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Episode 56: Dan Wolf - PART 1
87 Plays1 year ago
On this week's episode we share part 1 of our conversation with Dan Wolf. Dan served as the VP of Corporate Communications at the Walt Disney Company from 1989-2007 and share many interesting stories from his time working Disney.
Bes sure to tune in next week for part 2 as well!
For more on Dan check out his Lone Wolf Writing website HERE
DISCLAIMER: We are not an affiliate of the Walt Disney Company nor do we speak for the brand or the company. Any and all Disney-owned audio, characters, and likenesses are their property and theirs alone.
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Transcript
Introduction to Podcast
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome to Sharing the Magic, the podcast that takes you on a journey through the enchanting worlds of Disney. Each week, we're joined by a special guest, whether they're a magician creating moments of astonishment or a Disney expert sharing the secrets behind the magic of the happiest place on Earth. Together we'll uncover the stories, inspirations, and behind the scenes tales that bring these worlds to life. So, get ready to be spellbound and transported to a place where dreams come true.
00:00:54
Speaker
Hello,
Meet Dan Wolf
00:00:55
Speaker
welcome to the latest episode of Sharing the Magic. I'm your host Barry. And once again, we have another edutainment episode tonight where we have our education meeting entertainment. Tonight we are talking to someone who will I think you're going to really enjoy hearing from. This person has worked for Walt Disney World, worked for Walt Disney, and he's also now an author. But before we jump into hearing more about him, we're going to introduce our co-host tonight. I want to say hi to Brian. Brian, how you doing tonight?
00:01:34
Speaker
doing very well here. Barry, very excited for our guests this evening. Looking forward to talking some unique tales and stories that I'm sure our guests will be able to provide this evening. Absolutely. Next we have Dawn. Dawn, how are you doing tonight? I'm good. All right. And last, we have Lisa. Lisa, how are you doing tonight? I am great, super excited to be here. i'm I cannot wait to hear any gems from our guests tonight. Before we introduce our guests, I just want to reiterate, this gentleman did not work for Walt Disney, he worked for Disney. so i know I'm not that old.
00:02:16
Speaker
So our guest tonight, he was the former VP of communications at the Walt Disney World, and he's the current author. And we are happy to bring in Dan Wolf. How are you
Joining Disney in 1989
00:02:31
Speaker
doing today, Dan? ah Good. Now, just to clarify, I didn't work, I did some stuff with Walt Disney World, but I worked for the Walt Disney Company, headquartered in Burbank. I was not based in Orlando. I had involvement with the Parks, I had involvement with all aspects of the company, but I was at corporate communications in the company headquarters in Burbank.
00:02:54
Speaker
All right, great to know. So Dan, let me jump in. um I'm gonna go a little little different than what I usually ask, because I usually ask how you fell in love with Disney, but I want to change it up a little bit and ask you know how you got started in working for the Disney Corporation. Okay, but although I'll still give you a little bit about falling in love with Disney, and as much as before, I came to the company in 1989, but I was enough of a Disney nerd myself that before coming to the company,
00:03:29
Speaker
I had, for example, the book The Illusion of Life by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston about Disney animation. I was always fascinated by Walt Disney himself, the company, the animation and all that. so And I had followed in the 1980s the drama of the corporate battle in 1984 when Disney was almost taken over by corporate raiders who would have broken up the company but instead ah Walt's nephew Roy Disney helped mastermind bringing in Michael Eisner and Frank Wells to the company and and Jeffrey Katzenberg and some others who you know completely turned the company around
00:04:16
Speaker
So I was watching that like people across the country and around the world of how this company was on the ropes.
Impact of 'The Little Mermaid'
00:04:22
Speaker
And then it started it had a real Renaissance from starting in 1984. And then in 1989, I came to the company, suddenly I was working with these people I'd been reading about all those years and I got to meet Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas and a bunch of the other old animators who were still alive and work with these people who were, you know, making the company into a powerhouse and it's
00:04:47
Speaker
I probably most of your listeners are young enough that it's hard to believe because since Disney is such a entertainment giant now, but it almost practically disappeared in 1984 when this battle happened and In 1989, I came on when it was still having this great resurgence. the One of the first landmarks once I came on was The Little Mermaid, ah which everybody knows was a colossal achievement and put not just Disney animation, but animation. Animation, nobody wanted to do animation back then. It was a money loser. And suddenly, and ever since,
00:05:29
Speaker
animations, what everybody wants to do. and So anyway, I came to the company as somebody who had always watched from the outside and suddenly I was there with the principals, you know, helping get the message out of what we were doing. So when you when you started, again, you know, not as technologically savvy as it is today, um coming in, and does ah Disney coming off of some horrible movies that they've in the 80s that eighty s set kind of
00:06:02
Speaker
You know, everyone was like, what is going on with Disney to it? So what when when you came in, what was what was the what was the the change like? I mean, was everybody on board when the Little Mermaid was out or? I'll tell you a little anecdote. I was in Florida at Disney World for a conference ah in August, I think, of 1989, and they screened The Little Mermaid, which came out at Christmas time that year. And I sat next to Chris McGurk, who was the chief financial officer of the studio. And the film played, and then Chris,
00:06:44
Speaker
leaned over to me after the film was over and he said to me, write off. He didn't get it. you know He's finance guy and stuff. He literally, we both seen the movie for the first time. yeah And everybody was used to animated films being money losers. And so he just but I'd love to talk to him today and see if he remembers that that's how he reacted to the film. But anyway, that's how much ah the conventional wisdom was that animation was a money loser. And even after seeing this film that really changed everything, I think two films changed the world in that regard. And that was The Little Mermaid.
00:07:26
Speaker
which I was around for and who framed Roger Rabbit, which came out the year before I came to the company. You know, those both all of a sudden was telling animation isn't just for kids anyway. Anyway, and then that little anecdote, it just shows you how much people weren't getting yet what the potential was of animation to be as ah much of a force as it once was. As a lot of your listeners may know, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the biggest film of 1937. Not the biggest children's film, not the biggest family film, the biggest box office film. It was a phenomenon. And then all the other great films followed.
00:08:06
Speaker
And then, of course, animation no went into sort of a dark place. And then with Roger Rabbit and the Little Mermaid, the world changed forever. So, Dan,
Speechwriting at Disney
00:08:17
Speaker
why don't you tell us how how you got your job at Disney and and what what what your day-to-day was like? Two good questions. i It was all rather fluky. I was the press deputy for one of the five L.A. County supervisors in the 1980s. And in 1986, I was asked to write a speech for Richard Frank, who was then the president of Walt Disney Studios.
00:08:50
Speaker
as a freelance job. He was also then the president of the TV Academy. And so as president of the TV Academy, that's what these speeches were for because TV Academy was starting an anti-drug program. And so I wrote some speeches for him over the next couple of years in his capacity as president of TV Academy. And then it's a longer story than that. I won't give you all the details. In January, ah the first day of January 1989, I came to work and I got a call from the head of marketing for the studio because the studio was, ah or the company was giving an analyst conference later in January 1989. And they were asking me,
00:09:41
Speaker
to write the studio's presentation for the analyst conference, if I could do it and another freelance job. This is the first time I was asked to do something for Disney, not for the TV Academy. And anyway, like, wow, all of a sudden I had to write this, you know, so I came over there and they briefed me on and stuff was, you know, a lot, a lot to soak in. That's also the first time I met Jeffrey Katzenberg, the chairman of the studio. I wrote a speech. They liked it. And again, it's a much longer story, but i out of that I was offered a job to come to the company, and I started in March of 1989 as then as manager for communication.
00:10:26
Speaker
And my day-to-day in in that job, so and I eventually became director of corporate communication and vice president of corporate communication, but my basic job did not change. I was primarily the speechwriter for the top people in the company. And my day-to-day job, one thing was nice about it was there was no day-to-day routine. It really depended on what Michael Eisner, Frank Boes, Jeffrey Katzenberg, you know, if they were going to go make a speech or do other communications. It it was speeches was what I did more than anything, but but I also did the the shareholder
00:11:05
Speaker
letters and ah with Jeffrey Katzenberg until he left the company in 1994. He became the guy I worked with the most but and just things would cover a great range. One absurd thing I did for him was when Dick Tracy was coming out in 1990 and Days of Thunder with Tom Cruise was coming out against it. And I started, Jeffrey had me write poems, sarcastic poems that went to the producers of Days of Thunder. They were writing poems back and forth about how so each movie was going to beat the other one. I kid you not. And so I was writing these
00:11:53
Speaker
these sarcastic poems. I was ghostwriting for Jeffrey until the producer on the other side said, you have somebody doing this for me anyway.
Tribute in 'Beauty and the Beast'
00:12:01
Speaker
So it could become all kinds of absurd things. Now, the single thing I am most proud of that all of you people listening can go and go on to Disney Plus and see it for yourselves is After Howard Ashman, I never met, you know, he was the lyricist for The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast and some of the songs of Aladdin. And he was more than the lyricist. He was a force behind this notion that these could be great musicals. And and I was a big admirer of Howard. I never met him. And and he was a big reason that these films were so successful.
00:12:44
Speaker
And he died of AIDS before Beauty and the Beast came out. And Don Hahn, who was the producer of Beauty and the Beast, called me one day and said, can you write dedication for the film in honor of Howard? And I came up with the wording for the dedication, which is to our friend Howard, who gave a mermaid her voice and a beast his soul. And that's on the at the end of the film. And yeah, I did a lot of stuff as a company, a lot of interesting things. But of everything, I love Beauty and the Beast. It is, of all the films of the Disney Renaissance, of the of the Return of Disney, it is my favorite still. And the fact that I made this small contribution to it that's it's on there is a real point of pride.
00:13:37
Speaker
that's So anyway, with all kinds of stuff, and and the and and probably the most famous thing that some of you may still have some awareness of, in 1991 there was something, or let me ask you guys who I'm looking at, you heard of the Katzenberg memo? with Katzenberg Memo in 1991, Disney had had a great run of success in film from 1984 through 1990, then things didn't go as well. And I worked with Jeffrey Katzenberg on what turned out to be a 28 page single spaced memo about how to turn the studio cut, how to regain success. And it ended up being leaked to the press
00:14:22
Speaker
And it was reprinted in full in daily variety. And it was a sensation. It was covered by all the press, not just entertainment press. For a good year, people talked about the Katzenberg memo. It also, unbeknownst to me, helped fuel the tension between Jeffrey Katzenberg and Michael Eisner, the the chairman of the company. And anyone from that era who's around knows what the Katzenberg memo was. Anyway, I wrote it. and Certainly Jeffrey had a lot to do with it, but but that of all the things I wrote, that was probably of the thing that was like the biggest sensation in Hollywood anyway.
00:15:02
Speaker
ah Dan, wasn't that also referred to by many as the inspiration behind the Jerry Maguire film, too? Yes, that's a good point. And Jerry Maguire, he writes an internal memo that gets a lot of attention. And yes, the model for that I have read was the Katzenberg memo. You know, that was in a, he was a sports guy and stuff. The, the actual details of the business was different, but the model, the inspiration for that slot device in Jerry McGuire was what I wrote.
00:15:37
Speaker
That's awesome. I have a question for you because i as I was doing a little research about you, I know you have a BA in history, correct? Yes. So how did that lead you into a career of speech writing or, you know, I just found that was an interesting deviation from, you know, I think so many so many people get into their educational goal when they're young and they have this direction they're headed in and they go anywhere but that direction. And there's always a unique story as to why that happens. So what was that story for you? How did you go from being the history buff to becoming the VP of corporate communications for the Disney company?
00:16:22
Speaker
I mean, that's a great question, and it's and it's not as much a stretch as it may sound. I am, as I've said more than once, I am one of the few liberal arts majors who actually does what I was trained to do, because when I write a speech, it's basically like a term paper. it know It's like a research paper. You know, that's what you learn to do in college, right? is we We go to the library, now you go on the internet, and you do research, and then you write a report. Right. Well, except my reports are speeches. And so I actually actually the skill set that I learned in college, which is writing research papers is kind of what I do for a living. But I, and I never was somebody who said, you know, I want to be a lawyer or doctor, you know, i had I had a clear career goal. like
00:17:09
Speaker
instead followed opportunities as they came and in a nutshell ah after college I worked for four years at NBC News as basically a PA at the bottom wrong of the ladder and then I went into a program, a master's program in urban studies, got a master's in urban studies and from that I got hired by Supervisor Hahn to be the press deputy for him on the LA County Board of Supervisors. So then I was in politics. And then through unplanned series of events, I started writing these freelance speeches for Rich Frank, which led to the Disney hire. ah So none of this was planned.
00:17:49
Speaker
Again, the one common element is I kind of use the skills that I learned in college to craft how to, you know, i in in college I was writing papers about the Civil War and and Edwin Booth, who was, you know, famous actor and ah in the 19th century and stuff like that. But the basic skills that I learned in doing that is kind of what I do for a living. that's That's pretty amazing. I have to say it's a neat journey for you to get to that level, obviously, to be working for the Walt Disney Corporation and Walt Disney Company at that level.
Disneyland Memories
00:18:28
Speaker
Were you a parker? Are you from California originally?
00:18:32
Speaker
Yeah, I was born in Los Angeles. So were you a Disney park goer as a child or did you have it? That's really interesting because yes, I was born in 1950. The park opened, as you all know, in 1955. probably the first time I went was around 56 or so when and and it was something you know by when we look at the price of admission today looks like nothing but it was a big deal for to go to Disneyland we would only go every few years and and you know it it was it was like you know oh boy we're going to go and when I and as a kid I remember driving to Disneyland
00:19:17
Speaker
and you'd go on the Santa Ana freeway and pass orange groves. You know, and of course now it's those are long gone. But you know, I do remember that. And I remember I remember the early maybe is the first time I ever went. I don't know. You know, and and one thing, one gene of the many brilliant things Walt Disney did on his Disney show which we all watched on Sunday night if he opened a new attraction he just showed you the whole damn thing it wasn't like you know trying to be mysterious or anything somehow he knew if I show it for free on black and white television back then
00:19:56
Speaker
People are going to want to see it for themselves, even though they already saw it on television. And so, and I remember the Jungle Cruise was a big deal. Wow. But I remember maybe it's the first time we went, certainly one of the times we went, there was too long a line. We didn't do the Jungle Cruise. Oh, geez, you know, I wanted to see that. for myself, we did the the river could the the Mark Twain, because that was easier to get onto. But we didn't want to sit in the long line for the Jungle Cruise. And I wanted to see it, even though, again, you really saw it. yeah They show you the whole thing on TV. And you know when Abraham Lincoln started, they showed you the whole thing. he always He knew somehow that showing it for free would still make people want to come pay for it. But again, it was
00:20:41
Speaker
You know, and you'd you'd buy the ticket books back then and the e-tickets, you know, you'd maybe get your parents to buy you another e-ticket. You know, you get like three in the book and you'd go, oh, what am I going to use it on? And maybe you'd get them to spend 75 cents on another e-ticket for you. And then you ended up going home with a bunch of a tickets because nobody, you know, How many times do you want to ride the trolley down Main Street? i And and and that's that's how it works. And and i you know i had I and many other people have these memories of how how it was and how you wanted to go go to that place.
00:21:21
Speaker
So with those memories as a child and then you find yourself as an adult working hand in hand with some of the most influential and important people in that company, do you work when you write speeches for people? Are you working to be their voice or provide them a voice? If that makes sense. It makes sense and and it's well and you put it very well. it is The goal is to be in their voice and I guess the biggest compliment I would get with people saying, well, you write the way I talk. you know never They felt comfortable with ah Roy Disney in particular, who was a very shy guy.
00:22:07
Speaker
And he, but he was invaluable, you know, he was Roy Disney, he was Walt's nephew, ah Roy's son, and and he was the the link between the modern era and the and the old all time. and And he did not like public speaking, but he but people wanted to hear from him. And once he got very comfortable with me and he got much more comfortable public speaking as a result, and I got to know him, I traveled with him, And so, but I also was bringing, you know, my knowledge of the company, my experience and stuff in there too. It was this fusion, if you will, of me and them. And when you talk about Roy, like one of the, you know, only Roy could tell this story. And the story i was that when he was, I think it was six,
00:23:02
Speaker
And he had the chicken pox and Walt and Lillian came over to the house and Walt came upstairs to see Roy in his sick bed and Walt sat on his bed and told him the story about this movie they were making called Pinocchio. And Roy said that, you know, then the movie came out and it was great, but it was never as great as hearing Walt tell the story to him personally. And, you know, to be able to write a speech that has him saying, telling that story was incredible and no one else could tell that story. And it was also gave you insight into Walt because everybody knows he was this incredible storyteller. And it's closely people who were in the room when he first told
00:23:48
Speaker
the story of of uh Snow White and he would act each of the dwarfs and all that stuff and people who were there just were you know I've read about it and I knew people like uh Ollie and Frank uh who were there and you know there was just something there was nobody could tell a story like him and here's Roy experienced that one-on-one with the master and Anyway, and and and for my so here I come along and all such i get two help I get to hear it firsthand from him and then I get to help put it in did in the messaging for the company that only he could tell. so you know He was a particularly unique voice for me to work with. but
00:24:34
Speaker
But all of them, back in those days, the first day of the first five years, there were sort of three phases of my career. I was there 18 years from 1989 to 2007. The first five years I never worked harder in my life, but it was it is incredibly stimulating. The company was firing on all cylinders. You had Eisner, Wells, and Katzenberg were these particularly dynamic people who were just energizing the company.
Three Phases of Disney Career
00:25:02
Speaker
And I was working very closely with all of them, plus Roy Disney and and and and and others, but those were primary ones.
00:25:12
Speaker
and rich frank of course who was my original contact and then in 1994 the tragedy of frank well's dying in the helicopter crash and then jeffrey katzenberg left and so of those three powerhouses Eisner, Wells, and Katzenberg, now we have one. The company was still doing quite well, and and Eisner, you know, nobody's perfect, but he's a very dynamic guy. And so then, start phase two for me, which was basically until Michael left and nineteen in
00:25:50
Speaker
And then Iger, of course, became the CEO. And then the job became a lot less fun. Let's put it that way. And then I left 2007. And so it was sort of like the the glory days. And then the Eisner years where the company is still certainly uh it was still disney you know theres pretty remarkable place and then uh it was a new era and uh and not much fun so at least from my from where i sat and and and let me tell you one other little story because you're talking about disneyland and you know i was there as a kid and
00:26:31
Speaker
and I watched Walt Disney and all that. And
Dressing as Pluto Experience
00:26:33
Speaker
so in my few months after I started in 1989, they had an orientation program for executives at my level where a three-day orientation plant ah program where the third day of which you go into the park and you ended by being a costume character and going out. because they said, yeah and Michael Eisner did it, he was he was goofy, you're you're assigned the the costume by your height, your size, and they will not you will not get to be Mickey or Minnie. You know, those are off, and Donald, Donald's usually
00:27:12
Speaker
and Daisy are done by little people anyway. But anyway, I was lucky because I got Pluto, which is a great one, you know, because most people get more of the secondary characters. Pluto is a really good one. And so I go out into the park and then they do it because they say, this is, you want to know what Disney is. You spend 20 minutes doing this and you know. And so I go out and I'm Pluto. Now, first of all, I've rarely been as uncomfortable. You're in this suit. You can only see forward. You have no peripheral vision. You have these giant feet that you're tripping over yourself. You know, you have your handler next to you so you don't fall on your face.
00:27:53
Speaker
or on your nose in this case. And you go out and it's it wasn't a particularly hot day, but you're sweating pretty good in there anyway. How they do it at Disney World in the parades when they're dancing in 98 degree humid Florida weather, I cannot imagine. I am told people will lose like five pounds. of water weight. That's the best diet plan there is. Boy, I'm telling you. Anyway, so I go out. I'm Pluto. And kids start running to me. You feel like you are Tom Cruise. You feel like you're a celebrity. And they come running to you. And they want your autograph, which you do on your nose. You sign your Pluto on your nose. And they're hugging me. And they want pictures with me. And I am a big deal. And then.
00:28:40
Speaker
The bubble is burst because then all of a sudden they go, there's Mickey. I'll go running to Mickey and they abandoned me. But ah and then you walk about after 20 minutes, they take you by the elbow and you go back out. And it it really is startling because you see the power of these characters and especially, you know, Mickey, and especially he's had like at this time, Mickey hadn't really been in anything for years. And yet, as we all know, he just has this presence, he's just, he's beloved. And Pluto too, you know, what had Pluto been in? But people know Pluto. ah So these characters have a place in people's hearts that is hard to even understand. But there it is, and for 20 minutes I was him.
00:29:29
Speaker
And everyone wanted you until... Everyone wanted me until Mickey came out. I love that story. What an experience. Yeah, I also wanted to ask you a quick question. Oh, and I got in trouble. I got in trouble. Oh, you got in trouble? I got in trouble. but because aye Because somebody, a local l LA Times reporter, inner you know who had known me when I worked for Supervisor Hahn, ah contacted me to follow up on, you know, there have been some stories about me going to Disney and they, and he contacted me to see how, you know, how it was going. And I told him the story about me being Pluto. And there was a little article in the LA Times about Dan Wolf who used to work for Supervisor Hahn, who was Pluto in the park.
00:30:17
Speaker
and And I thought, well, I'm going to get praised because I got a little bit of a tip you know publicity. And I came in and I got reprimanded because no one's supposed to know who's in the costume. That is Pluto. That's not somebody inside of it. And I said, you do not do that. And so instead of getting brownie points, I got slapped on the wrist. you You made a new friend, because you're friends with Pluto. Yeah. Oh, yeah. No. And I have a picture. ah Still, of they took take pictures of you. They did take pictures of everybody in that class with the heads on and with the heads off. i And I've got that picture, too. It needs to be restored. It's terribly faded. But anyway, and and and it is you know it is kind of scary looking at the bodies without the heads.
00:31:07
Speaker
That's a great story because i as I know, many of the characters have friends of Pluto, just like Brian said. So being in communications later on, that's probably, you know, um you you became very eloquent of about the ways to say things. you You may not have done that later on, if you know. So what I was going to ask you about, I know that you talked about one of the things, one of the major things you did. Have you talked about the 2000? Was it Eisner? Who? a No. Oh no. Help me. You guys, there was a, another shareholder letter that you wrote. Yeah, it was Eisner shareholder letter in 2000.
00:31:55
Speaker
oh in 2000. Well, that when that was, I mean, it was, because again, I was always, like when I mentioned the Katzenberg memo, it now it came out years later when Michael wrote his book, Work in Progress, which I can and came out in 1995. That's the first time I was out. And he mentioned that I wrote Katzenberg's memo. But, you know, for all these things, I'm in the shadows, you know, I don't, get named and ah but and my daughter would always get upset because I'd come home with daily variety and I'd show a quote of Eisner or whatever, you know something that I wrote and I'd say, look, I wrote that and she would be upset because she she wanted me to get credit, you know not just to see Michael Eisner. And I said, no, that's the way the job works. ah But in 2000, I wrote Michael's shareholder letter
00:32:52
Speaker
And the way that process works is I'd be given a bunch of information and Michael had it had a very folksy style and he would often talk about his own family and his sons and stuff in the letter. And i so I tried to capture that and and he would be very hands-on and in the end he'd be writing elements too but anyway I would draft it and so but people would give me the information that they wanted him to relate in the letter and the previous year had been an off year for Disney and it hadn't done as well and the stock was down and so I was given all this information and so I came up with the idea to organize it about our our four pronged strategy to turn the company around.
00:33:39
Speaker
So I wrote the letter in that structure where Michael's saying, we have a four-pronged strategy. And I organized all the information I was given under this four-pronged strategy. And to my sort of surprise, that every draft after that four-pronged strategy stayed. And then the letter came out and the stock went up by five points.
Boosting Disney's Stock
00:34:03
Speaker
because Wall Street went, wow, they've got a four-prong strategy. And that year, they the company did do better that year, if some of you may remember, to show who wants to be a millionaire, came out on ABC, and was a phenomenon. It was on four nights a week, ah and it was extremely successful. It cost very little. It was making lots of money on ABC, and it drove a lot of success. But anyway,
00:34:30
Speaker
And for months, everybody was talking about our four-pronged strategy. And assuming, of course, that came from the strategic planning and the CFO and all that, well, no, I made it up. and ah And so things like that were always interesting to watch. mr Some of the things I came up with had a life of their own. And ah ah and and no one would suspect that it was the lowly speed rider who who came up with these items. I have a question. and in july seventeen On July 1955, we know wal Walt gave his actual opening day address at Disneyland. um I know you were very little, but did you ever go back and study those speeches to kind of get the flavor
00:35:19
Speaker
and the mission statement of disney Walt Disney himself. and And also, do you know who wrote that or did he write it? No, I got to know Marty Sklar, who was the head of Imagineering. Marty Sklar was me. Marty Sklar was a student at USC, and he got a part-time job working when disneyland When Disneyland came out, he wrote the Disneyland Gazette, which was had a newspaper at Disneyland. You know, both wanted it to be a town, right? and have ah And towns have newspapers, so they had a newspaper. And he wrote that, and he became, well, a speechwriter for a time. And I got to know Marty, and we would joke about it.
00:36:11
Speaker
um I never became the head of Imagineering, obviously, so I didn't follow his in his footsteps, but, and ah Marty would not have written. I don't think while it's opening day remarks. And I'm sure you know Walt was not some passive person who just gave what was written, what was handed to him. But Marty was the, I certainly got to know him and we talked sometimes about what it was like to work for Walt. I also, ah besides getting to know some of the nine old men, his animators, I
00:36:49
Speaker
got to know Richard Sherman quite well. you know he He and his brother wrote so many so much of the music. And then he was very interesting to talk to him. He once told me this story to get off the track a little bit, but I think you guys like hearing about Walt. Absolutely. So he and his brother, you know, Walt had a piano in his office and he and his brother played, it's a small world for him. And he said, wow, that's great. I want to come over to Walt Disney Imagineering to play for them because they're they're making the small world attraction for the 1964 World's Fair.
00:37:31
Speaker
So they get in Walt's convertible Thunderbird and they drive over to Imagineering and they play the small world for them. Everybody goes great. And then they hang around while Walt has his meetings there. And then they get back in the car. They're on the 134 freeway coming back to the studio. And Sir Richard or or his brother ah say to Walt, you know, Walt, we were thinking that since this attraction is sponsored by UNICEF, i if there's any if we if we make any money off of this song, we're going to give it to UNICEF. Walt pulled the car over onto the shoulder of the freeway and turned over and said to them, you are not doing that. That song is going to put your kids through college.
00:38:22
Speaker
And they thought that was absurd. This is just this little silly song that they wrote for this attraction. And ah and it did. so You know, it's a small world. And it and and that is just one of so many wall stories where he just understood when nobody else did the significance of something. And and there's so many stories like that. I know they had shortened it and made it quicker for the ride. I remember reading that, the actual song. Do you know anything about the detail? That I don't know about, but but I'm not, you know, I'm sure Walt tweaked it and gave his thoughts. But the fact that he realized that this stupid little song for a theme park attraction, except they didn't call him that then, was actually going to be a goldmine for these songwriters. You know, he saw it and nobody else did.
00:39:14
Speaker
That's awesome. Did you have you ever been in club 33 with one of your, like I would say mentors or on a business agreement or what's your most memorable experience if you've been there? I have been
Club 33 Memories
00:39:27
Speaker
there. I haven't been there since they remodeled it. I haven't been there since I left Disney, but actually the best experience I had at Club 33 when it was not cheap, but it wasn't. It's as very expensive as it is now. My daughter's 21st birthday, we
00:39:45
Speaker
had a ah room there and and had lunch there for her and her friends and back then at least if you got into club 33 it also included admission to the park so everybody who came for the lunch got to go to the park and then everybody went around the park so that was that was my happiest experience at club 33 it's it was always i didn't go that that often but it was always fun because you know it's I'm sure you know it's totally unmarked except it has the address 33 and you push the button and if they have your name you go in and then you go up to this glass elevator and it's and it's this very sedate feeling inside all the
00:40:27
Speaker
Oh, the chaos, if you will, of the park. oh And back then it was the only place to serve alcohol. But I understand now they are actually have more alcohols being served in other restaurants there. ah um the The key question, Dan, is does your daughter remember that experience? Oh, yeah. No, no. She was celebrating twenty one. That's a hit or miss sometimes. Right. Right. Right. Who remembers that experience? It was definitely a lot of fun, although it was a great job. It was a time when I was it was at the end of my time at Disney. It was in 2007 before I left and not to do. I was having a lot of
00:41:11
Speaker
work stress at the time so it was a very it was and I actually talked to the number two HR guy at Disney who I was discussing my woes with. And i I talked to him that day from the park and they said, you know, it's really troubling to me because here I'm seeing what the best of Disney and what we stand for. And at and at work, I'm not seeing that. I'm seeing people who are who don't get it. And I remember that conversation in particular. So was it that particular day was stay real highs and lows for me.
00:41:46
Speaker
Well everyone, that's it for part one of our conversation with Dan Wolfe. Be sure to hit that follow button to catch part two when it comes out next week and to stay up to date on all of our latest episodes as they release. We'd also like to invite you to follow us over on our social pages on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok at SharingTheMagicPod. Thanks again for tuning in, and until next time, keep sharing the magic.
00:42:22
Speaker
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