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Feature of the Month

Book Excerpt

Remembering Walt: Favorite Memories of Walt Disney ~ The Unpublished Treasures
By Amy Boothe Green and Howard E. Green

Remembering Walt

In their years working with the Walt Disney Company, Amy Boothe Green and Howard Green have taken on a role that you won't find in their corporate biographies: They have been unofficial ambassadors to many of the men and women who helped make the Disney name world-reknowned. They've enjoyed countless dinners, trips, phone calls, and casual conversations with such veteran artists and animators as Ollie Johnston, Frank Thomas, Ward Kimball, Marc Davis, and Joe Grant. Unlike some who covet the companionship of greatness, Amy and Howard established and built these relationships for the best of all reasons: They enjoyed and respected these men and women, and the feeling was mutual.

Fortunately for all of us, the husband and wife team realized that many, many others would relish the opportunity to read some of the stories they were lucky enough to hear. As they write, "Through the eyes, hearts, and memories of others, we came to feel as though we knew Walt, too. We felt privileged to have so many one-degree-away-from-Walt encounters that we wanted to share the wealth with others." The result was a book, "Remembering Walt: Favorite Memories of Walt Disney."

This month, the Walt Disney Family Museum is fortunate to be able to share a lengthy sampling of anecdotes about Walt that didn't make it into the book. For those of you who have read and enjoyed "Remembering Walt," these stories will extend that happy experience. Those of you who have not are luckier still; the stories that follow are just the beginning. "Remembering Walt" is now being released in paperback, and you can buy a copy in the Museum Gift Shop.


First, a few words from the Greens about the creation of "Remembering Walt":

"We felt it vital that Walt be remembered not as the name of a corporation, but as a man with a dream, who had the courage to bring his dreams to life and in the process, changed the world for the better, for generations to come.

"Additionally, we hoped to dispel myths that had become Hollywood legend. Is Walt frozen in a vault somewhere? Was he anti-semitic? Was he a brute of a boss? An opportunist?

"We began to accumulate stories and more than 200 photographs, some rare and at the time unpublished. Among the photo highlights are several faded color snapshots of a relaxed Walt on his last family holiday in July 1966; the photos were found stored in his desk drawer at the time of his death from lung cancer, only four months later.

"In all, we interviewed more than 100 people - family members, including Walt's daughter Diane Disney Miller; artists; animators; Imagineers; filmmakers; celebrities, including Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke, Fess Parker, and more - all who knew, loved, and worked with Walt. In addition, we accumulated extensive archival material from the Disney Studio Archives and generous biographers who had gone before us.

"Talking with people, we were astonished how some so readily shed tears of love and appreciation for him, more than 30 years after his death. Among them were Annette Funicello, who recalled being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in the early 1990s and how her thoughts first turned to Walt; she wished he were still alive so she could ask him what to do. 'He would know ...,' she says.

"Some stories about Walt are funny, quirky even, while many are inspirational, reflecting Walt's passion, creative genius, and even his moods. Above all, Walt Disney was a human being, down to earth, yet otherworldly at the same time. As Joe Grant recalls, '…He had the voice of a prophet. He was so damned intuitive.'

"Walt was also changeable, forthright and focused … always focused on 'how' to create the dream. How to make the 'impossible' possible.

"As futurist and author Ray Bradbury, who penned the foreword to 'Remembering Walt,' writes, 'Walt Disney was more important than all the politicians we've ever had. They pretended optimism. He was optimism. He has done more to change the world for the good than almost any politician who ever lived.'

"The task of determining which of the many hundreds, perhaps thousands, of stories to keep and which to leave out of 'Remembering Walt' was a challenge, to say the least. Here we share with you a few of our favorite candid memories of Walt, which were left on the cutting room floor."

 

Lloyd Shearer, who wrote for "Parade Magazine," went to interview Walt at the Studio and brought his daughter along. To keep the child busy, while the interview was going on, Walt arranged to have somebody take her on a tour of the back lot.

Along the way, she ran across a pair of little Sardinian donkeys that Walt had discovered while touring Europe. Walt had decided they were the cutest things he ever saw and brought them back for Disneyland. So the little girl was petting a donkey when one of them promptly bit her on the hand and drew blood. She was raced to first aid, bandaged up, and taken to see Walt.

She was still in tears and Walt said, "Oh, honey. Those are the sweetest little animals you ever saw. I can't believe they'd hurt you. Now, come on, let's go down and see them together." So he took her back and said, "See honey …" and the donkey promptly bit him on the hand. Before anybody could blink, the donkeys were gone. I mean they were gone right away …


Charlie Ridgway
Theme park publicist

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