Scarlett Stahl: A Talk by Marty Sklar
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In response to a question as to whether he had a copy of the very first newspaper for Disneyland, Marty replied �I don�t but somebody at different times has given me one. The UCLA Daily Bruin honored me and gave me a framed copy of it. They bought it on Ebay��I wrote the first hard cover book about Disneyland back in 1964 or 65. I said during the 50th Anniversary, these are going to be hot items on Ebay or Amazon, I don�t know which. So I went online and bought three or four of them before the 50th got close. I�m glad I did because I wanted to make sure my kids had them for my grandkids.
Marty answered a question in regards to his future plans �I�m trying to figure out how to say no, because I am involved in so many things. I�m on the Alumni Board at UCLA, so I�ve been very active with them. Ten days ago I was in Sacramento with some other corporate executives lobbying the State Legislators for a higher priority for funds for the UC system, because tuitions going up, good faculty has offers from all around the world and UC cant keep up with what these other schools are offering�I�m making another speech in San Diego on Friday to a group called The International Public Management Association. I�ve been doing a lot of writing because for years, all I had the opportunity to do was introductions for things. For example I just wrote a forward for a new book about Disneyland that just went on sale called Disneyland Through The Decades. It�s not a history but a picture book of Disneyland through the years that Jeff Kurti wrote. Then there�s a new Imagineering book coming out in May, 200 pages, hard cover and I wrote one of the introductions for that. I just had an article in Fun World Magazine and another one coming out in June. For years I was an editor of other peoples work. Now I�m having fun going back to my roots as a writer and doing a lot of writing. I just haven�t figured out how to dial back and it�s in my DNA and I�m never going to. It�s what stimulates me�..
Asked about his family, Marty replied �I have two children and four grandchildren. My son married a Finn and lives in Helsinki, Finland, unfortunately. He just got his PHD in English literature from the University of Helsinki. One of my grandchildren, Gabriel, is nineteen and is graduating from high school June 5 and we�re going to be there. We�ve always gone to Finland before in the winter and the sun comes up about ten o�clock in the morning and gets up that high (indicating very small with his fingers) above the horizon and about two thirty in the afternoon, its gone. It�s a dark place, I�ll tell you. I have a daughter and two grandchildren in Los Angeles and two grandchildren in Finland. �.
One of the questions asked was if he planned on doing an autobiography and Mary answered �Yes, I�ve written about three or four chapters already and I have an outline of what I want to do. I�ve hired my daughter to do the typing because I�m going to write it long hand. It�s the way I like to work. It�s going to take me some time. And I have to figure out if I have to be nice to everybody at Disney. I don�t think so because there are a few people, I don�t want to be nice to, but not many. There are a lot of good people. The joy I had was that there was so much talent in Imagineering and I hired a lot of them. After awhile they were like my kids�.�
Questioned about his fondest memory of Walt, he replied �The first thing that comes to mind is the time he chewed me out about something, which was not unusual. Fondest? Well just the opportunity to write for him. The things I remember, Things!, you catch that word. If you ever watch a lot of the lead ins, like that one with John Hench, he would have a script but he wouldn�t pay any attention to it. He just wanted to convey an idea. One thing I discovered by watching a lot of those is that he would say something like this: Now the Pirates of the Caribbean are going to burn and sack the town, and then we�re going to do some really interesting things. And he would draw out that word. I said whenever I do something where he�s going to be on camera, I�m going to write that word and I did�But he would do it just like that. He�d say now we�re going to do this and do that and then we�re going to do some really wonderful things and leave you hanging. What the heck is he talking about, because he just told me something more exciting than anything I knew. You watch some of those lead ins, he would use that word and it would convey something that you had no idea about but it meant beyond anything any of us could even think of. �.�
When we were in New York in preparation for the World�s Fair, Walt said �you guys are working so hard, you�ve been here so long, how are your spouses enjoying New York? And nobody said a word. And he said Oh I got it. The next day we all got calls: when do you want your wife here? And that was the kind of person he was. He knew what we were going through and he knew that nobody else cared. But he did. He was tough, really tough when you didn�t get the idea and impatient but he loved the group at Imagineering. He spent more and more time with us. He was giving up the movies. He didn�t want to read the scripts. He had EPCOT AND Walt Disney World.�
When asked about his involvement with Ryman Arts, Marty said �Let me talk a little about Herbie (Ryman). He was very special��Walt called him one day and said Roy has to take the drawings for Disneyland to New York and show the bankers on Monday. This was on a Friday and Herbie said I�d love to see them. Walt said no, no, no, you don�t understand, you�re going to DO them. Herbie said I don�t know what to draw and Walt said I�ll tell you what to draw. He actually stood behind Herbie for the weekend. This was 1953 and told him what to draw. It was all in Walt�s head and this pencil drawing was the first overall drawing of Disneyland, over a weekend and there was only one person who could do this and that was Herb Ryman. He was that good�.He had a reputation of being slow but he was the fastest. He never got started on a project unless he understood who the characters were and what the story was. Once he understood that, then he would wail. He was amazing. When Herbie died, Harrison Buzz Price, who did the site study for Disneyland and Walt Disney World, and his wife Anne Price and Sharon Disney Lund, one of Walt�s daughters, and Herbie�s sister, Lucille Ryman Carroll and my wife, Leah, and I got together and said we have to do something in this man�s honor. We created a program, The Ryman Carroll Foundation, at the time, one class with twelve kids. This was twenty years ago and now Diane (Brigham) runs a program every Saturday at USC where they give us their fine arts class rooms. We have 150 kids from 80 high schools in southern California and we have to raise about $700,000 a year to run this program. Ruth Weisberg, the Dean of Fine Arts at USC, gives us the classrooms on Saturdays and is on our board. The program is competitive to get in. We wish we could handle the 200 kids we have to turn away every time we have one of the programs. The work that comes out of it is amazing. It was done because Herbie was frustrated by seeing what kids were doing. He said they don�t know how to draw. So we created a program making sure the kids have the foundation skills of knowing how to draw and knowing how to paint. The best part is that 98% of students in our program go on to college. And if you saw where some of them come from, inner city schools, you�d say wow this is really something�.� Marty said that they had done a video about their program and that there was Oscar Magalenas, who was the president of our alumni group, grew up in a barrio in Pomona and said that if it wasn�t for this program, he would probably be dead now. Now he runs his own business and has contracts with the City of Los Angeles.
Marty introduced Diane Brigham, Executive Director of Ryman Arts, who also said a few words about the program. The audience learned that there is a student from San Diego in the program along with ones from the Inland Empire as well as local communities, downtown Los Angeles, all over Southern California. One young woman minored in art but majored in neuro science and now is doing brain research in Boston. She said she was encouraged to do the best and �I learned about working hard in this program.� Ryman Arts goal is to double the numbers in their program.
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-- Posted May 19, 2010