Herb Ryman: A Brush with Disney
Excerpt from: A BRUSH WITH DISNEY
About thirteen years ago, famed Disney artist Herb Ryman explained
in an interview that he had never allowed himself to specialize
in any one field of artistic endeavor. If only he had specialized,
he said, with a smile on his face, he'd have gotten a lot more money
for his artwork.
Well, Herbie's loss was the world's gain. Last October, Camphor
Tree Publishers of Santa Clarita California brought out a new and
beautiful book titled "A Brush with Disney: An Artist's Journey
Told Through the Words and Works of Herbert Dickens Ryman."
It was edited by Bruce Gordon and David Mumford and research was
provided by Irene Naoum. It can be ordered online at www.ryman.org.
The book contains a great many reproductions of artwork he created
for Disney, including Disneyland, Walt Disney World, Tokyo Disneyland
and Disney Paris. As Marty Sklar, vice chairman and principal creative
executive of Walt Disney Imagineering wrote in an introduction,
"Name the Disney Park project from the first illustration of
Disneyland in 1953, to the first visualization of Walt Disney World
in 1968, to the first depiction of Epcot in 1979, to the first designs
for Tokyo Disneyland in 1980, to some of the earliest concepts for
Disneyland Paris in 1989; the public's first view of each came from
the pencil, pen or brush of Herbert Dickens Ryman."
Beyond his work for Disney, however, the book explores many of the
artist's other creative ventures - equally appealing, and remarkable
in their variety -- including an odyssey with the Ringling Brothers
Circus from 1949 to 1951, and leading up to his death in 1989.
The book also features long excerpts from the artist's writings
and journals, including the tale of his first involvement in Disneyland:

"It was about 10 A.M. on September 26, 1953, when Walt called
unexpectedly. When I remarked that he was at the Studio on a Saturday
morning he commented, "Yes, it's my studio and I can be here
anytime I want."
I was not working at the Disney Studio at that particular time
because in 1946 I had gone back to 20th Century Fox. I had deserted
Walt, which was a very criminal act (at least he thought it was).
However, I was curious, and flattered, that Walt would pick up the
phone and call me. I had no idea what he wanted.
He asked how long it would take me to get there. I said if I come
in the clothes I'm in now, it'll take 15 minutes, but if I have
to get dressed, take a bath and shave, it'll take 30 minutes. He
said, "Well, why don't you come as you are. I'll be out front
waiting for you." So, I drove over to the Studio and sure enough
Walt was out in front, standing there.
We went into the Zorro building. Bill Cottrell, Dick Irvine and
Marvin Davis were there, all friends of mine. Walt said, "Herbie,
I'm in the process of doing an amusement park, we're working on
it right now." I asked, "Where is it going to be?"
He said, "Well, we don't know. I've got Harrison Price at Stanford
Research working on where it ought to be." I asked, "What
are you going to call it?" He said, "Well, I'm going to
call it Disneyland." I said, "Well that's a good name.
What is it that you want to see me about?" He said, "Well,
my brother Roy is going to New York on Monday morning. He's going
to New York to see the bankers. Herbie, we need $17 million to get
us started."
Walt had sold his insurance policy and his house in Palm Springs
trying to get the money together. "You know the bankers, they
have no imagination. They can't visualize when you tell them what
you're going to do, they have no way of visualizing it. So, I've
got to show them what we're going to do before we can have any chance
of getting the money." I said, "I would love to see what
you're going to do. Where is it?" He pointed at me and said,
"You're going to do it!" I said, "No, I'm not. You're
not going to call me on Saturday morning at 10 A.M. and expect me
to do a masterpiece that Roy could take and get the money. It will
embarrass me and it will embarrass you." Walt asked the other
guys to leave the room.

We were alone. Walt paced around the room with his arms folded,
kind of paced back and forth, then went over and stood in the corner,
kind of looked back at me over his left shoulder with a little kind
of a sheepish smile, like a little boy who really wants something.
With his eyes brimming, he asked, "Herbie, will you do it if
I stay here with you?" I began to think, well, he's very serious
about this, and Walt, after all was my friend, and so I said, "Sure,
if you stay here all night tonight and all night Sunday night and
help me, I'll stay here. I'll see what I can do."
Our agreement cheered Walt , and he sent out for tuna fish sandwiches
and malted milks and we started to work. Marvin and Dick and Harper
Goff had a lot of preliminaries and groundwork on other parks that
Walt had conceived of, which were very small things. So, all of
this was sort of put into the hopper. Walt had showed me plans from
many well known Los Angeles architects, which he had relegated to
the garbage pile. These architects went to so much work figuring
out sewers and electrical specifications, but they were unable to
capture the vision that Walt was trying to achieve. Finally, he
turned to his own people. He explained to me that Disneyland was
to be a world apart. Entering its portals was to leave behind the
mundane hum-drum everyday world. This was my assignment. I got a
great big piece of paper and started to work on the drawing. When
it was finished, Walt gave it to Roy who went to New York and got
the money from the bankers. Later, Walt called me and said, "We
are going ahead with this. Are you interested in helping us?"
And I said, "Sure. Of course I am."
I have remained with the Disneyland project and have been proud
to be considered one of its originators. My many years' work in
the motion picture industry has no doubt been of an invaluable help
to me.

We did not consider Walt Disney to be absolutely infallible, nor
did he consider himself to be so, but he has demonstrated so repeatedly
his prophetic wisdom in the realm of public entertainment that we
have no sense of weakness or inadequacy when we are overruled in
some controversy under discussion.
His manner of thinking seemed to be "What will people enjoy
the most?" "Can they be educated at the same time they
are being amused?" or "Will what they see here make them
happier and better people?" and "Will they go away with
more respect for America and its heritage?"
Whenever I went to the park, I was very aware of the contributions
I had made as I'm also aware of contributions by Bill Martin, John
Hench and all who were playing in Disney's orchestra. I have no
personal egotism about anything that I have done because I have,
only by my talent, by my drawings, by my illustrations, aided and
assisted in the salesmanship of an idea. Sometimes they were my
ideas, but that's immaterial. The result is there and I'm always
delighted to see that the mechanism works.
The names on the Main Street Windows are the people to whom Walt
wished to give credit, the people who helped him create Disneyland.
For instance, there's a wonderful name up there, my friend Ken Anderson.
He sells bait and tackle. Of course, Ken was one of the great fly
fishermen in America. And my name is there, with John Hench and
with Peter Ellenshaw. And that's what we do, we give art lessons.
|