(With apologies to Martin Luther King). I had a dream.
(Note to JHM fans: I’ve been working on a column for December about the proposed “new” attraction in Florida that I’m calling Soaring Away from Epcot, but I had a dream last night and I thought it was worth telling all of you about it. This will be short, so maybe we’ll call it my interim column. I’ll get back to the other one later in the month. Now, about the dream.)
Well, a little background first. During my time working for the Disney Company I spent a few years as Director of Corporate Communications, which was a fancy title for the guy who wrote executive speeches and put together the Annual Report. It was an interesting job, one that put me in the offices of most of the members of top management. Often I was that proverbial fly on the wall, listening to arguments about policy and plans, and petty things like who went to lunch with whom and who had the best parking spot. This was back in the days just prior to Ron Miller taking over as President of the company.
When I think back about it, from that inside view, I could feel even then the rumblings that erupted in Miller’s ouster in 1984. The animosity between Ron Miller and Roy Disney Jr. certainly had never been a secret, but with Ron’s impending elevation the longtime spit between the Walt and Roy sides of the company was opening into a chasm. And that hindsight gives me a feel for the acid and under currents in the present situation.
You should also know that I’ve never felt very positive about Roy Jr. However, I need to quickly add that my skepticism doesn’t come from any first hand knowledge. In fact, I never met the man.
Some of the negative vibes came from that earlier fight, picked up from those in the company hostile to Roy Jr. But most of them came later, after I had left the company and was doing research for a book. I didn’t have to look far to find abundant evidence that Walt himself didn’t think much of his nephew.
One source gave it a Freudian twist, saying Walt was jealous because his brother Roy had had a boy and he didn’t. But most of them were one version or another of Walt Disney’s annoyance with incompetence. With stories about him sending young Roy Edward off to do nature shoots to keep away from the studio, making him re-edit things, and his derisive use of the nickname “Junior” which he pinned on him.
I know I should reserve judgment and make up my own mind based on the facts. However, I frankly must also say that I haven’t been impressed with Roy Edward’s contribution to the company since the 1984 rebellion – especially recently. During his tenure as head of animation, with the exception of the Pixar films which aren’t Disney productions, he presided over a series of failures and weak sister almost successes.
So you see where I’m coming from. And now, finally, about the dream.
In a dream last night I saw Roy Disney Jr standing with his back to me, on a steep rise overlooking a valley. I couldn’t see it, but I had the impression that the valley was a battle field. A man walked up the rise to where Roy was standing. They spoke for a moment and then the man put his arm around Roy’s shoulders.
I thought it was Stanley Gold, but then I realized I was wrong. It was Roy’s Uncle.