Kansas City Bucket List

 Mindy Hargesheimer (00:00:00): 

Hey, guys. Welcome back to the podcast. I'm really excited because I'm bringing to the podcast today,  Dan Viets, who is a Walt Disney historian, and he is the president of Thank You, Walt Disney, which is a  nonprofit here in Kansas City, working to restore the legacy of Walt Disney and his association with  Kansas City and Marline, Missouri. Uh, if you don't know the background of Walt Disney and how he  grew up in and around this area, this is a really fun one that you're gonna learn a lot about the origins of,  um, the brand that he built, and we do a deep dive into his childhood and how he made his way to  Hollywood and all the little Easter eggs of Kansas City and Missouri, and how they make their way into  the Disney brand and the parks as well. Um, so tune in for this one. It's gonna be a lot of detail, and I'm  really excited for you guys to see the incredible association that Disney has with our great city. 

(00:01:03): 

Well, Dan, thank you so much for joining me virtually from, uh, Columbia. This was really exciting. I  have to say that, um, I did not know before I moved to Kansas City 10 years ago that there was a  relationship of Disney to Missouri, much less Kansas City. So when I was thinking about starting my  podcast and the different subject matter that I wanted to bring on, um, I, I, uh, actually, I had somebody  on not too long ago that, um, overseas, like all the murals that are added to the crossroads in Kansas City,  and there's this huge Mickey Mouse one that I've always loved that's on the side of a building called  Parlor. You may may have seen it, right, and I knew when I was thinking about who I wanted to invite on  the podcast, I had to get somebody on who could talk about the history of Walt Disney. 

(00:01:49): 

And, um, I actually ended up getting connected to you, which is so exciting. Um, via LinkedIn, I actually  reached out to Brian Price, who's vice president. Uh, I believe of Thank you, Walt Disney, which is what  we're gonna talk about. He connected me to you, and he said he, by far is the most knowledgeable person  in the region, if not anywhere, in regards to all things Walt Disney and the history of it, and especially  

getting into this kind of regional aspect that maybe, you know, some people have a familiarity with it  here, but a lot of people probably don't. So, I'm really excited and honored to have you on to come share a  ton of really cool details about, um, Walt Disney, uh, as it pertains to our region. So, welcome. 

Dan Viets (00:02:32): 

Good. Thank you, Mindy. I'm very happy to be here, and Brian's very kind, but I do, and I have spent a  great deal of time, uh, studying Walt's life, and especially as many, many connections to the state of  Missouri and to Chicago like yourself. Walt came from Chicago. He was born there December 5th, 1901,  but when he was four years old, his family moved to Marline, Missouri. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. So, 

Mindy Hargesheimer (00:02:54): 

Yeah, that's, he talked 

Dan Viets (00:02:55): 

About Marline years and the Kansas City years. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (00:02:58): 

I know. I feel like it's almost fate that he has a Chicago connection too, right? You were telling me about  that when we were prepping for this episode, so I was like, well, that's even better. Um, okay. So why  don't you tell us who you are. Um, for those that are watching, we can see that you are in your office, so  you're an attorney by trade. Um, but tell us about who you are and what you're doing with Thank you,  Walt Disney.

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Dan Viets (00:03:18): 

Well, I'm a lawyer by trade, and I, uh, have, uh, uh, everyone has, I think, a lifelong interest in Walt  Disney. If you grew up in the United States, you grew up with Walt Disney. But, um, it was back in about  1993 or so that, that my, uh, interest in Disney developed into a real obsession. And I started making trips  to Marceline. I started going to Kansas City, specifically to research Walt Disney history in, in both  places, um, and, uh, learned as much as I could, gathered as many books as I could find, uh, that covered  Walt's life. Uh, and, uh, have been very happy to, uh, be able to do lectures on behalf of the Missouri  Humanities Council for many years about Walt Disney also lectured at and on behalf of the State  Historical Society of Missouri, uh, I've lectured at, uh, Disney World and at at, uh, Disneyland, both on,  on, at the invitation of the Walt Disney Company. 

(00:04:15): 

And I've always enjoyed sharing information about Walt's, uh, early life. Uh, Walt spent five years living  in Marceline, uh, and that period of his life had a great influence on his work. Uh, he always looked back  with great affection and fondness, uh, on his years in Marline. He was there between the ages of four and  nine. When he was nine years old. His family moved to Kansas City, and his father began to supervise the  

distribution of the Kansas City Star and the Kansas City Times. At that time, Kansas City, like most  cities, cities had two daily papers a morning and an afternoon paper, and Wal and his big brother Roy,  were enlisted to, uh, to deliver those papers, uh, in a, uh, section of town, uh, near, uh, prospect near  Benton. Uh, Benton Boulevard, uh, was the larger street near their home. Uh, 31st Street in Benton, uh, is  the neighborhood where Walt grew up. 

(00:05:14): 

The home where he spent most of his, uh, years in Kansas City still stands, it's in private hands, it's well  preserved, uh, in the building where he began. His first professional film studio, uh, is now, uh, in the  possession of, uh, a not-for-profit group who's board I, uh, am president of, uh, and, uh, which, which, uh,  owns the, uh, the building. And we're in the process of restoring it, preserving it, restoring it, bringing it  back from the brink. Uh, it was almost lost, even though it's on the National Register of Historic Places,  that doesn't guarantee a building's going to be saved. So our little band of volunteers has been working  now for over 30 years to save that building. I met with the, uh, previous owners, and they were, uh, a very  sweet couple, very nice people. They had hoped they'd be able to leave that building to their  grandchildren, but it was in such poor condition. 

(00:06:08): 

The roof had collapsed, essentially, into the building, and the city was threatening to demolish it. And so  they finally agreed that they needed to sell it in order to save it. And, uh, thank you. Walt Disney  purchased it, uh, back in the later 1990s, around 1998, if I recall correctly. Um, and we've worked since  then to try to raise the money to, to bring it back, to restore, especially the portions of that building that  were occupied by Walt Disney and his staff, um, where their studio called l Agram operated, uh, in 1921  and 1922 into 1923, um, when he finally, uh, went bankrupt and gave up on, uh, his business in Kansas  City and moved to Hollywood. So, uh, but Walt had spent more than 10 years living in Kansas City. Lots  of Disney fans know about Marceline. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Not nearly as many, understand that he  spent more than twice as long living in Kansas City. 

(00:07:07): 

And so there are many historic associations with Walt Disney's life in Kansas City, and they include the  Kansas City Public Library. It's facility now in the former First National Bank building. Uh, they include  Union Station, which has several connections to Walt's life, um, and, and several other buildings around  

town that are, uh, important, have been important to Walt's early years there in Kansas City. And he  continued to return to Missouri, uh, in his later years. Came back to Kansas City just the year before he  passed away, visited the, uh, Kansas City Art Institute. Met with Thomas Hart Benton, uh, met with, in 

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fact, former president Mike David Eisenhower and, uh, Joyce Hall. Uh, they were all involved in a  project, a United Nations project called People to People. And so, uh, Eisenhower asked Walt if he would  succeed, uh, himself as president of that group. Uh, they all met at what was then a, uh, downtown, uh,  hotel. I believe it was the, the President Hotel, if I recall correctly. Okay. The Playbook Club of Kansas  City was on the top floor there. All right. So, fun facts. I'm, I'm trying to verify whether or not they visited  the club after their people to people meeting. I can't say that with certainty, but I can sure. Say that they  must have thought about it. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (00:08:26): 

Yeah, absolutely. Why do you think that so many people don't know about his association with Kansas  City? Why do you think that it's the Marceline that really kind of takes the, the lead with his association  with the Midwest? 

Dan Viets (00:08:38): 

Probably because Walt himself tends to talk more about the Marline years. Okay. And idealize, uh, the  Marline years and had great nostalgia for Marline. He, uh, in fact, the design of the main Street, USA area  of Disneyland, uh, and the other Disneyland style theme parks around the world, the Magic Kingdom in  Florida, and the Tokyo Disneyland, the Paris Disneyland, uh, the ones in China. Now, the main streets of  all of those parks are inspired by the main street of Marline, Missouri. Uh, but Kansas City had a major  influence on Walt Kansas City, is where he grew up, and where he, uh, began his career as a filmmaker.  Yeah, he worked, he worked in fact for, uh, a company that manufactured, uh, slides. And I, I have, uh,  uh, somewhere here on this desk, I have some of the slides that, that were made by the Kenzie Slide  company. 

(00:09:31): 

Now, we can't say which ones, uh, Walt worked on, but, but here's one, if I can make it visible. Yes. They  were translucent, hand etched, and hand colored, four by four inch, uh, slides. Two, two thin slides of, uh,  glass were, uh, combined, uh, to make these, to make these, and these were used in theaters, uh, and  vaudeville houses around the Midwest. Kansas City Slide Company was actually a pretty, uh, substantial  operation. And Walt, uh, went to work there, uh, for Mr. Arthur Verne Coger AV Coger. And everyone  who worked for Arthur Coger really loved the guy he was. He was a great boss, uh, by all accounts. Uh,  and, um, many of the people who've worked for Mr. Coer went on to be pioneers of the Hollywood  animation industry. In fact, we, we say, uh, that Kansas City really is the cradle of Hollywood animation,  because so many of the important pioneers of Hollywood animation, uh, got their start in Kansas City. 

(00:10:34): 

Uh, Walt Disney, obviously being the best known among them, uh, but the men, two of the men who  worked for Walt in Kansas City and then worked for Walt in Hollywood, went on to found the Warner  Brothers Animation Division. They founded MGMs Animation Division. They trained Hannah and  Barbera how to animate. Uh, another one of those, another one of those Kansas Sitan, uh, Isidor Frizz  Freelan, uh, worked at Warner's for, for decades. Uh, and then he left Warner's and co-founded the Deity  Freeling Studio, which is best known for the Pink Panther. Several other characters that were created  there. Um, the character, bugs Bunny is actually named for a Kansas City animator whose nickname was  Bugs. Uh, Joseph Hardaway was his actual name. Uh, and, uh, Joe Hardaway was working on a Warner  Brothers cartoon that featured a, a rabbit character that didn't really have a name, uh, initially. 

(00:11:29): 

And so people around the animation office, uh, referred to him as Bugs' Bunny. And in the Possessive  Sense, uh, but it wasn't long before the Bunny's name became Bugs Bunny. And so there are lots of, uh,  interesting, uh, little, uh, vignettes like that, that demonstrate how important Kansas City really is to the  entire Hollywood animation industry. Now, animation was being made before that in, uh, New York and 

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in New Jersey. And the film industry was in the process of moving from the East Coast to Los Angeles,  uh, when Walt, uh, moved from Kansas City to Hollywood, uh, in the late summer of 1923. But no one in  Hollywood was making animated films. Um, animated films had been around since the beginning of film,  but no one was doing animated films in Hollywood until Walt Disney arrived there in the fall of, or the  late summer of 1923. 

(00:12:26): 

But he and his brother, Roy, who was already out there recuperating from tuberculosis at a veteran's  hospital in the suburb of Tel, um, the two of them teamed up. Uh, and, uh, uh, Walt got himself a contract  to begin a series that was known as the Alice comedies. And these were silent films at that time. All films  were silent. They were black and white. Um, little one real, uh, silent cartoons that had the innovative,  um, technique of combining a live action little girl interacting with cartoon characters and, and going into  a cartoon environment. So the little character of Alice played by Virginia Davis, um, would, uh, get  ConEd on the head, or just go to sleep and start dreaming. And in one episode, she inhales laughing gas.  But something would happen to Alice in each episode, and she would be transported to Cartoon Land, but  she would still appear as a live action little girl, and she would be interacting with the cartoon characters,  uh, in a cartoon environment. 

(00:13:27): 

We were fortunate to know Virginia Davis. Virginia Davis was literally the beginning of the Walt Disney  Company. Wow. The company cites, its beginning as October 16, uh, 1923, when Walt got a letter from,  from, uh, Margaret Winkler back in New York. She was the foremost distributor of animated cartoons in  

the world at that time. Um, she distributed Felix to Cat and Crazy Cat, and those were among the most  popular cartoon, uh, series at that time. But Walt centered this one reel that he had made in Kansas City  with little Virginia Davis playing the Alice character. And she was taken with that. She was impressed  with that. And so she says, I'll give you a contract to make a series of these Alice cartoons, which you've  got to get that same little girl that appeared in the first one. And I think she may have known or suspected  that little girl lived in Kansas City, which was true. 

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But Walt persuaded her parents to come out to Hollywood so that their little girl could be, uh, a movie  star could, could appear in these little one real, uh, cartoons. And obviously, her parents wanted Virginia  to be in show business. They had, uh, promoted her as a model at the tender age of four years old. Walt  had met her at the Kansas City Slide Company, where she appeared in some, some still, uh,  advertisements for, uh, bread and other products around Kansas City. But her parents were more than  happy to move to Hollywood, so little Virginia could appear in these films. Uh, Walt's, uh, one of Walt's  lifelong collaborators, uh, was a, a, a Dutch boy named U iWorks. And U iWorks, uh, was by all  accounts, probably the greatest animator of his time, of the 1920s and thirties, uh, of also became a, a, an  Oscar winning, uh, inventor of special effects technology and camera technology. 

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And Father had been a professional photographer in Kansas City. So the apple didn't fall far from the tree,  even though UB and his father were estranged from each other. Uh, but bb uh, became an inventor of  special effects processes and won an Oscar in particular for his work on Mary Poppins. Mary Poppins.  Uh, ironically, perhaps, uh, kind of, uh, illustrates how Walt's career came full circle, because in Mary  Poppins, uh, live action characters, Dick Van Dyke, uh, and, and Julie Andrews interact in certain  segments of that film with cartoon characters. And just as little Alice had done way back in 1923, uh, in  Kansas City. Um, and, and many people regard Mary Poppins as the crowning glory of Walt's film career.  It wasn't the last animated film he worked on. That was a jungle book. Uh, but, uh, Mary Poppins was,  was the Last Big Deal, uh, movie. 

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It was a very big deal, very successful. Um, I urge people, if they have not yet seen the film to find a  movie called Saving Mr. Banks. Okay. And I'm convinced the title holds that movie back, 'cause it's hard  to remember that title. But does that have to do with Walt Disney's Saving Mr. Banks? But that film, uh,  features Tom Hanks mm-hmm <affirmative>. As Walt Disney, and tells the story of Walt's, uh, late  career and his, um, work, especially with the Sherman brothers who, uh, composed and, and, uh, uh, and,  uh, uh, created most of the music, uh, for Mary Poppins and many of the other great Disney films. Um,  and it shows the film's climax, essentially, is Walt convincing pl Travers, the author of the Mary Poppins  books, to allow him, uh, to make, uh, a Disney version of her book. And Walt actually promised her that  this would not be an animated film. 

(00:17:18): 

So she was somewhat perturbed when she saw the animated sequences that are indeed in Mary Poppins.  Uh, but nonetheless, uh, Walt, uh, tells the story. He tells that is to say, Tom Hanks, as Walt Disney tells  pl traver, how he had been a newspaper delivery boy in Kansas City, and how he had to get up at three 30  or four in the morning every day and deliver those newspapers, which he hated doing. And, and I would  have as well, most of us probably would not enjoy, especially as a little kid getting up seven days a week,  you know, at four or o'clock in the morning. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (00:17:55): 

Yeah. 

Dan Viets (00:17:56): 

Throw those papers. And Walt said he had to, he had to deliver those papers no matter what the weather  was like. He had to go out in storms and blizzards, and it just didn't matter. And his family didn't own a  car. There was no question of him being driven around, like a lot of newsboys are when the weather's bad.  Um, uh, and indeed, he had to trudge through snow drifts that were taller than he was, he claimed. And  so, when we, when we worked on, on the book, I was, uh, fortunate enough to, to work on a book called  Walt Disney's, Missouri. This was published by the Kansas City Star, uh, back in about oh 2002. Um, and  it's out of print, but you can find copies of this book, or you can contact me and I'll show you a copy of  this book. Yeah. I gotta get 

Mindy Hargesheimer (00:18:39): 

A copy of that myself. 

Dan Viets (00:18:41): 

Well, when we worked on that book, I thought, you know, let's research what the weather was like back  in the winter of 1911 to 1912. Walt Disney's first winter in Kansas City. And so, turns out, it turns out that  indeed, um, 19 11, 19 12, that winter is still the record holder for the most snow that fell in Kansas City in  one day, in one month, and in one winter, it still holds the record for all three of those 

Mindy Hargesheimer (00:19:12): 

Go 

Dan Viets (00:19:12): 

Figure. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (00:19:13): 

And

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Dan Viets (00:19:13): 

That was a tremendous amount of snow that winter. So, uh, I believe that Walt was not exaggerating. He  did have to trudge through snow drifts that were taller than he was when he was a little 9-year-old kid, uh,  delivering newspapers in Kansas City. Um, but he had a lot of, he had a lot of affection for Kansas City.  He, he enjoyed living in Kansas City. He attended the Benton School. Uh, what, and that building still  stands on Benton Boulevard. It's been adapted into, uh, condominiums and apartments. Okay. But it still  stands on Benton Boulevard. That's where Walt Disney attended the second grade. Through the seventh  grade. He and his little sister Ruth, who was just two years younger than he was, the two of them attended  school, uh, for several years, uh, at Benton. And, uh, he was very proud of, he, he was on the track team  at Benton. Uh, and, you know, he was a busy little kid. 'cause he's throwing the newspaper before school  each day, throwing the newspaper after school each day. In the meantime, he is on the track team, uh, and  engaged in various other extracurricular activities. He and a neighbor of his, uh, Walt Pfeiffer, um, 

(00:20:25): 

Put together little amateur acts. Uh, Walt would sneak out of his, his parents' home through the window,  uh, in the evenings, uh, and his, his friend Walt Pfeiffer. And he would go to local theaters, which were  holding, uh, amateur nights and, and, uh, various, uh, contests. Like they have a Charlie Chaplin lookalike  contest. Walt was really proud. He won a quarter one time in a Charlie Chaplin lookalike contest. Well,  not many years after that, he and Charlie Chaplin were Pals <laugh>. And so he could never have  dreamed that, of course, when he was a little kid in Kansas 

Mindy Hargesheimer (00:20:59): 

City. Right. 

Dan Viets (00:21:00): 

Charlie and Walt, uh, both greatly admired each other's work when, and they became, they became well  acquainted, they became good friends. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (00:21:09): 

So, I wanna ask something. Um, okay. So in some of the research that I had done, I wanna talk about this.  Walt had his first animation studio in Kansas City, correct? Mm-hmm 

Dan Viets (00:21:18): 

<affirmative>. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (00:21:18): 

Yes. Uh, he not only worked at the Lafa Graham Building, he lived there as well. He would go to Union  Station, which was constructed, constructed during the more than 10 years he lived in Kansas City. He  would go to Union Station to shower at least once a week. Is that accurate? <laugh>? Right. So I wanna,  whether related 

Dan Viets (00:21:34): 

To or not. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (00:21:35): 

Yeah, I wanna hear about that. And then I, I want you to tell the story about how the character Mickey  Mouse came to be.

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Dan Viets (00:21:44): 

Well, alright. Uh, as you've just mentioned, uh, Walt did live in our building, and not only did he work  there, but 

Mindy Hargesheimer (00:21:52): 

He lived in building that you're currently restoring right now. Yes. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. 

Dan Viets (00:21:55): 

When he first started, uh, l for Graham, uh, again, this was, I believe in May of 22. Um, he had an  apartment over on Charlotte, and that building still stands. He wasn't there very long, but, but, uh, he  definitely lived at a building and apartment house that still stands on Charlotte. Um, and he, he wound up  working so much that he said to himself, why am I paying for an apartment? I don't need an apartment. I  can sleep right here. Uh, at the, uh, what was then known as the McConaughey building, Mr.  McConaughey had that building constructed. And by the way, it was designed by the, uh, famous Kansas  City architect, Nell Peters. Nell Peters was a, a relatively, um, rare, uh, person in that she was a female  architect in those days mm-hmm <affirmative>. And, and that was not common. What was far less  common was that she actually owned her own architecture firm, and she was very successful. 

(00:22:49): 

And she designed more than 400 mostly commercial buildings in Kansas City, including some hotels,  some big projects. So, Nell Peters, uh, is a fascinating character, uh, in, in and of herself. So she designed  the building, uh, where Walt Disney opened his first professional film studio. Now, one could argue that  his first studio was his dad's garage back behind the building, uh, over on Beon, where he, uh, lived, uh,  in, in his early Kansas City period. Uh, behind that is a garage that he and his father built, uh, and, uh,  even though his father never owned a car. And so that garage wound up being a place where Walt, uh,  with a borrowed camera from Mr. Coger at the Kansas City filmed company, began to experiment with  making his own animated films. And so, in a sense, that might have been his first studio, but obviously it  wasn't a professional film studio. 

(00:23:43): 

Um, and he started something called KC Studio, K-A-Y-C-E-E, I think is how they spelled it. But that  was never a full-time job and, and never produced any films. I don't think produced any films that, that  still exist. Uh, but, um, again, in May of 1922, he left his day job. He, he left, uh, the Kansas City filmed  company, which by that time was called the Kansas City, well, had been the Kansas City Slide Company.  And by that time was called the Kansas City Filmed Company, because Mr. Coger had transitioned from  the little glass slides I showed you, uhhuh into making, uh, moving pictures, including stop motion  animated films. Uh, well, Walt, uh, was convinced by that point that he could make animated films on his  own. And so he borrowed money from other business people in the area. This was the Roaring twenties.  This was before the Depression. 

(00:24:35): 

And there was money, uh, to be had, and people would make risky investments, like a little 19-year-old  kid who thought he could start a film company. Uh, and so, uh, that's exactly what he did. Uh, and the, the  McConaughey building at that time was a brand new building. He may have been, uh, one of the first  tenants on the second floor there. Um, but at any rate, he rented several rooms on the second floor of the,  uh, of what we now call the LFA Grand Building at 31st and Forest Streets. And, uh, hired young guys,  uh, some of whom he knew from the Kansas City filmed company, some of whom responded to an ad he  placed in the Kansas City Star, and some of whom just wandered in, literally off the street, uh, uh, out of  curiosity to see what was going on. And they all learned to animate, uh, from Walt Disney, uh, who  barely knew what he was doing himself at that point.

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(00:25:28): 

Uh, that's wild. But iWorks was also among them. UB had worked at the Kansas City filmed company,  and then came to work for Walt, um, and with Walt, uh, at the, uh, at the L Grand building. And so, uh,  Walt would sleep at night. He said he slept on a pile of canvas. I'm not sure why Canvas was even there.  They didn't paint on canvas, you know. So they said he slept on a pile of canvas, uh, in one of the rooms,  uh, in the studio. And at night, uh, he would see mice come out and his employees, uh, would leave, uh,  the remains of their lunches, uh, in a wire waste basket. Now, you don't see those very often anymore, but  in those days, a wire waste basket had about one inch wide, uh, diagonal openings, uh, in the side of it.  And so a mouse could easily get into that, that waste basket, and take the crumbs of his employee's  lunches. 

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Uh, and so Walt watched these mice with fascination, and he began to put out food for them. He began to  see how close he could lure them to coming to him. And one little mouse, uh, who he said was braver  than the others, one little mouse actually became tame and became his pet. And he kept that pet, uh, in a  drawer of his desk, uh, at some times and later, uh, in a small cage. Uh, but he said the mouse would  actually play on his drawing board while he was working, uh, in, in the Laff Agram studio. And so, five  years later, well, let me say first that when Walt left Kansas City, when he left for, for Hollywood, he  made a point of taking his mouse out to the country where it would not be, uh, he hoped at least where it  would not be in danger. 

(00:27:09): 

Mm-hmm <affirmative>. I suspect it may have been Swope Park, because he took, he and his crew spent  a lot of time in Swope Park playing around. There are a lot of photos they took of themselves, uh, just  clowning around in Swope Park. And so he may have taken the little mouse out to Swope Park where he  hoped it would be safe. There were mice who lived in a restaurant downstairs. I don't know that the city  would allow, uh, cats to live, uh, in, in restaurants any longer. Uh, but I, I, uh, but there were some cats  who lived in the Forest Cafe downstairs, and he was especially concerned that his mouse might fall victim  to those, those cats. So, um, so again, five years later, he's in Hollywood. He has, uh, had his first success  with the Alice comedies. There were 54 episodes of the Alice Comedies produced. 

(00:27:58): 

Um, and then he began making cartoons about a character called Oswald The Lucky Rabbit. And that was  for Universal Studios. And meanwhile, Mrs. Winkler, uh, had married a guy, uh, named Charles Mince.  And Charlie Mince, uh, went behind Walt's bath and hired away most of his animators, almost all of the  animators who had worked for Walt. And so, Walt goes out to, uh, to, uh, New York to meet with Mr.  Mintz. Walt and his wife Lillian, uh, on the train, went through Kansas City, of course, and, uh, through  Chicago and out to New York, uh, for a meeting at which he expected to, uh, negotiate for a, a raise. He  thought he'd get a little more money for these, uh, uh, Oswald cartoons, which were doing, doing pretty  well. Instead, mince announces to Walt, uh, that he has hired away almost all of his animators gone  behind his back and hired them away. 

(00:28:53): 

Uh, and that if Walt wanted to go on making cartoons, he would have to go to work for Mr. Mince. And  Mince showed him the contract. Walt had failed to hire an attorney to review that contract. And may, he  may not even have read it closely, but it was clear in the contract that mince owned the rights to the  Oswald character. And so we don't know exactly the words Wal used, but he did tell Mr. Minson no  uncertain terms what he could do with Oswald, and that he would, he, he was welcome to those animators  that had, uh, left him, and he felt had betrayed him, uh, and, uh, that he, he would, he would be fine on his  own. And indeed, Walt said it was during that train trip back to Hollywood, in particular, going through  Illinois and Missouri. He said when he and Lillian came up with the idea of a mouse character, that his 

Page 8 of 36 

new series would be about a mouse inspired and backed by the mouse, he kept as a pet, uh, in the Laff  Agram studio. 

(00:29:51): 

So Mickey had his beginnings in our building. Wow. Uh, Walt was telling the truth, and I think he was,  you know, some people think that story is apocryphal. In other words, not true <laugh>. But, but I've  never seen, I've never seen any other instance where Walt was saying anything that wasn't true. He made  some mistakes. Uh, no one has perfect recollection of everything He thought he had left Marline in 1910.  So you'll see that in several books. But indeed, he left Marline in 1911, and we know that from real estate  records. Um, but at any rate, I don't think Walt made those things up. I do think that Mickey, uh, can, uh,  trace his roots to the Gram studio in Kansas City. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (00:30:31): 

So then, so he was on his way back to Kansas City when this happened, and then mm-hmm. What kind of  transpired from there with him? Well, 

Dan Viets (00:30:39): 

Yeah. 

(00:30:40): 

They had come up with, with what this mouse character would look like. And, uh, so of iWorks was one  of the animators who stayed, uh, stayed with Walt, who was loyal and turned Mr. Minz down. And that  was fortunate for Walt and for the world, because without of iWorks, uh, Walt might have failed at that  point. But working with of iWorks, uh, they created the physical appearance of Mickey Mouse. And, and  Mickey's original appearance was a little simpler, a little more like a stick figure than he became in later  years. But nonetheless, uh, Walt was in charge. But, uh, of iWork certainly deserves credit for co-creating  the character of Mickey Mouse. Now, the reason that Mickey became what seemed to be an overnight  success is because Mickey was the first cartoon with, uh, with successful sound. There may be some, uh,  instance of a attempt at a sound cartoon earlier, but the first successful use of sound with animation, and  this is not only dialogue, but also sound effects, and especially music that was coordinated with the action  on screen. 

(00:31:47): 

The first successful use of sound in animated cartoons was Mickey Mouse. And that's why on No,  November 18th, 1928 at the New Colony Theater in New York, uh, when Mickey Mouse premiered, it  was, uh, that character was literally an overnight success. Um, the reviews were fantastic. Everyone who  attended, uh, the movies where the Mickey Mouse cartoon was showing were just blown away by it, in  part because the early sound on live action films was pretty bad. It was pretty low quality. Uh, and one of  the things that they hadn't yet figured out, uh, was where to put the microphones. So they would hide a  microphone in a potted plant, and then they'd have another microphone across the room hidden  somewhere. But meanwhile, the character walks across the screen and his voice goes from being loud to  soft to loud again. Um, and it was, it was difficult, uh, to get good sound quality in a live action film.  However, in an animated film, you have complete control of all of the sound, and you didn't need to ever  move the microphone. One microphone right there in front of the, the, uh, the voice actor. And by the  way, the voice actor for Mickey Mouse was Walt Disney. Walt. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (00:33:07): 

Oh, yeah. Nice. Yeah. 

Dan Viets (00:33:08):

Page 9 of 36 

Walt auditioned a bunch of other voice actors, um, and he was never satisfied with what any of them, uh,  were doing. And so, finally his staff, uh, said, Walt Walt, why don't you do it? You're the one, you know  what you want. You know what Mickey sounds like? Why don't you be the voice of Mickey Mouse?  And, and it didn't take a lot of persuasion. Uh, and indeed, uh, Walt was the voice of Mickey Mouse for at  least the first several years that the character, uh, was, was being, uh, was being animated. Now, later on,  other artists, Jimmy, um, McDonald, I believe it was for many years, was the voice of Mickey Mouse.  Um, then another guy named Wayne Boy, Wayne Taylor, I think was the name. Uh, but today the voice  of Mickey Mouse, uh, is Brett Iwan. Brett Iwan from Kansas City, Missouri. Really? He used to work  from Walmart. Yeah. Now, Brett's not originally from Kansas City, but he did live and work in Kansas  City for several years. He keeps coming 

Mindy Hargesheimer (00:34:08): 

Back here, though. There's just common thread. It's really interesting. 

Dan Viets (00:34:11): 

Right. There are many, many important connections, continuing connections to Kansas City. So Brett  Iwan, uh, he had just developed this Mickey Mouse voice on his own, never having any, any thought that  he might actually become the voice of Mickey Mouse. But he was able to do the Mickey Mouse voice,  and he'd do to parties, and you'd do it for friends. Um, and then he heard, fortunately, somehow or other  he heard that, that the Walt Disney Company was looking for a new voice for Mickey. Now, the, the, the  people who, who voiced Mickey and Minnie that were unacquainted before they got those jobs, I'm  talking about just before Brett, uh, took over. Um, and Oh, I, I should know both of their names at the  moment. I can't recall them, but I do know that they met through doing the voices of Mickey and Minnie,  and they fell in love and got married. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (00:35:01): 

Oh, 

Dan Viets (00:35:02): 

No 

Mindy Hargesheimer (00:35:02): 

Way. Mickey and Min 

Dan Viets (00:35:03): 

Voices married each other. Uh, and so, but for unfortunately, um, uh, Wayne died at a fairly young age.  The company needed to find a new voice for Mickey and Brett Iwan auditioned and got the job. He was  the man. And so we've had Brett come back to Kansas City for, uh, some fundraising events for Thank  You, Walt Disney, and he has been, uh, a guest at the Planet Comic-Con mm-hmm 

Mindy Hargesheimer (00:35:28): 

<affirmative>. 

Dan Viets (00:35:28): 

Uh, and, and I think he, I'm not sure if he's coming back this year or not. I'm, I'm not sure yet. They  haven't finalized their list of guests, but he might even be back again this year over, over at Bartle Hall.

Page 10 of 36 

Mindy Hargesheimer (00:35:40): 

Yes. 

Dan Viets (00:35:40): 

And, uh, 

Mindy Hargesheimer (00:35:41): 

Does he live in California? Is that where he would be coming in from? 

Dan Viets (00:35:44): 

Right, right. He lives in LA now. And, uh, even though they're not making Mickey Mouse cartoons on a  regular basis, uh, uh, it's, it's surprising perhaps how often, uh, they need the voice of Mickey. Yeah. And 

Mindy Hargesheimer (00:35:56): 

Mickey, 

Dan Viets (00:35:57): 

Of course, is the official, uh, symbol of the Walt Disney Company. So in, in many different contexts, they  still need, uh, a voice of Mickey Mouse. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (00:36:06): 

Yeah. So to kind of like, solidify everything that you're talking about. I wanted to pull another thing that,  um, you guys have, um, on your site that shares a lot of this. When Walt incorporated L Graham, it was  the beginning of the most significant career in the history of movie making with Disney being labeled the  most successful and influential producer in the history of movie making. 

Dan Viets (00:36:27): 

That's a quote from Leonard Molton. That's 

Mindy Hargesheimer (00:36:29): 

Wild. Leonard 

Dan Viets (00:36:29): 

Molton is, uh, I believe, uh, the nation's foremost film historian and critic. Now, he's semi-retired these  days, but Leonard used to appear on a regular basis on Entertainment Tonight. And Leonard, um, wrote,  well, he's written many, many books about, about film history, and he's focused on animation history and  Disney in particular. And so when he said that, it was very considerate, it was very deliberate. And when  you think about that, uh, Leonard Marlton calls Walt Disney the most successful and influential Yeah. 

(00:37:03): 

Produced in the history of movies, not just animation Mm. In the history of film. And I don't think that's  an exaggeration either. When you think about, most people think about Wal, I can't imagine making  animated films mm-hmm <affirmative>. But he made many, many wonderful, uh, live action films as  well. And his studio has grown, obviously, to be an entertainment juggernaut. Uh, the, the Wal Disney  company can <laugh> <inaudible>, uh, you know, has done even more than dominate the film industry.  Um, and especially under, uh, both Michael Eisner and Bob Iger have been great CEOs for the Walt  Disney Company. And, uh, Eisner picked up the company when it was threatened with, it was threatened 

Page 11 of 36 

with being acquired by other companies. It would've broken up its assets and sold them off. And it  would've been the end of the Walt Disney Company as we know it. Uh, obviously, Walt Disney was not  only the world's greatest filmmaker, but he also was the world's greatest amusement park theme park  creator. 

(00:38:03): 

Uh, and, and no one had ever seen anything like Disneyland before Walt Disney created that park, which  opened on July 17th, 1955. And construction of that park took just one year. That's incredible. You know,  no one could build something like Disneyland in one year today, but that's what Walt Disney did back in  1953 through 55, essentially. And the idea of what the park should be continued to evolve as he built it  now of iWorks granddaughter, Leslie iWorks, uh, has just released a new film, uh, Disneyland  Handcrafted and Leslie came into a treasure trove of films that were made during the construction of  Disneyland. And they include interviews with many people who were intimately involved in the  construction of that park, including Walt Disney, of course. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. We're going to, that  is to say thank you, Walt Disney, the not-for-profit group that owns and is restoring the, the L Agram  Studio Building. We're gonna show a special screening of that movie. Ah, perfect. Uh, most likely at the  Armor Theater. Now, we don't have a date set, uh, but, uh, but we're going to show that film and Leslie's  going to be there via remote, uh, video connection. And Leslie has come back, uh, to Kansas City many  times. In fact, she was a speaker in, in conjunction with the Disney 100 exhibit at Union Station. Mm hmm <affirmative>. Uh, last year. I, I was also thrilled that they, uh, invited me to, to be a speaker, uh,  during that, during that exhibition. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (00:39:30): 

Of course. Well deserved. Yeah. 

Dan Viets (00:39:32): 

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's great. One, I love sharing this, this information with people who care to, to  learn it and care to know more about Walt Disney's life. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (00:39:40): 

Well, it, it really is. It's, there are so many enthusiasts out there, you know, and even just hearing you talk  about it, the, the name Disney or Walt Disney just brings this like happiness to, to everybody. I mean, I,  it's just, I can't even like, comprehend how over time it's just kind of elicited this feeling for so many  people. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. So I was telling you, I've never been to Disneyland. I've done Disney  World a couple times. I have to get to Disneyland. I'm excited to get out there. But what prompted him to  then open the park? And then also, can you talk a little bit about, um, some of the character that he  brought from his upbringing in Kansas City or in Marceline, like how he incorporated that or wove that  into Disneyland, the park? 

Dan Viets (00:40:25): 

Well, you know, he often said that, that he took his daughters, he had two, two girls, Diane and, and, uh,  uh, and, uh, <laugh> Diane and his other daughter, whose name I know very well. Um, he would take the  two of them out on a Saturday, um, to, uh, various places. Uh, but he'd often take them to the Carousel in  

Griffith Park. Uh, and he would sit on the bench while they rode on the carousel. And he, he said that was  when he really started to think about building a place where both adults and kids could have a good time.  And indeed, most of the people who go to Disneyland are not kids. I mean, they're not 

Mindy Hargesheimer (00:41:02): 

Yeah, that's true.

Page 12 of 36 

Dan Viets (00:41:04): 

Anyway, it's mostly adults who, who visit Disney Land. Of course, there are lots of kids there too. But the  park is designed for everyone to enjoy it. And, um, so he, um, you know, at first everyone he knew was,  was just, uh, appalled and highly skeptical, including his wife and his brother Roy. You know, we  wouldn't, we wouldn't know who Walt Disney was if it weren't for his big brother, Roy. Roy. Disney was  a true genius in his own right and deserves to be remembered, uh, for that. Uh, Roy was never  professionally trained as an accountant. He did work, however, for eight years as a teller at the First  National Bank, the same building where the Kansas City Central Library facility is now located. And that  is just a beautiful example of the adaptive reuse of an historic building. Um, so if you haven't been, if  anyone listening hasn't been to the Central Kansas City facility in the beautiful old First National Bank  building, I urge you to visit there. 

(00:42:03): 

Yes. Not only to check out books, but to, but to see one of the best examples of the adaptive reuse of an  historic building. Well, um, as you say, uh, there was a great deal of influence from Kansas City and  Marline on the design of Disneyland. Some people think of Disneyland as a kind of three dimensional  autobiography of Walt Disneys, because you start out going through Marline where he spent his early, uh,  boyhood. And then you go to at least, uh, most of us, I think, tend to go left into adventure land and, and  Frontier Land. And Frontier Land shows a great deal of Missouri influence. The centerpiece of Frontier  Land is still, uh, the, the Mark Twain Steamboat. And it goes around Tom Sawyer Island, and you take  the Huff Finn Rafts to go over to Tom Sawyer Island. And so all of that, of course is, is Mark Twain. 

(00:42:57): 

Is is Missouri Hannibal, Missouri influence in particular. Now, uh, some people may be confused 'cause  the Tom Sawyer Island down in Florida at the Magic Kingdom down at Walt Disney World has been, or  is in the process of being replaced. But thank goodness, the original, the original Mark Twain, Steamboat,  Tom Sawyer Island, the Hook, fin Rafts are still very much when operation at the original Disney Theme  Park, Disneyland. And I hope they always will be. Uh, one of, one of my favorite things to do, and you  can only do this in Disneyland, is, uh, to get into the Davy Crockett canoes <laugh>, and this is the most  low tech ride in any, any Disney theme park. You, you get into a big long canoe and, and, and a kid at the  front of the canoe in a David Crockett cap, uh, tells you to, alright, now, get your, get your ore out and  now, and he, and he coordinates everybody, uh, rowing. And that's exactly what it is. You row a canoe  around Tom Slyer Island, and I just think that's so cool. And you can't do it anywhere but Disneyland in 

Mindy Hargesheimer (00:44:02): 

California. 

Dan Viets (00:44:02): 

Yeah. And be sure to, to go there first. I recommend, because they don't do it in the evenings, uh, and,  and, uh, on, on slow days, sometimes they don't have the canoes running. But I recommend you, you do  that. It's one of, it's one of the opening day, uh, attractions. And of course, when Disneyland open in 1955,  Davey Crockett was a major phenomenon, a major pop culture, uh, explosion, uh, Walt was producing  and had just begun to produce what was originally called a TV series called Disneyland. It later became  better known as the Wonderful World of Color. And it went from a, B, C to NBC and of course, uh,  started being broadcast in color. But Walt had the foresight to produce all of those episodes in color  because he knew they'd be rerun, and he knew in the future that he'd be able to broadcast them in color. 

(00:44:55): 

Um, but David Crockett, there were really only three episodes of, uh, the David Crockett shows on, uh,  the Disney, uh, uh, originally it was a We Wednesday night show on a b, C, but most of us remember the 

Page 13 of 36 

Sunday night iteration of that program. Uh, at any rate, there were just three of those David Crockett  episodes, but they sparked a phenomenon. Every kid in America, I think, and I I know I got David  Crockett, uh, Kon pseudo coonskin caps under the Christmas tree, uh, that year. And, uh, it was just an  amazingly popular thing. The, the actor who portrayed David Crockett was Bes Parker, and Fess was part  of the opening day events at Disneyland. I had the privilege of meeting Bess Parker a few times, and he  was just as warm and nice as, as you would want Davy Crockett to be. And even, even when he was in his  later years, he had a full thick, and, and I am him this a full thick head of hair. He was white, but boy, he  still looked like David Crockett, and he didn't put on much weight at all. He, he still could have played  David Crockett. Uh, in, in his later years. He was actually a very successful businessman. He owned the  DoubleTree Hotel in Santa Barbara, and he owned a winery, which is still in operation. Okay. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (00:46:11): 

Uh, 

Dan Viets (00:46:11): 

And, uh, and so, uh, uh, he was an impressive guy. Uh, but I digressed there, there really are many  influences, uh, in Disneyland and in the other theme parks, uh, that can be traced back to Kansas City and  Marline, um, down in Disney World. Uh, at the, at the Magic Kingdom Park, if you look at the windows  above the buildings, especially on Main Street, but uh, in other areas of the parks as well, you see what  appear to be, uh, made up names and, and, uh, advertisements for various businesses. But those names are  not made up. Those are real people that worked for the Walt Disney Company that influenced the Walt  Disney Company. Um, and among them is, is a company called Pseudo Pseudonym Land Company. The  pseudonym Land company has offices as, as it tells you right there, uh, in Kansas City and in, oh, I think  in Buena Vista and, and, uh, and, and in some third city. 

(00:47:10): 

But Kansas City is one of the towns where the pseudonym land company operates. Well, uh, the  pseudonym Land Company is a reference to the fact that Walt used several shell companies. That is to say  companies with names that didn't suggest Disney, uh, to acquire the land where Walt Disney World is  now located. And he bought a lot of land down there. One thing he regretted about Disneyland in  California is that he did not own the land around the park. And so right on the edges of the park, all of  these, what he regarded as as cheap and, uh, uh, tawdry, uh, motels, uh, cropped up. Uh, and he, he didn't  like that, but he couldn't afford to buy that land anymore because the value of that land skyrocketed when  Disneyland opened. Sure. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (00:47:59): 

Uh, 

Dan Viets (00:47:59): 

So he went down to Florida. He said, I'm gonna buy so much land that nobody can, can build a, a cheap  motel right next to my theme park. Well, they don't build 'em next to the theme park, but they build them  right on the edge. No matter how much land he he purchased, there's still gonna be developments around  the edges, uh, of that, uh, of that land. Um, but pseudonym, land Company is just one example. And I  think some of the, those companies were indeed office in Kansas City. Um, there wasn't, it wasn't a real  company, it was just a front for the Walt Disney Company. And, uh, so that's, that's just one other  example. In, in Disneyland, there is an area of the park that was opened, well, relatively recently, uh,  several years ago at least. But there's an area called Tune Town. And Tune Town, of course, is from the  Roger Rabbit cart. 

(00:48:48):

Page 14 of 36 

Uh, Roger Rabbit film who framed Roger Rabbit is actually the title of that film. And Roger Rabbit and  Jessica Rabbit and lots of the other animated characters from that film show up up in Tune Town. And,  uh, tune Town is like an animated version of Los Angeles or an animated version of Hollywood. Um, and  in Tune Town, again, if you look carefully up above the storefronts, uh, is one where the Laff Agram film  company is located. And, and they're, they're sub subheading or subtitle is a reel of fun, REEL mm-hmm  <affirmative>. As a film reel. Uh, and, uh, and so that's another little reference, obviously, to Kansas City,  to the l Agram studio, uh, in Kansas City, when you go, uh, straight across from Disneyland, as you will  see when you go there, uh, what used to be the parking lot is now a second theme park. Okay. And that  theme park is called, is called, uh, Disney's California Adventure. Okay. 

(00:49:45): 

And, uh, it has been many things. I mean, you know, that that kind of allows them, that type of theme  allows the company to install whatever they want. Uh, that's Disney or vaguely California related over  there. But when you walk into, when you're walking into the, uh, what corresponds to the Main Street  

area, uh, in Disneyland, uh, of, of Disney, California Adventure on your right hand side is, uh, the Julius  Katz clothing company, KATZ. Okay. The Julius Katz Clothing Company. Well, uh, in Walt's Rogram  cartoons, the ones he made in Kansas City, um, in our building, uh, there was a recurring cat character, as  I mentioned earlier, uh, crazy Catt and Felix Dek Catt were the most popular animated characters, uh, in  the world at that time. And so Walt borrowed, uh, maybe a nice word for it, but he borrowed, uh, uh, uh,  concepts and gags from those two cartoon series and incorporated them into his own Laff Agram  cartoons. And he actually, uh, the, the cat was a continuing character long before Mickey. Uh, a cat was  Walt's first continuing animated character, and he called that Cat Julius. So the Julius Cat's clothing  company is a clear reference back to the Waffer Graham cartoons made in Kansas City, uh, in, again, in  the Disney, California Adventure Park. When you walk in there on the right hand side, I'm not, that's  pretty obscure, you know? Yeah. 

(00:51:15): 

I do say not even 1% of the people that go into that theme park have any idea what Julius Katz is talking  about. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (00:51:22): 

Right. 

Dan Viets (00:51:22): 

That's, that's exactly where that came from. So there are lots of these little references, these little obscure  things that people would assume are just made up just an arbitrarily chosen name, but they're not. Yeah.  They all have references to real life things or real life people. Yeah. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (00:51:41): 

I just love that Kansas City people can take this and the next time they go to either park, they can kind of  look for these little Easter eggs that were kind of tucked into, uh, what he built. Yeah. That's neat. 

Dan Viets (00:51:52): 

That's right. They are, they are Easter eggs. You know, I had the privilege of, uh, I've talking about  Virginia Davis, that little girl that Wal met at the Kansas City slide, or filmed company, Uhhuh  <affirmative>, uh, went to Hollywood and appeared in his first film series, the Alice Comedies, uh, and  how we brought Virginia back to Kansas City. Leonard Malton rediscovered Virginia and talked about  her and interviewed her on entertainment Tonight, probably back in the, in the, in the 1990s. Uh, and, uh,  she was happy to be rediscovered. Uh, she had actually worked in film, uh, even after she left Disney, she 

Page 15 of 36 

appeared in, uh, for instance, she appeared in the great MGM Technicolor Musical, the Harvey Girls.  And, uh, right next to, uh, Judy Garland, she's singing and dancing with Judy Garland in the Harvey Girls.  Wow. So she had a pretty successful film career for many years. 

(00:52:47): 

But then again, uh, like many actresses, when she got married, uh, she became a homemaker and stopped  working in film, but she didn't stop working. Actually, she worked later as a magazine editor, and she  worked as an interior decorator. And, and before that, actually, she did work at the Walt Disney Company  for a while as an ink and color, uh, ink and paint girl working on animated films. And she was a, she has a  small, uh, voice role in Pinocchio. Okay. Uh, and, and various little, little things like that. So Virginia, uh,  rediscovered by Leonard Molton, and we brought Virginia back to Kansas City, and she had never been  back to Kansas City her entire life Wow. Until we brought her back to appear at a Walt Disney 100th  birthday party. So this was back in Mm, probably in 2000. Okay. Because, uh, we did it a little bit early.  Walt's actual hundredth birthday was December 5th, 2001. Okay. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (00:53:43): 

So, 

Dan Viets (00:53:43): 

Uh, in 2000, or maybe earlier in 2001, we had a big gala party for Waltz under birthday, and our guest of  honor was Virginia Davis. And, uh, she, uh, she was just a, a joy to be around. She was so funny and so  sharp. I mean, she lived into her nineties, but she was always sharp as a tack and funny, uh, and, uh, uh,  just a little bit edgy in her, in her humor. <laugh>. Yeah. And so she was, she was just, 

Mindy Hargesheimer (00:54:10): 

You gotta appreciate that, right, <laugh> mm-hmm <affirmative>. Mm-hmm 

Dan Viets (00:54:13): 

<affirmative>. Yes. Yes. We should all aspire to be as, as sharp as Virginia Davis was when we reached  that age, if we reached that age. But I want to tell you about a special event. I was out in Hollywood for a  Disney, uh, convention, uh, and I knew that Virginia was going to receive the Disney Legend Award once  each year. The Disney company has a, a special day when they award, uh, the, the Legend Award to  people who have contributed to the success of the company. And some of 'em go way back, like Virginia,  some of them are, you know, current day stars. And of course, since the Disney company under Bob Iger  acquired The Avengers and all of Marvel's characters and all of, uh, all of the Muppets and, and, and all  of these other acquisitions, now people who worked on those types of, of film projects are also included  in the Legends Award. 

(00:55:03): 

But back in, back on October 16th, 1998, the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Walt Disney  Company, the 75th anniversary to the day of the day, Walt got that letter from Margaret Winkler and ran  into the Veterans Hospital and saw Tel waving the letter and yelling, Roy Roy we're in the movie  business. We've got a contract, uh, Wilker's brother up who got up and walked out of that hospital and  never went back. Um, uh, I think that's one of the most inspiring moments of, of Disney history, actually,  but it was little Virginia Davis, who was Walt's first star Yeah. And so, uh, um, so I'm out there, I know  Virginia's out there. I call her up, I say, Hey, Virginia, have you got a date to the Legends Awards? And  she says, well, Dan, you know, I, I don't have a date. Would you like to be my date to the Legends war  <laugh>? 

(00:55:57):

Page 16 of 36 

And I said, I sure would. <laugh>. And so, so she says, well, just call up this guy. And she gave me a  phone number and, and he'll, he'll take care of you. And that's all it took. I call this guy up and I say, I'm  Virginia's, uh, uh, escort to the, uh, to the Legends Awards. And he says, all right, what's your name?  And, and, uh, just pull up to this entrance to the, to the studio lot in Burbank, and the ballet will take your  car and, and we'll have a seat waiting for you. And that event took place at what's now called the Legends  Courtyard at the Walt Disney Company Studio. Um, and, uh, that is in front of a building that Michael  Eisner had constructed. He did a lot of great architecture while he was a CEO at Disney. And one of them  is, is the Seven Dwarfs Building, which is where the executives offices are now, uh, at, at the, uh, at the  Disney Studio in Burbank. 

(00:56:49): 

And, and the Seven Dwarfs hold up the, uh, the roof of this building. It's hard to describe, but it's a, it's a  really beautiful building. And right out in front is the Legends courtyard. But there was only room for two  or 300 seats there, and I, I almost felt guilty about it. Most of these seats were filled by, uh, press people,  um, and the, you know, but there are thousands of people who had actually worked at the Walt Disney  Studios who, you know, couldn't be there that day. 'cause there wasn't room. But I managed to weasel my  way in there, uh, and, uh, sat and watched and, and because this was the 75th anniversary of the Walt  Disney Company, it was a special, big event. Um, and all of the Disney legends were there that day. Uh,  uh, I, I met Bes Parker again. I met the Sherman Brothers. I met Haley Mills and her father, John Mills,  who was the head of the, uh, Swiss Family Robinson in that great live action film from 

Mindy Hargesheimer (00:57:44): 

You are living your dream with us. Yeah. 

Dan Viets (00:57:46): 

Oh, that's amazing. <laugh>, I got a sloppy with Kurt Russell. I, I, uh, hung out with, uh, Glynis Johns,  who plays the mother of the family in Mary Popin. Uh, I, I got to meet Dick Van Dyke, you know,  <laugh> Dick was legend running through this. Yeah, it was, it was great. Dick is running through this  building and, and, and I say, Hey, Dick. And he stops and comes back, <laugh>. I said, I just wanted to  make sure I'm, I'm from Missouri where you were born, and indeed, Dick was born in West Plains,  Missouri. Okay. 100 years, 100 years ago. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (00:58:19): 

<laugh>, here we go, bringing it back to Missouri. I love it. 

Dan Viets (00:58:21): 

Yep. Yep. There's all of these Disney connections, uh, to, to Disney. But Dick's just the nicest guy, and he  was, he was only 75 himself then, now he, 

Mindy Hargesheimer (00:58:29): 

Yeah. 

Dan Viets (00:58:30): 

Might even been a, a little bit younger, uh, at that time. But, uh, at any rate, it, it was an amazing day.  Well, Virginia was the center of attention because here it's the 75th anniversary of the company's  founding. So Michael Eisner and Roy E. Roy, Edward, Disney, Roy's son, Walt's nephew, um, were the  masters of Ceremonies. So they're up there at the podium, and, and they explain to the people there, what  I've just told you about how Virginia was important to the founding of the Walt Disney Company. She 

Page 17 of 36 

was the very first Disney star. And, uh, and so then they, they introduced her, and she walks up, she walks  up on the stage and walks to the podium, and she just stands there with her hands on the podium for  several seconds until she has the attention of every person at that gathering. And she says, well, it's about  time. 

(00:59:25): 

You know, it's been 75 years since Walt Disney and I founded this company, <laugh> <laugh>. And she  got a great big laugh out of that. And, and, uh, oh, it was just so much fun to be with her. And like all the  other legends, she put her hand prints in cement and autographed this slab of cement, which is now  displayed and always will be there, uh, at the Legends courtyard, uh, at the Disney Studios. You know,  and, and if you are persistent, uh, uh, you can, you can get into the Disney Studios. Now, it may not be as  easy as it used to be, but if you call ahead and, you know, you have some excuse, you can, you can still  get in there. I, I first went to the studio when I was doing research, uh, and way back in, well, I can tell  you, uh, the day, uh, that it was, uh, I, I got into the Disney studio. 

(01:00:14): 

I told Old Dave Smith, the company archivist that I was working on, uh, Disney Research and writing,  which was certainly true. And I published a lot of articles. Um, so I'm there in the, in the archive, and I  had asked for Kansas City related, uh, and Missouri related, uh, material. Uh, and they're very strict about  the time there at the stroke at 5:00 PM they kick you out. And so every researcher in there is, you know,  making the most of his or her time. Uh, and so I saw these other two, these other two guys at a table in  there. And, um, one of 'em had a shirt that said something about Wichita Golf Course or something. And I  thought, wow, these guys could be JB Kaufman and Russell Merri. And they had published this book,  which is, which was, and remains, I think, the best, the most scholarly, the most well researched and  reliable, uh, history of the early Walt Disney Company, okay. 

(01:01:15): 

Walt in Wonderland, the silent films of Walt Disney. So obviously this covers the Kansas City period, uh,  and the very first films that Walt made in Hollywood, the, the Alice comedies, the Oswald, the Lucky  Rabbit, and even the very early Mickeys, which were, uh, at first not intended to have sound, but had  sound added to them later on. Well, at any rate, so we're all kicked out of there. And, uh, and walking  down the hallway. And, and I just approached these guys and said, are you, are you JB Kaufman and  Russell Merrit? And, and they say, yes, we are. And, and I have their book with me. I have this book with  me. And I said, would you, would you autograph my book? And amazing, they both did. They were both  very kind. And that's how I know exactly what day it was, uh, that I, uh, that I met these guys, uh, at the  Walt Disney Studio. 

(01:02:08): 

That's fantastic. And they were both just really nice. I think they were, they were kind of happy to be  recognized. Absolutely. But yeah, it was, uh, 22nd of May, 1995. Uh, now Russell has passed away since  then. Russell was a professor, I think, uh, at University of San Francisco. Uh, and JB was, and remains a,  a self-taught, uh, uh, film, and especially Disney animation historian. And he lives in Wichita, and he is  the best there is. I mean, that guy knows his stuff. Yeah. Um, and he's done several projects for the Walt  Disney Family Museum, which by the way, is on the Presidio in San Francisco. Oh, okay. So if you're in  San Francisco, you should make it a point to visit the Walt Disney Family Museum there, which is in the  historic and an historic barracks building on the Presidio. And, uh, uh, and they always have wonderful,  uh, temporary exhibits, and they have fantastic permanent exhibits there. And, and it's just a great place to  visit. I, I've been invited to speak there as well. Uh, I, uh, you know, I get around, uh, I'll talk at the drop  of a hat, uh, about Walt Disney. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:03:20):

Page 18 of 36 

Yeah. 

Dan Viets (01:03:20): 

Um, 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:03:21): 

Well, that 

Dan Viets (01:03:21): 

Kind of, that was, that was a great day. Um, with Virginia Davis, uh, at the company and at the archives  meeting JB and Russell Merrit. Um, I also had a, a great evening that, that, uh, you and I talked about.  Um, I, I was a able to spend an evening with Snow White mm-hmm <affirmative>. And, uh, that was,  that was just such a thrill. Snow White, uh, was, uh, Adriana ti a a at the time that Adriana was the voice  of Snow White. She was only something like 14 years old, and, and production took a couple of years. So  she was 16 or so by the time the film was released in December of 1937. Her father was a, a show  business promoter, uh, an impresario. And, uh, and he was, uh, uh, he had, uh, I believe represented  several other opera singers. Adriana had some training as an opera singer. 

(01:04:18): 

She had a great voice. And so, uh, one day Walt Disney calls up her father, and, uh, Walt and her father  are talking about how Walt needs somebody to be the voice of Snow White in a feature length animated  film, the first successful feature length animated film ever created. Um, and in many people's opinions,  still the greatest animated feature film ever made. If you watch Snow White, you may have seen it when  you were a kid, and I urge everybody, watch Snow White again, and you'll see what I mean. I mean, it's  

just incredibly well made. It's so beautiful. The art is, is all hand drawn and hand colored, and, you know,  you, no one could afford to make a film like Snow White today. Um, but Snow White is an amazing and  important historic film. Um, and so I had begun a correspondence with Adriana. 

(01:05:10): 

Uh, she was selling, uh, black and white, uh, photos of herself and Land of Snow White autograph, of  course, photos. And, and I was reselling them. I had a little, a little shop downtown in Columbia then, so,  and I'd go to conventions and sell these, these photos. And so she kind of knew who I was. And, and I  was going to, uh, Disney, uh, convention out there, another Disney convention out in la. And each time I  was out there, I would call up Adriana and say, Hey, could I come visit you, Adriana? And she would  always say, oh, I'm just not feeling well, or, uh, I'm gonna be out of town, or whatever. And then finally,  finally, I call her out and I'm talking to her, answering the machine, and I'm saying, Hey, Adriana, I hope  you're feeling well. No, would you mind, could I please, you know, come by and meet you and, and talk  with you? 

(01:05:58): 

And she picks up the phone, uh, right in the middle of this recording and starts singing, uh, the soundtrack  from Snow White. And she's obviously feeling great in a good mood. And she says, yes, Dan, this is a  great day. Come on over. Uh, come on over to my house. He gives me the address, which is very near the  theater where Snow White had premiered. It doesn't stand any longer, but the, uh, you know, again, I just  can't quite recall the name of that theater, but it's recreated in Disney, California Adventure. Um, at any  rate, um, I go over, she has a very nice home, beautiful home with a large yard, and there's a wishing well  in the yard. Mm-hmm. Just like the song wishing well, of course, <laugh> in Snow High. That's the only  clue, uh, from the outside, uh, as to who lives in this home. 

(01:06:44):

Page 19 of 36 

But I go down, I go up there that evening, and I've got my, I've got a, a a a a bouquet of flowers for her,  and I've got my video camera in the other hand, and, and I knock on the door. She opens the door and  says, oh, we're gonna make a movie. You know, <laugh>, I was nervous that she would even want let me  do any recording, but, but she was just like a kid. And, and I was like, a kid. That's cute. You know? And  we just spent the evening at her home, and I have a video of, of most of that evening. At one point, she  sits down at her baby Grand piano, which has her Disney Legend Award, great Big, at least two foot tall,  you know, bronze Award on the piano. And she just starts reeling off. And she really does the whole  soundtrack of that movie, then <laugh>. And so she talked about how, you know, ever since Snow White  came out, she, she has been, uh, called on to do promotions for the film, which the Disney Company  released every seven years in theaters. And I know I saw it in 1957, and I thought this was a new movie.  It was actually 20 years old then. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:07:48): 

Oh, wow. 

Dan Viets (01:07:48): 

And, uh, but it made a big impression on me as it does on, on Kids Everywhere. Um, and so, um, you  know, and then when VHS came about, the company, uh, finally, they may just wait, but they finally won  by one released the classic films on VHS, and again, she'd be called on and she'd do The Tonight Show  and The Today Show, and all these, uh, all these, uh, TV shows to promote the movie. And so it really  was a lifelong thing. She was engaged with Snow White and the Walt Disney Company, her entire, her  entire life. But she also had other jobs in show business. And one of the most amazing things about  Adriana Cas is that her voice was also in The Wizard of Oz. And, and talking about the Judy Garland  version, the, the Wizard of Oz film, uh, if you go back and listen, or you might recall, there's this odd  little moment when Dorothy and the, the Lion and the Scarecrow and, and, and the, uh, the other guy are,  uh, are, are going down a yellow brick road, and they come to a forest and one of these trees starts  talking. 

(01:08:57): 

And she has just one line. And I can't remember now what that one line is, but it's kind of a high pitched  female voice. And so she, she's actually in Wizard of Oz. I don't think she's credited, I don't think, you  know, her name is in the credits, but she's in there by golly, there's no doubt about it. She's also in, uh,  1946, uh, the Greatest Christmas movie ever. It's a wonderful Life. Mm. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:09:23): 

And 

Dan Viets (01:09:23): 

Again, she doesn't show up on screen, but there's a, there's a sequence in the bar, uh, Don on it. What's the  name of that bar? Uh, well, the Bar In Wonderful 

(01:09:35): 

Life. Yeah. And, and, you know, there are two or three scenes, uh, in that bar. And, uh, the bar owner is,  is kind of a tough guy. Uh, and, and he became a big promoter of TV films Later on. He created several  major, uh, uh, major, uh, uh, comedy Uhhuh shows. Um, at any rate, uh, there's a scene in there where  you, again, you don't see her, you don't see her face, uh, but she has one line, uh, in the bar scene, and,  and it's a wonderful life. So, I mean, you know, she might have not been in a lot of movies, but if you're  gonna pick just three movies to be in

Page 20 of 36 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:10:13): 

From that 

Dan Viets (01:10:13): 

Era, 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:10:13): 

Yeah. Those are some good ones. 

Dan Viets (01:10:15): 

Film history, you could hardly do better than Snow White and Wizard of Oz, and it's a wonderful life.  Yeah. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:10:21): 

She's 

Dan Viets (01:10:21): 

One of those movies, and so I 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:10:24): 

Think she kind of nailed it. So 

Dan Viets (01:10:25): 

She was a great lady. Yeah. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:10:26): 

Uh, 

Dan Viets (01:10:26): 

Just so much fun to be with. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:10:28): 

I wanted to go back to, um, b back over to, to Marceline. So can you talk about the museum that's there  today? I have not gone. It is on my bucket list to go. So what does that look like? What can people expect  when they go visit? 

Dan Viets (01:10:43): 

It's a great place. You will not be disappointed. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:10:45): 

Yeah. 

Dan Viets (01:10:46):

Page 21 of 36 

Uh, it's in the train station. The train station was just being built when Walt and his family were leaving  Marline. Uh, so it's not actually the station that his family arrived at or departed from, but it was opened  just after they left Marline. And it is, it is a building very much like our building. It's almost the same  dimensions as the Laffer Grand Building. In other words, about 50 by a hundred feet rectangle, two story,  red brick building. And it was the, the train station in Marline was bigger than a small town like Marline  would normally have, because Marline was what's called a division point on the Santa Fe railway. The  Santa Fe railway created Marline, and, and they created a lot of Midwestern towns. And that kind of goes  back to the story that told in the Harvey girls, uh, the, the Harvey House restaurants and lunch rooms, uh,  were all along the route of the Santa Fe railway. 

(01:11:42): 

The Santa Fe originally went from Kansas City, uh, down to Santa Fe. Uh, and, uh, in 1888, or just before  that, the company decided to extend their route from Kansas City northeast up to Chicago mm-hmm  <affirmative>. And so they drew more or less a straight line from Kansas City to Chicago. And that  became the route of the Santa Fe that we still have today. And they needed to have every 100 miles along  the route of any railway. Uh, they needed to have a, a servicing point for the steam engines. All trains  were steam engines in those days. And, and they were using coal, uh, as fuel. So they needed to take on  coal. They needed to take on water for the boilers, trains, steam trains can't work without water. And, and  a third thing they need to have, that most people don't think about is sand. 

(01:12:34): 

They didn't need to have a lot of sand, but they needed to have a little bit of sand. And, uh, those bells that  you see on the top of a steam engine, one of those bells, one of those shaped protrusions is the sand bell.  And if you look closely, you'll see that a little pipe, usually about a one inch diameter pipe, runs from that  bell down the side of the boiler, and right to the front of the driving wheels, the big wheels that drive the  engine. And so they need to have sand, because if they don't have a little bit of sand there, they can't get  traction wheel also just spin on the tracks. And so, uh, every, every steam engine engineer knows that  before he starts, if he's at a dead stop before he starts, he just pulls a little string and that drops some sand  on the, on the wheels right in front, on the tracks, right. 

(01:13:25): 

Or right in front of the driving wheels. So they needed a place every a hundred miles to take on, uh, coal  and water and sand. And, uh, Marline was created to service the railway. And, and it was a division point,  which means that they had, uh, a round table there. They had a place where the engines were actually  serviced. And, uh, I think, probably not an exaggeration to say, rebuilt in that roundhouse. Now it doesn't  stand any longer, but we know where it was. And we have images and postcards of the roundhouse there  in Marline. Marline is a railroad town. And at one point, most of the people that lived in Marline worked  for the Santa Fe railway. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And so Walt Disney loved trains. And, and that may,  that probably began in Marline. Uh, he may have seen trains in Chicago, but in Marline, he saw a dozen  trains every day. 

(01:14:19): 

Yeah. And it's still that way today. When you visit Marline today, you will hear trains go through town.  Uh, some passenger trains, some amtraks, but mostly, uh, freight trains today. Mm-hmm <affirmative>.  Um, and, and Marline had a big influence on Walden in many ways. His uncle Mike, his uncle Mike,  whose last name escapes me, his uncle Mike, uh, from, uh, uh, uh, Fort Madison, Iowa, right down there  at the southeast tip of, of Iowa, is town of Fort Madison, which is also on the Santa Fe railway. And his  uncle Mike would, uh, uh, would engineer trains into Marline. And Walt lived on a farm just, uh, a mile  or so outside of town, maybe not even that far. Certainly today, it's, it's really on the edge of town. Um, it  was close enough for a little kid to walk into town. Um, but his uncle Mike would stop the steam engine  out there, and Walt would climb up and get into the, into the cab, uh, in, in the engine.

Page 22 of 36 

(01:15:19): 

And, uh, and then his uncle Mike would let him drive the train into town, and he could not have been  prouder of that. And he wanted his friends to see him, uh, driving that steam engine into, into downtown  Marline, uh, which he did every chance he got. Um, he also remembered very fondly the 4th of July  celebrations in Marline, and they had big firework shows on the 4th of July. Okay. And that tradition  continues today in Marline. You go to Marline on the 4th of July. The, the park in the middle of town is  called Ripley Square, or Ripley Park, that's named for the very first president of the Santa Fe Railway  Company. The Santa Fe railway designed marshaling, and they designed that park and named it for their  founding president. Uh, the CK Holiday is one of the steam engines in Disneyland that's named for  another president of the Santa Fe Railway. 

(01:16:14): 

And, uh, um, there's an ep Ripley Steam Engine in Disneyland. And I could say, anywhere you see a  name on something, you can be sure that name is a real person. Yeah. Lemme tell you a story. Nobody  knows this story. Okay. Uh, it's, I don't think I've even published this story before, uh, but in Disneyland,  you know, there are, I believe there are a total of four stops. And the, and the train circles the entire park.  It stops among other places in Frontier Land. And so there's a, an old West Frontier style, uh, uh, depot at  that stop. And up until, uh, up until at least 2000, um, when the, when the train stops the Frontier Land  Station, if you look over to the, over to the West, over to the, the left, um, you'll see, uh, an old baggage  cart, you know, with big wheels and, and a, and a, a a a a, a tongue. And, you know, you pull this cart  around and it has all the, the baggage on it. Well, there was one crate on this, uh, baggage cart and a  wooden crate. And it's addressed, it's addressed to a dog gun. It, I'm, I'm blanking again on the name. Co,  uh, uh, dog gun it, 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:17:32): 

Earl Cox. Well, I have to say, I'm still so impressed with your memory. You know, so many names, so  many details, though, don't feel bad if you forget a name. 

Dan Viets (01:17:40): 

Thank you. Well, it's Earl Cox. Okay. It came to me, I'm reasonably certain, uh, that I've got that right.  Earl Cox Mercer, Missouri. And then it says, find China Fragile. Find China. And I, I've got dozens of  pictures of that, of that, because here's another Missouri reference, and of course, every name in the park  is some real person. Yeah. So 

(01:18:04): 

Mercer is up on the Iowa line. It's in, uh, it is in, uh, no, I can't quite recall the county now, but, but it's  near, uh, it's near a, a town, a small town, county seat where the courthouse is. So I, I go over Missouri,  uh, for court. I enjoy doing that. So I'm up there in, uh, in near Mercer, Missouri, and I started asking  around about Earl Cox, and I didn't have to ask very many people before. Somebody says, oh, yeah, yeah,  I knew Earl Cox. He ran the feed store here in town. And I'm thinking, you know, why is his name on a  crate in Disneyland? And I say, does he have any family members? I mean, he had passed away long ago,  but says, does he have any family members around here? Somebody says, no, didn't have family here  anymore, but I knew his daughters, and they moved down to Florida. 

(01:18:58): 

And so, somehow or other, I was able to piece together enough information to locate Earl Cox's daughters  in Florida. And I, I call them up and I say, what is the deal? Why is your father's name on a crate in  Disneyland? And they knew exactly what I was talking about. And they, uh, I recorded this interview, uh,  with his daughters. And, and here's the story. He said, well, one of the, one of the girls says, I was married  to an artist, and he was kind of famous in Los Angeles, uh, for, uh, painting murals on a meat packing 

Page 23 of 36 

company. And, and, and that's true. And if you talk to people who grew up in la, at least older people who  grew up in la, they'll know what you're talking about. He drew these neurals with, with pigs on them, and  the pigs were kind of anthropomorphic pigs, and they were doing all kinds of annex and, and stuff, and  having a good time, you know, not knowing they were bound for the sausage <laugh> factory. But  nonetheless, now, now this guy's name doc gone again. Uh, I just saw it the other day. And, and you, you  know, I'm giving you enough clues that you can Google this and find, and I'll tell you that, because I  know I did. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:20:12): 

I'll do my homework after this 

Dan Viets (01:20:14): 

Uhhuh. So, so her husband, uh, was a fairly well-known commercial artist in Los Angeles in the mid  1950s. He had been a wrestler, and I do remember that he had been a professional wrestler in his younger  days, and then he retires from wrestling, and he becomes a painter. <laugh> a pretty good artist, a pretty  fine artist. Uh, and so, uh, he, he was called when Disneyland was being finished, and as I mentioned,  they built the entire park in just one year. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. They were in a terrible hurry to finish  that park. They had all said, orbit said, we're gonna open on July 17th, 1955. But they were nowhere near  ready to open. And when you see, uh, Leslie iWorks film, Disneyland handcrafted, uh, you'll see what I'm  talking about. In fact, you can see that on the Disney Channel. Okay. You can see that. Go to the Disney  Channel, look up Disneyland and craft it, um, and other great films that Leslie has made, uh, about the  Disney Company. 

(01:21:09): 

But at any rate, so this artist, I believe his name is John, uh, it'll come down, maybe the meat company is,  is John something. But, but at any rate, he was called on, as were many other artists to come to  Disneyland and help to finish the park. And, uh, you know, he had been, he had been working as a  commercial painter and artist around Los Angeles. Um, and, and, and he also worked as a set decorator.  He worked for movie studios doing exactly the same thing, painting, not just painting walls and floors,  but actually painting things that, you know, that required an artist to paint them. So, um, he had the  opportunity to paint the Disneyland, uh, the land station. Um, and while he was there, he had a chance to  paint this crate that's on the baggage card. And he, he knows that his father-in-law, uh, is gonna come out  to Disneyland to visit him and his wife, uh, and to see the park. And so he thought this would be a really  funny joke if he would paint the Earl Cox Mercer, Missouri on this crate. And, and that's exactly what  happened, you know? Nice. 

(01:22:22): 

A few weeks later, when the park is finished and opened, Earl comes to visit his daughter and her  husband, the artist, uh, and they go to Disneyland. And I, I don't remember whether he had to point this  out to Earl or not, but he made sure Earl did not miss the fact that his name was on this crate at the  Frontier Land Station, and remained, as I say, on that crate for at least 30 or 40 years after that. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:22:48): 

Okay. And 

Dan Viets (01:22:49): 

Dare say again, that nobody at the Walt Disney Company had any idea why Earl Cox's name was on this  crate. And so, in more recent years, unfortunately, somebody who didn't know that that crate had a history 

Page 24 of 36 

behind it, uh, moved it. And so it's not there anymore, but it was there for many decades. And I'm gonna  see if I can get them to put it back. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:23:10): 

Well, there you go. Okay. So I gotta circle you back, though, to the museum. Yeah. 'cause I wanna hear  about what the experience is like at the museum when you go 

Dan Viets (01:23:18): 

Yeah, sure. Sure. It's great. It's great. Now be sure to call first Okay. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:23:22): 

Or 

Dan Viets (01:23:22): 

Check the website. But, you know, they're not always open. Okay. Uh, they're, they're open during the  summer almost every day. But during the winter especially, and while school's in session, they, they may  not be open weekdays. Um, they're open on weekends at least, but call first to make sure they're gonna be  open. Sure. Okay. Um, it's a beautiful thing, and it, it has developed just like Disneyland will never be  finished as long as there's imagination in the world. Uh, in other words, Walt wanted the park to continue  to evolve. He didn't want it to be static, and everything just stayed just like it was. Uh, and so the Disney  Museum, the Walt Disney Boyhood Hometown Museum, and Marline Missouri, is the same way. And it  not only changes, it improves. I mean, I am just very impressed with what the folks in Marline do with  that museum. Kay Mallon's, uh, lives in the house where Walt Disney lived when he was in Marline. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:24:15): 

Okay. 

Dan Viets (01:24:15): 

The family lived in Marline. Now, the house has changed. It doesn't look the same, but the original house  is still there, and they've just added onto it and embellished it and made it look like a modern house, uh,  which it is, except that the original woodwork and the original bedroom that Walt Disney slept in are all  still there in this house. So, Walt, I mean, Kay's father, rush Johnson, um, became pals with Walt Disney.  Walt Disney actually planned to open a theme park in Marline, Missouri at one time. And he, there are  drawings, uh, that Walt made of what he thought the theme park should be. Now, it wasn't gonna be  another Disneyland, it was gonna be a small rural theme turn of the 20th century theme park. He thought  kids growing up today, at least, uh, kids in the cities have no idea what farm life used to be. So they need  to know what it was like to live on a farm back in 1910. And, uh, that's what the park was gonna be. It  was gonna be an embellished and dressed up version of a 1910 farm. And his, his house was gonna be,  was gonna be part of that theme park. Okay. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:25:24): 

And 

Dan Viets (01:25:24): 

So, uh, Walt said to Rush, said, rush, if I try to buy that land, the price is gonna go way up. So how about  if you buy this land for me, buy the house where I grew up, buy the, the 45 acres of land around it, uh,  and then turn it over to me, and, and, and I'm gonna build a theme park there in Marline. So Rush said, 

Page 25 of 36 

you betcha I'll do that. He bought it at a reasonable price, then sold it to the Walt Disney Company. Well,  Walt died before the Marline theme park could be built. And after that, uh, uh, his brother Roy was  finishing Disney World. You know, Walt bought the land for Disney World. Walt, um, laid out the plans  for Disney World, but he died before Disney World could be built, before any of the theme parks there  were were actually opened. 

(01:26:11): 

And Roy Disney, his eight years older brother, you know, devoted the end of his life to making Walt's  dream a reality. And in, in October of 1971, Walt Disney World opened. But it was just the Magic  Kingdom. There was no Epcot, there was no animal kingdom, there was no Hollywood studio. Uh, and,  and lots of other things that have cropped up since we're not there yet. But when Walt Disney World  opened, it was just the Magic Kingdom. And, uh, I believe they had three hotels, and they had the  monorail that goes around to the hotels. Um, and that was Roy's. He never got to retire. That was what  was gonna be his retirement was overseeing the construction of Disney World. Well, Roy died before  Christmas that year. And, and that's a real shame, because it was, it was at Christmas that year that it  became clear that Walt Disney World was gonna succeed. 

(01:27:05): 

The initial attendance was a little bit less than they had hoped for, but by Christmas time, it was clear that  Disney World was gonna be a major success. Um, at any rate, uh, the Marceline theme park never got  built. Roy didn't have time to do it. He still planned to do it, but he died before he could, uh, could do it.  And, and he barely got Disney World open before he passed away. Um, and so the remaining people at  the Disney Company did not have connections to Marceline, and none of them were willing to put in the  time and to work and risk the money, you know, and, and I'm sure they were skeptical of whether people  would come to, to Marceline to, to see a small little rural theme park <laugh>. I remember that Rush told  me that, that he discussed that with Walt. He says, Walt, are you sure people will come to our little town  to even to see a, a Disney theme park? And Roy said, I mean, uh, uh, Walt said to Russ Johnson, he says,  rush when I sit my butt down on, and he didn't say butt, when I sit my butt down on the desk on a Sunday  night and tell people that I'm building a theme park in Ene, Missouri, they will, by golly come to Ene  Missouri, 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:28:21): 

<laugh> <laugh>. So, 

Dan Viets (01:28:22): 

You know, Wal Wal had thought about that. Yeah. But he was convinced that, that, that it would succeed  just like Disneyland succeeded, because Walt promoted Disneyland on the wonderful, or originally it was  called Disneyland, the, the TV show. It was called Disneyland. And indeed, he used that t that TV show  to promote his theme park. A BC TV owned 15% interest in the, in Disneyland when it first opened. I see. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:28:48): 

So 

Dan Viets (01:28:48): 

They had an interest in promoting the theme park, too. And, uh, that was just a bit of marketing genius on  Welch's Park. And maybe, maybe the Marline Park would've succeeded. We'll never know. But the plans  for it are on display at the Marline Walt Disney Boyhood Hometown Museum. And so many other  wonderful things are on display there. They have some just amazing artifacts. Uh, they have lots of great  photographs of Walt Disney on his visits back to Marline on the 4th of July, 1956, they made a point of 

Page 26 of 36 

inviting Walt and Roy and their wives to come back to Marline and Rus Johnson. And, and his little  daughter, Kay, who was just seven or so years old at the time, uh, moved out of their home because they  had the only air conditioned house in Marline. They wanted the Disney family to be comfortable. And,  and Rush's wife, uh, EZ, who still lives in Marline, said, but, you know, we didn't have any nice furniture.  We just, we had just moved into this house, but all we had was our old furniture. And she says, so we  went to other neighbors and borrowed their furniture to put into our house. So it'd be nice enough for that,  you know, and the Disney family, they didn't care about those things, but the Johnson family wanted them  to have a nice place to stay. So Walt Disney shows up, 

(01:30:03): 

Comes on the train, uh, from Kansas City, at least comes on the train, and, uh, uh, goes up to the front  yard of the Johnson Home, which of course, still stands in Marline. Uh, they don't live there anymore, but  it still stands, goes up on the front yard. And a little Kay Allens little 7-year-old Kay Allens is there. And  she says to Walt Disney, she says, Walt, I don't know if you called him Walt, but she says, she says, what  room are you sleeping in? And he says, well, uh, uh, we're in a bedroom. It's got a kind of a, a pink  canopy over the bed. And she interrupts and says, that's my bedroom. You're sleeping in my bed. You  know, <laugh>. So there are very few people who can say truthfully, that Wal Disney slept in their bed. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:30:42): 

No kidding. 

Dan Viets (01:30:44): 

<laugh>. So 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:30:44): 

She's got that claim to fame <laugh>. 

Dan Viets (01:30:47): 

Yeah. But Kay is really the prime mover. She's really, she and her mother Inez, are really the people who  made this museum a reality. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:30:54): 

Okay. And, 

Dan Viets (01:30:55): 

Uh, it's a wonderful thing. It's a great location. That old, uh, Santa Fe train station, and it's just full of, of  beautiful exhibits, about Marcene history, about Walt's family. And they, you know, the name of it, the  Walt Disney Family, A museum actually is the one in San Francisco. But the Marline Disney Museum  spends more time on Walt's family than, than the Disney Family Museum. Oh, fun. In San Francisco. In  other words, they have exhibits about Walt's parents. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. They have, uh, a, a  recording of Walt and his parents at their 50th wedding anniversary talking about, just joking around  about all kinds of stuff. They have exhibits about Walt's big brothers. He had two older brothers, uh, older  than Roy. Um, and those two brothers, uh, were kind of, uh, partners. They were, they were close to each  other. Herbert and, uh, Raymond Disney. Okay. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:31:46): 

And,

Page 27 of 36 

Dan Viets (01:31:47): 

Um, and Raymond's two sons, uh, live in Kansas City. They have a home in LA and a home in Kansas  City. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:31:53): 

Okay. Um, 

Dan Viets (01:31:54): 

But they've attended a couple of our events in recent years. I spoke about the, the Disneyland Moon liner,  uh, at the TWA museum in Kansas City on November 1st. Uhhuh <affirmative> and the Disney Brothers  who, uh, uh, uh, Charles is, is, uh, getting on him years, but he's very sharp. And his younger brother,  Daniel, uh, they, they love to attend Disney events in Kansas City. Sure. So, um, well, again, the Marline  Museum is just, it's just a wonderful place. It's hard to describe all the beautiful exhibits they have there,  but you will not be disappointed if you care about Walt Disney history. Yeah. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:32:28): 

You will enjoy, it's a must experience. Enjoy the 

Dan Viets (01:32:30): 

Marline. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:32:30): 

I'm excited. Yeah. I'm excited to get there. Like I said, I haven't been there yet, so I wanna get our family  to go there, um, very soon. So let's, let's now get to what you and your team are doing for Lao Graham in  Kansas City. Tell us what we can expect, what you guys are working on, what it's gonna look like, like  how is that whole process coming together in today's day of, uh, you know, honoring Walt Disney's  legacy via this building? Mm-hmm <affirmative>. 

Dan Viets (01:32:59): 

Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Well, 30 years ago, I went to the owners of this building and asked if they  would sell it to us. And as I mentioned earlier, they were reluctant at first. They wanted to lead this to  their grandchildren. But when the city of Kansas City put this building on the list of buildings to be  demolished, they became motivated sellers, <laugh>. And, uh, it would've been tragic if that building had  been torn down. Yeah. But it would've been if we hadn't intervened. Yeah. If we hadn't bought it. Good  for you guys. So I go to them, I visit their home. They were sweet people, Gertrude and, uh, uh, Douglas  Ford or their names. Okay. And, uh, very, very nice people. And, uh, Douglas had run a pool hall in the  main commercial space on the ground floor of this building up until he didn't run it any longer. 

(01:33:43): 

And probably partly because the building was, was deteriorating. But he had operated a pool hall there in  the, um, let's see, that would be the northeast corner where the pharmacy had been back in Wal Day. And  there are, uh, five storefronts along 31st street there. Um, and as I said, when we acquired it, this building  was in terrible condition. The roof collapsed, very little of the interior could be, could be preserved. Um,  

but we believed it was very important to save this building. And so, I, I, I, working with, uh, three or four  of our other board members, um, had formed this not-for-profit corporation, Butch Rigby, an attorney in  Kansas City, uh, was really the founder. And I joined them, uh, a month or two, I guess, after they, after  they started. And they, they first were thinking about building a statue of Walton Royal.

Page 28 of 36 

(01:34:35): 

Okay. And that's still a great idea. Uhhuh <affirmative>. And they were thinking about, you know, what  else could they do to, to memorialize, uh, the connections between Disney and Kansas City. And so, you  know, uh, at one point they looked at Union Station, which at that time was in terrible condition, was  leaking, had water pooled up on the floor. Um, thank goodness, uh, the Kansas City and Kansas City,  Missouri together, uh, passed a sales tax to, to save Union Station. Okay. Which has a lot of Disney  history in it. Um, but we acquired this building way back in about, if I recall again correctly, about 1990,  uh, five or 98 in, in that time period. And, um, we took on the risk that the city would still demolish the  building, and they would've billed us for the privilege of hauling it off to the dump <laugh>. And that was  a very real risk. But we begged the city not to Dick Berkeley was mayor back then. Emanuel Cleaver was  mayor, uh, during that period. And they, they both, they understood the importance of saving this  building. And, and they were sympathetic, but they would give us a little kick in the butt from time to  time and say, Hey, are you guys getting anything done over there? 'cause that building doesn't look any  better than it did before. We would say, yes, yes. We're working on it. Working 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:35:47): 

On it. And 

Dan Viets (01:35:48): 

We would go around with our hat, our hand, begging for money. Well, we never really got any, we got  enough money to stabilize the building. And, um, at one point we put a new roof on the building, and then  more recently we put another new roof on the building. Uh, you know, we've had it for that long. Here's a,  here's an illustration of how it appeared when we were in the process of saving it. Um, those blocks of  concrete, those flying buttresses or those girders are holding up the walls. Yeah. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:36:19): 

And 

Dan Viets (01:36:20): 

At the foot of each buttress, uh, is a cube of concrete that weighed three tons. So the people that, that we  hired, uh, poured those concrete blocks, held the walls in place, reassembled, you can see the north front  bricks are missing. They reassembled those bricks on the north front, which had kind of bowed outward,  uh, and, and saved the building from, from collapse and from being demolished. Now I can show you an  image of how it looked in the earlier days, um, in my book, which you can still find, 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:36:53): 

Which you can check out at the library or buy from it on 

Dan Viets (01:36:56): 

Amazon. Well, I hope it's still in the library. I know. It used to be at the Kansas City Public Library. They  surely still have it there. Yeah. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:37:03): 

Um, 

Dan Viets (01:37:06):

Page 29 of 36 

And as I said, that building is designed by Ane Peters the famous Kansas City architect. Um, gosh, I  should have, I I've got so many pages marked that I can't, I can't find the pages I'm looking for. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:37:18): 

That's okay. I'll see. I'll, I'll pop down to the library and see if I can go find the book. 

Dan Viets (01:37:22): 

Well, yes, by all means, do that or buy it on Amazon or buy it from me. But here's how the building  appeared when Walt was there. Um, and it was very handsome building. Mm-hmm 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:37:33): 

<affirmative>. 

Dan Viets (01:37:33): 

Uh, I think we got a mirror image here, but it's a very nice building, two story red brick building with, uh,  terracotta trim. Uh, and it's down at 31st and Forest Street. Okay. Just go down 31st Street. You can  always see the PBS TV station tower from anywhere in the city. That's the street that we're on. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:37:52): 

Okay. Just 

Dan Viets (01:37:52): 

A few blocks east of there. Yeah. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:37:54): 

Um, 

Dan Viets (01:37:55): 

And we really had a breakthrough a couple years ago, when now Congressman Emmanuel Cleaver got a  grant for us from Congress for $2 million. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:38:03): 

Oh, amazing. So 

Dan Viets (01:38:04): 

Now, now we're in the process of really moving this project along. Okay. And, you know, for 30 years,  <laugh> for 30 years, we're, we're begging, uh, for money, but, uh, making, we've now got some real  money to work with. Yeah. So it's not enough to finish it. We have to raise another 4 million, or actually a  little more than another 4 million to finish. That's good. This project. Yeah. But it's become a combination  of an historic building a, a museum of sorts with exhibits about the history that I've been telling you about  today. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Uh, and the people who, who helped Walt Disney begin the Walt Disney  Company in Kansas City. And the great pioneering Hollywood animators who worked with Walt Disney  there of iWork, Hugh Harmon, Rudy Eising for his freeling, uh, Virginia Davis will be, and, and ne Peters  will be, um, uh, a subject of an exhibit there. 

(01:38:55):

Page 30 of 36 

Sure. But the bulk of the space there will be devoted to educational activities, will be training young  people and older people for that matter, how animation used to be done and how it's being done now.  Amazing. Digital animation is a booming field. Kansas City is already a major center of, uh, digital  animation activity. So, um, that's our vision. And, and again, I urge people go to thank you, Walt  disney.org. Go to our website, thank you, walt disney.org. You know, people ask me often as the, is the  Walt Disney Company helping you with this project? I say, yes, they are. They've been very helpful. They  did not sue us <laugh>. And that, that's a tremendous help. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:39:37): 

That's a win by 

Dan Viets (01:39:39): 

The Walt Disney Company, because we're using their most valuable asset. And what is the most valuable  asset that the Walt Disney Company has? Well, it's the name Walt Disney <laugh>. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:39:50): 

Yeah. Yeah. 

Dan Viets (01:39:51): 

That name. They're nothing. And, and, and the Walt Disney name is incredibly valuable. I remember my  mother always knew if I was going to a movie that was a Disney movie, she could count on it to be  wholesome and Yeah. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:40:03): 

Entertaining. 

Dan Viets (01:40:04): 

And, and, and the whole world knows that, just like you said earlier. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:40:07): 

Yeah. So, feel good. 

Dan Viets (01:40:08): 

Um, they've allowed us to use the name Walt Disney. Uh, and we've gone out of our way to be careful,  respectful, uh, and, and grateful, uh, that they've allowed us to do that. Now I spoke briefly with Bob Iger  about our project a few years back. Okay. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:40:22): 

And 

Dan Viets (01:40:23): 

I spoke to Bo, uh, to, uh, Michael Eisner and to, to Roy e Disney about it. And they've all been very nice  and very encouraging. They just haven't, you know, pulled out that checkbook yet. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:40:33):

Page 31 of 36 

Yeah. We need that. Well, let's put it out there. And we're, we're also talking on the heels of the new CEO  coming in. Right. Who just, uh, replaced Bob Josh motto. 

Dan Viets (01:40:41): 

Yeah, absolutely. Right. And it seems like a good choice. A lot of people were rooting for Dana, the, the,  the, the woman Yeah. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:40:47): 

To 

Dan Viets (01:40:47): 

Be appointed. And, but she'll still be there. And she's in a major, major, 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:40:50): 

He's so very highly of her. I, I saw him in an interview, um, with NBC Today Show or something like  that, and he spoke very highly for, so, yeah. Yeah, yeah. 

Dan Viets (01:40:59): 

Well, I'm tell you, if we have a few minutes Yes. May I talk of course, about the Rocket Show. Do the  TWA moonlight. And as you can see, it's on the cover of this recent Disneyland book, 3D Disneyland.  But this Moon Liner rocket ship was a real major symbol of the park back in 1955 when Disneyland  opened. It was the centerpiece of Tomorrow land. You know, Disneyland is made up of five major lands.  There's the, uh, main Street USA section, which is mostly stores. And then there's Adventure Land where,  where the, the 

(01:41:33): 

Boats go around, uh, and through the rivers of the world. And then there's frontier land, and then there's  fantasy land. The castle, it's the centerpiece of, of fantasy land. The Mark Twain Steamboat is the  centerpiece of, uh, of Frontier land. Um, the, um, the rocket ship is the centerpiece of the land on, on the  right of the hub Tomorrowland. And it was the tallest thing in the park when Disneyland opened taller  even than the Castle. And it was, it, it, it was sponsored obviously, by TWA, which was then  headquartered in Kansas City. Howard Hughes owned TWAA controlling interest in TWA at that time.  He had, uh, he had chosen to, to purchase a fleet of constellation, uh, aircraft, the most beautiful, and the  last of the, of the major commercial propeller driven airplanes. Uh, the Constellation, uh, which shows up  in lots of films, uh, from the fifties and sixties. 

(01:42:32): 

Uh, the Triple Tail, the triple rudder on the tail is really the distinguishing feature, uh, of the  Constellation. Everybody can recognize the Constellation. If that airplane has three equal size vertical  rudders, that's a constellation. So the, the, um, the Airline History Museum in Kansas City has one of the  very few, very few, maybe the only in the Western Hemisphere still flying Constellation aircraft. Hmm.  And, and there was a group connected with the museum. The group that started the museum really was  Save a Connie, save a Constellation. Okay. And when it started, there were lots of guys, lots of people  who had worked on the constellation at TWA and the parts were still relatively easy to find today. There  aren't many of those people that worked on the Connie still with us. And you sure can't go down to the  store and find parts for a Connie <laugh>. 

(01:43:26):

Page 32 of 36 

Uh, there are fortunately, some of those Connie still around that can be used for parts, but it's not easy to  keep that plane flying. Now. Uh, Leonardo DiCaprio made a movie a few years ago about Howard  Hughes's life called The Aviator. And that Connie appears in that movie, the Kansas City Constellation is  the one that Leonardo appears to fly in the film, the Aviator produced, produced by Martin SCORs. Yeah.  So a great, a great film in many ways. Yeah. Um, well, meanwhile, meanwhile, back in Kansas City,  Howard Hughes decides that he wants his own, he wants his own moon liner. He's got a lot of  constellations, but he doesn't have his own moon liner. And so he commissions a company in New York  to recreate the Disneyland moon liner and put it on top of their building in downtown Kansas City. And  that's exactly what happened. 

(01:44:18): 

Uh, Howard, uh, was the original eccentric billionaire, and he, you know, if he wanted something to  happen, it would pretty much by golly happened. So he, he, he's getting ready to open a new headquarters  building at 18th and Baltimore in downtown Kansas City. And he, uh, he, uh, wants to put this Kansas  City Moon liner on top of his new building. And, and he did, he created a 32, more than 32 foot tall, uh,  uh, version of the Moon liner and put it on his building in downtown Kansas City. Yes. And here's, here's  how, let me see if I can get this up here. Yeah. Here's how that building looks. Now the building still  looks pretty much the same today. Uhhuh <affirmative>, it's red and white. The TWA color, there's no  rock. Well, there is a rocket there, in fact. Yeah. Uh, but it doesn't say TWA any longer. The rocket,  however, looks exactly like this rocket. Well, that rocket is an imitation or a recreation of the rocket that  was recreated and that stood on that building originally, the one you see today. In other words, it's not the  original rocket. Okay. It's a recreation of the original Kansas City, TWA rocket, the, uh, original Kansas  City rocket. Now dog on, I got too many things here. Oh, the original Kansas City Moon liner now stands  right next to a Lockheed Electra, which, uh, Amelia Earhart flew, uh, at the, at the TWA museum. Okay. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:45:47): 

At 

Dan Viets (01:45:47): 

The Wheeler Airport, the Kansas City Downtown Weaver 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:45:50): 

Airport. Yeah, I've been there. It's great. 

Dan Viets (01:45:52): 

It, it was not a small thing to move this rocket across the tarmac, across the runways. On September 27th,  we moved this rocket from the now closed Airline History Museum to the TWA museum. I didn't realize  they had a hanger tall enough to accommodate this thing, and it barely is <laugh>. I mean, the tip top of  this rocket is almost to the ceiling of the, of the TWA museum. But this rocket has a amazing history  itself. You can see if you look closely, that the portholes are illuminated and the cockpit is illuminated  uhhuh. And that's the way the rocket was built. But when I acquired that rocket back in about 1998, this is  how it looked. Here I am growing up through the, uh, the rocket ship. And it, it was worse than it looks  here, really. It had stood in the rain at Concordia, Missouri near Interstate 70 since about, uh, since about  1968 or so, uh, originally after TWA entered their sponsorship of the Disneyland rocket, 

(01:46:56): 

Then Douglas Aircraft took it over for a while, and TWA took their rocket off of the building. The sa At  the same time, Howard Hughes lost control of TWA, and I expect they said, Howard Hughes is crazy. We  don't want a rocket ship on our headquarters building <laugh>. So they kind of sold it to a man named 

Page 33 of 36 

John May who owned the, the, uh, spacecraft, RV and Camper Shell Company in Independence, which he  subsequently moved to Concordia. So the rocket stood there at Concordia since, at least the late 1960s.  And I'd seen it many times and admired it and said, boy, I wish I had a rocket ship. Um, but I didn't know  it had Disney history behind it until, no kidding. I did more research and realized, my gosh, this is a  Disneyland rocket. It's this spitting image of the rocket that stood in Tomorrowland. Well, then <laugh>, I  go to Mr. May and say, Hey, uh, would you like to sell your rocket ship? 

(01:47:50): 

And he says, well, I'm getting ready to retire, and I'm gonna sell the land, and yeah, I'll sell you in a  rocket. So he did. And, and I acquired this rocket ship. Uh, gosh. Now you can see that dark area where  my hand is reaching to that is what's referred to as a vault. Uh, uh, okay. Uh, it's just a little compartment,  really, in the side of the, uh, the rocket ship. Um, but that vault was used to contain the entries on  microfilm, uh, in a contest. The TWA ran, uh, in the, in the early, uh, in the late fifties and early six, no,  uh, actually in 1956, because that was the 30th anniversary of TWA. And so when people, when people  took a ride on the Disneyland moon liner, they would get a certificate like this, ah, 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:48:39): 

And it 

Dan Viets (01:48:40): 

Says, I've been to the moon and back on TWA and it's signed by Captain Collins, and if it's filled out, it  has the date that you, you flew on it, the more valuable examples are not filled out, of course. Um, but,  uh, I think it's, it's, it's amazing and fascinating that we're getting ready to circle the moon again. Yeah.  

But that's exactly what you did when you rode on the, on the TWA Moon liner. You did what four NASA  astronauts are getting ready to do. Probably next month, they're gonna blast off and fly around the moon  and come back to the earth. Well, when you took this ride, you, you seeded in a circular, um, chamber,  and there was a video screen on the seal, or a, a film screen actually on the ceiling and one on the floor.  So you would see the blast off. 

(01:49:27): 

You'd see Disneyland shrinking as the rocket rises, you'd see California, the United States, then the  clouds, then the sky would turn dark on the top screen. You'd see the stars come out and you'd hear  Captain Collins narrating this trip. At one point there's a meteor storm, and it sounds like rocks are hitting  the side of the rocket, you know? But to survive that. And then you go around the dark side of the moon,  the side that never faces the earth, and you would just glimpse for just a few seconds, you would glimpse  the ruins of an ancient civilization on the dark side of the moon, and then come back to Disneyland and  land. And just like this rocket is gonna do, that's <laugh> that's going to the moon next month. You know,  it would, it would land again, uh, tail first in Disneyland. You'd come out and, and you'd see the rocket  standing there. 

(01:50:17): 

Well, so TWA runs a contest and every passenger that went on a TWA fight would be given an entry  form. I have a copy of these entry forms. You, you would get an entry form and you would, there's a two  part contest. You were supposed to say why air travel is the best way to travel and why TWA is the best  airline and that winner would get $50,000, uh, you know, when the contest was over. The second part of  the contest was to predict what air travel would be like in the distant future of 19 86, 30 years in the  future. Well, they couldn't judge that part of the contest, by the way. Uh, Walt Disney and, uh, uh, Warner  v Braun and, uh, other, uh, famous scientists and, and, uh, an Avi tricks, as they called female aviators,  then named Jackie Cochran, all judged the first part of that contest. 

(01:51:08):

Page 34 of 36 

I doubt that Walt spent a lot of time reading entries, but he was officially one of the judges. Well, the, the,  the second part could not be judged for 30 years. So they microfilmed the entries and they stored them in  that little compartment on the side of this, of this, of this rocket ship on top of their building. Well, when  they took the rocket down in about 1962, they took those microfilmed entries and put them into a boring  old, uh, safe deposit box in a bank. But in 1986, they were true to their word. They got those entries out.  They judged who had predicted what air travel would be like. And they called up a lady, um, who had no  recollection of entering any such contest and said, Madam, you've just won $50,000 in Twas cosmic  contest. And she was somewhat skeptical about that. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:51:57): 

Sure. 

Dan Viets (01:51:57): 

But the check arrived and it cleared, and she was convinced <laugh>, and so, 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:52:03): 

Yep. Oh wow. That's, 

Dan Viets (01:52:05): 

That's just a neat little, uh, 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:52:06): 

Yep. And that's, I love that, that's an iconic, uh, piece of the Kansas City skyline with that rocket there.  Yeah. Love it. Down in the crossroads. Um, oh my gosh. Well, like you and I talked about, we could  literally talk for hours. Like, you know, we were, I feel like we're just scratching the surface, you know,  obviously, you know, that Disney is so layered and so rich in its history, and I really wanted to just get  into, um, you know, the history of it as it pertains to Kansas City and Missouri. And you did such an  amazing job helping me. And for anyone listening to this understand like, what an amazing, you know,  base this was for the Walt Wal Disney name and family and, um, you know, and marline and everything.  So, um, I'm super grateful that you took the time to talk about this. 

(01:52:51): 

'cause I think it's really fun for people who, like I said, are Disney enthusiasts. If you're, um, if you love  history of this area, like there's just so much to take away with this and, uh, you know, we can go down a  whole rabbit trail of more research that we could talk about, you know, that you've done. So thank you to  you and your team, uh, thank you Walt Disney, everything that you guys are doing. And then obviously  we wanna figure out how we can get that, the additional funds so we can get that going and finished. So  we can go, go check out the laugh of Grant, 

Dan Viets (01:53:18): 

Sign up, sign up for our newsletter. Thank you. Walt disney.org. Perfect. And you can find out, out about  all of our special events there and everything we're doing and become a monthly donor. Yeah. Like I am,  of course, Uhhuh, uh, to thank you Walt Disney. And it's gonna be exciting to see this, this museum and  educational facility become a reality over on 31st and Forest. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:53:38): 

That's huge. That's gonna do a lot for, like you said, youth or anyone who's really interested in getting into  that. So thank you guys for all the work that you've been doing for 30 years. Right. Plus. So, um, well, it's 

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been so good getting to know you and you know, when you, you're in Columbia, but when you come to  Kansas City, you'll have to let me know so we can meet in person. Um, you're just a wealth of knowledge  and very, very impressive. So thank you so much, Dan. This has been awesome. Awesome. 

Dan Viets (01:54:02): 

Thank you Mindy, very much. 

Mindy Hargesheimer (01:54:04): 

Thank you. Thank you so much for tuning in and finding inspiration in these incredible stories. If you  love what you hear, be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. Leave a rating and share the show  to help these Kansas City voices reach even more listeners.

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