Thoughts on Walt
Page 4 of 26
Bob Gurr on Walt Disney
December 6, 2001
After December 1966, It seemed such a lonely life that Walt was not popping in to my office, or walking thru the shop to see what I was doing. |
Bob Gurr joined the Walt Disney Company in 1954 doing drawings for the Autopia and the Main Street Vehicles. Since that time he's gone on to play a part in the design of "just about anything with wheels." He walso was instrumental in the development of the Mr. Lincoln Audio-Animatronic figure. Click here for our September 1999 interview with Bob Gurr or click here for his monthly LaughingPlace.com column on early Disneyland with lots of Walt memories.
LaughingPlace.com: Can you describe your first encounter with Walt?
Bob Gurr: The first Saturday morning in October 1954 that I was at The Walt Disney Productions Studio in Burbank to deliver some more Disneyland Autopia Car sketches, some guys had gathered around the bare test car chassis. As is typical with car chatting, the fellas had rested their feet on the tires. One tire was still available. This unshaven guy with a Roy Rogers gun belt filled with little silver painted bullets walks up, plants a foot on the tire, and joins the conversation. A few minutes later the conversation ends and he walks away. The other guys called him "Walt". Oh my gosh, that's Walt Disney. I saw him every Saturday (I sill had a day job), he called me Bobby, we never were ever introduced....just found myself part of the gang.
LP: What set Walt apart from so many other successful entertainers?
Gurr: Walt always had his eye on what folks would like. I never heard any discussions of revenue, just design talk about how a new idea was going to give families something to like.
LP: Share one of your favorite personal memories of Walt.
Gurr: During an Epcot sales trip in January 1966, Walt took a dozen of us on the company plane to visit a number of companies. After a lunch presentation at the Westinghouse R&D Center in Pittsburgh, he, General Joe Potter (WDW construction head), and I went into the drug store at the hotel to get a "real" lunch. He wanted a cheeseburger on top of the fancy lobster Westinghouse had given us. Walt noticed the Disney products were on a bottom shelf. "C'mon boys, help me fix this". We moved all the Disney products to the top shelf, displacing the other products to the bottom. An indignant sales lady appeared....CAN I HELP YOU? "Nope, were all done". No one ever noticed Walt Disney in a Pittsburgh hotel drug store on a Tuesday afternoon tending to business.
LP: What do you personally miss the most about Walt?
Gurr: After December 1966, It seemed such a lonely life that Walt was not popping in to my office, or walking thru the shop to see what I was doing. He was never "Boss", but "Curious Uncle" really interested in how you were getting his ideas into being.
LP: What is Walt's greatest gift to the World?
Gurr: It seemed like everything Walt led his folks to create always brought out some emotion in everyone. It could be a giggle with Minnie, a scare with the Witch, a chuckle with Donald, a serene pleasure in listening to "long hair" music put to visual delights in Fantasia, or a tearful heart tug with Bambi. Everyone on the planet has an internal emotion put there by Walt Disney.
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