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Page 25 of 28 Vision of the Future: Walt's  Grandchildren

Walt and his grandkids

Walt adored his grandkids, and spent time with them 
whenever he could.

But by and large, their memories of him are remarkable mainly in how unremarkable they are. Any grandchild remembering a loving grandparent might have similar recollections. All of the older grandchildren describe their grandfather as a calm, undemanding man, fun to be with, who seemed to derive a great deal of pleasure from just watching them play. Joanna: "We rarely had babysitters. Mostly Mom and Dad would leave us at their house. He just seemed to love having us around. We would sit out in the lawn. We would make towers and pile up his patio furniture, and we'd be making forts and rocket ships out of it, and he'd just be sitting there on the lawn, and it seemed like he loved having us there." Tamara: "He just seemed to enjoy us interacting in front of him. We were a group of kids, rather a wild bunch. And I think my grandmother was overwhelmed. She'd end up with one child at a time, and it was often Jenny (the youngest at the time). But he enjoyed the commotion. He seemed to be a guy who craved commotion." Christopher: "He was so interested in us. I drew like crazy when I was a kid. And I remember his advice. He was an artist himself, of course, and he'd tell me how to improve my technique. I remember him showing me how to get effective-looking smoke. Because most of my drawings were typical boy stuff: disasters, train collisions, mine explosions. He was always there -- and he took a big interest in my developing artistic skills."  .
Jennifer: "There was just an overall feeling of warmth and love. The fact that you walked in the door made them happy.  Nobody remembers him getting angry at us -- except if we were arguing with each other. I remember one time in Palm Springs, we were fighting about something. I remember hearing him yell from over the house, 'Knock it off!' and freezing. I hadn't ever heard him yell before." Joanna: "I remember once, we were staying at the hotel in Disneyland. We were watching scary movies on the television at the hotel; Chris and Tam and myself. It was a movie like "The Blob" or something. And I was really afraid. So he took me out of the room and we went for a walk. I was about eight at the time, and he took me up in the elevator to the bar there; and of course everyone knew who he was. He introduced me as his girlfriend. And I was embarrassed that people should think my grandpa had a girlfriend." 
      Christopher: "As I recall, the firehouse apartment was just one room. So we'd be sleeping in the same room. The neat thing about that was getting up in the morning before the park opened. The view was unobstructed -- which is wonderful from a kid's point of view. I remember one time, the Submarine Ride was under construction. And he took us to see the undersea world in dry dock. He explained the stuff to us, the processes, the fiberglass coral reefs." Tamara: "He always had a camera with him -- always ­ and he had a tendency of handing the camera to a child, whether it be Chris, Walt, or me. We have photographs of him, one is a picture of me with him and the head is missing because a child took the picture. There's a great series of him crouching lower and lower as a child took the picture."
Walt on a skiing vacation

Walt on a skiing vacation
with Joanna, Tamara and
Christopher.

Fred MacMurray in the 1963 production of 'Son of Flubber'

Fred MacMurray in the 1963 production of 'Son of Flubber'. Walter Miller appears as a baby in the picture.

On a couple of occasions, Walt got his grandchildren involved in his films. Chris did a walk-on in "Bon Voyage," and little Walter appeared as a baby in a television commercial in "Son of Flubber." "I can remember him trying to talk us into venturing into what he was doing at the studio," says Tamara. "I remember one dinner I made some wild, funky face where I had my eyes going in different directions. He said, 'If you do that again, I'll put you in a movie.'" In 1964, Ron and Diane had their sixth child -- named Ron, after his dad (a seventh, Patrick, would be born after Walt's death). And in 1965 Sharon became pregnant, and Walt wrote Ruth, "We have another grandchild on the way come January. . . . Needless to say, we're all looking forward to the event. Diane's brood continue to be a great pleasure to Grandpa and Grandma Disney." After Sharon's child, Victoria, was born, Walt was the first one at the hospital. "Oh, she's going to have great eyes," he announced. "I can tell she has great eyes."" 
While Walt's grandchildren remember him as a paradigm of loving calm, studio employees had a very different impression. He seemed to be quicker to snap than ever, even chastising trusted employees like General Joe Potter, one of Walt Disney World's chief engineers. For years, animators whispered about the stroke 30-year veteran Ken Anderson suffered after Walt reacted to his work on "101 Dalmatians." Whether or not Walt was the direct cause of the stroke, Anderson recalled how Walt treated him afterward: "He must have sensed that it was the result of something that he had said that made me have this thing because -- talk about being good to me -- I made more money and made more stuff when I was in the hospital. Walt would send me every sort of thing. Couldn't be nicer . . . He said, 'When you come back, don't ever think about punching the clock. Don't ever think about having to be here at any time. . . . All I want for you to do when you come back is just sit there and create.'
Veteran artist Ken Anderson

Veteran artist Ken Anderson
 

 
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