Walkabout The World - A Disney Podcast - Disneyland 70th with Host Michelle

Episode Date: August 10, 2025

Hello travelers! Join host Michelle for a celebration of Disneyland's 70th anniversary. First, step into the Opera House for a presentation of Walt Disney: A Magical Life, followed by a walk down to the Main Street Cinema for a special tribute to the Sherman Brothers. Then close out the night with the dazzling projection show, Tapestry of Happiness. If you like what we do, consider joining our crew on Patreon. These wonderful people help us keep the microphones crisp and the servers warm at night.   Visit us a walkabouttheworld.com - find links to all the things - attraction episodes, Insta accounts of all the hosts, and even how to buy your own Walkabout shirt!   Look us up at @WalkaboutWDW on Instagram and drop us a note to say hi.   You can now also drop us at line at [e-mail]. Say hi, tell us how you found us, and give us some suggestions on things you'd love to hear. Please consider giving us a rating and review wherever you listen - it really helps.   Walkabout The World is a weekly Disney podcast, always recorded on property at Walt Disney World or Disneyland Resort with the simple goal of making you feel like you are in the middle of the magic.

Hello, Travelers, and welcome back to Walk About the World. I am your host, Michelle, and I'm at Disneyland, where the 70th anniversary celebration is in full swing. So I thought we kind of just check out a few of the new offerings for the 70th. And first up at the Opera House is Walt Disney, A Magical Life. They've transformed great moments with Mr. Lincoln into more of a story about Walt Disney. So, uh, let's head inside. So inside the Opera House lobby, they have a huge, like, exhibit with a bunch of concept art, just artwork in general. from the archives,

different maps of Disneyland that developed over time, land-specific concept art. They even have a few artifacts like they have Mickey Ears over the years. They have the original furniture that was in Walt Disney's apartment. Above the firehouse.

We are now seating for Walt Disney and Magical Life. If you'd like to join us, come on a team back lobby at this time. Let's make sure you finish all food and drinks before answering. Once we are now seating for Walt Disney and Magical Life. Make sure you finish all food and drinks before Andrew. Well, welcome, please watch us. That's a 200,000 piece collection of concept and design.

We're not going to go in just yet. I kind of want to just check out this artwork a little bit more. Resorts and cruise ships drunk by I'm Mike Jesko Imaginarian's principles and I have the privilege

of working with that collection every year There is a huge Tomorrowland wall filled with concept art and I kind of just wish to just bring it all back as is

I take it Some of these pieces may be favorites of yours and some I can tell you have never seen before Displayed together for the first time are 10 Disneyland site plans. They take you on a journey of Walt's first idea for Disneyland

on a strip of land across the street from his studio in Burbank up to the Disneyland site plan created for Anaheim. The same weekend, Walt Disney and Herb Reimann created their iconic bird's-eye view of the park. For the first time, you get to see the details of what was in your... There's a short little video talking about pulling out the artwork from the archives. And we go further into the lobby. There are a bunch of different awards that Walt Disney has won, or Disney Studios, I should say. And then...

I have a few thousand things with my better brain to tell you about Walt. He in his intended TV room. He is the most amazing show in Disneyland. He is 17 minutes in all. The burst of jokes. The flowers seem. They take his chant. And my cousin Jose, he whistles and he croons.

You have to say it to believe it and then you will not believe it. So they have a couple of animatronics from the Tiki Room on display as well. And a crocodile from the Jungle Cruise. And then on the wall is pictures of Walt over the years. Now, three, scale out there. One, two, three, two, three, both. It's actually sitting back and it's better now and make it be clear that you've got to try to do it.

You're not really close in great. So, you're going to be able to be able to be able to. You have a place for a lot of interest. You know the scale. Um, you have two spaces. On the Yeti, they also, they also have a couple pieces from the New York World's Fair from It's a small world. They have a duck and a Java dancing doll. And next to that are two pirates from the Pirates of the Caribbean and a pig.

All right, I'm going to head inside to Walt Disney, A Magical Life. I'll catch me with the after. Welcome to Walt Disney, A Magical Life. From Mickey Mouse to motion pictures and television, themed parks and beyond, Walt Disney's vision and risk-taking have given us a lifetime of entertainment. The tribute you're about to see

is told in Walt's own words, taken from recordings from throughout his career. Although the quality of these recordings vary, we do hope that you agree that they add a unique and personal touch to the tribute you are about to see. As a courtesy to guests around you, Please do not use any flash photography or video camera lighting and please silence your cell phones. Any reminder, food or drinks are not committed while inside the theater.

If you do need an exit for any reason, you will be using the doors on your right-hand side. Those will also be your exit doors at the end of the show. And now to help narrate Walt Story, we have the CEO of the Walt the Sea Company, Bob Eiger. They say that Hollywood is a town built on dreams, and one of its greatest dreamers was Walt Disney. His life was filled with both exhilarating success and heartbreaking setbacks. But he never gave up. He just kept moving toward that great big, beautiful tomorrow. The story of Walt's life is truly a magical one. No one could tell it quite like Walt himself.

My dad worked with a carpet in the world's fire building. He eventually ended up in Chicago as a contractor, and he was doing that when I was born. December 1st, 1901. My dad made some money as a contractor and they wanted to get back to the farm. They finally ended up buying the farm. buying this farm in Marcelline, Missouri. It was a beautiful farm. But it was not the kind of farm to make them any of them.

Things got pretty tough on the farm, and my dad ended in sickness. So my dad sold the farm, kept the money, and went to Kansas City. And my dad bought this, um, Kansas City Star route. And they gave me a route. I was about nine and ten when I started that. The winter we'd go out at 3.30 in the morning after a blizzard or in the blizzard, or in pouring rings, it didn't matter. I did that for six years. It was tough. The constant hardship took a heavy toll in the Disney family. One by one, the children began to leave home. And one day, Walt woke up to find his best friend, his brother Roy, had gone as well.

So Walt did something that he would do throughout his life when things got tough. He took a chance. My brother had joined the Navy, so I wanted to join it. Well, I was still a year too young. I was 16. Why did this kid come in to me very excited? He said, there's something just for me. Here to you and I can get in.

He said, what is it? He said, the landlord should. I was in Paris, 3 September, and push and pulled out. Paris, which had been this exciting thing, and all its soldiers and things, suddenly there was the soldier to be. what's the soldier to do you see?

And I suddenly became very long ago. So then I went in put a request in to be discharged. I was in Chicago. That's where my parents were living. And that's his dad. I want to be an artist. And my dad didn't. He just couldn't buy that.

Why, for it stage, they moved to Kansas City. Roy was in Kansas City working in a bank. One of the folks working with Roy, I should say, I have a couple of brands and have an art shop. I went up with these samples and there were all these corny things I've done in France. Well, my gosh, they hired. I mean, right down the spot.

So I put the camera home and then I started experimenting. And I don't know. We're doing when it's this intensity film act. Well, that was where I got started in the atmosphere. I got started in the animation business. I was thinking if I had something with a mouth in a quick, I might crack to market.

But I still couldn't get anywhere with it. I failed. I learned a lot of that. And I think it's important to have a good card failure to go. So I packed all my really goods in a cardboard suitcase. I went to Hollywood. Arriving there with just $40 in my pocket from my 10 city ventures.

Now, my brother Roy, was already in Los Angeles. Both of us were unemployed. We solved the problem by going into business for ourselves. We established the first animated cartoon studio in Hollywood. Walt's dreams were finally coming true. He had his first big hit, Oswald, the Lucky Rabbit. And he had married the love of his life, Lillian, an ink and paint artist at the studio who shared his dreams.

Then he was dealt a devastating blow. On a business trip to New York City, he learned that he had lost ownership of Oswald due to a contract loophole. And to make matters worse, the distributor had signed away Walt's artists. Most people would have given up right then and there, not Walt Disney. he sent a telegram to his brother Roy everything okay and as he headed home to California

something happened along the way that would change things forever Mickey Mouse came into our life he popped out of my mind onto a drawing pad for the train ride from Manhattan to Hollywood at a time when the business fortunes of my brother Roy and myself

were at low a stand and disasters seemed right around the corner his first actual screen of was at the old colony theater in New York in Steamboat, Willie. He was the first cartoon character to stress personality, and I thought of him from the first as a distinct individual. I did the voice. Hey on, pal, here we go.

Mickey was simply a little personality assigned to the purposes of laughter. Mickey fitted the need exactly. He brought in the money which saved the day. He enabled us to explore our medium, and he paved the way for our more elaborate green ventures. By nature, I'm an experimenter, so I had another idea which was plaguing my brain. It was a silly symphonies. It was a series without a central character. Everyone was a new type of subject to give us something to need.

Reach out of me to accomplish something different. Then we started distributing both Mickey Mons and the Subcommittee. It was knit and talk, get the laugh. Walt began to push himself and his artists, and when he wasn't working, he was worrying about the future. And then the inevitable happen. in 1931 he had what he called a heck of a breakdown so he did something unique for walt disney he took time off and took his wife on the first vacation they had ever had when they returned he was a new man filled with ideas for the future running on the wall there. It's a short subject with just a filler on any program. If I could crack the feature field, then I can do this.

I had done little story research on different fairy tales I might do and so that was one of them. I thought it was a perfect story. I had the hetty. It's a magic wish apple. Now make a wish. I had the prince and the girl romance. I had a sip of hetty. We started Snow White sometime late 35 and was around two years in the making. We had the family fortune, we had everything wrapped up in Snow White. In fact, the banker, I think, was losing more sleep than I was. We had a big premiere, the Cartley Circle Theater, big, great Hollywood premiere.

All of Hollywood Brass turned out for a cartoon. The body of Snowbird in the Seven Ones is going to be presented as beautiful statue. Isn't there a brightness series? Oh, it's beautiful. Aren't you proud at Mr. Disney? Well, I'm so proud. I think I'll bless you. But the prophets of snow, I built the studio. Two years later, I was almost broke.

Later, I was almost broke. But I had all these picturing words. A no kill? But you can see, there are no strings on me. Bandy? Antigia? That was one war, James. was collapsing man. So many of the boys went through the service. So I just

practically stopped my feature production. It's all I could do. And after the war, it was quite a problem picking up the pieces. I knew that the versifying that the business would be the salvation of it. So I tried various things of, what a go to and part two. And I thought if I could get into the live end, I'd have those things I could do. Stand by inches. Come on, Dad, and why get him!

Not bad, eh, Charlie? Let's open her up and see what you really do. I wanted to just different types of things that I could fall on my nose. One of these pictures, but I had another one right behind it. That would get. After a long concentration on live action and cartoon films, we decided to try something that would deploy about every trick we learned in the making of films.

We would combine cartoon, live action, in enormous fantasy, Mary Poppins. As the original Mary Poppins budget of $5 million continued to grow, I never saw a sad face around the studio. Even my brother Roy was happy. This made me nervous. And the horrible thought struck me. Suppose the staff had finally conceded that I knew what I was doing. Once again, Walt Disney had created storytelling magic to reinvent family entertainment. But even then, he wasn't finished.

He had a bigger dream in mind. Well, it came about with my daughters were very young, and Saturday was always the daddy's day with the two daughters. So we'd start out and try to go someplace with, you know, different things. and I would take them to the merry ground, and I took them different places. And as I'd sit there while they rode the merry ground, did all these things, I felt that there should be something built,

some kind of an amusement enterprise built, where the parents and the children could then have fun together. So that's how the Disneyland started. It takes a lot of money to make these dreams come true. And we had everything mortgage. including my family. Started with many ideas through away, started all over again.

Eventually it evolved into what you see today is Disneyland. But it all started from a daddy with two daughters wondering where he could take it, where he can have a little fun with him too. The part means a lot to me in that something will never be finished, something that I can keep developing and adding to

not only can I add things but even the trees will keep growing that thing will get more beautiful every year and I knew if I did anything like the park I should have some sort of a medium like television

to let the people know it the world is a carousel of color history, comedy fantasy there's drama and birth There's old Mother Earth with all of her secrets to see The miracle of imagination

The marvels of earth see a sky These wonders of toad are ours to behold In the funny world The sunny world The wonderful world And now your host, Walt Disney Today, I want to share with you some of our ideas for Disney World. Here in Florida, we had something special we never enjoyed at Disneyland, a blessing of size.

There's enough land here to hold all the ideas and plans we can possibly imagine. We know what our goals are. We know what we hope to accomplish. And believe me, it's the most exciting and challenging assignment we've ever tackled at Walt Disney Productions. Throughout his storied career, Walt never gave up, despite the many challenges along the way. For his visionary work, he received hundreds of awards from all corners of the globe, more Academy awards than any individual in history, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom for a lifetime of inspiring others.

He created dreams that live on today for millions around the world. But with all of that, when asked to name his greatest reward, reward, Walt's reply was surprisingly humble. Well, all my greatest reward, I think, is that I've been able to build this wonderful organization and also to have the public appreciate and accept what I've done all these years. That is a great reward. But all individuals are different. I had a brother who I really envied because he was a mailman.

But he was the woman, had all the fun. He had himself a trailer, and he used to go off and go fishing, and he didn't worry about payrolls, and heard story. He said, had picture grocers or anything. He was unhappy. I always said, he's the smart Disney. You know, I was stumped one day when the little boy asked, do you draw Mickey Mouse?

And I had to admit I do not draw anymore. Well, then you think of all the jokes that I did. ideas. No, I said, I don't do that. Finally, he looked at me and said, Mr. Disney, just what do you do? Well, I said, sometimes I think of myself as a little bee. I go from one area of the studio to another and gather pollen and sort of stimulate everyone. I guess that's the job I do. You know, there's a lot of satisfaction in developing ideas into reality, but there's really no secret about our approach. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors, doing new things because we're curious. And curiosity keeps leading us down new paths. We're always exploring

and experimenting. We're interested in doing things that are fun in bringing pleasure and especially laughter to people. But I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing. But it was all started by a mountain. out of the blue eight steps in and sees you through one huge

upon the star your dreams cause Okay, so we're going to make our way down main street to the main street to the main street cinema where they're showing a, feature about the Sherman Brothers' last verse of Small World, so say a little walk down there. All right. All right.

Magic band, three, two, there. Magic vet, that boy here. It's having a magic fan. For a free to be. Yeah. Well, that sounds pretty good. In fact, that's just the right spirit. Our songwriters, Dick and Bob Sherman in the Long Busy's studio.

Great, great. Good job. Thank you. It's a world. It's a world of hope in a world. You get the love that we get a lot of me that's right. Remember, where it's just a more world

don't do more. I'm not going to be. I can't see you. Oh, and I'm going to be. Yeah. Yeah. It's just one.

I'm just one. I'm just one. And the earth's just one I'm just going to keep attention to have to know. And the earth's just so wide. It's a small world after roll. Go and A.

It's the small world as the world. In the small world, it's the world. I don't know. Mother Earth Unites us in heart and mine. Mother Earth unites us in heart and mind When the love will give makes the shield. humankind Who are the forestland

When we stand In this small world at the rose So our next stop is Tapestry of Happiness and that is the projection show on Small World But It is post-carade, post-fireworks, post-caust-caust, post-caust, basically. So I will catch up with you closer to Showtime

and we'll go from there. We got a thing to do It all starts with true To let your light shine to make your life Like a light Who's feeling like I got to throw your hands up in the sky A little bit of magic Every night and every day

To celebrate The Wildeer Mind out who you are. Go, go, go, no, no. The wildest ride into wilderness, tiki, tiki, tiki, tiki, tiki, tiki, tiki. Then the tiki, tiki, tiki, tiki, tiki, tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki The Roams of

breaking Gip on to mom's to play I don't know. You can't buy, you can't buy, you can buy, do you can buy. So hold your eyes and don't try to hide. So hold your eyes and don't try to hide in for us me. Spilly spoke

Baste and by your side Remed many girls come out to Sets. oland. ...why... ...when... ...you know? ... 이런...

...withal... ...and... ...and... ...and... ...and... ...that... We wanted to foster a better understanding among nations of the world, and we wanted to show it to be a very happy, happy one.

Happy, happy, happy. There's a world Celebrate with everything Dream up Celebrate with who you are And where you come from Celebrate at the year Celebrate at the year

Celebrate There's a world of laughter Of world of tears There's a world of hope In a world of food There's so much that we share We're aware It's a small world after all

It's a small world after all It's a small world after all It's a small world after all In the small world after all It's a small world after all As I say, we're just getting started I absolutely love the Sherman Brothers tribute they dropped in there Probably my favorite moments for sure

I think that's going to do it for tonight so why don't we do some patron thank you on the way out level, we have Beck Castle, Bill and Aaron Zees, Brian E. Grant, Derek at Satisfactual Sign Company, John Hamilton, Meredith Izzo, Hannah Ginn, David Krause, Jessica Davis, Courtney Otter, Kara Louisa Moody, Lori B., Randall Lynch, Barbara Torino, Barry Campbell, Norm Disney, RJ Lucia, and Fabian Gumpier. At the Living Laboratory level, we have Debbie Gamala, Eric Steinbauer, Eric Steinhouse, Josh Nakano, Lindsay O'Connell, James Beecham, and Eric Gutsuso.

Thanks for joining us this week. Thank you for joining us this week. Thank you for listening and being part of our theme park found family. If you haven't already, you can look us up on Instagram at Walkabout WDW. You can also find us online at walkabout the world.com. Email us there at Contact at Walkabouttheworld.com. You can also find each of our hosts on Instagram. Find me, Jeremy, at Jeremy underscore Hunt underscore FL.

Producer Josh at The Steel with an E. Pete at Neverland Local. Rick at Optical Jedi Michelle at Havoc Jedi Jay at Jay Bear 312 and Yvonne at Servo is naked And we end as we always do With the hope and the promise

That there is a great big beautiful tomorrow Out there for each of us We will see you in one of those tomorrows On a future episode of Walk About the World Thank you.