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Episode 94 Bob Weis
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This week on Sharing the Magic, we’re delighted to welcome Bob Weis, a visionary Disney Imagineer and creative force behind some of the most iconic theme park experiences! 🎙️✨ With decades of experience shaping the magic at Disney, Bob shares his incredible journey in the world of storytelling and immersive design. 🏰🎢
From conceptualizing groundbreaking attractions to bringing beloved characters to life, Bob offers a behind-the-scenes look at the artistry and innovation that define Disney parks.
In our conversation, we delve into:
- The creative process behind developing new attractions and experiences
- How storytelling transforms theme parks into immersive worlds
- The importance of collaboration and teamwork in bringing magic to life
🎧 Join us for an insightful discussion that reveals the passion and creativity that make Disney parks truly special! Remember, every detail contributes to the unforgettable experience!
Follow 👉 @sharingthemagicpod for more enchanting discussions with the minds behind the magic. ✨
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Transcript
Introduction to the Magic
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to Sharing the Magic, the podcast that sweeps you away into the enchanting realms of Disney. Each week, we're joined by a special guest, be it a magician casting real-life spells of wonder, or a Disney expert revealing hidden secrets in the heart of the happiest place on Earth.
00:00:20
Speaker
Together, we'll venture down glittering paths, uncovering tales of daring heroes, legendary places, and whimsical wonders that make Disney sparkle.
00:00:31
Speaker
So prepare to be enchanted, delighted, and transported to a place where dreams dance, fairy tales breathe, and the magic is real.
00:00:43
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the latest episode of Sharing the Magic.
Meet the Guests
00:00:46
Speaker
I'm your host, Barry. And tonight we have another fantastic gentleman joining us tonight. But before we get into who it is, um because 9 out of 10 times you're awestruck and you're going awestruck again. So before we do that, let's go ahead and say hello to our big cast tonight. We have a lot of them. And we'll start with Chrissy. Chrissy, how are doing tonight?
00:01:15
Speaker
I'm doing great. Glad to be here. Hope everyone's had a great week. Excited for our guest. Just can't wait for the conversation. Just so very excited.
00:01:26
Speaker
All right. Next, we have Dawn. Dawn, how you doing tonight? Hi, from sunny Houston. Gorgeous day today. Welcome. And I can't wait to learn more about you. We have Ashley. Ashley, are you doing tonight?
00:01:37
Speaker
I'm good. How are you guys? um Hello from sunny Florida behind the Magic Kingdom. i'm
Bob Weiss: A Disney Journey
00:01:42
Speaker
Looking forward to hearing about your story, Bob, and about your books. All right. And we have James.
00:01:48
Speaker
How are you doing, King? Oh, I'm doing great. You know, ah it's going to be a busy night tonight after this. You got go finish B-roll the film and then I'm done. But I'm happy to be here. I'm happy for our guest. Come for me from sunny ah Washington.
00:02:03
Speaker
Sunny Washington. don't know. Is that a real thing? Actually, it is. For for once, I can say it's 72 and sunny instead of gloomy and rainy, ah like I've said the last few months. So yeah, it is a thing for for a day. i I hope it's more than one.
00:02:18
Speaker
All right, next we have Rachel. Rachel, how are you doing? I'm doing good from Pensacola, Florida, Panhandle area. I am really looking forward to our interview tonight. I have a bunch of kid questions that i accumulated from from a bunch of children. So looking forward to it tonight. Awesome. All right. Next we have Josh. Josh, are you doing tonight?
00:02:40
Speaker
What's going on, Barry? I am a pumped, man. I'm from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and I wore my Haunted Mansion Roosevelt shirt just for this guest tonight. So I'm pretty pumped up. I'm ready to go.
00:02:52
Speaker
Awesome. all right. Next we have Lisa and Mike. How you guys doing? Good. Doing pretty good. ah Just living a good day, especially off the Pacers win last night. So just carrying on that, that good vibe today. So yes, Indianapolis is electric for sure right now.
00:03:12
Speaker
There you go. All right. I'm making way for the big man on campus. It's the Goofy Doop himself, Jeff. Jeff, how you doing? Oh, I'm doing fantastic. Okay.
00:03:26
Speaker
What's your old pal Goofy? Who's slaying ass off to the dream chasing magic? Magic making Bob Price.
00:03:37
Speaker
Gorge. Oh, what a legend. yeah of Awesome. Thank you. He's more warble. Goofy's more like warble. It was great. It was great. But I'm, no, I'm i'm not. I'm like half, i'm my flag is flying in the, he needs more warble. Goofy's more. Well, he's not just up here and plays up and down, but he's more warble in his voice. And I don't have the warble. I can't get it because I'm just so, I've got sick, so.
00:04:09
Speaker
But it's, give me a week and I'm like, we'll all have more warble pull in my voice. Well, sorry as as as as Jeff has brought up, um our guest tonight is none other than author and so many other things for the Walt Disney World, Mr. Bob Weiss. are you doing tonight, sir? Hey, Barry. It's so nice to be with you. I'm doing great.
00:04:35
Speaker
Great. And it's great to have you. And... um First of all, I ask this question to every single guest that we have that come on here. so And I'm very interested in hearing your answer on this. How did you fall in love with Disney?
00:04:52
Speaker
You know, I ah never had a life without Disney. And that's why i appreciate all of you so much for for sharing the magic out there.
00:05:04
Speaker
with your constituency or your audience and all of it that you have, you know, in your hearts, you do this. I know you do this from the heart. Um, so it's a privilege for me to be on with you, but I never really had a life without Disney because I grew up in Southern California, less than an hour from Disneyland.
00:05:25
Speaker
Um, Disneyland had been open for about three years at the time i was born, and I was probably there by the time I was four or five. So ah life without Disney is not something I can imagine. And Disneyland specifically has been a part of my life, you know, from the very beginning, as early as I can remember.
00:05:48
Speaker
And then, you know, to have the privilege of being able to spend You know, nearly four decades working with the company, working in every park around the world, something in every park in the around the world.
00:06:03
Speaker
It's really a privilege. So ah but my my first magical moments of Disney are Disneyland. And it's still Disneyland is still the one that tugs at my heart the most.
00:06:18
Speaker
Good answer. that's a great answer i like using i'm a you know we're we're sort of split but we're we're a good split because a lot of us are either on the east coast or the west coast and and uh but we're not polarized we're gonna find out we're gonna find out that i am deeply connected to every part around the world and some are really really close to my heart uh but certainly you know Disneyland is that original and, you know, the first one I visited and have visited the
Disney's Philosophy and Global Impact
00:06:50
Speaker
most. so Yeah, and if and if you think bob Bob is kidding, go ahead and watch the Imagineering story and you'll see a lot of him in there. So, so so Bob, getting into... I get old in the Imagineering story. I start out in the Imagineering story at about 25 years old.
00:07:06
Speaker
And after all the episodes, I think I'm about 55, so... You can watch me age on The Imaginary Story. but but But I think that's a good aging. I mean, you're doing... Like a fine wine. yeah's like fine Yeah, fine wine. I like that. so It's imagine aging.
00:07:25
Speaker
Imagine aging. Very good. I'm imagine aging. That's funny. It's not like you're on E for something else. You know, your career you know took a big spiral. or you just yeah Imagine aging.
00:07:39
Speaker
I'm not giving you bull here. I honestly feel... as young as when I started, you know, when they B roll footage they have of that, I feel the same age and I feel the same amount of enthusiasm for Disneyland, for the parks, for all of it. So, you know, yeah, we all get older in our careers and and in our lives, but I've never lost. i I don't think I've ever lost that kid's magic for why you love these places.
00:08:09
Speaker
And I always say, you know, there's there's something different between there's being childish and childlike. And those are big, different things. Being childish is... I'm capable of both. Oh, yeah, me too. I know. That's how i that's why I'm so wise. i just turned 40. And I'm like, I'm so wise now. I know the difference now. Because at some point, I've been, and I still am, i still am very childish. And I go, Jeff, don't be childish. But being childlike is different. Now, I have friends and I know people that they they equate being childlike
00:08:51
Speaker
as being child ish. And I go, du well, don't do that. Don't do that. You know, so keep that childlike wonder alive. It's beautiful. It's, it's, it is the thing that moves us forward.
00:09:03
Speaker
And, but then they're well, no, i just need to pay my bills. I just need to, I need to be a, well, Walt Disney said, um, one of his great quotes was that they didn't make movies for children.
00:09:17
Speaker
Um, they made movies for everybody. And he said he made movies for this kind of place in everybody's heart that is a kind of an unspoiled childlike time when you love stories, you love magic, all those things, and you're willing to suspend your concerns about the world, about life, whatever, just just to be back in that place of optimism and and joy and and love. And that's that's what Walt wanted and
00:09:48
Speaker
It's certainly what we've all tried to do in the parks for decades. Optimism. That's the word. i'm like, there's so many people nowadays that need optimism. It's like, yeah.
00:10:02
Speaker
We need optimism. We also need to be brought together, right? We need to find those things. There's plenty that separates us. We need to find those things at Unicol has, and Disney is one of those, I think. Makes perfect sense, because Disney, like... um it It relates to everybody. Everybody can um have Disney in their hearts. there's There's a place. You hear my dog in background. Lucky's going nuts. Someone's at my door. I don't care. ah Fact is is, Disney resonates with everybody. all right No matter what.
00:10:32
Speaker
Disney has special place in their hearts. And you said you grew up like minutes away. What was like your first memory of going to the park as being that close? Because you said it's always been in your life and it's given you something... more what what more did it give you growing up being that close like did you go all the time being that close did were you well I wrote I wrote up I wrote in my book dream chasing yeah I wrote little bit about how I think I think my first visit to Disneyland is probably around 1960 62 something like that and I was the I was the youngest of three siblings and
00:11:17
Speaker
ah I was the one with asthma. I haven't really had asthma in my adult life, but I did as a kid. And um my birthday being ah right after Labor Day and kind of toward the start of school, um they selected my birthday as the annual visit.
00:11:37
Speaker
Back then, you could, you know, regular family went once a year. You know, not all the time. it's You know, some people do it now, but but But we would go and we have lots of pictures of Disneyland from that time. And my brother and my sister are having a great time riding all the rides. And I'm like on a bench with my mother trying to breathe.
00:11:59
Speaker
Seriously. So, you know, but um still look ah still loved to being there. but um And I remember going there when Tomorrowland had been renovated.
00:12:11
Speaker
I remember... even though I wasn't feeling well, my father took me down and he put me on the flying saucer ride. And I just was amazed that I could get on this thing by myself, hold onto this thing.
00:12:22
Speaker
You know, we were all crazy for the space program at that time. ah And go floating across that thing, you know, as if I was in space. It just was, you know, it's just a such a an
Creating Disney Magic
00:12:35
Speaker
amazing immersive. I mean, we talk about immersive stuff now, but immersive Immersive design started back then, you know, it's start like a few years ago. It started back in 1955. So I just loved everything about it. And and I still do.
00:12:55
Speaker
And your first job was working at Disneyland, was was it not?
00:13:02
Speaker
was My first job, but when I was in college, I went to architecture school in Washington. to Cal Poly University, iona and it's literally just over the hill. It's probably about 30 minutes from Disneyland.
00:13:17
Speaker
And a lot of so ah lot of students have got part-time jobs at Disneyland for the summer. So I said, well, i ought to go check this out. And I was doing architecture design, and I was doing theater, and I was doing set design. And said, well, this will be great. um They must have some kind of cool job for me there. And I went down to Disneyland, and i applied. And I thought, well, you know,
00:13:39
Speaker
getting a degree in architecture, I'm doing theater. They're going to give me a job on a parade or controlling Pirates of the Caribbean. It's going be some incredible job they're going to give me because of my, you know, unbelievable background, of course.
00:13:54
Speaker
So I get the envelope. The guy hires me. and he's I said, what's the job? He says, you're going to be a popcorn ice cream vendor. And I'm like, what? one After all that, I'm going to sell ice cream and popcorn in the park?
00:14:09
Speaker
ah But I'll tell you, um Walt Disney used to tell the Imagineers to go to Disneyland once a week and just sit on a bench and watch people and see how they reacted to Disneyland.
00:14:24
Speaker
And to be, it turns out, to be a vendor on the street selling ice cream, selling popcorn, meeting guests all day long, day in, day out, and subsequently,
00:14:37
Speaker
It turned out to be one of the best things that ever, ever happened to me because I really, really learned what Disneyland was about. and And I still, you know, I still use those learnings. so it was great.
00:14:50
Speaker
Can we put a pin in that? Because you said, I learned what Disney was about. And then my follow question would be, what were those things? And so we don't have to go there right now because we got a lot of people. Well, I mean, i'm while we're on it, I mean, I think I learned what Disneyland is about, which is when you're there, well, first of all, you have to learn what a cast member's role is.
00:15:13
Speaker
yeah And um one of the big aspects of being a cast member is you are there with a family or two friends or whatever it might be ah who have come there um You know, for a reason, they've come there and it's important to them.
00:15:34
Speaker
And you really are in many ways, the thing that is going to make this day great or not, you know, in many surveys, it shows that the interaction with a cast member is one of the most important things that people have in the parks.
00:15:50
Speaker
And that means that you could be, ah so that could be a positive moment or a negative moment. But we have a stewardship responsibility when you work in the parks to really be there for the guest. And I just remember being there, you know, with you'd look and you'd see a family and you'd say you'd see like, you know, it's just an emotional thing for me. I see like family with a kid in a wheelchair and you could say this is amazing.
00:16:19
Speaker
maybe this person's been ill, maybe, maybe this, they're just disabled, whatever it is, but, but this is their time. Yeah. And, you know, you're there to make that the best time possible for them. So, and, and it is about, it's about them being together. It's about them being freed up from whatever is worrying them about the daily world or daily life. You know what i mean? It's just, ah you know,
00:16:46
Speaker
it is It is life is okay. Life is going to be okay. And Disneyland kind of gives you that feeling that life's just going to be okay. I love that. And also, life is okay in the sense that, you know, when there's the weight of the world is on you, you know, how freeing is it?
00:17:07
Speaker
like to, to serve, to serve service or or you said something, ah I forgot what it was. It was, you said something earlier. it was like, when you, I'm just going to capture the, the heart of it.
00:17:21
Speaker
It was like, when you, um,
00:17:26
Speaker
Boy, when, when Disney is, when you're, when you're, you're giving, when you're giving, you're, you're, you're not just taking in Disney, a lot of people go to get, to get, to get, to get, but when you're sort of put in this place and, and not a lot of people that, people that work at Disney get this. People that go to Disney don't often get this.
00:17:51
Speaker
So people that go to Disney or they, or they work at Disney, It's about, it's not about what I get. i this is an attractional thing. It's about, I know James, you're, you're, you're, yeah, go ahead, my friend.
00:18:06
Speaker
ah So being a former cast member, I know exactly what he's talking about because working at Mansion and Splash, the one thing that we were taught, it was kind of the Disney way, the way of doing things within park. And it's about giving. It's about being there no matter how bad the situation can be. You want that guest to feel like their experience is first class no matter what. And the saying and attractions was...
00:18:31
Speaker
um you're you're not the show, you're a part of the show. And that that was to simply put it out as, you're a part of this attraction. Being mansion, it's very easy to become the show with some of the stuff you can do and some of the the lively, you know the freedoms you have as a cast member there. um But being a part of it and making somebody's experience just that much better, like Bob just hit. You're so right. It's a real giving experience. It really is something.
00:19:01
Speaker
or you're giving to the audience that's there. And that's a wonderful thing, you know, and it's, uh, you know, you learn a lot. One of the things, you know, some of the things I learned a lot from being in the parks also as an architect, as somebody studying art architecture at the time, um, is just the, the park layout itself, the the magic of it, the, the, uh, sense of, of, um,
00:19:26
Speaker
time of day that, you know, sometimes it's super active. Sometimes it's quiet, you know, at nighttime, it's, it's, it can be very busy. And then after the fireworks, it's kind of just people are there, but they don't want to leave there. They're, they're, they're, they're waiting for that. You know, a lot of times we call it the, the, the kiss goodnight, that last moment of, you know, man they leave. So, you know, it's a, you will have these,
00:19:50
Speaker
Incredible people, incredibly deserving, wonderful people. You got them for the whole day. you know So how many things can you think of um where you have the visitor for the entire day and they are your guests and you have the opportunity to really make it magic for them? It's really something.
00:20:10
Speaker
So I imagine traditions going through that ties in with how the cast members are supposed to communicate and make that day like such a great experience. and Did you have any part of traditions?
00:20:24
Speaker
I know traditions very well. And I think that Imagineers in general have always been part of of helping to formulate what tradition says. I did not personally, ah but, you know, we all know it. We all know how important it is And most important, I think we all we all believe it, right? We we all believe how important it is. Yeah, I could not could not disagree with that because yeah when you go through traditions, you're you're taught how important every part of that Disney aspect in that life and that way of thinking
Leadership and Innovation
00:21:00
Speaker
is. And with that said, what is the one thing...
00:21:05
Speaker
that you have noticed in your time throughout the parks as an Imagineer that has stayed the most consistent within that Disney way of thinking, that that tradition, that traditional way of like how to present the park overall and present, you know, um that way of thinking toward the guests? Well, you know, um definitely I'd say from the Imagineering point of view, one of the big things is that quality is always the best business plan.
00:21:39
Speaker
You know, it's always about quality. And whatever we did at Imagineering, we saw upside potential. So if if if you,
00:21:52
Speaker
whatever attraction you did, or you just renovated and attraction, made it a little bit better, added a little bit more magic, or you did something brand new, like, you know, Star Wars Galactic Edge, or, or about you know, whether it's a small thing or a big thing, whether it's a renovation of restaurant, or whatever whatever it is, if you always focus on doing the best possible job on it, it will make a difference. And and when I say make a difference,
00:22:20
Speaker
I always refer to it made a difference in the guests visit, the guests, how much fun they had, what their intention to come back would be, all those things. Now, if we had a bunch of financial people here, I think they would all agree with me and say, look, if they had a great time and they're going to come back, it did well financially too. The two go hand in hand.
00:22:46
Speaker
But quality always wins out. Always do the best possible job of everything you could do. Tell the best possible stories, have the best possible characters, entertainment, design, everything.
00:22:58
Speaker
It doesn't mean you have, you know, people think, oh, well, we had, you know, unlimited budgets or whatever. We never we never had unlimited budgets. But we always knew where to spend the money.
00:23:11
Speaker
where to do you know the possible job and not to cut corners or do things you know halfway because people notice. They they notice and it makes a difference.
00:23:22
Speaker
Yeah, it does make a difference. Hey, Barry, so – We got a lot of people on this here podcast tonight. And so I know I want to admit it. Where do you think who, who let's, let's make sure everyone gets their questions in and everyone feels like they get to talk to Bob and where, where, where do you want to go? Yeah, let's actually, I was just going to send it in our chat. So like maybe it's you maybe Barry's like, i want to ask a question for once.
00:23:53
Speaker
No, I'm good. um Josh, you're up. Why don't you ask your question and then yeah we'll go from there. Sure. I have a couple, Bob, and i want to start with a quick kind of story. It's only like a minute just to kind of get some context.
00:24:11
Speaker
ay I took over my business from... the guy who created it. So my martial arts instructor growing up, he passed on his business to me in his late seventies.
00:24:22
Speaker
And now his dream kind of morphed into, you know, my dream and with being kind of like that second generation of, imagine years that kind of, you know, like the, the guys that came in like Mark Davis, you know, they're the ones that were your mentors.
00:24:38
Speaker
Um, how How is that that kind of same feeling of stepping in and you know the the pressure of taking somebody else's dream and not only continuing to have that be as successful as it is, but also trying to carve out your own little piece of that?
00:24:59
Speaker
Well, I think the nice thing um about Imagineering generally, i would say, is it's always been approached without a lot of ego associated with it. The, um, you know, I came in when I first started, uh, I was working with, with Claude Coates, with John Hench, with Marty Sklar, with, uh, you know, Bill Evans, uh, uh, X attention. I mean, these are, these are legends in the business.
00:25:31
Speaker
And, um, I don't think we thought of them as legends. Um, and they didn't think of us as kids either. i think, I think we all had a mutual respect for the fact that we were there to work together to try to make the best things for the guests. And so, um, you know, we were all part of the continuity of Disney. And so, you know, over the years, as I started working more and more, um a lot of the, the people who had worked with Walt, um, like x like, you know,
00:26:03
Speaker
Claude and, you know, they started to retire and we got more and more responsibility, but we never, we never thought anything other than the fact that that was our, our, you know, incredibly important responsibility to the long-term stewardship of these projects.
00:26:21
Speaker
And it wasn't to, to copy them or to do the same thing over and over again. It was still to push the medium forward, try new things, try new technologies, new storytelling techniques, etc.
00:26:33
Speaker
um but to make sure that we were always doing it the best way possible.
00:26:39
Speaker
that That no ego part is is huge because, you know, like for for my life, to the kids I train, like I'm the guy. And at every moment. look up to you They look up to you. and they But to me, I'm like, no I'm not the guy. Like mine instructor, that's the guy.
00:26:56
Speaker
Like that's the guy who, you know. yeah but But eventually those kids look up to you. They don't know. Eventually they won't know who your instructor was. So you have to carry that on.
00:27:06
Speaker
And someday there's going to be ah a place, a fork in the road where you have to say, look, I know my instructor probably would have told me to do it this way, but I'm now living in a modern world and I got to think about things differently.
00:27:21
Speaker
And I'm going to try, have to, I have to experiment the way that instructor did. And you'll have to part ways sometimes. And sometimes you'll hold onto the tradition. Sometimes you'll, you'll part from it, but you'll have to become that person, right? You,
00:27:36
Speaker
You will become that mentor to those kids or you already have, I'm sure. But you you become that mentor and they someday one of those kids can take it over for you. yeah Yeah, I hope so.
00:27:47
Speaker
I hope so. Because that would be like a dream come true for me is to. Right. You know, that much time is going to by. Yeah. Somebody is going to make you proud and they're going to they're going to take it over. And Bob, you've used this word. This is the word I was thinking of earlier that I was like, oh no, i it just slipped out my brain. Stewardship.
00:28:05
Speaker
You've used that word several times. And I'm like, that could be your next book. You know, well let me let me tell you about stewardship. Here's what I think about stewardship. they um You know, we have the responsibility to the long-term vision, right? We are um, when I started imagining Walt had only been gone for 16 years. So I'm kind of, I'm not in the wall generation, but I'm not that far off from it. Right.
00:28:38
Speaker
Um, when I started, there were, there were two parks, um, the magic kingdom and Disneyland. And, you know, by the time i retired, there were 12 and, and, uh,
00:28:54
Speaker
As we said, is we used to say, the sun never sets ah on the Magic Kingdom, right? From Tokyo in the morning to Paris to Florida to California to back to Hong Kong.
00:29:05
Speaker
There's something open all the time. so and So all that happened while I was there. um So you have a ah huge responsibility to that system. And if, you know, I like to say that's true, you know, somebody moves a parking, a park bench at Disneyland And you can plan on getting a letter. And they're going to say, you cannot move that bench because, you know, my grandparents got engaged on that bench.
00:29:35
Speaker
So put it back. It's not yours to move. So it is true that Disneyland, all the parks, once they've been there for a while, grandfathered in um they truly belong to the audience.
00:29:48
Speaker
But at the same time, you have a responsibility to move the medium forward. yeah If the audience if the if the original designers had stayed with Disneyland and just kept doing dark rides based on, you know, animated movies and had not pushed forward and done the New York World's Fair or had worked pushed forward and done Pirates the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion.
00:30:10
Speaker
And if we didn't push forward and do, you know, ah Cosmic Rewind and and, you know, the Animal Kingdom and all the things that we pushed forward, it wouldn't move forward. So there's a balance.
00:30:22
Speaker
between We're not the National Parks. We're not the Smithsonian. We're not trying to just keep it as it is We are trying to respect people's memories yes and keep it as it but we are also trying to move forward. And sometimes the move forward can be can be controversial, but that's okay. I was going to say this It feels like, you you know, when you go back to church for the first time and you sit in a pew and you're like, oh, I didn't know. Sorry, Agnes. I didn't know this was your pew, you know, and right and it's sort of like, well, you know, the like were we're not to be overly religious or something, but but, you know, I'm it's my world. So I'm like, look,
00:31:05
Speaker
you know, you go back to a church and you're like, well, maybe I just want, maybe just want to sit in a pew and you do. And then you're like, it's somebody else's. And then they snap at you it's not a nice thing. You're mad about it because you're like, I just, I mean, Hey, I'm, I'm a first time visitor. Stop. Why, why, why, why are you upset at me?
00:31:25
Speaker
Well, it's not that you want to in those kinds of settings. And it could be church. It could be, um, Boy, it could be Disney. It could be anything.
00:31:37
Speaker
There is a deep there are deep roots. There's deep history and you don't want to undermine it and be presumptuous to be like, well, I'm just going to change everything because I know better than you. know No, absolutely not. You want to respect the storie story. Stories shape life. These stories are meaningful and... It's a balance. It's a balance. A balance, yes. Between, you know, tradition and and moving forward. And I think... Yes. All I have to do look back to Disneyland history. I have to look back and and say that, you know, Walt radically, radically reinvented Disneyland a couple of times
00:32:20
Speaker
while he was still alive after he built it. So, and he, his most famous quote probably is, Disneyland will never be finished as long as there's imagination. So, there you go so so we, we don't want to destroy the tradition. we want to respect it, but at the same time, we got to keep the audience moving forward. Generally speaking, you get a lot of controversy and then at the end it opens and everybody says, Oh, Oh, well that's actually pretty good. Okay.
00:32:48
Speaker
Nevermind. Yeah. Dang it, Bob, just well said. Just well said. Well, and Bob, you nailed that in head because I think one of the big things is is a lot of um there's a lot with generational things as well because, you know, it seems like people in this generation, it's all about the me, me, me, and everything needs to be done. know,
00:33:14
Speaker
you know I don't care about history. Yeah, it's Walt Disney World, but what have you done for me lately? And I and and i feel, unfortunately, it it it falls flat on the on on the faces of the Imagineering and people that actually work there because, you know, they're trying to move forward. They're trying to get different um different things accomplished, but it always feels like it's okay, you know,
00:33:44
Speaker
you know dang Dang if I do, dang
Evolving Disney Experiences
00:33:46
Speaker
if I don't. so well the one thing you The one thing you can be sure of, um i guarantee you, all of all of you and all of you will listen to this show, um is that there is no one who respects the Bears more than the Imagineers.
00:34:07
Speaker
the Imagineers have enormous, enormous respect for what they do, for the audience, for the attractions, for Disneyland, for every park. And so in some ways i can tell you that if you're looking for the if you're looking for the moral compass of Disney, it is the Imagineers.
00:34:27
Speaker
There's no question. And so you can, I think you can sleep at night if you love the parks, You can think sleep at night thinking that the Imagineers are working on them all the time and that they are always caring about what is important.
00:34:45
Speaker
All right, let's jump over to Rachel. Rachel, you have a question? I do have a question. Rachel. um ah My question. So we're talking about moving on, moving forward.
00:34:59
Speaker
And I have a question from a 12 year old. His name is actually Soren, which is pretty cool. awesome Um, so but he is having a really hard time moving on, moving forward with that great movie ride.
00:35:13
Speaker
Um, and his question is who decided to get rid of the great movie ride and was it you? And then also, gave me in trouble with love your own i am.
00:35:24
Speaker
and then also um what What tributes are in the new Runaway Railroad ride, if you know of any, besides the Twister that give the give them Great Movie Ride credit?
00:35:37
Speaker
Yeah, you know, this is always a ah hard argument. And I was involved in the Great Movie Ride from the beginning. And I believed in it. And I think we broke some nice new ground. And I think in many ways, the fact that the cast, that we wanted the cast to be involved in the Great Movie Ride.
00:35:56
Speaker
to really play roles in the Great Movie Ride, it's in many ways, it's a precursor to a lot of what's in Star Wars Galaxy's Edge, where that you know every person is...
00:36:09
Speaker
oh plan
00:36:16
Speaker
So nobody cared about cares about the Great Movie Ride any more than I do. And I knew many of the characters I had listened But I
00:36:31
Speaker
mean, it couldn't last longer. But I felt that it was time for something fresh, new, you know, something that has a stronger connection to overall Disney. And frankly, we had an opportunity because we had a team which had developed Mickey's Runaway Railway.
00:36:52
Speaker
We had developed a lot of stuff. We had developed a lot of stuff that was in the back of the park, you know, Galaxy's Edge and and Toy Story Land.
00:37:02
Speaker
And kind of the center of the traditional park was was was hurting, I thought. It was was sagging. ah So it wasn't my decision. It's never one person's decision. But I supported it. I'll stand by it. You know, I thought it had a great run.
00:37:18
Speaker
And it was time for for a refresh.
00:37:24
Speaker
That's a great answer. I'm going to let him know that it kind of led its way into the Star Wars area and the roles that they play. He loves the Star Wars area too. So thank you.
00:37:39
Speaker
Barry. Yes. ah Okay. So Bob, let's let's let's move a little bit from, um you know, what you did in the United States. Tell us a little bit of what you did overseas.
00:37:54
Speaker
Well, Mike, again, as I as i talk about it in Dream Chasing, my book, which I was really just, I'd say privileged to have a chance to write and work with Disney Publishing.
00:38:08
Speaker
But I started ah fresh out of college and I worked only at Imagineering for about, I think, around 14 months. And I went straight to Tokyo.
00:38:21
Speaker
So I never worked on anything in the U.S., before I worked on an international park. I worked on the initial construction of Tokyo Disneyland. And it was an exciting thing. If you could, you know, try to think back to 1981, a kid just out of college and and just starting up with Disney and you get a chance to pick up and move to to Japan and be part of Disney's first international project.
00:38:49
Speaker
ah And so it was very enticing. And most of the company was focused on Epcot. ah And so we had a chance to to you know try to do the first international project.
00:39:02
Speaker
So I worked on Tokyo Disneyland. And I kind of really stayed with Tokyo Disneyland for many years after that. I worked on all the things we um added to it over the years. And it became just a powerhouse you know park.
00:39:16
Speaker
And eventually was able to work on the second park. which became Tokyo DisneySea.
00:39:24
Speaker
So, you know, my heart in many ways, i started this by saying how much my heart is tied up at Disneyland. It's really tied up in Tokyo Disneyland too, because it's just been a part of my Disney career from the beginning.
00:39:38
Speaker
And so I learned a lot in that. And years, years, and many years later, you know, having an opportunity to do my own park in Shanghai from the beginning, but, you know, the learnings of working in all the different parts around the world, it was, a ah you know, incredibly exciting, really seven years of to be able to work in in China too. and they're And they're all kind of, you know, the number one thing that Barry, I think is, that,
00:40:12
Speaker
that Marty Sklar, my old boss, mentor, and I'm writing a new book about Marty right now, which we can talk about too. But but one of his great Ten Commandments, Mickey's Ten Commandments, is know your audience. yeah is so It is such an important thing to know the audience.
00:40:31
Speaker
And when you go out to Japan you go out to you know China or you go to Paris, whatever, you really have to understand Who's the audience? How do I engage them?
00:40:43
Speaker
And how do i create something that is, you know, a fabulous Disney experience, but also takes into account where I am in the world. And so I learned that pretty i learned that pretty early in my career, I think.
00:40:57
Speaker
I want to turn this this question over to y'all, but i want I want to go deeper into, Bob, your your book and and Dreaming. And if if you could, if we can go there, that would be phenomenal.
00:41:15
Speaker
but ah But here's my big question is, it's it's like, well, you have a lot of experience about all over the world. And a lot of these, if story shapes life, a lot of times stories, the same story shapes our lives.
00:41:31
Speaker
you know, and it all across the map. um If you had, you've got to experience all these different Disney parks. If you could create your own park, I don't know, just based on where your your heart led or just what brings you to life, what kind of stories would you tell? What rides would you would you create?
00:41:58
Speaker
um Well, I had a chance, you know, I had a chance. I, you know, I got to do that with Tokyo Disney Sea. Yeah. tell Tell us about that then. what's perfect With Shanghai Disneyland.
00:42:12
Speaker
um You know, we, we worked with Oriental Land Company, our partner in Tokyo. And they had a great park and they wanted to build a second one, but they were very cautious because they wanted to make sure it was great. Right.
00:42:28
Speaker
And we, we tried different things. We tried doing a version of Disney MGM studios, which we had just recently done in Orlando. Didn't feel right for the, for the site. we eventually came up with the idea of a park that instead of having lands like Disneyland would have waterways, would have bays and, you know,
00:42:50
Speaker
harbors and rivers and things like that. And we built a ventures around that and, uh, and took people mil on a kind of a new kind of a world. And, and, um, you know, if you, if you, if you stick to an idea and you stick to the storyline, um, and you do it well, like we did on that, I mean, I took it as a seat, took all the teams, not me, and all the teams worked on that project.
00:43:17
Speaker
It's almost a 10 year project, uh, But, you know, it's benefited that resort tremendously and just continued to grow. you know
00:43:29
Speaker
And then when we got to Shanghai, you know, Shanghai was very interesting because I had been involved, you know, known Disneyland, as I said, from when I was a little kid. So here's an opportunity to say, well, maybe we won't do Main Street USA. Maybe we'll do Main Street has a place where all all the characters live, and they all have the shops, and their personalities are expressed in those shops because but Main Street has an idea of Marceline, you know, where Walt grew up doesn't as much mean anything to the to the Chinese, so let's make it more about the characters. Let's let's do Pirates the Caribbean
00:44:07
Speaker
But the audience over there doesn't know it from Disneyland. They know it from these gigantic movies. So how do we create a new Pirates that reflects those incredible under underwater worlds and all those things that that people are familiar with from the great Pirates franchise movies? So, you know, when you have an opportunity to do something, especially something new that hasn't been done before,
00:44:36
Speaker
The best thing in the world you can do is not feel restricted.
Challenges and Resilience
00:44:40
Speaker
You know, feel like you've got to do what's been done before. I don't think Walt ever did that. You want to be able to think pretty broadly.
00:44:49
Speaker
And there's always, you know, came up with the idea to do Tron and we were going to put people on bikes instead of in vehicles. And you had to figure out a way to get up it safely. And and you anything from a small girl to ah a big, you know,
00:45:05
Speaker
Man, there are lots of opportunities to say, well, this is too hard. Let's not do it. Let's just go back to something we already know. ah But you just got to stick with it. You got to stick with it and try really hard to do new stuff. And it it usually pays off you do that.
00:45:22
Speaker
Gosh, that's a whole other podcast where I'm like – I don't want safety. I want to be thrown. Oh, no. Well, that's those other documentaries. I know. no well It's all about safety. But the point is, yeah is, is, is that you have to figure out how to solve problems and make it exciting. Yes, you do. We had the same thing with, uh, Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, uh, where we, we ultimately wanted you to feel like the elevator wakes loose and it drops.
00:45:53
Speaker
Yeah. And, To do that is a ah very difficult thing to do technically, but that's what that's the experience we're after. Right. And so if you do it well, it becomes something that lasts for a long time.
00:46:06
Speaker
Did anyone see that documentary where they're like people at a theme park didn't care about and Bob, maybe you saw this too. I don't know where it's like people got hurt. like all across the map and it was like lawsuits left and right. I forgot what it was. It was like a it was like the the when Tiger King came out, it wasn't like a, well, it takes a lot of of dedication, a lot of left brain thinking, mathematical, how do we not get people hurt? and But it also takes right brain thinking, how do we make this a wonderful experience?
00:46:46
Speaker
You know, i again, it's the thing, you know, number one responsibility any imagineering has is to the safety of the guests. Number two, the happiness of the guests.
00:46:58
Speaker
So you have to do both. and and And in order to engage them, you you often have to make them think that something is impossible, right? Or something that is really scary to them.
00:47:14
Speaker
yeah you know you know you know that you've done uh an incredible job of making and absolutely safe for them that's our responsibility all right my friends barry who's up next we got a lot of people on the podcast we have uh lisa mike and all right hey lisa and mike hello go ahead oh no you're fine go ahead No, no, you are kidding. Uh-oh. Oh, what did we what do we get into right now? Oh, just kidding. um It's so good to talk to you i um
00:47:48
Speaker
have a question for you a little bit different than what you've been chatting with about so far. um You have demonstrated a lot of leadership in your roles throughout Disney, including you know, being the former Imagineering president for a number of years.
00:48:09
Speaker
um Who do you look up to as far as leaders? That's a good one. That's a good, that's a good one. And there's a lot, and there's a lot of great people who I've learned from and who were willing to be patient with me, uh,
00:48:29
Speaker
which is why I then feel like it's important for me to be patient with, with other, with others, uh, who may see the world different than me. Um, um, Marty Sklar, who I'm writing this big new book about Marty Sklar, who was the, uh, really the, one of the top leaders of imaginary for five decades, um, started out with Wald's, um,
00:48:56
Speaker
learned a lot from Walt and then was really the translator of Walt's vision of Epcot from what Walt told him to the reality about lead of led Imagineers.
00:49:08
Speaker
And this book that I'm writing is the result of us discovering 1,500 file boxes that he had accumulated in his career that he saved.
00:49:22
Speaker
And no one really knew what was in them all. And so for the last three years, we have been scanning a treasure trove of literally time capsules that go all the way back to 1956 or so and go all the way forward to the opening of Shanghai Disneyland.
00:49:43
Speaker
And it's everything. It's letters from Ray Bradbury, notes from Walt Disney, notes on scripts from the New York World's Fair. It is an unbelievable treasure trove. And so I've taken on the mantle of writing this book about this, the first book probably of many, about this incredible collection.
00:50:04
Speaker
But the reason that was important to me to do and and for us to document this collection is that Marty had a very strong idea about what Imagineering was supposed to be, that it was supposed to be a very creative environment And environment where people were supposed to get along with each other, even if they're very different, if they're, you know, a ride engineer might think very differently from a writer or, uh, uh, uh, art director. They're, they're all different, but they all were unified by this idea of having create fantastic experiences for the guests.
00:50:44
Speaker
And so, he's really, you know, uh, exemplary leader, um, of, of that and, and a protector in many ways over the decades of imaginary independence. It's, it's creative spirit, um, and being kind of just like a crazy environment, right? A sort of a tolerance, I would say for creative people and creative process that it isn't, it can't be really quantified as easily as other businesses,
00:51:17
Speaker
And so the, so that's, you know, he certainly is a great mentor of mine. I had many others. ah ah But, you know, I think he comes to mind as being important, which is why we're, why I'm writing that book about him. But, you know, when I think about, when I go back to my book for a second, Dream Chasing, one of the things I wanted to do with Dream Chasing is talk about people who chase dreams and who I respect And the challenge that it's not really, you know, we, we like to say, follow your dreams. I don't think you follow your dreams.
00:51:54
Speaker
They'll get away from you. I think you have to chase them. You, if you want to do something, you have to build a team. You have to have a vision. You have to really passionately go after it.
00:52:06
Speaker
And that's what I was trying to capture. and I, Simon Sinek, Simon Sinek is a great writer about creativity and, uh, wrote a little piece on the back for me, uh,
00:52:18
Speaker
where he basically kind of captured the idea, which was to say, lots of people have great dreams. ah The difference is, how do you create an environment where dreams can really flourish?
00:52:34
Speaker
And that is really what imaginary has to be, it has to continually be, is a place where people's dreams can flourish. And that's what Marty did as well. You know, one of my great mentors, it's what I tried to do when I was there, is is make sure that people have ideas. They don't just feel like they get crushed. They get an opportunity to really flourish and happen.
00:52:57
Speaker
Flourish. Oh, you say all the good words. Yeah, I know. say words like You say words like stewardship and flourish. And I'm like, you know, flourish is one of my favorite words because flourish meant is not actually a word, you know, but, but, it but it is, you know, people use it all the time. but then when you go to, you know, your notes and you're like typing it up, it's like flourishment. It's like, no, that's a word. And you have to train it to say flourish meant well.
00:53:26
Speaker
I think flourishment is, you know, that is just a profound word. And I think it's when we talk about sharing the magic or your books and what you're doing, a of it um a lot of it is
00:53:47
Speaker
it's just that. what is it What does it look like to flourish? And to shot like and it's not easy. It's not easy. let people flourish, you have to be able to recognize that people are different.
00:54:00
Speaker
you have to You can't assume that everybody processes information the same way, everybody thinks the same You have to have quite a bit of patience to do that, but the payoff is huge if you can have that patience. Stephen Pressfield is another one when you're talking I pops and he pops in my head, where he wrote like, not the art of war. He talked about he has a book called the war of art. And that's a great book because it's not just, you know, what does it look like to flourish just like well. Sometimes he's, he, he calls, you know, he has very Greek ideas. He's like the, you know, flourishment or, or like a eudinomia, which means, you know, like it is flourishment.
00:54:48
Speaker
But then he goes, but there's always somebody. If you want to flourish, you want to reach your dreams, your goals, there's always going to be something, some sort of force that pushes back on you. It hits you early in the morning when you don't want to get up. and it it and it's up to You have to ah be willing to push really hard and you have to develop a team.
00:55:14
Speaker
All these things are team projects. You have to develop a team. that fervently believes in what they are doing. And it doesn't mean they're not flexible. It doesn't mean they don't change as the, you know, as the situations change, but they have to believe what they're doing and they have to, if they're told 10 times, this will never work.
00:55:35
Speaker
They have to like, just block it out and say, I know it's going to work and we're going to figure it out. You know, they have to have a, an extremely self-confident point of view about what they're trying to do.
00:55:48
Speaker
how do you how do you How do you find a team like that? Well, I mean, you you gravitate toward toward people who are you know amazingly talented, amazing amazingly passionate about it. They're not neutral. You how you want people who can become part of a team that believes things.
00:56:09
Speaker
ah And you never be afraid of people that disagree with you or people that are more talented than you. If you could surround yourself, even, you know, Abraham Lincoln said this, said, you know, I don't mind having a bunch of people around me that disagree because then I get to see the ups and downs of all their are different points of view. So surround yourself with people who will challenge you.
00:56:34
Speaker
And you will, by nature, by the nature of it, you will work with people that know more than you do. you i will I will never be a roten an expert in the ride system design or software or or creating stained glass or, you know, there's a billion things I'll never be an expert in.
00:56:51
Speaker
But I respect and i and I work closely with people who are experts. And it's just a matter of, you know, making sure that that you you love and and respect the people you work with and that you're not afraid if they disagree. They're going to disagree with you all the time. That's just part of the territory.
00:57:12
Speaker
That's the best long form podcast. That's all I need. Y'all, I'm good. i have i have it. I have the long form podcast. Question answered. So thank you. Thank you, Bob. Talking about the people that disagree with you. I have a quick question, if I may.
00:57:27
Speaker
But we got to get Mike, too. We got to get Mike. He's next. Oh, yeah OK. You want me to wait? I don't know. Barry's the host. Barry, what do you want to do, my friend? Go ahead. Go ahead, Don. I want to jump to Mike. Mike, you're up.
00:57:38
Speaker
Sure. It has to do with people disagreeing with you. So um I know that you were the chief designer for Hollywood Studios when it changed. Yep. Um, the hat, the source for his hat has always been a hot button topic. Um, first of all, from what my understanding, I guess parts of it were made into trading pens, but I loved the hat. I know many of my friends and family loved the hat. What was the reason it had to be moved? And is it in any other parks, something similar? And did you have anything to do with that?
00:58:13
Speaker
it's you know This is the this isn't exactly what we're talking about, which is you loved it. i hated it. Some people were neutral about it. you know You have to respect the fact that some people didn't think it was the right thing for the park. Some people thought it was perfect.
00:58:30
Speaker
you know So you have to deal respectfully with those opinions. Eventually, what I felt was that the hat was a great idea for an event.
00:58:41
Speaker
It was a great idea for a moment in time. and And yet the original design of Hollywood Boulevard with a long access that led up like
00:58:55
Speaker
it was basically based on Disneyland's main street, led up to, you know, a street on both sides, led up to the top of the street for the Chinese theater there, ah for fireworks and lighting and all those things.
00:59:07
Speaker
Eventually, I thought the hat lived out its life. it was It was a nice thing for a little while, but it wasn't a symbol that should be there forever. ah And again, this is not my decision individually. I was one of the many voices that talked about it, but it had a good life.
00:59:23
Speaker
I didn't, ever see it as something that should be a permanent fixture. It's kind of like when, to me, it's kind of like when we do these, they'll turn the castle into a birthday cake or they'll turn the you know castle silver or something like that. I think it's great when you have those changes of of of the the view you know, but then at the same time, I think the audience expects us to kind of bring it back to the original. So, yeah.
00:59:52
Speaker
So that's my view of the hat. Again, that might be controversial, but but I was glad to see it go. um And I was glad to get the long view of the Chinese theater back again.
01:00:06
Speaker
Thank you for answering. Absolutely. thank And thank you for, you know, even though I may disagree with you about the hat in the long term, I appreciate the fact that you care about it enough to bring it up.
01:00:20
Speaker
I welcome any disagreement. We all care about this stuff. If we were neutral, we wouldn't be talking. I do want to side with Don on that. I was one of the ones that absolutely loved the hat. My first time to Hollywood Studios was back in 04. And that's one of the things that stood out to me. But I understand your reasoning. I do want to, you know, turn the car around a little bit, go back to what Lisa was saying, kind of branch off of that with your time as, you know, president of Imagineering and all that with your leadership. Are there any projects under your leadership that were kind of brought to the table that were like, well, it didn't come to fruition, but in hindsight, you're like, well, shoot, I should have pulled the trigger on that one. That was actually a really decent idea.
01:01:05
Speaker
or as are you pretty content with, you know, everything that has came to pass under your leadership?
01:01:14
Speaker
Well, not sure you're ever really content, but I'll tell you that I was finishing up Shanghai and I was kind of feeling pretty full of myself. I was at this great new park and getting great reviews and we had a new pirates and the Tron and new main street. And, you know, it was, it was, you know, and you go to a park like this and it's got trains and buses and hotels. And it's a pretty big thing for your ego, I'd say to be a part of it.
01:01:45
Speaker
And, and especially if it looks like it's to be very successful. um And then they said, well, you know, I'd like you to come back and be president of Imagineering. So like an idiot, I said, oh well, you know, I just built Shanghai. So doing, you know, Imagineering ahead of Imagineering is kind of like two and a half Shanghais, right? it's it's It's about that much capital investment, you know, going on at the same time.
01:02:12
Speaker
So I should be able to do that. So, okay, great. What happens? COVID. Every market around the world closes. Everything that Disney has in the way of outdoor, you know, hotel, resort, cruise ships, everything closes.
01:02:28
Speaker
It had nothing to do with two and half Shanghuts. you So everything that I knew that I was feeling self-confident about in the world suddenly didn't do me any good at all.
01:02:43
Speaker
It was suddenly the world has completely changed into something different than any of us thought. And instead of, you know, we had spent about a year selling all these great new projects in Paris and Tokyo and Florida, you know, in Hong Kong.
01:03:02
Speaker
We had all these things underway. And all of a sudden the job is to furlough most of the Imagineers because we didn't have work them. and to close down every construction site around the world.
01:03:16
Speaker
So the question becomes then, okay, what is leadership about? Leadership is about the things you don't know how to do, that you have but kind of the life preparation to help figure out.
01:03:30
Speaker
And how can you build a team of people that have such a love for the product and the the stewardship and the importance of the job that we can sort of figure out how going to get ourselves through this.
01:03:44
Speaker
You said stewardship. I know I said it again, but it but it is. It's like, yeah how do you not not sell your soul, but at the same time, you're going to fundamentally have to do some some really rough stuff now.
01:03:58
Speaker
So we stuck with We tried to communicate. We tried to be more. We changed all the rules for construction to be safe. We had to furlough the Imagineers. We had to somehow keep the magic candle lit, keep the magic going.
01:04:19
Speaker
And you know the good side of that story, which I cover in my book, is that eventually We built everything we were going to build before COVID. We got it all done. got every every piece of it done. So, you know, the story has a happy ending, but we didn't know it at the time. We didn't know how it was going to end.
01:04:37
Speaker
So that's kind of what you face when you take on something big like this.
Bob's Creative Ventures
01:04:44
Speaker
Barry, that was a good question. What do you think? Yeah, it's, it's funny, Mike. That's a fantastic question. Cause one of the things i always wonder is what Imagineering, uh, people, what, what they think about when they go to bed at night, do they, do they go to bed satisfied? Do they, or do they, are they always, their minds always racing when they're sleeping? So that was a great question. Um,
01:05:10
Speaker
Bob, I want to touch on, before I jump over to Josh, he has another question, but tell us a little bit about your other book, ah Ghost Dog. Well, as I was writing Dream Chasing, and Disney had committed to publishing it, and I had a wonderful editor, Wendy Laughlin, Disney Publishing, who helped me.
01:05:32
Speaker
Nobody wrote the book. i wrote the book. I don't have any ghostwriters or anything that, but I had a great editor who could ask me questions, you know, should you talk a little bit more about that or, you know, that kind of thing. But as I was doing that, I i so i was also thinking that this is like a really busy time. It's during COVID. We're trying to figure out what we're going to do. And I found writing to be an escape, a kind of a, you know, you say, what a,
01:05:58
Speaker
what imagineers do when they're about to go to bed, I would write, or I'd wake up early and write, just to kind of have a creative outlet. And don't know about any of you, but I love the Haunted Mansion.
01:06:11
Speaker
I just, it is my favorite attraction. me too, me too. I was a mansion cast member, so that's cool. Right, so I've always loved it.
01:06:22
Speaker
And i always thought, you know, these guys... These guys were the best. i I was always thinking, like, I'll never be able to do anything this good, right? It's so great. And and so I thought, well, I may not be able to do my own haunt of mansion, but I'll bet I can write a book about it.
01:06:38
Speaker
And I also love dogs. I've had a lot of dogs in my life. So I came up with this idea that, well, what if, you know, they have this great moment at the end of the haunt of mansion where a ghost will follow you home.
01:06:51
Speaker
And I said, well, what if a ghost dog follows a kid home? And ah so the premise of the book is pretty clear. Ghost dog follows the kid home from the haunted mansion.
01:07:03
Speaker
And this family... That's beautiful. I love it. Living as has a ghost dog from the haunted mansion living in their house. That reminds... Oh, okay. I need to know this. i want I want to know about that book because...
01:07:21
Speaker
That story shaped life. That story. But that's the that's the story. And what happens is, they at first, the parents think the kid's just kind of gone off his rocker. Because they can't see the ghost dog.
01:07:36
Speaker
And so they hire a psychologist. And that psychologist says, well, we're going to have to you know go back to Disneyland. And we're going to have to have a seance and see if we can put the dog back into the haunted mansion. instead of that happening, two more of the troubadours that were with the dog in the Great Barrett scene end up coming to their house too. So now they've got two troubadours and a ghost dog living in their house in the valley, right?
01:08:05
Speaker
Oh, interesting. It's the story of and take they go to Imagineering to try to find out the problem get it solved. They go to... New Orleans, where they a lot of the ghost research was done.
01:08:20
Speaker
It's kind of an adventure story. It's it's totally a fantasy, obviously. and And it's not just a story. It's a novel. It's a novel, and it's fun. it's It's very fun. And I hope what it does is it expresses a love for Disneyland in that era hu because of me, the way I grew up, of a love of dogs, why we care about them so much. And also a love of the Haunted Mansion.
01:08:48
Speaker
That's the but's something thing things that are wrapped up in that book. Well, that's just beautiful. I have two dogs. I'm a dog person. See, there you go. So imagine your dog dies and You go to the Haunted Mansion. I will never imagine my dog dies. My dog will never die, ever. you know, I know. But imagine a kid whose dog dies.
01:09:08
Speaker
And he goes to the Haunted Mansion, and a ghost dog follows him home. what How powerful could that be, right? Yes. And it reminds me, there's a there's a Disney animator, and he he created a an independent work called Adam and Dog.
01:09:25
Speaker
I don't know if you've ever seen it. I don't know it. adam and dog look at it it's a 15 minute youtube video and okay well look it's it's the guard is adam and and the a dog that's great yeah it gar inovator another very noted animator this guy named george scribner uh who directed oliver and company and so he knows dogs very very well yeah and george came in as we were starting to publish ghost dog and I asked George to do 30 illustrations of the ghost dog book. So it's not a children's book. It's a novel, but it does have these wonderful illustrations throughout, which were done by George,
01:10:10
Speaker
ah that depict the story. So it's it's a fun book. And I also just finished the audio book, which I'm not a great reader. I don't have a great voice, but I sure put my heart into it. i read I read all of Dream Chasing, which is available on Audible and Amazon. I read all of Ghost Dogs, so they're available, both of them as audiobooks, too.
01:10:36
Speaker
And I love you narrate them both because I'm an author. And I have. It's really important, I think, to narrate your own work. Took me 26 recording sessions to do Dream Chasing.
01:10:50
Speaker
And I you're probably about 20 at least, I guess, to do. a Ghost Dog, but but it was important to me. and we did They both have great musical cues mixed They're both fun. i hope so i don't I didn't necessarily know that much about audiobooks, to be frank.
01:11:09
Speaker
I read books, but I've since learned from so many people that audiobooks are really important to them, and so I'm very glad could do them. Maybe it'll be a movie next and then a ride. And it should be. Well, there's another book coming out. There's another book.
01:11:24
Speaker
I'll let you speculate. But there's another book coming out and it's another attraction. And the ghost dog will return. So that's coming out, too. OK, it's beautiful. So, you know, the idea of a dog. Here's why I love I have dogs. I don't have I don't have kids like I don't have any kids.
01:11:43
Speaker
They are your kids. they are Yes, they are. And they follow me. you know I wake up in the morning and I'm like, they just they follow you. and They trust you. They trust me, yes. and There's something so magical and beautiful about ah a dog or a being. a a being that just trusts you. This dog is is bridging the two worlds bridging the human world and the spiritual. All right, you got me. something
01:12:17
Speaker
And eventually, they have to decide which world is this dog going to go to. That's the story. Oh, I want to know what the dog... All right, Josh, you have another question? I just got one more minute, kind of like a wrap-up question for me.
01:12:31
Speaker
nature Now, when you kind of step into the role
01:12:39
Speaker
road of setbacks start again i start again start your y'all are out of sync i'm good i'm good um so just i just want to know if you ever had a moment where everything hits you at once your your whole journey you you reflect back on the setbacks and the successes of your life is there ah ever a moment because everything's so fast-paced with you where you just kind of go, whoa, hold on.
01:13:06
Speaker
This is all like, like my dreams like happening right in front of me. Well, I, I'll say it it can be overwhelming.
01:13:18
Speaker
Sure. And it can be, you know, first of all, it's always a privilege to work on this stuff. But second of all, it can be very overwhelming at times. And, um, you have to kind of bring it back to your own heart and your own grounding, right?
01:13:34
Speaker
Because, uh, the work, uh, will never go away. The work is always there. It's, it's huge. Um, so, you know, the biggest, and I'm not, I'm not a good example, but I will, I will try to tell people, you know, you gotta have a work-life balance.
01:13:49
Speaker
Uh, in my worst, in my worst moments, uh, uh, worst, most difficult moments, I would, uh, increase the number of times play tennis during the week and get out there and just bang the ball and, you know, pound on the pavement, try to, you know, eat healthy, try to, you know,
Wisdom and Gratitude
01:14:10
Speaker
travel. I think travel is a great thing for people who are creative to go see other places in the world and and see that the world is a great place. You know, it's a it is a It is, as much as we would think that the vaginary is just like a wonderful, creative of life, it's a so it's ah very challenging job.
01:14:29
Speaker
a And so somehow you got to keep grounded in your health. And anybody who is in a job, you know this. You've got a family, you got friends, you've got your health to look after. And those are discoveries you make a along the way, but they're really important.
01:14:51
Speaker
Awesome. I think that's amazing. I think that's a great way of putting it. you know And to piggyback, I'm going to a different direction than Josh because he said you said, did you ever find yourself you know kind of pulling yourself in, looking looking at it in a different perspective? was there like You've talked about leadership. Right. was there ever a moment, you mentioned Marty Scalero and he's one of my all time favorite people to ah talk about and hear people talk about. Was there ever a moment where Marty pulled you aside and was like, Hey, do you need to go this direction? Or did you ever receive one of the infamous Marty grams per se saying, Hey, do we need to take a step back?
01:15:27
Speaker
Do we need to do something different? Well, Marty was a big thinker. So the answer, short answer is yes. Did that for all of us.
01:15:39
Speaker
But, um, And we all, what what you're referring to is this idea that we got these note cards from Marty. Marty loved to write, handwrite, and he liked to write them in red.
01:15:54
Speaker
So you got this inner office envelope, and inside it was a note card from Marty written in red, blood red. And you kind of hoped it was positive, but it wasn't necessarily.
01:16:06
Speaker
might be a correction of this, right? You got to do more like this. And he wrote to his credit, he cared about Imagineers so much that he wrote, he wrote untold thousands of these notes directly to Imagineers. Most people have kept them.
01:16:24
Speaker
ah There's in fact, for the Marty book that I'm writing, we've we've collected hundreds and hundreds of them we're going to publish. ah But when I became president, I didn't receive a note card from Marty.
01:16:42
Speaker
received six h six oh sized pages pages in red pen. And he kind of gave me my marching orders.
01:16:54
Speaker
He told me how to care about people and how to care about the culture. And, you know, he really did. kind of report us to have heart out into these six pages.
01:17:08
Speaker
And he said, you know, you might be having a rough time right now, which I was because of COVID and everything else. But he said every generation believes that their time was the most difficult time.
01:17:21
Speaker
ah So you will think that. You'll think the most difficult time. And that's appropriate because tomorrow is always... ahead of us. You know, the next generation is always moving forward. So it's an absolutely beautiful note. I framed it, all six pages of it, hung it above my desk. It still hangs above my desk.
01:17:45
Speaker
And I look at it very, but I look at it every day. look at something he wrote and i appreciate that so much. That's amazing. The only reason I know about Mardi Gras is Bob Gurr.
01:18:01
Speaker
um I got to hear Bob Gurr speak last year at the pacific Pacific Northwest Mouse Meet, and he brought those Which I'm going to this year. I'll there. And I'm bummed I'm missing it because of health issues this year. I'm sad because you won't be there. But I'll be there. i'll be signing I'll be signing ghost dog books and dream chasing books this year.
01:18:21
Speaker
So the only reason I know about is because of Bob and they, they seem to be something near and dear that every Imagineer who's ever worked with Marty talks something about and you being ah the president or the former president of Disney Imagineering, I was pretty sure that you had something special there. So thank you for sharing that.
01:18:36
Speaker
Thank you.
01:18:39
Speaker
All right. And I think Bob, we're to to have you back on again, because again, it seems like on most of these episodes, we we're going to scratch the surface on, uh,
01:18:51
Speaker
ah you You know, well i like i like jerry you got, you got a great team here. You got a great audience that I know really loves Disney, loves the parks. Um, and like I said at the beginning, you know, you can, you can kind of sleep at night knowing that the Imagineers are always trying to do the best thing for you you guys. And, and, uh,
01:19:15
Speaker
So I love talking about it. i love to come on again. And i I certainly appreciate everybody, all of you, all 10 of you asking me questions. hu I certainly appreciate it very much. All right. Well, Bob, why don't you go to ahead and tell our listeners where they can find you on social media and your website and where they can find your books.
01:19:37
Speaker
Okay. Well, you can... Probably the simplest thing to tell them right here is you can find Ghost Dog and Dream Chasing, Bob Weiss, W-E-I-S, 1S. You can find them both Amazon.
01:19:51
Speaker
You can find them other places too, and I love it. You'll go find them at independent bookstores, which I try to support wherever I go for signings. But you can find them on Amazon, and if you click on my author link on Amazon,
01:20:05
Speaker
get a bio, you get some information about what I've been doing lately, and you can also email me directly from that Amazon link. So I look forward to hearing from people what they think of the books, what they think I should write about next.
01:20:19
Speaker
I'm also B-O-B-W-E-I-S on LinkedIn and on Instagram. And I love hearing from people both what they love about the parks and and And they have enjoyed the books. So thank you.
01:20:37
Speaker
Yeah, if if you guys have LinkedIn, you have to follow Bob. I follow him on there, and the stories he puts on there are incredible. They're just they're just amazing. So um with that being said, i want to thank Bob for coming on um our program tonight. And as always, I thank the co-hosts for joining me and for coming up with some incredible questions tonight.
01:21:03
Speaker
And until next time, keep sharing the magic. joining us for another inch Thank you all. We have magical conversations that are crafted to your ears. The Edutainment Show, where education and entertainment collide each week.
01:21:17
Speaker
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01:21:29
Speaker
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01:21:42
Speaker
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