeralds. Around that time, senior-correspondent Andrew Sinclair-Harris of the Daily Colonial Journal published an exposé on Reed that interviewed Indiana Jones and Lord Henry Mystic on the topic of the professor. Reed happened upon the crystals but was attacked by jungle vines animated by the emeralds which wrangled him and shoved his body in the ground, killing him.
Appearances[]
Jungle River Cruise: Curse of the Emerald Trinity[]
Professor Garrett Reed first appeared in this attraction as an antagonist.
Other connections[]
Jungle Cruise[]
In the Amazon River Base of Walt Disney World's Jungle Cruise (set in 1938) is a crate for, "Barton & Reed Fine Silver" of London.[1] It is unknown if this business has any connection to the professor though it is a clear reference to the real-world silversmith company, "Reed & Barton" of Massachusetts.
Trivia[]
- A photo of Reed grave robbing in the Daily Colonial Journal is actually a photograph of historic archaeologist Howard Carter (1874-1939) opening the sarcophagus of King Tutankhamen. Likewise, Reed's face was edited onto the body and outfit of Howard Carter.
- The Daily Colonial Journal implies that Jones and Reed fought over the Chachapoyan Fertility Idol in Peru. However, Jones found the idol in 1936, four years before Reed's death. As the idol is not explicitly named, it is likely just a separate golden idol.
- Garrett Reed might be influenced by the character of René Belloq from Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). They have a similar style, are both enemies of Indiana Jones, both fought for idols with Jones in Peru, and are both criminal archaeologists.
- While Reed being booted from the S.E.A. for grave-robbing is valid, it is someone hypocritical as Lord Henry Mystic is shown in Mystic Manor to have (among other things) broken into a mummy's tomb, desecrated the corpse, and then put the corpse on display in his mansion in Mystic Point.
- Imagineer Andrew Sinclair-Harris spoke on having faced obstacles in integrating Reed due to a small group of imagineers in Glendale acting as, "Gate-keepers" for S.E.A..[2] Incidentally, ex-California imagineer Kevin Lively has claimed that the Hong Kong Disneyland version of the Jungle Cruise (and Curse of the Emerald Trinity by affiiliation) are non-canonical (though it should be noted there is nothing within the text of the attractions itself to imply so).
Gallery[]
