A Small Piece of the Puzzle that is Walt Disney: W.W. I

As you might have seen from the blog, I have a large interest in all things Disney.  But the thing that I really live for is finding another piece of the puzzle that made up Walter Elias Disney and everything he created.

This piece of the puzzle was actually discovered by accident as I was heading home from a trip to WDW.  I stopped at my parents in New Bern, NC and their local town's culture center was having a WWI re-enactor demonstration.  Dad and I went to kill the time and it was actually pretty good. 

A few gentlemen were dressed up as soldiers from that era.  There was a lot of equipment on display and a couple of rooms with some great exhibits including a trench set-up. 

Along the walls there were some great posters from the time.  Patriotic and volunteer seeking posters.  One that really stood out for me was this one. 

As most of you that read this blog know, Walt entered WWI as an ambulance driver for the Red Cross because he was too young to enter any of the armed services.  Part of the movie in One Man's Dream in Disney Hollywood Studios has Walt telling this story himself. 

"My Brother had joined the Navy, so I wanted to join him.  well, I was still a year too young, I was 16.  Finally this kid come in to me really excited. He said, 'There's something...there's something just forming here that you and I can get in.'  I said, 'What is it?'  He said, "An ambulance unit.'"

Walt joined the Red Cross and was sent over to France as an Ambulance Driver and arrived just as the war was winding down.

 

As you can read on the poster they were looking for men over 31 years of age which means to old to fight in the military.  And with Walt's story we can easily believe they would take a couple of 16 year olds to young to fight, especially in that part of the century. 

So this small piece of the Puzzle that was Walt Disney might not have come from a Disney source, but it does add depth to the story of Walt.

The Disney Stoveworks

I have a matter of a little mystery on my hands and I was hoping for some help. I recently read an interview of Richard Todd talking about Walt Disney curtousey of Didier Ghez of the Walt's People books fame. Richard was Robin Hood in the Disney live action movie, The Story of Robin Hood. Based on the interview he had a close relationship with Walt Disney. He tells many funny and moving stories. One of the most touching was how Walt would send his kids gifts each Christmas and how Richard had to explain to the kids why they stopped getting them after Walt's passing. Another comment of note in the interview is the way Todd talks about the Disney studio process of using story boards. Also, how unlike studios like MGM, Paramount and 20th Century Fox, the Disney studios were run by one man...Walt.

There are other stories in the interview, but the one that really caught my attention had to do with Walt's more private side. Richard talks about knowing Walt very well and going to his house in the Holmby Hills often and about the 'big barn shed' that Walt had in the backyard for working on his trains. He mentions that Walt had another hobby, creating miniatures "...and he started a thing he called the Disney Stoveworks." I have seen the exhibit at the Disney Hollywood Studios, One Man's Dream, with the house scene that Walt had built in scale form. I also remember hearing mention of a traveling exhibit of Walt miniatures so this comment made sense. But then Richard went on, "...now one of the things that he'd always rememberd from his boyhood was pot-bellied stove. So he start making pot-bellied stoves himself on his lathe, and they were all hand painted and they were like little Dresden pieces. I've still got my pot-bellied stove. They were about four to five inches high and everything worked; the little riddle worked and the laid worked and they were beautifully painted, such pretty little things, as I say, like little pieces of Dresden china from the Walt Disney Stoveworks."

I thought that was such a cool little item that I had not heard about Walt. The idea of him taking the time to create something so small but fully functional and then giving it to close friends was a really nice way to envision Walt. Where would he have gotten the time to do this and why have I not heard of or seen one of these stoves? I needed to find out more information about this and did the regular searches as follows:

• I went out and googled the Disney Stoveworks and got nothing except the usual commercial adds for New Disney company items to buy.
• The next thought was let me try going with a search on the Workshop. There was a lot of information about the shed and the trains and the move to the new location by the Carolwood Pacific Historical Society, but again nothing about the Disney Stoveworks or the pot-bellied stoves.
• I reached out to various Disney boards and Blogs with no luck.

My next thought is to start hitting the Disney Biographies. There are so many of such varying quality. Please comment here or send me and email at maz24681@yahoo.com if you might have an idea as to where I should look next for more information on the 'Disney Stoveworks'.

The history lesson continues...

One of the projects I have been working on for the last 5-6 months has been as a digitizer. Basically what this means is that I receive hand typed interviews in the mail and then scan them into my computer to make them available in Word document format. Sounds pretty boring, right? Not when you consider the material I am scanning. They are interviews of family members and employees(friends) of Walt Disney.
About 6 months ago I was reading some of the Disney blogs that I visit. One of them is run by Didier Ghez and is called the Disney History Blog. I mentioned his blog in an earlier post about pursuing my interest in history related to Walt Disney. This is a great Blog that concentrates mainly on all forms of Disney animation and the history of Walt Disney. Didier is also known for his series of books titled, ‘Walt’s People’. These are a series of books that have interviews directly from the people that worked with or were friendly with Walt Disney. There are 5 volumes with a sixth coming soon. Didier had put out a request for help on his blog. He had just received a number of typed interviews and wanted help digitizing them. I had just gotten my new 3-in-1 printer of which a scanner was one of the three so I responded to him. I received my first interview a couple of weeks later. I have scanned, and of course read interviews from Frank Thomas, Card Walker, Ruth Disney, Dick Irvine, Bill Cottrell, Bill Anderson and more. I have read many interesting stories and remembrances. I think the importance of this compilation of interviews is that they let you see a person’s complete thoughts. What I mean by that is that most of the biographies that quote someone about Walt use a line or two that was said and that’s it. You can’t really tell, for the most part, if that was what the person really thought or if it was a quote taken out of context to help an author prove a point. Here is an example. In some of the Walt biographies there is mention of the trip to South America in the Early 40’s as a way to get away from the strike at Disney Studios. Based on some of the responses from Frank Thomas, who was on this trip, he makes it seem like it was purely a business trip and a meet and greet for those fans south of the Border. A new way to find more topics to create new films. The way Frank goes over how the trip went, tells volumes of what that trip was really like.
So as my education in the History of Walt Disney and his company continues, these interviews have certainly added much to that goal. The sad part is I think I am almost to the end of these interviews and will need to start buying Didier’s books to keep up with all of these great stories. If you have the opportunity, check out this series of books. You will not be disappointed

Gaining an Education about Walt

As you can see from this site, I have some interest in Walt Disney and the company he has created. The Parks, the movies, the characters have brought years of fun. However, other than a report I did in 4th grade I had not looked in depth as to who Walt Disney was and how he created his company. That has been a quest that I had started about 6 months ago and the information seems endless. However, the issue I have run into is what to believe. For example, I saw a post on Michael Barrier’s (author of the Animated Man) web site where he was basically pointing out how some of the other authors of Disney Biographies were not always correct in their stories. So who’s right? That is the sub-goal, use the various biographies that are available and multiple, creditable Blogs found on the internet and any other form of media to determine a true idea of what working for Walt Disney would have been like and what contributed to his successes and failures. Today I came across a post on the Blue Sky Disney blog. It was a very simple post but it carried valuable information. This post had Walt’s “nine old men”, with a paragraph about each one. A very nice quick summary of each man and his contributions. The Disney History Blog is another very good Walt Disney historical blog, as the name suggests. There is not a day that goes by when there is not a post about anything related to Walt Disney in multiple ways. There were cartoon set-up sheets posted a little while ago and a Macaroni & Cheese recipe from Walt himself from 1936. This site is also very liberal with links to pertinent articles on other websites. I will write more in a Websites to Check-out post coming up soon. The Disney and More blog is great source of information along with the Disney Family website. I am sure there are more out there and I look forward to finding them. So, Thank You authors and bloggers for accelerating my education. I would hope to be able to participate in the same manner some day.