Q: An old friend of mine was working at the house of Esther Forbes, the author of the book Johnny Tremain, in Worcester, Massachusetts, in the ’50s. He claims that while he was there working on the house, a car stopped in front and out came Walt Disney. Walt stopped and talked to him for a while before entering her house. I assume he was there to talk about some sort of rights to the book to be made into the movie. Can you tell me any details about his visit to Worcester and did it coincide with his visit with Norman Rockwell’s studio in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
Jim, Auburn, Massachusetts
A: The book, Johnny Tremain, was published in 1943; it is possible that Walt Disney visited Esther Forbes when he was looking to purchase the movie rights, but we do not have details that he did. The movie was released in 1957, and Walt reportedly sent a limousine so Forbes could attend the opening in Boston. We have no record of Walt Disney ever visiting Rockwell in Massachusetts, though he did stop to see him at his earlier studio in Arlington, Vermont, while on a driving trip through New England during World War II.
Dave Smith