SAVING DISNEY DREAMS
When Walt Disney took up residence in California, he did some of his first animation work in his uncle Robert's ramshackle garage. He soon moved to better quarters, the garage left behind, forgotten.
Until, six decades later, Disney executive Art Adler heard on television that the garage-which he knew had once been Walt's-was being auctioned. The Disney Company had no interest in it. Whoever bought the garage would likely demolish it and use the lot for something else. So, Art made it his mission to save Walt's garage.
In Walt Disney's Garage of Dreams, which Art completed shortly before his death in 2014, Art shares the history of the garage, his tireless efforts to save it, and a unique insider's look at his ten-year career with the Disney Company, from the perspective not of an animator or an artist, but that of an executive.
Here's just some of what you'll find inside Walt's garage:
- The true story of how an ugly garage near Hollywood became the unlikely catalyst for the Disney empire
- How rock singer Bobby Sherman and Let's Make a Deal announcer Jay Stewart got involved with Walt's garage
- Art's highs and lows with the Disney Company, and why he left after ten years of exemplary service
- How Art convinced President Ronald Reagan and the U.S. Congress to proclaim a Walt Disney Recognition Day
- Art's brushes with celebrities at Disney World, including a dangerous handshake with President Jimmy Carter
- A transcript of the mostly forgotten, off-the-cuff speech that Walt Disney made to high-ranking Cast Members at the Disneyland Hotel in 1965
Walt Disney's Garage of Dreams also features narratives from Bob Penfield, an original Disneyland Cast Member, and from retired Disney VP of Merchandising Bob Bowman, with additional contributions by Disney historian Jim Korkis.
This is your chance not only to learn where Walt set his feet upon the path to greatness but also get a rare peek into the "suit-and-tie" side of Disney.