A Few More From June 12, 1973
Hooray for Ralph! The Most Exciting Man in America, according to "Fedora Aficionado" magazine, circa 1971 (that was two years before these photo were taken, FYI). I can only dream of possessing Ralph's joie de vivre, his savoir faire, his je ne sais qua. Here's a man who knows what he wants and he knows how to get it. But he also knows how to treat others with respect, so don't go thinking he's a jerk. Don't do it! Ralph has enjoyed his Pack Mule ride, and crosses it off of his bucket list of "things to experience", you can see the sense of accomplishment and satisfaction that he exudes.
Meanwhile... here's a scarce photo of the the display of Walt Disney's "working" office that used to be a part of "The Walt Disney Story", which had opened in the Opera House on April 3rd of '73. Mr. Lincoln took a vacation, but he'd be back (tanned and well-rested). You can see some of the awards that Walt had been given over the years, including an Academy Award, an Irving Thalberg Award (which he received in 1942), and the rather elaborate "Grand Art Trophy" from the Venice Film Festival, which was given to Walt in 1938 - that's the statue with Snow White, tiny birds, all seven Dwarfs, and some woodland critters. We can also see some of the Kem Webber furniture that was designed for the Studio.
You can see a photo of a Grumman Gulfstream just like Walt's pride and joy, and what I assume is a model of a Gulfstream as well. A photo of the Studio as seen from Walt's Burbank office was placed "outside the window", while various figurines are on the windowsill. A few are recognizable, including the Queen of Hearts from "Alice in Wonderland", a "Gideon" bisque figurine (I have one of those) from Japan, and two mysterious bear figures - are these early incarnations of characters that would eventually wind up in "The Country Bear Jamboree"?
Walt's office on the Burbank lot had been used by others over the years (hard to believe!), but it was restored in 2015, minus some of the items that are now on display at the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco.
14 comments:
Major-
It would appear that "Ralph" is performing some sort of secret incantation with his hands upon exiting the Pack Mule attraction. Perhaps he's celebrating a massive weight loss, dropping his girth below 195# allowing him that 'bucket list cross-offable' accomplishment. Good for you, Ralph.
Thanks, Major.
I've never seen Ralph so excited before! He's downright giddy! ;-)
The mule-riding lady behind him is wearing a babushka... or maybe it's one of the Seven Dwarfs hats... "Whitey". (There's no end to the Dwarfs that didn't make it into the final cut of the movie.)
I never knew that the Walt Disney Story replaced Mr. Lincoln for a while. When we were there in '75, Abe was already back from vacation. (And yes, Major, he did look tanned. No idea if he was rested or not. I bet he spent his "me time" splitting animatronic rails, so probably not rested.) Where are the ashtrays and cigarette butts?
Interesting photo of Walt's office. Thanks, Major.
Technically the Walt Disney Story was first developed for Florida but during its creation it was decided it would open at both parks as part of the 50th anniversary of Walt Disney Productions. Mr. Lincoln had been temporarily removed because there was every intention of an Anaheim version of Liberty Square to be ready for opening before the bicentennial …. And it was to include THE HALL OF PRESIDENTS. There was a display announcing this attraction coming to Disneyland in the Walt Disney Story explaining that Mr. Lincoln would be back in this new attraction - as Walt always wanted. A version of the “Hall of Presidents” coming to Disneyland remained in the exhibit up until the change to The Disneyland Story for the park’s 50th anniversary. When the gas crises killed the Disneyland version of Liberty Square , Disneyland brought Lincoln back as a featured part of The Walt Disney Story.
Florida’s Walt Disney Story featured twin theaters to showcase the film portion of the attraction and a fairly large exit lobby with a “dreams for the future” display of concepts and models for future development of The Vacation Kingdom - including the famous Hoot Gibson AA owl and the Western River Expedition display. Disneyland’s version of The Walt Disney Story had very little of this because of space limitations, but had an entire “dreams for the future” attraction on Main Street at Disneyland Showcase - A preview of coming attractions “ …. I LOVED that place and spent hours looking at the models and renderings WED Imagineers were developing. Ironically the first exhibit opening in 1973 at Disneyland Showcase was on phase two of WDW…. And at age 5 was fascinated by a model of a Runnaway mine train with a little flash flood town!
“Welcome to Rainbow Ridge Pack Mules: As a reminder , our safety rails are not strong enough to support the weight of you or your children ….
And THAT includes Ralph!
Ralph was quite the stylish man, right down to what looks like a gemstone tie tack. We can see it better in the post where he is actually riding on a Pack Mule.
Thanks for sharing more of Ralph and Florence's photos, Major. I hope you still have more of their slides to share!
Major, your description of Ralph sounds much like an ad for Playboy Magazine (I mean, based strictly on what I’ve heard, of course. Not that I ever read it). I’m sure he would only read the articles. I have a nice Panama fedora for summertime, but can’t hope to have a tenth of Ralph’s self-assurance.
Walt had a nice office, as should be expected for a busy and successful executive. Think of the things he invented in his career, not least the entire Theme Park concept. All those well-earned rewards. Thanks for the peek in.
JG
The weight limit for the Mules was 195 lbs. And the sturdier mules for them were at the end of the line. Hummm...I'll leave it at that. KS
Nanook, I just assumed Ralph was doing the “I’m not worthy” gesture, but of course Ralph is worthy of everything!
JB, like watching a happy child, seeing Ralph so giddy makes us (as an audience) happy as well. His infectious laugh is a gift. The thing about the dwarf named Whitey is that you can’t trust him! I think that my family had moved to the east coast during the period in which Lincoln was on vacation, so I never saw the pure “Walt Disney Story” presentation. Good point about the ashtrays/butts, I never thought about that! Did Dave Smith (or somebody else) decide to omit those??
Mike Cozart, I would much rather see an exhibit along the lines of The Walt Disney Story than this animatronic thing that is coming soon. I saw a photo of the Walt AA figure, and it’s not horrible (like some of the Presidents in the Hall of Presidents), but I still hate it. I’m so glad we did not get the HoP in Anaheim. Is Walt’s office still on display in Florida? Part of me wishes we had it back here, though there is probably no room for it now (same with the model of Progress City - completely restore it and bring it to Anaheim!). I suppose that they felt that they needed some Walt in the Magic Kingdom. I wish I’d seen the preview of coming attractions displays in Disneyland, if it was there when I was, I probably had no idea and walked right by it.
Mike Cozart, at least Ralph still has one foot on the ground. He’s no fool, nosiree!
TokyoMagic!, Ralph’s “gemstone” is actually a piece of Moon rock! His buddy Buzz Aldrin gave it to him just because he’s such a cool dude. “You’re the real hero, Ralph”, Buzz said. Yes, I have more from Ralph and Florence!
JG, OK, I confess that I used to write for Playboy magazine. Hef used to pester me all the time, but I told him I was too busy leading a swinging life! But… money talks. So I guess I’ve read that Walt had an “inner office” and an “outer office”. Since one office has been restored at the Studio in Burbank (and is available to view by VIPs?), I guess the one we see in today’s photo is the “outer office”?
I believe there's still a recreation of Walt's office at the Walt Disney Presents exhibit at Hollywood Studios in Florida. Though the original furniture was returned to the Disney Family Museum in 2015.
I'd imagine the CoP and Progress City models are destined to eventually go there as well.
My understanding is that they had a soundstage set of Walt's office to shoot intros to the TV show -- now wondering how accurate that was and whether pieces were used in either of the displays.
Revisiting old intros, sort of wondering how much or little was shot "on location". In "Disneyland After Dark", Walt appears to be in process shots rather than actually standing in the park, and the one-room Imagineering workshop in the tenth anniversary show looks improbable.
The Walt Disney Story at Disneyland used a backdrop of the Disney Studios used for TV filming on a set … it was not the actual view from Walt’s office. Walt had 2 offices( connected) .. his formal and his working office . Few people were lucky to enter his working office.
DBenson: you are correct : those WED scenes with Walt and imagineers are set up on a soundstage … as most of the those projects would not have even been in the same workroom or even the same building. They do sometimes show real panoramic shots of WED working areas … but are usually very general and don’t show too much detail. The model of Progress City , while designed by WED imagineers , it was not constructed by WED but rather a display and exhibit company in Irvine california ( long gone) they also built the Bell telephone displays in 1967 new Tomorrowland and even the model of Knott’s Berry Farm’s ROARING 20’s. I can remember many times publicly or in house publications came through to photograph a WDI project in the model shop … however they were almost always staged … the model had to be something already announced or underway and often the imagineer were anybody pulled to stand around and point at things and hold a ruler/scale or act like they were painting something on the model … with no paint on the brush. And I can tell in many vintage 1960’s and 70’s WED photos the same staged grouping of imagineers was going on - people who were not model makers or standing around randomly pointing at things….
I spent SO much time taking in details of Walt’s offices (the furniture was eventually reproduced for purchase). And especially lingering at Disneyland Showcase - Preview of Coming Attractions! Circusland and Discovery Bay models. An early TRE was the space turning into just another shoppe, but that beat the heck out of Wurlitzer organs.
Agreed, Ralph is one snazzy chap.
MS
KS, ha ha, yeah, I am not sure those mules would be strong enough for some. I am tall, and I theoretically weigh too much! Granted I need to do some sit-ups… (lol)
Dean Finder, oh wow, I did not know that the Disney Family got all of his original office stuff back! So in a way that recreation is sort of like Walt’s Apartment, it looks pretty authentic, but the things that belonged to Walt are long-gone. There is a CoP model? It would be amazing if the Progress City model was saved by the WDFM, if it is ever removed from the Peoplemover ride.
DBenson, yes, I am aware of the soundstage recreation of “Walt’s office”, though I have never heard that any of that was used at the park(s). It’s certainly possible though! You can definitely tell that Walt is processed-in to park shots, and it makes sense - they could control everything and didn’t have to deal with autograph hounds. I agree about the one-room Imagineering “office”, it sure looks like a big soundstage.
Mike Cozart, you can tell that the photo outside of the window is from an upper story, but perhaps the picture was actually taken from the roof, since they wouldn’t have to worry about walls or window reflections. Just a wild guess! I am amazed that Disney used an outside source to build that Progress City model, just because the project seemed so near and dear to his heart, and because they had plenty of talented people in-house who could have worked on it. Maybe they were too busy working on other stuff. It’s funny that you mentioned the press or publicity photos, at some point I became very aware that an artist (such as Herbie Ryman) was “painting” on a fully completed image, and the brush was dry!
MS, interesting, I did not know that the Kem-Webber furniture was reproduced at some point. “Circusland”, maybe it would have been great, but somehow I don’t think of Disney parks and circuses together. Mike has discussed Discovery Bay many times. I have a fondness for the old Wurlitzer shop, just because it was there from the beginning, and aided in giving Main Street that more “authentic” air. And it was weird!
The Walt Disney Studio furniture collection was released by Drexel Heritage . Most of Walt’s iconic office pieces were reproduced and they did a beautiful job … the deco-moderne sofas and chairs too. There was also an extensive line that matched the look but for bedrooms and dining rooms which were not part of Walt’s original office furniture. The line didn’t do very well because it wasn’t really marketed to the correct people and it was being released about the time of the 2007 market crash. The series was expensive but not obscene … especially for the iconic office pieces . Today they are very expensive to obtain.
Disney uses outside vendors all the time for models and concept art and props. WDI used several outside model shops for projects all the time … even today. Some in LA , San Francisco, and one in Irvine ( no relation to the the one that built the 1967 progress city model) models for the resort hotels , shopping districts are often farmed out of WDI . But park and attraction related models can often be done by outside firms.
Graphic design too is often done by outside vendors … but directed by WDI. The WDW 1994 “future that never was “ Tomorrowland , Disneyland’s Indiana Jones attraction, and Epcot’s Innoventions had their entire graphics packages created by a outside graphics company that also does stuff for Knott’s and Universal Studios …
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