A visit with Uncle Walt

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This article was published 04/04/2015 (3918 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Walt Disney was a virtual family member for many of us growing up in the 1950s and early ’60s. Jimmie and his Mouseketeer friends provided us with entertainment each afternoon on The Mickey Mouse Club, and our families gathered in front of the television each Sunday evening to watch Disneyland (an always entertaining hour, the title of which changed several times after its 1954 debut). With a soft voice and easy manner, Uncle Walt spun yarns and discussed his visionary amusement park, enticing millions of adults and children to dream of a visit to Disneyland.

During a recent trip to San Francisco, we decided to spend a morning at the Walt Disney Family Museum. This offered an opportunity to learn more about Walt Disney and his timeless creations, and to revisit our youths. We stayed at the Inn at the Presidio, an interesting, renovated Army barracks converted into a bed and breakfast. The inn is a modest walk from the museum.

The museum

The museum, co-founded by Walt Disney’s elder daughter and grandson, is owned and operated by the non-profit Walt Disney Family Foundation. It opened in a renovated former U.S. Army barracks on Oct. 1, 2009, on the Main Post of the Presidio. During a previous visit to the city, we came across several individuals who told us how much they enjoyed their visit to the museum and that we shouldn’t miss it. On this trip we didn’t, and the experience exceeded our expectations.

The museum’s lobby displays awards Disney received through the years, including an honorary Academy Award for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and the nation’s highest civil honour, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. This consists of seven miniature Oscars alongside one full-size version of the famous statue. Beyond the lobby are 10 interactive galleries incorporating state-of-the-art technology that transport the visitor, step-by-step, from Walt’s childhood through his creative years to his 1966 death. The story is conveyed through photographs, home movies, artifacts, drawings, animations, music, film and television clips.

Two of the larger exhibits include Lilly Belle, the 1/8-scale model steam-engine and train Walt had built to circle his California home, and a scale model of his plan for Disneyland that is 3.5 metres in diameter. Large video screens throughout the museum allow visitors to visit with Walt as he relates tales about his family, work, achievements and dreams. Watch and listen, and it is easy to understand why he became known to many as Uncle Walt.

A 114-seat theater in the museum basement twice daily offers a Disney classic that changes monthly. Talks related to specific museum items are presented on weekends. Behind the main museum, a smaller building is utilized for special exhibits that remain from three to six months. The exhibit during our visit was All Aboard: A Celebration of Walt’s Trains.

Weekly workshops and classes are offered, and special programs and concerts are presented throughout the year. Two-week summer camps are available for students interested in learning about acting, special effects, animation and more. A website calendar provides information about specific topics and dates for special events.

Journey from the Windy City

Walt Disney was born in Chicago on Dec. 5, 1901. As a child, he enjoyed drawing. Following high school, he enrolled in classes at the Art Institute of Chicago. Too young to enlist in the army during the First World War, he joined the American Ambulance Corps, and in 1918 arrived in France as the war ended.

Upon his return to the U.S., Walt took a job for US$50 a month at a commercial art studio in Kansas City, Mo. It was here where he became interested in animation, and in 1921 he began producing ad reels and animation shorts on the side. With the ensuing success, he quit his job and entered into business with fellow artist Ub Iwerks; but by 1923 their company, Laugh-O-gram Films, was bankrupt.

At the age of 21, Walt bought a train ticket to California, where one of his older brothers, Roy, lived. Walt’s work was well received in California, resulting in the brothers forming Disney Brothers Studio in Los Angeles.

Major success arrived in 1928 with Walt’s creation of Mortimer Mouse, the signature character his wife, Lillian, convinced him to rename Mickey. By this time, Disney Brothers Studio was considered the country’s leader in animation. Walt continued to develop new projects and produced his first “talking picture” when he synchronized sound and animation in Steamboat Willie, his third Mickey Mouse short film.

Walt Disney Studios

Walt eventually purchased most of his brother’s ownership, and the company’s name was changed to Walt Disney Studios following the move into a new building on Hyperion Avenue. The firm’s goal of improving animation quality remained unchanged, and Disney artists began to focus more on the personality and movements of each character. A major breakthrough in animation came in 1937 with the development of a multi-plane camera that helped create the illusion of depth in Disney films.

With borrowed money, the studio moved into developing feature-length animated films. The huge success of the first feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, allowed Disney to again move to bigger quarters, this time in Burbank, Calif., where he produced Bambi, Pinocchio and Fantasia, three innovative films that were unsuccessful financially. The 1941 release, Dumbo, proved a modest success.

Second World War and after

The war years were turbulent times for the studio. In addition to the army using half the Burbank studio to house troops, a major strike of animators seeking to unionize resulted in bitter feelings among workers and between managers and employees. To make money, the studio produced public service and military training films.

Following the war, the studio continued to develop new techniques that included live-action features and wide-screen animation such as Cinderella, Lady and the Tramp and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. In the late ’40s and early ’50s, the studio progressed to live-action documentaries, including the nature series True-Life Adventures and People and Places.

The idea for Disneyland

Walt Disney loved trains, and in 1948 he travelled to a railroad fair in Chicago, where he acquired the inspiration to construct a scale-model railroad that circled his new California home. The landscaping, tracks and steam-powered train were completed in 1950, and his daughters, their friends, and the neighbours loved riding the train along its 800-metre track. Soon, strangers were knocking on his door requesting rides, thus convincing Walt a family-oriented amusement park encircled by a train would attract crowds. History proved him correct, but first, he had to build it.

Others in the studio were more than a little leery of Walt’s plan, so he constructed Disneyland with his own funds, supplemented by outside financing. In 1954, he contracted with ABC to produce a weekly television show for which ABC invested US$500,000. The iconic theme park opened on July 17, 1955, and more than one million visitors passed through its gates within two months. A short time later, Walt introduced a new ABC television program, The Mickey Mouse Club, on which he often promoted Disneyland. While Walt was personally overseeing the construction of Disneyland, the studio continued to create both animated and live-action films.

Walt’s final projects

Walt Disney served as head of pageantry for the 1960 Olympic and was involved in creating new technologies for several attractions at the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair, including It’s a Small World and Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, both of which were moved to Disneyland following the fair.

During this period, Walt got the inspiration for EPCOT, the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. His vision for EPCOT as an actual community where people would work and live was much different from the actual EPCOT built following his death.

Unfortunately, Walt Disney did not live to see the completion of the Florida parks. He was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1966 and died later that year at age 65. Brother Roy guided Disney World’s Magic Kingdom to completion and named the park in honour of his brother. Disney World opened on Oct. 1, 1971, and EPCOT on Oct. 17, 1982.

David and Kay Scott are authors of The Complete Guide to the National Park Lodges (Globe Pequot). Visit them at http://wfp.to/MO3.