Designer Times by Bob Gurr
Page 2 of 2
Look what (50) years has done to Disney. Known in
1954 as Walt Disney Productions, a movie studio located in Burbank California,
the company had maybe a handful of operating departments. The Studio, Character
Merchandising, Buena Vista Film Distribution, and a new outfit....Disneyland.
Walt had his own WED Enterprises, which sold small parts for home model railroad
buffs to build their own Lily Belle locomotives
Look at The Walt Disney Company today (TWDC). Probably (50) times larger in
revenue, dozens of business divisions located all over the World. A vast empire
encompassing Movies, Animation, TV, Theme Parks, Publishing, Sports, Internet,
Consumer Products, Collectibles, Music, VHS and DVD....on and on.
It's really not fair to compare Disney of yesterday and today.....Times change.
These companies need all the modern business tools they can use.
What we can compare are the characteristics of the Disney leaders then and now.
Walt led a fairly small stabile group of creators and executives...almost a
family-like situation where everyone went by their first names and talked freely
and easily amongst themselves. Sure, the decorum stiffened up a bit when Walt
walked in your door, but the daily work interfaces went pretty smoothly I
thought.
For a detailed look at how things have operated over the past twenty years, read
Disney War by James B. Stewart. TWDC has thousands of diverse employees in so
many different trades. Like all massive organizations, it's almost impossible
for one guy to know everything about every business division. So big outfits
have big top layers creating a big gap from the top leader down to the folks
doing the actual daily work.
In Walt's day, there was virtually no gap. Walt would talk to anyone at any
level. Walt would be the first to know when something was not going as he liked.
What impressed me so strongly was how Walt and a handful of guys directed all
the Disneyland work with almost no administrative layers These guys would be in
charge of their own areas and their folks would talk to anyone in the other
areas without going thru anyone in charge.
Dick Irvine ran the architectural and set designers who were making construction
drawings for the Disneyland buildings, Roger Broggie ran the machine shop which
was gathering up all the Disneyland ride stuff, Joe Fowler was in charge of all
Disneyland construction contracts. Emil Kuri and Frank Millington handled all
the artistic decorations and soft goods like drapery. George Bowers ran the mill
at the Studio which was fabricating much of the Disneyland architectural
detailing back at the studio including the Mark Twain superstructure.
These guys along with Walt all trusted one another. When Walt would propose some
new idea that was not practical, one of them would tell him so on the spot. Idea
dropped....try something else. Walt virtually never ordered something dumb and
forced a guy to do it, unlike situations in recent years.
This gang seemed to run very smoothly and informally with ongoing decisions
being made daily on the spot. I never was aware of any formalized orders or
committee reports beyond the basic memos adding some details to the ongoing
tasks.
Walt would want something, say to do with Disneyland ride mechanical stuff.
He'd ask Roger Broggie to get me started right away...no paper orders, just
"Bob, get started, go talk to whoever you need information from". Walt would
then come around every few days to see my progress. He did this with everyone
from what I could tell.
Everybody pretty much did whatever tasks needed doing without respect to
specific divisions. We all jumped in to help. I found it totally natural to
source out some parts, do the purchasing detail, even go get the parts in my own
car. Sometimes I'd pick up things on my way to Disneyland that typically should
have gone thru the Studio Transportation Department. One day I'd be sketching
parts on the shop floor, doing some of the fabrication myself. I'd be the test
driver on a new ride, even get costumed up to be the ride operator on opening
day. I got the task to train the first ride operators on the Viewliner and
Monorail. Wherever you'd go, you'd find everyone pitching in. And Walt would be
right there in the middle of it all.
Then when a new attraction would open and Walt could tell the press all about
it, you'd then see that twinkle in his eye. Walt was tickled pink.
oOo
Next Month: Projects from Never
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-- Bob Gurr
Bob Gurr began working with Disney in 1954. He retired in 1981 but occasionally consults for the Company. Since Disney he's worked on the sinking ship at Las Vegas' Treasure Island, Universal Studios' King Kong, Godzilla for the film by the same name and much more. Among his proudest accomplishments he lists "making Walt tickled pink that some of the things he wanted to build actually worked. You could tell how proud he was when he would show off things to his friends and the press. Lincoln and the Monorail were two big ones for him."
Designer Times is normally posted the second Wednesday of each month.
The opinions expressed by Bob Gurr, and all of our columnists, do not necessarily represent the feelings of LaughingPlace.com or any of its employees or advertisers. All speculation and rumors about the future of Disneyland and the Walt Disney Company are just that - speculation and rumors - and should be treated as such.
-- Posted June 8, 2005
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