There is no doubt about it; it was Walt Disney’s Studio, and it has been said that he did everything at the Studio. And here at the Disney History Institute, we offer proof! You see, he even helped out with the landscaping and upkeep!
The first time I saw this picture, I had a good laugh. I think more than anything, it illustrates Walt’s curiosity. I believe he wanted to “ride” the lawn mower. I remember when I was working on an article about Mineral King for the Walt Disney Family Foundation, and I interviewed a ski lift operator from the Squaw Valley Olympics. This fellow told me of how one day Walt questioned him for hours on how the ski lift operated, what were the problems, how could it be improved, and so forth. Walt had a deep sense of curiosity and that feeling of “just wanting to know!” I find this image to be a great example of this aspect of Walt.
Your thoughts?
Thanks for publishing this, Paul, this photo has always been one of my favorites. Your readers might be interested to know that one of the most fascinating aspects of this photo is that Walt was actually clean-shaven when the photo was taken, and if you look closely, you can see the mustache was drawn in. I posted briefly about this at my blog in case anyone would like to read it:
http://jimattulgeywood.blogspot.com/2011/01/walt-meets-mustache.html#links
Hi Jim (check out his blog, wonderful). Fanning and I go “way back” (early 1990s). I did not know this about this picture. However, when I was scanning it in, I thought, wow Walt’s mustache looks odd (to me it looked like Salvador Dali’s mustache). And it did have the appearance of being drawn in. Funny, when I read your post (before checking your blog entry), the first thing I thought of was the incident with Ken Anderson and the lighter (his FAVORITE story — I’ll transcribe it from our Oral History and post it in the near future). The time period is right (around 1942 or 1943, according to Ken), as Walt has that era look to him. Thanks for posting (and folks, read his blog). Paul