Book Review: Building A Dream: Roy O. Disney

Building A Company: Roy O. Disney and the Creation of an Entertainment Empire

Bob Thomas

Hyperion

1998

$24.95

359 pages

Bob Thomas wrote Walt Disney: An American Original. It is an excellent book and one of the most referenced biographies for Walt Disney. This is a terrific companion and gives you another perspective on Walt, the Company, and especially Roy.

The book begins with a great story that provides insight into the brothers’ legendary relationship. Roy talks about a time when he, Walt, and their younger sister Ruth were walking along a path in Iowa. Walt was five and he found a pocketknife. Roy, who was thirteen at the time, took the knife away from Walt and told him, “You’ll cut yourself.” Around 1965, the two brothers got into an argument and Walt accused Roy of bullying him and “throwing his weight around.” Walt added, “You’ve been doin’ that since I was born” and reminded him about the knife. As Roy said, “That was sixty years later. Talk about an elephant!”

Walt’s three brothers were much older than he was. He had one younger sister. Roy was very close to Walt and they were more like companions than “a pesky little brother”. Roy always felt protective of Walt “Because there are always slickers to take you.” That would become a common theme throughout the book. They dealt with a lot of people that tried to take advantage of them.

Walt said, “I’ve been mad at people, but I could never carry a grudge for very long.” I am not sure would agree, however, in deed Walt did not express anger toward those that defected.

Some of those who did do the brothers wrong include Charles Mintz, who stole Oswald and Walt’s crew. Walt warned Mintz that, “These boys will do the same thing to you, Charlie. If they do it to me they’ll do it to you. Now watch out for them.” In the end, he lost the character to a takeover of the studio by his own artists just as Walt had predicted.

Another guy was Pat Powers who sold the Disney brothers the sound system for the Mickey cartoons. Closer to the brother’s heart was Ub Iwerks. He was there from the beginning and was the first to animate Mickey Mouse. He stayed behind when everybody else left to go work with Mintz. At one point he was making twice as much as Roy and Walt but he was lured away to start his own studio. That didn’t work out so he came back to Disney and became the mechanical genius that made movie magic for the studio.

And then there was CV Wood. He was the original construction manager for Disneyland and went on to build Freedomland in New York and Six Flags over Texas.

There were also people who came around at the right time. For example, director Frank Capra was the guy who hooked Walt and Roy up with the folks at Columbia Pictures and helped to cut the ties to Pat Powers. Also on the Disney’s side was A.P. Giannini who owned the Bank of America. He became an early believer and worked side by side with Roy for thirty years. Herman (Kay) Kamen was the marketing and merchandising wizard that ran the Disney licensing program. Even Charlie Chaplin who was also a supporter and advocate for Disney when they moved over to United Artists from Columbia. Another ally was Harrison “Buzz” Price who conducted more than 100 feasibility studies for Walt and Roy and was the guy who found the locations for Disneyland and Walt Disney World.

When the brothers moved from the Kingswell Avenue studio to the new facility on Hyperion, the brothers changed the name of the firm from The Disney Brothers Studio to Walt Disney Studio. As Roy told Disney archivist Dave Smith, “ It was my idea. Walt was the creative member of the team. His name deserved to be on the pictures.”

I love little details such as the way Roy tracked everything in small notebooks. One fact that stood out was the escalating costs of the early Mickey shorts.

Plane Crazy $3,528.50

The Gallopin’ Gaucho $4,249.73

Steamboat Willie $4,986.69

The Barn Dance $5,121.65

The Opry House $6,017.24

The Skeleton Dance $5,386.65

Walt commented that Roy “always lived with figures” and people like that were always looking back. Walt always wanted to look forward. Roy recognized that they would never make as much money as some of the “hard-boiled type” of movie people but they took pride in the product and the “satisfaction of running our business in a way that is fair to everyone connected with it.” He felt you didn’t need to take every dime from your customer.

Here is an obscure fact. The mechanical clock at Disneyland is based on one that Walt and Roy saw in Strasbourg. Apparently he tried to climb the tower but was denied. This was in 1935. Another little connection took place on the same trip. While in Rome, Walt, Roy and the family were treated like royalty. They dined at Alfredo’s. The restaurant is home of the Alfredo fettuccine, and one of the original restaurants in Epcot Center.

In 1936, when Disney left United Artists and went with RKO, it was over the issue of the television rights. This was something the Disneys did not want to give up.

As a way to diversify after World War II, the studio looked at educational films. Walt got fed up with the educators and declared, “Oh, to hell with it! From now on let’s make the word “educational” a dirty word around here. Let’s just make stick to entertainment.” He added, “We’ll give ‘em sugar-coated educational stuff.”

The idea for WED Enterprise was Roy’s. He wanted to make sure Walt’s family was taken care of in case something happened to Walt. Most of their wealth was tied into the studio’s stock. This arrangement would become a real problem between the brothers in a few years. WED Enterprise’s first project was going to be Zorro but that was put on hold to start Disneyland.

Because Thomas wrote one of the definitive books about Walt Disney, he was able to relay additional stories. One example was when Walt told Herb Ryman the reasons why he wanted to do things differently with his park. He reminded Herb that he liked to drink and “If people want one, they can get it elsewhere, not in my park.” He charged admission, which was unheard of because, “If we don’t we’ll get all kinds of drunks and molesters; they’ll be grabbing girls in the dark.” Another benefit for charging admission was “you’ll get a better class of people.” Finally, he wanted it clean. At most amusements parks, there “was all the crap that was everywhere.” He added, “You’re stepping on chewing gum and ice cream cones.”

The character of Honest John, the fox from Pinocchio is based on Ray Disney, Walt and Roy’s older brother.

The author also outlines the development process that was used by Walt and Roy. Walt would come up with an idea and flesh it out with just enough detail for Buzz Price to conduct a feasibility study. They would always ask the question “Yes, if”. If things looked good, it would move up with more planning, which could take some time. Before it got too far, Buzz might do another study before they went to Roy for the mutual green light. This was also one reason why Walt didn’t like attorneys. They tend to dwell in the land of “No”. Walt preferred to work in the positive.

Of course, it is common knowledge that Roy changed the Florida resort’s name to Walt Disney World to honor his brother. His rationale was everyone knew Ford cars but a lot of people don’t know about Henry Ford.

I thought this was funny. Even when engineers said that having the monorail run through the Contemporary Resort at Walt Disney World would be impossible, the Roy insisted because, as one person said it would look like “a place where the Goodyear blimps comes to mate.”

I found this to be an excellent book and very informative. Combined with the biography of Walt, you would get a well-rounded picture of the two brothers and how they were able to create an entertainment behemoth.