Sklar and Baxter talk Disney Imagineering Legends
On Sunday July 16, 2017, John Stamos hosted a panel on “Legends of Walt Disney Imagineering” with participants and Disney Legends Marty Sklar and Tony Baxter. Newly inducted Legend and imagineer Wayne Jackson showed up near the end of the panel. Jackson received a castle model from Tokyo Disneyland as a congratulations on his Legend status.
Card Walker recommended Marty Sklar to Walt Disney for the Disneyland newspaper that would be sold on Main Street, U.S.A. in 1955.
When asked what would Walt think about Hong Kong Disneyland, Sklar says Walt would’ve asked what took so long.
Disney Legends according to Sklar:
Tony Baxter started at Disneyland as an ice cream scooper. He would design rides including Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye and Splash Mountain. Somehow, he became the villain of Marvel’s Big Thunder Mountain comic book.
Baxter on Disney Legends:
Card Walker recommended Marty Sklar to Walt Disney for the Disneyland newspaper that would be sold on Main Street, U.S.A. in 1955.
When asked what would Walt think about Hong Kong Disneyland, Sklar says Walt would’ve asked what took so long.
Disney Legends according to Sklar:
- Dick Irvine “was the first person Walt hired to work on the park.”
- Harper Goff created the Jungle Cruise and the whole look for 20,000 leagues under the Sea. Goff was a banjo player and also worked on Willy Wonka. His world showcase design helped eliminate the idea of countries being better because of a larger space. “Everybody got basically the front door in a different way,” says Sklar. No country had a larger entry way than any other.
- John Hench said, “The parks are reassuring to people because things work. Things are clean.” You can talk to a stranger. Hench drew created the art for Mickey Mouse’s 25th birthday celebration. He also designed Space Mountain long before computers could keep up with the demand placed on the roller coaster ride system. Even though Ray Bradbury was afraid to fly, Hench was able to get him on a plane. He worked as an imagineer for 68 years.
- Blaine Gibson sculptures turned Marc Davis’ cartoonish drawings into more realistic figures.
Tony Baxter started at Disneyland as an ice cream scooper. He would design rides including Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye and Splash Mountain. Somehow, he became the villain of Marvel’s Big Thunder Mountain comic book.
Baxter on Disney Legends:
- Claude Coats gave Baxter a tour of Pirates of the Caribbean before it ever opened. He spent an hour with Coats and was docked pay because he missed an hour of his shift as an ice cream scooper. It was the best hour he ever spent at Disneyland. Coats later taught Baxter to paint backgrounds. He hung the painting over his desk, and it gave him the courage to think that he could do a new Fantasyland. “Advertising what you can do is kind of a good thing,” says Baxter.
- Bill Evans had stories about every tree in the Jungle Cruise. “He knew them as friends,” says Baxter. Evans was famous as a horticulturalist, and his name could open doors around the world.
- On the Sherman Brothers: “You can go home with a song,” says Baxter. It’s hard to hear dialogue in an attraction.
- “Harriet (Burns) could do everything the guys could do,” says Sklar. “She knew everything in Imagineering,” says Baxter, because every executive came down at least once a day to talk to her.
- “Neil Gallagher was one of the people who was a great inspiration to me,” says Jackson.
- Marc Davis was another mentor. “He taught me how to read the anatomy of various animals when we were doing the Jungle Cruise.”
- Gibson taught him how to read human anatomy.