When I write my books, I want to make them as historically accurate as possible. As a result, I rely on a number of different methods.
First and foremost is the research. Extensive research is conducted. This takes place through electronic databases, newspaper articles, historical journals, monographs, local histories, and with the assistance of local researchers. In the case of this biography, I also drew upon a number of well-known and lesser-known biographies and bibliographies about the life of Walt Disney, all of which are listed in the bibliography at the end of this book.
While some liberties have been taken in dialogue that occurs in this book, nothing that was said was historically inaccurate. At times, I have combined or slightly modified quotes by important individuals found in other biographies, have pulled things from speeches or interviews given by Walt Disney himself, or have even hypothesised about conversations that Walt, his friends and family may have had surrounding specific events. However, everything that was said by any of the players in this book is historically accurate, if not verbatim, then what may have been said.
In order to really get into the stories that I tell, I especially like to travel and experience what my main characters would have experienced. For example, when I wrote my A Historical Tour of Walt Disney World book series, I wandered around Walt Disney World and made first-hand observations. In researching for the series Walt Disney and the 1964– 1965 New York World’s Fair I visited Springfield, Illinois and Dearborn, Michigan in order to see where the Illinois Commission to the New York World’s Fair met, as well as the headquarters for the Ford Automotive Company that planned the Magic Skyway Pavilion for the World’s Fair.
In researching for this book, I was personally able to travel to Chicago and step inside the home where Walt Disney was born and spent his first few years on Tripp Avenue. I was able to admire the designs that were birthed in Flora Disney’s mind and the work crafted by Elias’s hands. I was also able to visit St. Paul’s Congregational Church a few blocks away, which Elias helped to build and where he served as a deacon and guest pastor. Those interested in the excellent restoration process that has been occurring at the Disney home on Tripp Avenue should check out www.TheWaltDisneyBirthplace.org to see the amazing work being done, as well as to find out when the venue is holding Disney-themed events and tours.
The research process is not just visual and auditory, but can also tap into the other senses as well. As I researched, I came across the information that rights to the O-Zell Soda Company had been purchased and the company had been restored. The new owners of O-Zell have produced a half-dozen sodas, not only mimicking the recipes of those created when Elias and Walt worked for the factory in Chicago, but also new and innovative flavours, such as Pineapple Whip, which tastes exactly like the Dole Whip treats sold at Disneyland and Walt Disney World resorts. For more information about this great company, visit www.O-Zell.com.
I originally had plans to make a pilgrimage to Missouri in April 2020, but due to the Coronavirus pandemic, I had to cancel. I was devastated: as a historian, I have always found it easier to convey a story by walking in the footsteps of my individuals of study. Unfortunately, I found it more prudent to stay home and quarantine to keep myself, wife, and boys safe and healthy. It also quickly became obvious that even if I did travel to Missouri, nothing would be open due to the extended closures of businesses, restaurants, and museums throughout the nation.
As the country began to reopen in the late spring and early summer, my wife suggested that I once again pursue a trip to Walt’s homeland. As a teacher who was conducting distance learning from home, it didn’t matter when I travelled. My wife, who was sick of staring at the interior walls of our home, decided she and the boys would join me, conducting their own distance learning from the backseat of our minivan.
Through email communication, I was able to line up tours of the Walt Disney Hometown Museum in Marceline, which led to mind-blowing opportunities, including a one-on-one tour of Marceline with Kaye Malins, the director of the museum, spending the night on Don Taylor’s farm, and enjoying an evening being entertained at Walt Disney’s childhood farmhouse, now a private residence.
I was also able to connect with Dan Viets, author and co-owner of the Laugh-O-gram Studios, who gave an afternoon talking to me about Walt’s life in Kansas City, as well as an automobile tour of the city and important Disney locations, culminating in a few minutes conversing on the front porch of the Bellefontaine house, also currently owned by a private individual.
When I found out that Union Station wasn’t open like I had originally thought, I was crushed. Out of all the things in Kansas City that I’d been looking forward to seeing and touring, Union Station was it. My wife suggested that I send an email to the station leadership explaining the purpose of my visit, which I reluctantly did. Within a few hours, I received a call from the office of Union Station’s marketing department, who was excited to give me a private tour the next day of the magnificent Beaux-Arts structure. Later that afternoon, we enjoyed a picnic across the street from Union Station in Penn Valley Park in the shadows of the Liberty Memorial, whose ground-breaking and dedication ceremony Walt had attempted to film for theatre newsreels.
Ironically, I didn’t plan on having first-hand research on the 1918 Spanish influenza epidemic. Along with everyone else on our planet, I was impacted by the novel Coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, which emerged during the latter part of 2019 before it became a global pandemic in the first quarter of 2020. As I was researching and writing the chapter about the spread of the Spanish flu around Chicago and Walt taking ill, schools around North Carolina, including the one I teach at, were closed, and my city was put under a shelter-in-place ordinance, preventing my family from leaving home. While horrified by the number of deaths globally from the Coronavirus, and feeling great empathy with those whose families, jobs and bank accounts were impacted by the virus, it was fascinating for me as a historian and researcher to see the way that the United States reacted to the illness, almost identically to how it responded to the Spanish flu over 100 years ago.
While I have written and published four books on Walt Disney World and events significant to the history of the Walt Disney Company, this book left me with a new experience: upon completing the book in July 2020, I found myself saddened as I typed out the last few lines of the story. Yes, Walt and Lillian were incredibly discouraged at their misfortune of losing Oswald and most of the artists to Charles Mintz, but the story ended on a high note with the ‘birth’ of Mickey Mouse. Rather, I found myself saddened as I finished telling the story of the early life of Walt Disney.
As an avid reader over the past three decades, I have heard authors time and again talk about how the end of a book brings similar feelings, as though they have got to know the subjects of their books as family. I never really understood that sentiment until now. Over the past year, I have visited three separate homes that the Disney family lived in, two schools attended by Walt, his first official studio in Kansas City, and have even walked a portion of the paper route that Walt and Roy delivered on. I feel like I have got to know the mischievous and creative young man who was born in Chicago, experienced Marceline, and came of age in Kansas City. And now, as I tap out the last few keystrokes of the book, I feel as though this is a goodbye.
Walt Disney was the ultimate dreamer, achieving his dreams to become an animator, to create the first full-length animated film, to create a presence as a film icon on television, and to create a place that families can enjoy together. He has also inspired millions of others to dream.
So maybe this isn’t goodbye.
I have a dream that this is only the beginning.