It
would be appropriate to say that the creator of Disneyland was one of the most
dreamy characters that history has ever recorded. Without the fertile
imagination that so gripped this gangly man with this country-boy figure lost
in deep thought, We would, today, perhaps still be foreigners to this concept
of a sprawling amusement park that attracts millions of tourists from all over
the world. The Disneyland at Orlando in the United States is the fruit of this
creative genius’ persistent effort to realise an idea once it gripped his
imagination. The very concept of an amusement park was thought of as
presposterous and a definite failure by all those who heard about it. But it
was solety by conviction and hard work that Walt Disney earned a place in the
hearts of people across the globe.
One
of the earliest recollections that Walt’s brother, Roy, has of him is his
fascination for animals and his love for drawing. Walt grew up on a mid western
prairie farm in a small town of Marceline. Amidst the romantic setting of the
apple orchards and the weeping willows, Walt sketched his first impressions.
The first nickel that Walt ever earned was for a sketch he had made of a
neighbour’s horse. His fascination for animals never ebbed and with an extra
fillip of his imagination he immortalized them into characters we come across
everyday, be it on TV or comic strips or a full length cartoon movie. Walt’s
Mickey Mouse is now a household name that children of all races and
nationalities enduringly associate with.
Walt
began his career by launching a cartoon series called ‘Alice in Cartoonland’. He
was 21 and the project was finances on a loan of $500 that he borrowed from his
uncle. Both Walt and his brother were in this together, Roy at the camera and
Walt doing the animations. They worked hard. The series flopped. But undetered,
Walt started a new series called ‘Oswald The Rabbit’. Oswald did better but
Walt was once again duped by the distributor, who, having bought the
copyrights, took charge of the series himself. Not disheartened at all, Walt
made a significant decision that was to affect the future course of things. He
decided to go into business on his own. With characteristic enthusiasm he said
to Roy, “We are going to start a new series. It’s about a mouse and we’ll own
the mouse.” ‘Mickey Mouse’ was born that year. Mickey was Walt’s first success.
His matchless imagination and his uncanny ability to turn the ordinary into
something wonderful was applauded by the audience. But it was only with ‘Snow
White’ that there was a definite windfall for Walt. Walt made several million
dollars on this one.
One
would expect that money rolled in after this stupendous hit. But this was far
from truth. Walt invested nearly all that he earned into building a studio and
doing more cartoon features. Walt never spared any expense on improving his
pictures. His bankers, bookkeepers and lawyers often tried to put brakes on his
unbridled imagination. Once an idea possessed him, he went headlong into
realizing it, no matter what the cost. His brother, on seeing him triggered
with that special verve, would often say. “When I see you happy, that’s when I
get nervous.” But it was this desire to see perfection in everything that makes
Walt Disney the unmatched creative genius of our times.
All
through world War II and the Depression of the Thirties, it was the
extraordinary partnership of hard work and invincible faith that kept Walt
afloat. During the depression when the studio was on the verge of closing down,
Walt gave his staff a raise! It was thought to be a crazy idea. But, it gave
morale a big boost. Walt involved himself in everything. He had an exacting eye
for details. Rarely anything escaped him. During one story conference on the
Mickey Mouse Club TV Show, the story man, pointer in hand was outlining a
sequence called ‘How to Ride a bicycle’. “Now when you get on your bicycle
………………..”, he began. Walt at once said, “Change your bicycle’ to ‘a bicycle’.
Remember every kid is not fortunate enough to have a bike of his own.” He was a
perfectionist. Thought he demanded perfection from his crew, never could he
fire anyone. If someone did not suit a job, he almost always tried to find
another job for him in his own concern. WED (for Walt E. Disney) Enterprises at
Glendale was his favourite place to absorb people who could not fit into other
departments. This place eventually was to become the illustrious Disneyland
that the world throngs to see today.
Walt
Disney’s success can be credited to four things. Hard work, a panache for
details, extraordinary imagination and some luck. At the studio, he worked the
hardest. Nothing ever escaped his perceptive eye. Very often on retrieving some
discarded work of an animator from the waste basket, Walt would invariably
write a note for the animators saying “Let’s not throw away the good stuff.” In
the jugglery of creative work, Walt Disney knew what “good stuff” meant. With
an extra gag or a new angle, the whole thing would suddenly come alive. His
ability to give a graphic description of a story was so overwhelming that his
nephew preferred a story telling session with Walt, rather than see the actual
picture. On seeing ‘Pinocchio’, the new animated Walt Disney production that
won acclaims all over, was in fact a disappointment for his nephew. He is known
to have said, ‘”It didn’t seem as exciting as when Uncle Walt told it”. So it
can be safely said that the only rival his productions ever faced was Walt
Disney himself!
The
amazing success of Disneyland did not in the least change this man’s simple way
of life. He hated parties and his idea of a good evening was a hamburger and
chili at a little restaurant. The only extravagance was a little miniature
railroad that ran on the grounds of his house. His passion for railroads can be
traced back to his boyhood days at Marceline, when his Uncle Mike, an engineer
would sound two long and short whistle to wake up these boys so that they could
take a closer look at the locomotives. Walt never lost his love of trains.
Years later, one of the first attractions at Disneyland was an old-fashioned
train.
Work
was his passion and he pursued it faithfully. The money earned was ploughed
right back from where it came. A friend once asked, “What do you do with all
your money?”. “I fertilise that field”, was walt’s reply, pointing towards his
studio. This financial stability gave him an opportunity to develop other
fantastic ideas. Millions of dollars were poured into making an alpine-like
valley, high in the Sierra Mountains, called Mineral King. He donated land and
money to the California Institute of Arts which was worth millions and he
stared the Disney World and the city of Tomorrow in Florida.
Walt
Disney’s enthusiasm would have gone on endlessly had it not been for the fatal
illness that suddenly seized him in the midst of this hectic activity. But his
enthusiasm did not leave him even in his last hours. His brother, Roy, records
that the night before he died, Walt was full of plans for the future. This
infectious celebration of life, which was so characteristic of Walt Disney is
what Disneyland is all about. Through his creations, the future generations
will continue to celebrate what he once described as “that precious, ageless
something in every human being which makes us play with children’s toys and
laugh at silly things and sing in the bathtub and dream.” And to children, all
over the world, he will always be the one that actually brought fairyland into
their lives!
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