Bob, Gibsonia, Pennsylvania
A: Walt loved England, perhaps because his early ancestors came from there, but it is also true that many of the beloved stories and folktales that he wanted to depict on the screen were set in England.
Stephanie, Middletown, Ohio
A: Several years ago, Roy E. Disney gave me an article by Stanislaus Lynch, the man who obtained the pony for Walt in Ireland. He was a two-year-old silver gray colt, whose sire was Cill Ciarain and dam Knockranny Beauty. The colt was presented in the Round Room of the Lord Mayor of Dublin’s Mansion House in Dublin. According to Lynch’s November 1959 article, the colt was, by that time, at Disneyland. I found no further information.
Jeff, Loma Linda, California
A: We really do not have any information on this famous photograph, other than the fact that it was taken in the mid-1930s to be used as a publicity photo.
Griffin, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina
A: There were in fact a number of significant things—some of the more important were sending his artists back to school to learn how to draw better, emphasizing realism in animation especially when it came to animal action in Bambi and later films, pioneering the use of Technicolor in animation, bringing personality to his characters, emphasizing story development, and helping create the multiplane camera and the Xerox process for transferring drawings to cels.
Norway, Manteca, California
A: I am always most pleased seeing on display the items that I found for the Archives’ collection, such as the handwritten letter from Ronald Reagan suggesting that a postage stamp be issued to honor Walt Disney. When I inventoried Walt’s offices at the Disney Studio, the one item that impressed me the most was the original script for Steamboat Willie, which he had stashed in his desk drawer.
Avi, Irvine, California
A: Yes, Walt was a perfectionist, and that did indeed make him difficult for some artists to work with. (I always laugh at a statement Walt himself made regarding Fantasia:“I always thought I was the perfectionist until I met Stokowski.”) The impression I get is that you needed to know how to work with Walt. For example, he didn’t like to be reminded of things he was supposed to have said before. He didn’t like being told that something he wanted could not be done. And he didn’t like to be told how much something would cost.
Larry, Tampa, Florida
A: Yes, I met him briefly when visiting Disneyland as a teenager in 1956. Of course, neither he nor I realized then that a decade and a half later I would be sitting in his office preparing an inventory of everything there.
Allan, Brunswick, Georgia
A: They both obviously made an enormous impact on the whole field of entertainment, not only in the U.S. but around the world. They moved “family entertainment” to an entirely new level by creating wholesome and endearing films that appealed to both children and adults.
Mitchell, Hudson, New Hampshire
A: Since Walt Disney was intimately involved with everything that was created at Disneyland, that would have included all the attractions that were built there during his lifetime (1955-1966). In addition, Walt was involved in the planning stages for later attractions such as Haunted Mansion, Country Bear Jamboree, Hall of Presidents, and Pirates of the Caribbean.
Krystina, Avondale, Arizona
A: He never said this quote. If you check my book, Disney Trivia from the Vault, you can find the true story: “Despite its frequent publication, that is not a Walt Disney quote. We checked with Imagineer Tom Fitzgerald for the definitive answer: ‘I am very familiar with that line because I wrote it! It was written specifically for the Horizons attraction at Epcot and used in numerous ways, from dialogue in the ride to graphics. I find it amusing that the Science of Imagineering DVD series attributes it to Walt Disney, but I guess I should be flattered.'”