Dispatch From Disneyland
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Dreams of Disneyland

It was the final stop on the last day of our family vacation to China. We were visiting this amazing valley of rock formations and the fog of early evening was beginning to seep in. 50-foot tall monoliths of rock jutted out from the valley floor, their bases obscured by swirling mist. Our intrepid tour guide was explaining the geological history of the site, something that seemed to interest only him, and was beginning to drone on and on. My interest waning I started wandering amongst the rock towers.

I quickly lost sight of the tour group, but kept the tour guide’s voice within range. That way I could find my way back if I had to. Off in the distance, if I strained a bit, I could hear something that sounded vaguely like bells, drums, and singing coming from the other direction.

My attention piqued, I aimed my wanderings toward the chimes. When I got there what I found was a group of 30 or so costumed performers. There was a small percussion group, the source of the bells and drums, but most of the gathering was dancing. The group wore historic native costumes dyed with bright reds and yellows. It appeared they used sheep skins for leg coverings and the sights of the fur flying seemed slightly comical. Thenhigh graceful steps with which they danced seemed vaguely familiar to me. The whole proceeding resembled something I’d seen the plains Indians perform.

The sun dipped low behind the valley hills as I watched the dancers finish their routine. I was so entranced with their performance I failed to notice the tour group had started to leave the valley. They were heading up a long long steel gray escalator to the rim of the valley and the guards wouldn’t let me on. They just laughed at me and said I was a Yi person now and I should get used to it.

And then I woke up.

Yes. I admit. I dream about Disneyland. If you haven’t figured it out that was my weird dreamy interpretation of the ‘Wonders of China’ CircleVision movie.

I had that dream again the other night and it made me wonder what sort of dreams Walt and his Imagineers had while they were inventing the theme park industry from scratch?

In the talks I’ve had with people who were involved with the creation of Disneyland, theories documented in various books about the time, everyone mentions that Walt was very into the details. He was on the site nearly everyday. The landscapers might be asked to move a tree a dozen times until it was as Walt saw it in his mind’s eye. He would work with each of the designers, such as Herb Ryman, to help them sketch out versions of vision. Where did this detail come from? Dreams?

•  •  •

“Have you ever awoken from a deep sleep and had a solution to a major problem come to you? Well that happened to me last night.” Walt stood over the model of a white sternwheeler. He fingered the display and looked around the room. He made eye contact with the model’s designer.

“George. I want to make this model more realistic.” Walt gestured at the smokestacks. “These puppies need to smoke. The water needs to churn behind the wheel. When you look at the model you need to want to go on the real thing. It’s not an architectural model. It’s fun. It needs to look fun. To say ‘Hey this is fun’.”

•  •  •

How early in his life was Walt dreaming up attractions for his future park. Did he often wonder what it would be like to own his own train ride? A riverboat excursion company with which he could have huge parties where friends and family could relive the stories of Mark Twain? His own private box in a western saloon?

Somehow these dreams, which sprang from the mind and life of one man, coalesced to form the fantastical wonderland we call Disneyland. Some say it was Walt’s life ambition; however I think the secret is that everything Walt did he treated like it was his life’s ambition. And if something didn’t contribute toward reaching his goal he found a way to delegate, discard, or detour around it.

The 100th Anniversary of Walt’s birth is less than one month away. For those of us who enjoy the fruits of Walt’s genius, perhaps now is a good time for us to take inventory of our own dreams and ambitions. What are they? Given hard work and sacrifices are they within the realm of possibility? Have we been doing our best to follow them to their conclusion?

For the last few months one of the cable movie channels has been running The Legend of Bagger Vance over and over again. I catch snippets here and there and can’t help but watch it through to its conclusion. It’s a DreamWorks project, but you should see it anyway. (Just kidding, I like most of what DreamWorks is doing. They seem to be led by people who are, for the most part, following in the spirit of Walt. But that’s a subject for another column.) In it, Captain Junah (Matt Damon) struggles to find his ‘one true swing’ and return to championship caliber golf.

Of course, finding your ‘one true swing’ is a metaphor for discovering what you love to do best and then working to do your best at it. There may be many things you love to do and each of them will have its own perfect stroke. Find that and the rest will come to you. The genius of Walt was that his dreams, ambitions, and his one true swing aligned, allowing him, with hard work and sacrifice, to meet and surpass his goals. There may never be another Walt Disney, but each of us has the opportunity and the ability to realize our dreams. What better tribute to the man we admire than if we all worked on realizing our dreams and ambitions and find our own one true swing.

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-- Indigo

-- Posted November 7, 2001