COMPASSIONATE WALT
A MEMORY BY JIMMY MACDONALD
I was going through some of my interviews from the 1980s today, looking for cassette tapes that might be suffering from tape deterioration. I am attempting to digitize my 250 plus interviews before they are lost forever, and obviously starting with the earliest material (my two interviews from the 1970s having been already done). It is easy when listening to these, to get lost in the moment and be reminded of those glorious days when I was conducting interviews and oral histories.
It was a tape from 1988 with Jimmy MacDonald that most caught my interest this afternoon; and in particular, one very observant memory about Walt Disney. Walt’s attention to detail is mentioned in every book on him, so much so it has become a bit of a cliche. Just exactly what are these details? Well, this afternoon Jimmy reminded me of one that I had completely forgotten. Moreover, it is a great example of Walt’s compassion for children and their lives.
I’ll let Disney Legend Jimmy MacDonald tell the story:
“Walt was a great man … Walt had the greatest native intuitiveness of anyone, he could go into a sweatbox and spend an hour with us on something we spent many, many months on, and he would tear it all apart, and the first thing you know, it was a better show than anybody thought it could be. He had a great understanding for the youngsters. Once … they had all the storyboards around and dialogue written underneath so Walt could see it and give it the go ahead. The storyboard director was out there with his little baton and said, ‘At this point narrator will say, “When all the kids get a new bike …”‘. And Walt jumped up, and said, ‘No! We won’t get close to that. We’ll just say when the kids get a bike, because there will be too many kids in this world that will never get a bike.”
For more information on Jimmy go to: Jimmy MacDonald.
I am curious about your insertion of the words “in a sweatbox” in the Macdonald quote. Most Disney storyboards measured 4 by 8 feet and were displayed in a story room (or music room in the 1930s), not in a projection room (or “sweatbox” in the 1930s).
The story that Macdonald recounts about the bicycle occurred during the production of “The Mickey Mouse Club.” In fact, this story conference was for the first film in the “I’m No Fool” series starring Jiminy Cricket. “I’m No Fool with a Bicycle” was first telecast on the fourth episode of “The Mickey Mouse Club” on October 6, 1955.
I am interested in hearing more excerpts from your interviews, so please keep them coming!
(By the way, the “D” in Jim Macdonald’s name should not be capitalized.)
The comment regarding the sweatbox came from Jimmy. He mentioned it at first, then started to tell a different story, then finished on the original thought regarding the bicycle. I inserted it using the brackets and “…” for editorial understanding. You are correct, the sweatboxes I know of would not allow for the standard size storyboards. My mistake, sorry. I removed it, so as to keep the original concept of the story, and keep it historically accurate. Moreover, thanks for the note on Macdonald’s last name. I did not know that. And in fact, I took the Jimmy image from the Disney official Disney Legends page, where in their title they capitalized the “D”). (I am actually in California now to do research at the Walt Disney Archives, and will let them know as well.) And yes, by all means, I hope to keep the excerpts from my interviews coming. Thanks you again for your contribution.
Thank you for your response. By the way, the text for the Disney Legends article on Jimmy Macdonald spells his name right, so it is only the heading that capitalizes the “D.”
I hope you have a productive visit to the Walt Disney Archives. I received a letter from Dave Smith in 1975 in response to my inquiries regarding the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair, and he actually invited me to come to the Archives to look at his collections on the Disney exhibits, but I never took him up on the offer.