3 ms·

he was the "idea" man and the quality control czar Not to mention the taskmaster. Disneyland was built in a year from groundbreaking to opening day. There is

by froo 18y ago

he was the "idea" man and the quality control czar Not to mention the taskmaster. Disneyland was built in a year from groundbreaking to opening day. There is a quote I've read (which I'm essentially paraphrasing now because I can't find the exact quote) where a journalist asked Walt how they managed to construct Disneyland in 365 days. Walt simply replied "We worked all of them"

replicatorblog 18y ago
I'm just reading a book now called "Realityland" which is the story of how Disney World and Epcot were built after Walt's death. Kind of sad to see how far from the original vision Epcot is. Walt had some pretty interesting ideas on urban planning that prefigured modern schools of architecture like "New Urbanism" http://www.newurbanism.org/ http://www.newurbanism.org/ If you are a Disney fan, Realityland is well worth a look.
- froo 18y ago
  I am definitely an early Disney film fan (from an animation perspective). Another book you might read is actually written by two of Disney's "Nine Old Men" called "The Illusion of Life" (Pixar actually did an homage to them in The Incredibles) and it talks about not only the specific techniques that they created, but also the attitude of the studio in the early days. It's actually interesting to read the history on something like Apple and also Disney and see the many similarities between the two companies in their early days. Early Disney was definitely a startup that had a lot of the hacker values. Walt was definitely on another plane of thinking. My favourite quote of his is: “I can never stand still. I must explore and experiment. I am never satisfied with my work. I resent the limitations of my own imagination” - Walt Disney
  - replicatorblog 18y ago
    Very cool, is the homage your referring to when there are the two old men talking and say something like "Thats the way you do it, old school" and the other says "No school like the old school." I always wondered why they were in that scene, but that would explain it.
    - froo 18y ago
      Yep that's exactly who they are. Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnson. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney%27s_Nine_Old_Men http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney%27s_Nine_Old_Men In fact, to tie it all together with the original topic, Ollie Johnson's lifelong hobby was building steam trains. He was one of the main influences for Walt Disney wanting to build his own trains.

by froo 18y ago

replicatorblog 18y ago

I'm just reading a book now called "Realityland" which is the story of how Disney World and Epcot were built after Walt's death. Kind of sad to see how far from the original vision Epcot is. Walt had some pretty interesting ideas on urban planning that prefigured modern schools of architecture like "New Urbanism" http://www.newurbanism.org/ http://www.newurbanism.org/ If you are a Disney fan, Realityland is well worth a look.

froo 18y ago
I am definitely an early Disney film fan (from an animation perspective). Another book you might read is actually written by two of Disney's "Nine Old Men" called "The Illusion of Life" (Pixar actually did an homage to them in The Incredibles) and it talks about not only the specific techniques that they created, but also the attitude of the studio in the early days. It's actually interesting to read the history on something like Apple and also Disney and see the many similarities between the two companies in their early days. Early Disney was definitely a startup that had a lot of the hacker values. Walt was definitely on another plane of thinking. My favourite quote of his is: “I can never stand still. I must explore and experiment. I am never satisfied with my work. I resent the limitations of my own imagination” - Walt Disney
- replicatorblog 18y ago
  Very cool, is the homage your referring to when there are the two old men talking and say something like "Thats the way you do it, old school" and the other says "No school like the old school." I always wondered why they were in that scene, but that would explain it.
  - froo 18y ago
    Yep that's exactly who they are. Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnson. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney%27s_Nine_Old_Men http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney%27s_Nine_Old_Men In fact, to tie it all together with the original topic, Ollie Johnson's lifelong hobby was building steam trains. He was one of the main influences for Walt Disney wanting to build his own trains.