So it was Walt who dreamed up the Disney Company. And it was
his older brother Roy O. who repeatedly found the funds necessary to turn
Walt's dreams into reality. And it was Michael Eisner who took Disney when it
was dead last in Hollywood (Out of
the eight studios in town that were making movies at that time, Disney was
eighth) and then turned into a multi-media powerhouse. And it's Bob Iger who —
through the canny acquisition of Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm (not to mention
the Company's international expansion. What with the Shanghai Disneyland
project and the purchase of India's
UTV) — has properly positioned Disney for future growth.
Walt Disney and his nephew Roy E. Disney. Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc.
All rights reserved
So if that's what Walt, Roy O., Michael and Bob did, then
where does Walt's nephew — the late Roy E. Disney — fit into the Company's
corporate history? According to David Bossert, the author of "Remembering
Roy E. Disney: Memories and Photos from a Storied Life
" (Disney Editions,
September 2013), Roy E. is the soft-spoken yet passionate guy who saved The
Walt Disney Company not once but twice.
Few people today recall how close the Mouse House came to
collapsing in the early 1980s. How — thanks to the massive cost over-runs
associated with the construction of EPCOT
Center coupled with the fact that
it had almost been 15 years since the Studio had last had a hit (i.e., 1969's
"The Love Bug") — greenmailers like Ivan Boesky & Saul Steinberg
had begun circling Disney. Supposedly with the idea of first staging a hostile
takeover and then selling off the components of the Company (EX: its then-60
year-old film library as well as all of Disney's land holdings in Southern
California & Central Florida) to the highest bidder.
"And Roy
just couldn't stand by and watch this happen," Bossert explained during a
recent sit-down interview at Walt Disney Animation Studios. "So back in
1983, he put together this group of investors and — with the help of Stanley
Gold — installed a whole new management team. It was Roy & Stanley who
brought Michael Eisner, Frank Wells and Jeffrey Katzenberg in to run The Walt
Disney Company. So it was those two guys who effectively helped to make
Disney's revival of the late 1980s / early 1990s possible."
(L to R) Steve Lavine, President of CalArts, Roy E. Disney, Nancy Bossert and David
Bossert. Photo by Scott Goller
But it's animation fans who probably owe Roy E. Disney the greatest debt. You
see, when Eisner initially came to power at the Company, he & Katzenberg
took a look at Disney's film library. And given that — at that time — Disney
already had 25 full-length animated features in the vault, Michael &
Jeffery gave some very serious thought to shutting down Walt Disney Animation
Studios and then continuing re-releasing all of those library titles. Until Roy
E. stepped in, that is.
"He was the one who actually understood how important animation was to
Disney. How — without new animated features continually making their way
through the Company's development pipeline — there'd be no new characters for
Disney Consumer Products to sell, no new stories for the Imagineers to build
new rides, shows and attractions for the theme parks around," David
continued. "That's why — when Disney's new management team was
considering shuttering Feature Animation — Roy
spoke up. Saying 'Let me take care of that.' He believed that animation was
just too important to The Walt Disney Company to let it just fade away due to some sort
of short-sighted financial reason."
So Michael & Jeffery agreed to turn Walt Disney Animation Studios over to
Roy E. Who then really dedicated himself into getting the Mouse Factory back up
on its feet. As George Scribner — the director of Disney's "Oliver &
Company
" and "The Prince and the Pauper
" — recounts in one of
"Remembering Roy E. Disney" 's more memorable and insightful
passages:
George Scribner pitches "Mickey's Philharmagic" to two of Disney's biggest
stars. Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved
I'm an animation director because of Roy Disney. I have no
idea where I'd be now if it weren't for him. For that I will always be grateful
to him.
In 1985 I was a story person on an animated feature we were going to do,
based on Oliver Twist
. We had just begun to work on the story when we were told
that Roy wanted to join our story sessions. We freaked. Roy? Were they joking?
Were we in trouble and he was coming to fire people?
First we got rid of all those sketches trashing the studio or ourselves (of
course) or him (he was great fun to caricature). We vacuumed and waxed the
furniture. The room looked great when the big day arrived. Roy showed up and let it
be known that he was just going to be another story guy. Relax. He just wanted
to help out, that's all. ("Oliver & Company") was the first
feature under his watch, and I think he always thought of himself as a story
guy and wanted to try his hand.
Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved
Well, for about six months, he came every day. He would sit in the corner of
our tiny little cinder block story room, smoking furiously, nodding, willing to
say really stupid things (the mark of a great story guy) and throwing out ideas
with the rest of us.
I'd never met anyone like him. You just never felt like he was "Roy
Disney." He was just this funny, quick-witted, laid back guy named Roy. I'd never met
anyone so high in a company who just didn't seem to care about his position at
all. It took some getting used to. And by the way, he did turn out to have very
good story sense. Thank goodness he couldn't draw or we would all been fired.
He could have done it alone.
About a month after our story session with Roy ended, I was named a
director on "Oliver & Company," now a full-length animated feature. My boss
told me that Roy was the one who recommended me. I was overwhelmed and the next time I
saw him I thanked him profusely. He told me to be quiet and quit being such a
kiss ass. Ah, so Roy. He told me I'd earned (the job) and to try and live up to it. I've
tried.
Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved
It's these sort of stories which make "Remembering Roy E. Disney"
(which Bossert describes as more of a scrapbook than a traditional memoir) well
worth reading. If only because this 210-page hardcover finally shines a
spotlight on a man who spent the 79 years he first walked & then sailed
around this planet deliberately avoiding the spotlight.
So why exactly did Roy do it? All of this behind-the-scenes maneuvering that brought the
Disney Company back from the brink not once but twice? Or — for that matter —
the quiet putting-in-of-a-good-word which would then effectively change the
course of a man's career at the Studio? In one of David's very last
conversation with Roy E. before he then succumbed to stomach cancer in December
of 2009, Walt's nephew revealed what continually caused him to put the needs of
the Company & its employees ahead of his own.
The last thing I asked Roy was why? Why the takeover of the studio, the fight with shareholders,
the resignations? His answer was pretty simple: when your name is Disney, you
can't just stand by and not participate. "All these things we did,"
he said, "were always possible through even the worst of times with the
right people and the right motivations.
You just had to keep believing that it's in here [pointing to his heart] … you can do it … you know it's inside of
you …"
Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc.
All rights reserved
So if you want to learn more about the quiet, unassuming guy who — thanks to
he & Stanley Gold's efforts back in 1984 & 2003 — helped keep the
magic alive in Disney's magical kingdom, then be sure and check out David
Bossert's "Remembering Roy E.
Disney: Memories and Photos of a Storied Life."