Profile of Sam McKim
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Sam giving a seminar at the 2000 NFFC Convention
Sam worked mainly on Frontierland and Main Street before the Park opened. The drawings had to be in proportion, like an architectural drawing to stimulate the sponsors such as Wurlitzer, Timex, Eastman Kodak, Frito Lay, Aunt Jemima, to name a few. He did sketches of Pendleton Mills, Shooting Gallery, Indian Shop, Golden Horseshoe, Indian Teepee and the tree house on Tom Sawyers Island, among many others. A few years later some of Sam’s artwork was sold, along with many other original artworks before Imagineering Head, Marty Sklar, put a stop to it. Sam’s sketch of the Indian Chief on a painted pony, which was mainly just a pencil sketch with a little chalk and watercolor, was one of the art pieces sold. Ron Dominguez had wanted to buy this sketch but found it too expensive for him when he saw the selling price was $1800. In recent years Disneyland has sponsored Limited Edition events where Sam signs copies of his original artwork, along with other Disney Legends.
In the early developmental stages of the Haunted Mansion, Marvin Davis had Sam draw a
sketch to take to a meeting with Walt. Afterwards Marvin came back to Sam and said "Sam, your sketch worked. Walt didn’t like the it and said we’re not going to have anything that awful looking, run down, broken steps, windows shattered, not in my Park!
It’s going to look good on the outside and we’ll let the ghosts do what they want inside, you know with all the cobwebs and what."
The first map of Disneyland was created by Sam. He was called out of retirement in 1991 to do another large souvenir map for the Paris Theme Park. While he was working on the map for Euro Disney, he had a heart attack. Knowing he couldn’t complete the map in time for the opening, he suggested to Tony Baxter that he have someone else do the map. Tony refused the offer, preferring to wait until Sam could complete it. Even then Sam managed to finish it only three weeks after the opening.
Sam worked on Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln for the 1964 New York World’s Fair. He did production art to help put the show together and did paintings on slides for the Press. The Lincoln Show was brought to Disneyland in 1965 and Sam did about 34 or 35 paintings in 6 weeks! The buy-off was for the Preshow of Great Moments of Mr. Lincoln and was first shown to Walt at the Studio recording stage (which is still across from the Cafeteria.) Jim Algar, Sam, Walt and the projectionist were the only ones there. When the lights came on, Walt turned to Sam and said "Good job, Sam" and they walked back to the main building where their offices were. Walt had gone on to his office and Jim took Sam into his office for privacy. He then said "I want to remind you what you heard Walt say to you, " Good job, Sam," well just remember I’ve been here 35 or 40 years and I’ve only been complimented two times. Once when I was working on "The African Lion" as producer and director, Walt and I went into the sweatbox, which is the name we had for the projection room and after we saw the film, he turned to me and said you did an excellent job. The second time I was in charge of the first cinemascope short for The Grand Canyon suite music and Walt saw it and said Very good job." Then Jim gave Sam the punch line " You and I don’t have to feel badly about this because the best compliment Walt could give us is that we are STILL working for him!"
Not only did Sam often work over lunch but also often came back after dinner. So he got to know most of the maintenance people as well as the security. One Thursday night when he came back, Roosevelt Jones, one of the maintenance men told him that Walt had stopped by and looked over Sam’s storyboards for about forty five minutes. This was not unusual for Walt to do. This way he was already prepared for the Friday meetings.
After thirty-two years, Sam is officially retired but is sought after for special events by Disney as well as Disney organizations. Both his two sons, Brian and Matt, are artists, who have worked for Disney as does Brian’s wife, Dorothy, Sam’s daughter in law.
In 1996, at Disney Studios in Burbank, California, Sam McKim was initiated into a select group of individuals designated as Disney Legends and given a special trophy. Each year those individuals, whose body of work has made a significant impact on the Disney Legacy, are recognized in a special ceremony. Their handprints and signatures are immortalized in a block of cement, which is then cast in metal and mounted on the walls of the pillars that surround the Legend Plaza.
Discuss It
-- Posted February 13, 2003
-- Story by Scarlett Stahl