Women of Walt Disney Imagineering is, in the words of Ginger Zee, “a compilation of mentors for all of us.” It is a refreshing Disney history book because it features not one, but twelve, different accounts of influential and inspirational former Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI) employees in their own words and offers game-changing advice and encouragement to its readers.
Each chapter is unique, from a unique Imagineer’s perspective. Capturing an era ― and preserving the stories they have told their daughters, their mentees, their husbands, and their friends ― a dozen women Imagineers share their decades designing and building the Disney world-wide empire of theme parks. They have assembled their stories as brief accounts in this book and their experiences continue to entertain and illuminate.
The Women of Walt Disney Imagineering are:
- Maggie Irvine Elliott, Senior Vice President, Creative Development Administration
- Kathy Rogers, Executive Show Producer
- Katie Olson, Principal Color Concept Designer
- Julie Svendsen, Concept Show Designer
- Paula Dinkel, Principal Show Lighting Designer
- Elisabete (Eli) Minceff Erlandson, Principal Concept Architect
- Tori Atencio McCullough, Executive, Interior Design
- Pam Rank, Principal Show Lighting Designer
- Becky Bishop, Principal Landscape Artist
- Karen Connolly Armitage, Concept Designer
- Lynne Macer Rhodes, Producer
- Peggie Fariss, Executive, Creative Development
I was curious about how these women were selected or otherwise came to write this book. Eli Minceff Erlandson explains that the prerequisites for authors to be featured were that they had to be:
1) A woman who had retired from Walt Disney Imagineering with a minimum of twenty years’ work experience in the Imagineering arm of The Walt Disney Company.
2) A woman who was a team player and team leader.
3) A woman who wanted to encourage future generations and would write about the challenges they faced and how they managed them.
4) A woman who was no longer a Disney employee.
Importantly, Women of Walt Disney Imagineering represents a broad swath of Imagineering’s creative disciplines during a time of unprecedented expansion (from the 1960s up to about 2016). Intertwined with memories of Disney legends are glimpses of what it takes behind the scenes to create a theme park, and the struggles unique to women who were becoming more and more important, visible and powerful in a workplace that was overwhelmingly male. Many of the women acknowledge and recall examples of bias, discrimination and mistreatment that they address candidly and professionally.
Another important acknowledgement that is addressed upfront is that all authors are white women. This is explained in part as “a sign of the times when we were starting our careers between forty and fifty years ago.” Since then, “a number of Black women, Native American Women, Asian women, and other women (and men) of color have become Imagineers…. We hope these women will write their stories.” I, too, hope that future volumes of this book engage more diverse writers, as well as an even broader swath of creative disciplines.
The foreword is written by meteorologist and author, Ginger Zee. Ginger’s writing style is succinct, frank and matter of fact. Her foreword follows this pattern as she shares some of her own experiences before enthusiastically inviting the reader to partake in the trailblazing careers and reflections of the WDI wonder women that follow.
Women of Walt Disney Imagineering is a quick and exhilarating read. The chapters are short and the tone of the writing conversational. It is not a dense recount of humdrum work experiences nor is it a hyper-technical textbook on Imagineering; it is a well of knowledge, reflection, inspiration, and contribution. It basks in the fun of experiences like working with Jim Henson on the Muppets attraction and consulting with Johnny Depp on Pirates of the Caribbean’s Jack Sparrow Audio-Animatronics figure. It also encourages readers to, as Eli writes, “have the courage to divert an ugly situation to an alternate path” and, as Kathy Rogers suggests, “never lose sleep over a problem; focus on solutions, stay positive and move forward.” For a quick, succinct “chat” with some of WDI’s best, there are infinite takeaways.
While this book is not short on hard-learned lessons and uncomfortable situations, the equal-parts-magic, equal-parts-grit of each Imagineer’s resilience, ingenuity and faith in their creative process will stay with readers long after they finish this book. If you do not come away from reading Women of Walt Disney Imagineering with a burning passion to learn, pursue, create and make a difference, perhaps you didn’t pick up the book at all.
Women of Walt Disney Imagineering will be released on March 15th, 2022.