Thoughts on Walt
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LP: You know Walt’s story has been told many times in countless books, now movies, the whole deal. But do you think people kind of have a disconnect because he’s been gone for 35 years now. What do you think we’re missing by not having a Walt Disney?
AD: I think Walt Disney will always be with us. All you have to do is go to Disneyland to know he existed. The minute you walk into Disneyland. It’s not quite the way as it was when he was alive but still there’s a special magic, there’s a relaxation, there’s a beauty that you can’t find anywhere else on earth.
LP: When you walk into Disneyland, do you still feel Walt’s presence a little bit?
AD: Always. Especially when I walk past the popcorn stands. Because if you went to the park with him, the first thing is you went to the popcorn place and he bought popcorn for everybody and you ate popcorn whether you wanted it or not. That’s why they were there, because he loved popcorn.
LP: Do you think that there’s anybody today that comes close to filling Walt’s shoes or do you think Walt is just plain irreplaceable?
AD: That’s a tough one. I’m biased, I don’t think anybody could ever replace Walt - what he stood for. But he left a legacy for us to either build or destroy and I hope we keep building it and won’t destroy it.
LP: You grew up with Mickey and all the characters…
AD: Right. I think it was my eighth birthday, I was one of five children and there was not enough money to take all five children to the movie so my mother decided for my birthday - since I kept telling everyone I was going to be an artist someday and my mother being an art teacher all her life liked the idea - so for my birthday she took me to see Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. And I just about vibrated out of my seat with that. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing on the screen. And I came home and made all kinds of clay statues and drawings and I don’t think I’ve ever recovered from Snow White. That was the most exciting thing I had ever seen.
LP: Is that still your favorite Disney animation?
AD: By far, by far.
LP: Do you think it embodies all the best of Disney?
AD: I think that when you sit and think about when he did Steamboat Willie and then in such a short time did Snow White, the growth in that amount of time is unbelievable.
LP: You know people refer to Walt on occasion as an artist, they say Walt Disney was a great artist. Andy Warhol once said Walt Disney was his favorite artist. Would you think of Walt as an artist?
AD: Yes, he was an artist in many ways. He was an artist of magic. He was the greatest storyteller you could ever hope to meet. He could draw if he wanted to, but he was an artist at pulling the best of art out of the people that worked for him. He always had you do things that you didn’t think you were capable of doing, and he’d make you a better artist over time. And he knew who to put together to make something. Sometimes he would match people who absolutely hated each other, but they’d work like hell to top the other one, and in doing so you’d come out with a marvelous piece of artwork. In fact, Marc said sometimes it was amazing someone didn’t get killed (laughs). But he always was able to control and handle it.
LP: There’s something that’s become almost cliché, this term Disney Magic. What do you think Disney Magic is in relation to what Walt created. What was Walt’s magic?
AD: He could reach people of all walks of life and he could make them all like the same thing and appreciate it. All you had to do was get into a large crowd and watch the faces and you could see the magic on their face. And they would become very calm. I’ve never seen anyone have fights at Disneyland, they were always enjoying it. And that was the magic of Disney. It was like going through a magic door - you walk into Disneyland and it’s a world to itself.
LP: Do you think the Disney Magic lives on today in some of the newer films?
AD: There are moments. But I want to say one thing - the films that Walt did, that he had a hand in, can always be shown over and over and over again and they’ll never get old. And the reason is that he never allowed any slang. He never allowed any hand movements or body movements that would mean something bad to somebody in another religion or another country. And because of this they’re classics, timeless. And this goes for Mary Poppins, too. And they’re clean. They’re clean morally. They’re a lot of fun.
LP: You have a lot of nieces and nephews. Do you think the Disney Magic translates to them. It’s a whole new generation now, the world is much faster.
AD: My great niece just had a son. And the minute she walked in the house and saw the "Small World" poster she said "Can I have one of those? I’ve got to have it for my son’s room so when he grows up he’ll become a Disney fan like I am." I want him to be a good child. She thinks that the Disney influence on her child will make him a good boy.
LP: You can’t get a higher compliment than that.
AD: Right.
LP: Any other thoughts on Walt you might want to add since this is his 100th birthday?
AD: Well I guess he would’ve lived to be a 102 or 103 or something like that. He’s very much missed. So is his brother Roy. Roy was the one that would always joke with me in that he said I was the only Democrat he knew. Not that I’m a pure Democrat, I vote for what’s best. Whenever we went to dinners there were a lot of the executives. They’d have people from around the world come in, the heads of offices from different areas, lots of times they would invite Marc and I to come along, too. And it was always announced to everybody that one of the executives at the studio was a Democrat, but he became a Republican very quickly - he was the one that was the attorney at ABC, Don Tatum. Don Tatum was a Democrat for a while. So he said I’m going to put my two Democrats together and put me next to Don Tatum.
LP: Marc, Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, Peter Ellenshaw, John Hench - inevitably it comes around that they always said they had great deal of pride working for Walt Disney and that that name stood for something. And when people would ask what you do, you’d say I work for Walt Disney and people would light up.
AD: Right. And start asking lots of questions.
LP: How did it feel to say to someone "I worked for Walt Disney"?
AD: I don’t think I ever really said to many people that I worked for Walt Disney. I would say that I worked with Walt Disney. I think that mostly I was very proud of the fact that I knew him. Working for him was a double bonus. I got to know him because of Marc. I know I used to make Marc nervous because I would say things to Walt a lot of people wouldn’t say and when we’d be driving home Marc would say "What in God’s name did you say in there?" And I’d say, "I don’t know, it was just spur of the moment." And he’d say "Watch those spur of the moments."
I always felt comfortable around Walt. A lot of people were very nervous around him but I felt comfortable. There was only one time I got nervous around him and that was when I was working on the chase scene for the Pirates and I had taught one of the machinist how to make wires for brassieres. And I bought the pieces for amputees bosoms because they had the weight and the movement to it. I had them put it on the chase scene with a wire that was loose from the body and the metal would go up and down so that when they’d run the breasts would bounce. And I was showing Walt and he was out in the shop. I think if we’d been by ourselves it would’ve been different, but he was dying to pick up the prosthesis to see what it felt like, but he didn’t dare do it in front of everybody at the shop because everybody was kind of shy about it. And the machinist made me promise not to tell anybody what it was that he was making these wires for. I got nervous to the point where I started losing my breath. But that’s the only time I was nervous around him.
LP: How did you learn about Walt passing away?
AD: I was in the shop working on Pirates and I heard it and I couldn’t believe it. And we all went running into Marc’s office. Marc had just heard and Marc was in terrible shape. And we all started crying something uncontrollably. I still get teary eyed.
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