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I recently visited Marceline for the first time, and I realized how little I know about Walt Disney the man. I’ve learned about his work on Disney’s classic animated films and Disneyland, but there is more to the story. The myths of Walt are many, but it is better to hear from the people that knew him. This reason makes me excited to see Tony Cortese’s upcoming documentary Walt Disney: Master of Dreamers. Imagineers like Bob Gurr and Rolly Crump join Disney experts to tell Walt’s story during the 1960s.
Cortese is my guest on this episode of The Tomorrow Society Podcast to discuss why he chose to direct this film. We dive into what interested Walt during the ’60s once Disneyland became such a success. Walt focused on Disney’s attractions for the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair and on plans for EPCOT. That ambitious project would use everything Walt had learned to that point to develop a forward-thinking city.
Cortese wants to go further than the basic story about Walt’s life. The film will also include experts like Jeff Barnes and Sam Gennawey plus Disney legend Richard Sherman. Cortese originally was a guest on Episode 14 of this podcast to talk about The Dreamfinders, his documentary about hardcore Disney fans that moved to Orlando. Cortese actually sits in The Magic Kingdom for this interview, and that setting adds a little magic to the conversation.
Show Notes: Tony Cortese
Listen to The Tomorrow Society Podcast, Episode 14: Tony Cortese on The Dreamfinders.
Read my review of Tony Cortese’s film The Dreamfinders.
Transcript
Dan Heaton: Hey there. Today’s podcast is all about Walt Disney. I’m talking with filmmaker Tony Cortese about his upcoming documentary. Walt Disney: Master of Dreamers, which sounds amazing. You’re listening to the Tomorrow Society Podcast.
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Dan Heaton: Thanks so much for joining me here on Episode 52 of The Tomorrow Society Podcast. I am your host, Dan Heaton. As Disney fans, we’ve learned so much about Walt Disney’s life through books, films, and visiting important places like Marceline. There are a lot of ways to find out what he was about. You also have massive biographies by people like Bob Thomas and Neal Gabler. And of course you have documentaries like the PBS documentary…the four-hour one that was done a little while back. Even so, with all that information I feel like we’ve just scratched the surface of what we know about Walt Disney. There’s a great opportunity even zoning in on films to look at specific parts of Walt’s life.
A good example is Christian Moran, who’s been on this podcast and his film Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow, where he dove into just Walt’s technological advances. I think that’s also the case with the film that Tony Cortese is making, Walt Disney: Master of Dreamers, which focuses in on what Walt did in the late ‘50s and particularly in the 1960s with the World’s Fair and with his plans for Epcot.
I love the idea of really focusing in on a certain period and then also Tony is getting interviews with people that knew Walt directly like Bob Gurr and Rolly Crump and Richard Sherman…people that knew him better than anyone else. I’m also excited to have Tony back because he was on this podcast before. I spoke with Tony on Episode 14 about his film Dream Finders which was about people that had moved to Orlando to be closer to the mouse.
Tony is an excellent filmmaker; if you’ve seen his time-lapse videos of Walt Disney World, those are gorgeous. And that gets me more excited for this documentary beyond just the content about Walt Disney. I also could tell even from the brief trailer that’s online that it’s going to be something special from a visual perspective. I actually talked to Tony this time from The Magic Kingdom from here in St. Louis, but Tony was sitting at the Magic Kingdom. And I do want to say that that does lead to a little bit of sound issues…a few words here and there cut out, but I think it’s definitely worth it to hear the ambience of being out the magic came up. So let’s hop on the Monorail and go to The Magic Kingdom and talk to Tony Cortese.
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Dan Heaton: We last spoke about two years ago about Dream Finders when it was released, and I know back then you just moved to Orlando. So what’s it been like to live there close to the parks for a few years?
Tony Cortese: Oh, it’s been great. You know it’s what I have always kind of dreamed up you know to be so close to the Disney parks. I recently bought a home in Winter Garden. In the morning, I can actually hear the Magic Kingdom train whistle going and at night, I’ve got a great view of the Magic Kingdom fireworks. So it’s just great just being here in central Florida and being just close to the Disney parks where you can just always kind of pop in whenever you feel like it. And that’s really the reason I moved to Florida.
My background is obviously filmmaking, but I’ve also got a long history of web design and development. So I keep myself pretty busy and the Orlando area; it’s just so happening and it’s just great to be down here. This time of year, it’s a little steamy. I have to say right now I’m actually talking to you here from The Magic Kingdom. I’m sitting at the tables outside of Pecos Bill’s and Adventureland or in between the Adventureland and Frontierland, and it’s just great to be able to do that after vacationing down here for so many years. It’s just nice to be down here full time.
Dan Heaton: I can imagine. I’m jealous just hearing you there because being able to talk to somebody in The Magic Kingdom is awesome. But the fact that you’re able to do that, it sounds amazing. Has your view changed like having…I’ve heard other people that are locals talk about when they’re there so much that you visit the parks differently. Has how you looked at the parks changed probably for the better but a lot since you’ve been there?
Tony Cortese: Oh yeah. I think the one thing that you realize is when you come down here as a vacationer, you know you’ve got a week or whatever you know that small window is you try to squeeze everything in. When you’re living down here, you tend to be able to be much more selective as to when you come into the parks. I try to get in about once a week.
I’m definitely at one park or once a week maybe twice a week. But you know it takes a while to get out of vacation mode and to kind of get back into just being a Florida local. When you’re down here often, and you try to spread it out a little bit so you don’t get burned out because it does it does tend to blend together. But what I love is just seeing all the families and two are on vacation who are this might be their first time down here and just appreciating being down here. I just love meeting and talking to people when I’m in the parks.
Dan Heaton: Well that’s great because I understand that completely. I’ve always been those families. So getting to talk to someone on the other end is always cool for sure. I wanted to talk to you especially today like I mentioned in the introduction about Master of Dreamers that I know you’re currently working on, and it sounds really exciting for me as someone who’s really into Epcot and the World’s Fair and Walt Disney. I’m not sure that almost any movie could ever be more zoned in on what I’m interested in than that one after seeing the trailer and everything. So what made you decide you wanted to do this project?
Tony Cortese: Well that whole period of Walt Disney’s life has always been what I’ve always kind of honed into. You know I think that what he was doing at the World’s Fair was so important to the future of the Disney parks. Then of course you know that was sort of the springboard for his plans for Epcot and for what he was doing at Walt Disney World. Think about it. The World’s Fair happened between ‘64 and then he went ahead and made the announcement that he had bought all his property in ‘66 and later that year he died.
There was so much going on during that period that I think it’s important to understand what was going on. Walt Disney had…he wasn’t the same guy he was in the ‘30s in the ‘40s during his big animation years. You know like when Snow White and Pinocchio and Bambi and all that were happening. But as he grew, just like everybody evolves and grows into a different person as you get older.
Tony Cortese: You know as you get older, you just evolve into different ideas. Walt Disney always had a big interest in the future and technology and futuristic ideas doing what he was going to do and Florida. I don’t really think people understand. I mean maybe the hardcore Disney fans do, but the average fan doesn’t really understand that Walt Disney had much bigger plans you know he was kind of done with doing Disneyland. He didn’t really like to do repeat performances or sequels. So he had done Disneyland and that was kind of the end of that.
So when he was planning Florida, you know he knew that he would do a theme park because they’d already done it. It was going to be easy. But the heart of Florida was not going to be a Magic Kingdom. It was going to be Epcot, and Epcot was going to be you know like a city of the future as crazy as that sounds so a lot of people. When you look at the history behind it, Walt Disney had prepared himself to really push America because he really felt that American corporations were going to solve a lot of the problems that we were having in our country during that time. He thought technology, particularly American technology, would solve that.
Tony Cortese: So he had studied urban planning very much. He was listening to people like James Rouse and Victor Gruen and all these people were really established urban planners and Walt Disney really felt that he wanted to contribute to the future of America. And what better way to do that than to create a city that was really technologically advanced with transportation and just an overall overview of what America needed at that time? It was the 60s you know the 60s were a cool time in America. It was a time of hope and dreams and technology.
You could talk to somebody over the phone and see their face and all these different things that were happening was loved. So I think that for me was what interests me most about Walt Disney. I mean I love the movies and the films but I just love the fact that he did Disneyland it was so amazing. He blew everybody away. And then he said you know time to shift gears. You know it’s not like it was a conscious thing. He just kept going. He just kept looking inward to himself and the whole urban planning thing for what he was planning on doing for Epcot was amazing.
Tony Cortese: So with the film Master of Dreamers, I thought let’s look at his team after he died and how they were trying to interpret what he was wanting to do for Epcot. Because all people really had was that film that he put out. But there were so many different things to consider when building a city. Building a city about that he wanted to build the city of the future.
Dan Heaton: It’s crazy, the more I hear about Epcot the city and what he had planned even just from the Epcot film and then Sam Gennaway’s book and other areas. It confounds me. But you know the weird thing about it is, at least for me, people had the same reactions to Disneyland. Corporations like you mentioned are viewed differently now. I mean for you after doing all this research on the film. Do you think the city would have worked? Could he have drawn even close to what he envisioned in those films and some of the planning we’ve seen?
Tony Cortese: Oh yeah. I mean there’s no doubt that it would have worked. You needed Walt Disney to package that whole deal. You know he had it all in his head. And what the challenge was getting corporations like Westinghouse and General Electric and General Motors all to sit together in one room and share ideas. That’s what he wanted. He wanted them to share ideas and come up with some really incredible technological advances that wouldn’t have otherwise been possible unless they were together sharing ideas.
Tony Cortese: And there was no one who could have done that than Walt Disney. You’ve got people like Victor Gruen who is you know an urban planner. You know back in the day and you know he was also very good friends with Ray Bradbury. So Walt loved that whole kind of looking into the future type of thing. What he wanted to do was very, very different than what had ever been done.
You know when they bought all the property in Florida they bought that and that you know nobody knew they were buying it until after it was kind of already done. They bought all that property, which ended up being twice the size of the island of Manhattan as Walt says you know what they wanted to do.
And you know the state of Florida would have done anything because who knew about Florida? And you know in 1965 who was even going to Florida? Nobody. You might go down there for it to go to the beach, but Florida was nothing back in those days. It was all swampland. Miami he was kind of happening, but Central Florida was nothing.
He figured; I got all this land here. I don’t want to have to apply for a permit. Every time I want to do something every time I want to put up a structure or drain a lake or whatever. So, he proposed him and his brother Roy that they essentially create their own government. They wanted total autonomy down here. The pitch was to create the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which would have been the organization which Disney would have used to work towards all their expansions and all their new ideas. And Florida was happy to give it to them. I mean the thing about it, they created their own government.
When his Imagineering got together after Walt died and said how are we going to do this? Walt’s not here to lead us, Walt’s not here to guide us. They just couldn’t figure out how to get through the zoning stuff, voting, schools, people are going to live in Epcot. Where are the kids going to go to school? I There so many different levels of…you’re creating your own government, right? You need Walt Disney to really be able to craft that. He was just a master at that. He wasn’t just this film guy and had much bigger ideas.
Dan Heaton: Yeah, I’m impressed. I think what they ended up doing with Epcot Center was impressive. It was more kind of like the World’s Fairs were. It’s been described as a permanent World’s Fair, Walt Disney World and Epcot Center. The fact that they move that forward is still kind of stunning given that Walt wasn’t involved. How do you think that Epcot Center really connects to what Walt wanted? Is the spirit still there?
Tony Cortese: Oh yeah. It’s all about keeping communication and technology alive. And yes you know Epcot is sort of a permanent World’s Fair, but Walt loved World’s Fairs. He really did. It was a place for him to test his ideas. And you know for the Disney Imagineers who were tasked to be able to create something to try to figure out what he was trying to do with its original idea for Epcot.
Tony Cortese: You know I think they got it right. They originally labored for a long time. They would have these Wednesday morning meetings, which we’ll talk about in the Master of Dreamers documentary. And they were kind of like brainstorm meetings and open forums to just figure out how we’re going to do this. And then they just said you know what, we just need to shelve Epcot for now because we don’t know. You know you got to remember Magic Kingdom was open in 1971.
So right after they opened Magic Kingdom, they went right into trying to figure out how to do Epcot. You know they knew how to do Magic Kingdom. It was just a carbon copy of Disneyland, but just bigger. So when they thought okay, let’s go back to the drawing board and figure out Epcot. They were hitting roadblocks. They just didn’t know how to do it.
To do it the way Walt wanted. Bob Gurr, who I interviewed several times, said to me one question would unravel 10 questions. You’d answer one question and then you have 10 questions that would follow it because there are so many things that you have to consider when creating your own government. Progress City, right? So they figured that okay, we’re going to shelve Epcot for now and then several years later. You know and like in the late ‘70s Florida said, hey guys, you know we gave you this total autonomy here because you told us you were going to build Epcot. So what are we going to do? And as the story goes, Card Walker may have sent an e-mail message to Marty Sklar. I don’t think e-mails were around back then.
Dan Heaton: Probably not.
Tony Cortese: Maybe he sent them a memo and said, hey what’s going on with Epcot are we going to do this or not? Marty said, okay let’s let’s figure it out. So when they approached the second time, they approached it as we’re going to do this as a theme parks but we want to do it in the in the same vein that was…who was interested in.
So we don’t have enough time to really talk about all the logistics on that. When you see the film, we’re going to go into great detail as to you know how they decided to do a World Showcase, how they decided to do a few worlds, and why they set the place up the way that they did, why it was kind of a park split in half. But Walt, he loves World’s Fairs, and Epcot is essentially a permanent World’s Fair that gets reskinned and updated every once in a while. And I think Walt would be very proud of it.
Dan Heaton: Yes, I agree. And I’m fascinated to see the movie, especially after seeing the trailer that you put out there and just seeing Bob Gurr, Rolly Crump, and everyone talk about it. I’m like this is gonna be great, and especially the fact that you’re going to talk about what they did with Epcot, is really cool. And you mentioned World’s Fairs. The big event obviously for Disney that led to a lot of this was the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair, which was put together with his Imagineering for attractions that lead directly into three at Disneyland. That would then go on to other parks. You mentioned that Walt loved World’s Fairs. Why do you think he connected so strongly with them and focused so much on that New York event?
Tony Cortese: Well that’s a great question. East Coast audiences were not that receptive to Disney films back in the early days. They didn’t really do that well on the East Coast, as their numbers indicated there were only roughly two percent of people East of the Mississippi who had ever been to Disneyland. So they didn’t really know how Disney-style entertainment was going to be received on the East Coast. The World’s Fair was a great way for Wall to present his style of entertainment. The things that they were doing and Disneyland, the types of things they were doing there to East Coast audiences.
Obviously, they were very well received. I think that the more of the sophisticated Manhattan-type audiences maybe weren’t as interested in what Walt would call is kind of corny. You know it was funny. I saw an interview with his son-in-law Ron Miller who was married to Diane Disney. And there were similar issues about one of the films you put out and the New York Times said it’s just corny.
Walt and his son-in-law Ron, they were having lunch together, and he said to him. Well Walt, you know did you see the review from the New York Times? And Walt said, Well you know they don’t understand that I like corn. I like corn. I like corny.
So as far as the films go, that’s what Walt did. Took what he was doing and Walt Disney World, I think, to open up or rather at the World’s Fair to open up what he wanted to do in the East Coast. So it was a great springboard for him to test the East Coast audiences. When he saw that they were very receptive to Disney-style entertainment, that was kind of the last nail in the coffin for him to say these ideas, which by the way had probably been festering in his head.
Even from Disneyland because even when he did Disneyland in the 1950s, he was thinking about urban planning. You know he was thinking about Epcot. You know everybody I talked to says Walt has a memory like an elephant. He could remember anything you said, 20 years, 30 years down the road. They’ll remember it, and he knew. Epcot was going to be or at least he was going to be Epcot but he knew that this whole kind of technological kind of path that he wanted to blaze into the future.
It was going to be something that he was going to do. You just didn’t know how he was going to put it together. But after the success of Disneyland, and we can talk about you know how important that train trip that he did with Ward Kimball in the 60s was you know. Here comes the train again!
Dan Heaton: It’s okay. It’s good ambience.
Tony Cortese: So you are familiar with the strike that happened at the screen animators guild. That was a tough time for him. And during that period, you know he wasn’t feeling very well. And his doctors told him you need to just get away and just to take a vacation. So him and Ward Kimball went on the train. They went to Chicago and saw a train convention or a trade show and it was that trip that really I think inspired Walt about trains.
Then, he went and built that little kind of village in his backyard with scale model trains that he had the studio make for him. That was his way of kind of crafting what he was going to do for Disneyland. But also during that time, you know he was thinking about beyond Disneyland. He was very much into technological ideas. Walt was a complex guy, and he had a lot of things going on in his head. Like Bob Gurr says, he didn’t tell everybody that was going on. You know he would sit people at the task at hand, and you know they would go ahead and be Walt’s kind of soldiers as boots on the ground.
But Walt had a lot of plans that he was always working on you know that whole business with Abraham Lincoln at the World’s Fair. Nobody knew they were doing that. He was trying to get these guys who were working in his machine shop to build an Abraham Lincoln animatronic because at the time all they had was the Tiki birds from Enchanted Tiki Room. But to get an Abraham Lincoln like a full size animatronic to actually stand up out of a seated position was something that was just very difficult to do. They didn’t know how to do it. They were having big problems, so Walt brought Bob Gurr.
By the way, Bob explains it and again this is something that we talk about in the film and Master of Dreamers with Bob. They took him in a secret room that they had in the studio. It was under lock and key. And there they had this Abraham Lincoln animatronic that was like this big debacle. And Bob immediately because he was a designer and aerodynamic designer of airplanes and cars immediately knew that he looked at this body of Lincoln. He looked at it as an airplane fuselage, and when he saw that he immediately knew that he could do. Walt, I think said to him, Bobby. Walt used to call him Bobby, which I loved. When Bob tells the story, it’s great. “Bobby, I want half as much weight and twice as much motion.”
And Bob immediately saw it as an airplane fuselage, and he stripped it down and rebuilt it. And they had an audio-animatronic Abraham Lincoln at the 1964 World’s Fair. People thought it was a real person. They were throwing a ball bearings at it, and the audience, they couldn’t believe that it was them that it was not real. So that is going on in his head at any given time.
Dan Heaton: Yeah that’s a great story, and it’s sort of fascinating to think about how quickly because I remember I’ve heard the stories that you know they got Mr. Lincoln the animatronic out to test and then it didn’t work at all it basically like looked like he was bleeding because of the fluid. The fact that they did that so quickly like all those attractions were put together so fast. And I know it’s a completely different era than now where you have so many layers of management and so there’s no Walt or not even really a Bob Gurr or something. You’ve got so many more people but technologically I just can’t believe what they did in such a short time. And how did they pull that off?
Tony Cortese: As Bob tells me, you know Walt had a very unique way of working. He was very engaged. Unlike CEOs today who sit at their desk and have a team of other people who do their work and then report back to them. So as a result, you’ve got a series of filters that are going up and down the chain of command.
There were no filters with Walt. He was on the ground level with the boots on the ground, knew what needed to happen, and more importantly, he knew how to team people up together. He knew how to team people that would be the best that they could be to accomplish the task at hand. They did Small World, which was the last of the attractions for the 1964 World’s Fair, in nine months. You know they were already working on Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln and we talked about the technology that was required to make that happen.
They mode the Ford Magic Skyway, which created the first ride system that would be later used for the People Mover, which was supposed to be the one of the main sources of transportation for Walt’s Epcot and then later would be kind of evolved into the Omnimover system which you see most of the dark rides today. And then of course Carousel of Progress which was another you know an audio-animatronic show. But the stage was so unique the way it would revolve around.
And then finally in nine months before the World’s Fair was going to open, Pepsi. There’s a story that Joan Crawford was actually the one who I guess was had connections with some of the executives at Pepsi and said hey you need to get Walt Disney to help you guys get into the fair.
So Pepsi reached out the Walt Disney, and he said yeah, we’ll do a boat ride. And his team was like you know what. You know we’re already over tasked, how are we going to do this in nine months? But they did and it was because Walt was so engaged. He was so engaged, you just don’t see that in leadership today. I think you probably saw that with a Steve Jobs. or saw that with Steve Wynn.
I think you might have Steven Spielberg…a leader who does not rely on his people below him to report to him. He is the one who’s fully engaged because he can see the progress right away and he can immediately jump in and switch gears and save time in production. That’s what was I think very unique about Walt Disney. You know he was very hands on and that’s why they were able to do four shows for the New York World’s Fair.
And you know the World’s Fair, all the pavilions and everything, they just bulldoze everything. But Walt was smart enough to say you know what we’re going to take these shows and all the equipment and construction we were going to bring them back to California and we’re going to use them in Disneyland. And just imagine that he was so he had such foresight to know that they didn’t care. But he knew I’m going to get these guys to pay for the show. They’re going to pay me for the show, and then after it’s done I get to take it back and put it in Disneyland and think about what he learned from all that. He created that whole business model of corporate sponsorships for theme parks.
Dan Heaton: It’s brilliant what he did there and those attractions tells you something that those attractions either lasted for a really long time and some of them are still playing. It’s a small world is all over the world, you’ve got Carousel of Progress still playing at Disney World. It’s crazy and even some of the Magic Skyway ended up in the train I mean the setup was basically very similar to what they do with Disneyland with the train ride and what you see there. So it’s stunning what they were able to do.
And I know you mentioned Bob Gurr, but there are others that are on equal stature that are going to be in your film like Richard Sherman and Rolly Crump. And so how did you figure out who you wanted to include? Who were the people that you really wanted to target? What was kind of your goal for this film?
Tony Cortese: Well quite honestly, they were the only the last ones who were still alive. These guys are champions for what they really are. They’ve made it there to the legacy of Walt Disney alive. Bob is out there all the time constantly talking the talk. Richard Sherman, you’ve seen him everywhere. Rolly Crump, I mean, they’re all getting so old now. I’m thankful that I was able to get to them. I would have loved to have Marty. I would have loved to get Dick Nunis. Dick doesn’t really do these types of things. Dick Nunis, if he ever writes a book, will be the book to end all books.
Dan Heaton: Yeah it would be. You don’t ever hear anything about him really beyond from history.
Tony Cortese: Now he flies way under the radar. He really doesn’t like to come out unless it’s necessary. Marc Davis, would have loved to grab him. You know it’s just. The last of the Mohicans. They really are. And they are even in the twilight of their years.
They are very much assertive in keeping Walt’s legacy alive. Being with Richard Sherman was beyond a treat. I mean he played and sang for us privately. All that stuff is going to be included in the film Master of Dreamers. His story of Mary Poppins of how he met Walt and how Walt. knew that they were the right ones for the job. They didn’t just write the music to Mary Poppins. They literally came up with the storyline to the film. Mary Poppins was nothing but a book of short adventure stories that really had no underlying story to it. And they took those and created a story and then presented it to Walt.
Dan Heaton: They had like there is a I don’t know half a dozen chapters in this book. I don’t know 12 or 13 chapters. And the Sherman Brothers had identified and outlined I think six of the chapters that they thought were the most important. That could be used to create this story about this Mary Poppins character and then Walt pulled out his copy of Mary Poppins. And he had also underlined the same six chapters. So they were both on the same page and immediately you know. You know what brought them in because he saw something in them, and they were inspired to show him the best that they could do.
Tony Cortese: And that’s all that’s what all his Imagineering did. You know they were all inspired and always motivated. To show Walt the best that they can do. What an amazing thing that is.
Dan Heaton: Speaking of that, I wanted to make sure to mention you’re having a really cool event in Anaheim on October 13th with Rolly Crump and Bob Gurr and others to help support the film. Can you talk a little bit about that event?
Tony Cortese: The event is on October 13th. It is in Anaheim just a couple of blocks from Disneyland. The website is Master of Dreamers dot com. Master of Dreamers dot com.
And this show is going to be a panel discussion with Rolly who unfortunately can’t make it there in person. So we’re going to Skype him in. It will be Rolly. Bob Gurr who will be there in person also. Garner Holt who is the audio animatronics sort of pioneer and has done so much audio animatronics work. Jeff Barnes, who is the author of The Wisdom of Walt and also teaches the only college accredited course on Walt.
And also Sam Gennaway, who I love Sam because he has a real unique perspective when it comes to Epcot. Sam is an urban planner in the city of Los Angeles and a big Disney geek. So being you know taking his professional knowledge of urban planning and looking at what Walt was trying to do with Epcot and is going to make for a real interesting conversation.
We’re going to have food and going to drink. We’re going to have a silent auction with some terrific Disney art that we’re going to be auctioning. And I’m good friends with Ken Kebow who is the director of the short film The Whimsical Imagineer, which is a film about Rolly Crump. It’s just a short 30-minute film on Rolly.
And Ken is going to be there. We’re going to screen Whimsical Imagineer with Rolly’s son who will be there to answer questions after that. So it’s really just going to be an evening of fellowship and just great friends who can appreciate the legacy of Walt Disney with all of Walt Disney’s last living Imagineers…at least the ones that I could get to come on October 13th in Anaheim.
Dan Heaton: Well great yeah. Actually, Sam and Jeff and Ken actually have all been on this podcast, and having them all in one place with oh yeah a few Imagineers, is really something special so this has been awesome having you on the show Tony. If people want to learn more about the movie or any other ways to support beyond that event is there anything particular they should do?
Tony Cortese: Yeah. Have them just go to a Master of Dreamers dot com they could purchase tickets for the show. They can watch the trailer for the film Master of Dreamers, and they can get to a better understanding of the film itself and what we’re trying to do which is to keep Walt’s legacy alive.
Dan Heaton: Awesome. I can’t wait to see the movie and thanks a lot Tony.
Tony Cortese: Thanks for having me, Dan.
Dan Heaton: That was great. I love hearing the train go by in the background. It really places us right in the Magic Kingdom. And after talking with Tony, I’m more excited to see Master of Dreamers, which sounds amazing. And if you have a chance to get to his event on October 13th in Anaheim, that sounds incredible. If you enjoy this podcast, I would suggest you check out the first podcast that I had with Tony Cortese where he was actually live from Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Plus, there are episodes with Sam Gennaway and Jeff Barnes and Ken Kebow, all people that will be involved with that event. If you’d like to learn how to support the show, you can go to Tomorrow Society.com/support, and there are a few different ways you can help to keep those podcast going. And of course you can contact me by email Dan at Tomorrow Society.com or reach out to me on Twitter at tomorrowsoc. I also have pages on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest at Tomorrow Society.
The Tomorrow Society Podcast is hosted, produced, and edited by Dan Heaton. The music for this podcast is written by Adam Hucke and performed by the Sophisticated Babies. Check out Adam’s CD of rock and pop songs at adamhucke.com. In two weeks, I’ll be talking with Brent Young of Super 78 Studios. He is also the co-host of the long-running Season Pass Podcast. Thank you so much for listening. I really appreciated it. I will talk to you again very soon.
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