Bob Gurr's Designer Times: Working with Walt
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The February 8, 2006 Issue No. 70 of Designer Times hinted that from time to time, maybe there would be an occasional encore Designer Times for you to enjoy. Here is one such additional tale:
71. Working With Walt
Neal Gabler's latest book Walt
Disney - The Triumph of The American Imagination certainly reveals so much
more about Walt Disney than any prior writings anywhere. In reading this
superbly comprehensive work, I became fascinated and somewhat startled at the
descriptions of the working relationships Walt had with so many of his
employees, especially his animators. Neal relates tales of almost terror as some
animators felt they were unduly harassed by Walt in his relentless pursuit of
perfection. My experiences were nothing like what these animators went through.
Why this difference?
Sometime in 1958 as I was designing the Charging Hippo animation for the Jungle
Cruise, Art Director Vic Greene said a strange thing to me. "Bob, its just not
fair, Walt never picks on you." This puzzled me at the time because Walt had
been very friendly to me ever since I met him in October 1954 when I was hired
to design the body for the new Disneyland Autopia Car.
In the years after Vic had told me that, I became more aware of Walt's actions
with others, watching out for the picking on that Vic complained about. Sure
enough, some of the guys did get a snip or snarl from time to time, certainly a
lot worse than the infamous single raised eyebrow. Then it dawned on me. When a
guy was in the same exact business as Walt, a clash could occur. But Walt was
not in the auto design business, and I was not in the cartoon and movie
business. No conflict!
The next thing I became aware of was EGO. I had sort of noticed that everything
was Walt Disney This, and Walt Disney That. No matter what anyone created at
Walt Disney Productions and WED Enterprises, it was always a Walt Disney
Creation. I guess I was having too much fun and satisfaction designing one thing
after another that I never got around to trying to get some authorship
publicity. The fact that the stuff worked and Disneyland guests were enjoying it
was pay enough for me.
But Neal Gabler's book taught me that those amazing animator guys did indeed
have big egos. Walt's ego was way bigger, so the clashes were inevitable. Neal
also indicates that a lot of the guys just never backed off to become happy with
just being a Number Two. Walt was Number One at animation, film, and Disneyland,
while I was Number One at vehicle design. We were in two different trades. I
couldn't have an opposing opinion on Mickey Mouse, and Walt couldn't quibble
about Autopias and Monorails. I got away with all this without getting picked
on.
My boss, Roger Broggie, told me once just how this Walt-Clashing would go. Seems
an employee had built a model conestoga wagon and was trying to show his skill
off to Walt in a business meeting, but with little result. The poor soul asked
Walt "Don't I get an E for effort?" Walt snapped back "I'll give you S for
****."
Interestingly, I never saw Walt and Roger ever have cross words. I can
understand now that Roger in his always understated way absolutely worshipped
Walt. And I think Walt totally trusted Roger in every situation. Two guys with
big egos, one that dominated, and one that operated very wisely indeed all the
years I saw them together. Look at the lovely live steam model locomotive Lily
Belle and the backyard train that those two fellows jointly built. This was a
no-friction work relationship that Disneyphiles should know about.
I only suffered one upset with Walt, and it was not about ego. After a fatal
accident at a nearby amusement park on a RotoJet Ride similar to the one at
Disneyland, Construction VP Admiral Joe Fowler had Roger instruct me to design a
safety cage for our ride, called the AstroJet. The cage was pretty ugly and we
built an operating prototype of my design. The thing was sort of hidden by a
staircase leading to Rogers upstairs office in the Studio Machine Shop.
A day or so later I was in the administration parking lot down at Disneyland
when I saw Walt headed straight for me with the eyebrows arched in rage mode. "I
just saw that GD thing in your shop...that GD thing is not going in MY GD PARK.
Understand? This is my GD Park and I'm the only one who says what goes in it."
He emphasized this with a painful jab to my chest with that famous boney finger.
He didn't want to hear that it was Joe and Roger who put me up to it.
There was only one other incident where we were in a meeting to do with queue
line design. I was arguing a point, knowing I had my facts and logic totally
solid. Walt disagreed. "OK Bobby, you can be right...(long pause)...for now."
That was close... But he left a constructive way out for both of us in front of
the others.
Walt had a habit of giving little warning signs before the big hit. Sort of like
when you persist in petting a cat that does not want to be petted. The tail
starts to curl slightly then switches briskly. If you don't stop, the next thing
you get is a swift clawing which might draw blood. Walt's warning sequence
started out as the eyebrow raise, escalating to a finger tap on the table, then
a rapid tapping of a pen.
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