Welcome to "Walt Stories" - a small collection of the most interesting recounts of the great man from those he met.
By Roy Williams, an animator:
"I was the fifteenth guy ever hired. I went to this little one-room building and a secretary said, "Walt will see you in a few minutes and you may go into his office" - which was nothing but a pile of junk in those days. I went in and waited. A traffic boy - just my age at the time - came in and shuffled some papers around and I got to talking to him about the weather and how I wanted to work for Walt Disney. We had a nice ten-minute conversation, then I said, 'Maybe Mr. Disney is busy. I'd better come back another day.'
The young man said, 'I'm Walt Disney.' I had some drawings in my hand because I respected him so much based on what I had seen in his pictures, I just dropped them all on his desk and blushed. He picked them up and held them over his face to keep me from seeing his smile. It was that closeness - in those few minutes when I thought he was a traffic boy - that made me and him become friends."
Next up: Walt Disney's gag of putting an Audio-Animatronics Figure in an airplane.
By Roy Williams, an animator:
"I was the fifteenth guy ever hired. I went to this little one-room building and a secretary said, "Walt will see you in a few minutes and you may go into his office" - which was nothing but a pile of junk in those days. I went in and waited. A traffic boy - just my age at the time - came in and shuffled some papers around and I got to talking to him about the weather and how I wanted to work for Walt Disney. We had a nice ten-minute conversation, then I said, 'Maybe Mr. Disney is busy. I'd better come back another day.'
The young man said, 'I'm Walt Disney.' I had some drawings in my hand because I respected him so much based on what I had seen in his pictures, I just dropped them all on his desk and blushed. He picked them up and held them over his face to keep me from seeing his smile. It was that closeness - in those few minutes when I thought he was a traffic boy - that made me and him become friends."
Next up: Walt Disney's gag of putting an Audio-Animatronics Figure in an airplane.