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.

Walt Disney's Lost Epcot? Says who?

“Epcot is a very unique park. Of course it is nothing like the plan that Walt originally had.” I have heard and read that comment many times in my wanderings through Disney Podcasts and Blogs and even while at Epcot. With so many changes happening to the park, there are many calls for Where is the Education? Where is Walt Disney’s dream? When you look at Walt Disney’s original ideas for Epcot, it was to be... well, let’s see what he actually said:

"But the most exciting and by far the most important part of our Florida Project...in fact, the heart of everything we'll be doing in Disney World...will be our Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow! We call it EPCOT."
"It's like the city of tomorrow ought to be. A city that caters to the people as a service function. It will be a planned, controlled community, a showcase for American industry and research, schools, cultural and educational opportunities…”

That being said, I think it is time to cut the cord and let that idea go. It is obvious that the Disney Company has. Take for example Soarin, and the new Nemo Ride/Turtle Talk combo in the Living Seas. They are two of the newest and are both great attractions, but where is the education? In the Orange Orchards? Was it behind Bruce? Or somewhere in the EAC? Even though it sounds wrong, if you don’t look for the educational value of everything at Epcot, you won’t miss it. Here is another quote from Walt Disney that seems to be the current philosophy with Epcot Mgmt.

“ I would rather entertain and hope that people learned something than educate people and hope they were entertained.”

Basically, let’s make sure all are entertained and hope that some might pick up a useful fact or two.
One other item I heard this past week on the Magical Definitions Podcast was a Talk given by Charlie Ridgeway. He wrote the book ‘Spinning Disney’s World: Memories of a Magic Kingdom Press Agent’ Mr. Ridgeway told many stories, but the one that caught my ear the most was a couple sentences about Epcot. With Nathan and Tims’ permission:

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He speaks of the un-practibility of what people thought Walt Disney's original idea was and it does makes sense.

So, do I like everything they are doing at Epcot? No, not everything, but I have learned to give the Imangineers a chance. I'm sure I'll talk more about this down the road. Send your comments to maz24681@yahoo.com