WEBVTT - Walt Disney the Futurist 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:02.240 Hey, welcome to Stuff to blow your mind. My name 0:00:02.240 --> 0:00:05.000 is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. And Julie we 0:00:05.040 --> 0:00:07.120 need we need to kick off by talking about a 0:00:07.160 --> 0:00:11.480 little urban legend. Yeah, concerning one Walt Disney, and that, 0:00:11.600 --> 0:00:14.400 of course, is the idea that buried in the secret 0:00:14.480 --> 0:00:18.479 high tech vaults underneath Disney World and Epcot Center. The 0:00:18.520 --> 0:00:22.079 Magic Kingdom, the Magical Kingdom's laity is that the Magic Kingdom? 0:00:22.600 --> 0:00:28.960 It is California, the Magic Kingdom? Are they the Magic Kingdom? 0:00:29.000 --> 0:00:32.960 Already you've exposed my knowledge of the Disney franchise. Well, anyway, 0:00:33.000 --> 0:00:35.919 the myth is that's somewhere underneath one of these magical 0:00:35.920 --> 0:00:40.839 cities that composed this Magical Kingdom. They're like robot tendered vaults, 0:00:41.240 --> 0:00:44.960 and there you will find Walt Disney's frozen body that 0:00:45.120 --> 0:00:47.800 it's in. It's being preserved until such time as we 0:00:47.840 --> 0:00:50.319 can bring him back to life so that he can 0:00:50.360 --> 0:00:54.360 save us from the uh, the harsh realities that faces 0:00:54.360 --> 0:00:57.040 in the future. That's right, he's just waiting for technology 0:00:57.080 --> 0:01:00.840 to catch up and and reanimate him. Yeah. Plus, somebody's 0:01:00.840 --> 0:01:04.200 gonna make fantage of three. So yeah, yeah, So I 0:01:04.200 --> 0:01:06.880 mean this is of course an urban legend. This is 0:01:06.920 --> 0:01:11.840 complete um who whoie if you will, I mean, for 0:01:11.840 --> 0:01:15.320 for starters. Just an important factor is that Dr James Bedford, 0:01:16.160 --> 0:01:19.360 seventy three year old psychology professor, was the first person 0:01:19.440 --> 0:01:22.440 frozen in this matter through Ennis, and that was on 0:01:22.560 --> 0:01:27.160 January twelfth, nineteen sixty seven. Walt Disney died December fift 0:01:27.560 --> 0:01:31.000 nineteen sixty six. You know, so we got roughly a 0:01:31.080 --> 0:01:35.600 year there before it was even really possible. Um So, 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:37.679 so there's that, all right, right, So the confluence of 0:01:37.720 --> 0:01:41.520 events helped perpetuate this myth, not to mention the fact 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:45.440 that he was highly private and actually his funeral arrangements 0:01:45.480 --> 0:01:49.760 were not publicized, and so people started to stir up 0:01:49.800 --> 0:01:52.360 all of these rumors. Yeah, and people, you know, people 0:01:52.400 --> 0:01:55.800 generally like the idea of a of of rich people 0:01:56.080 --> 0:01:59.520 being kind of crazy and Richard Branson yeah, or or also, 0:01:59.640 --> 0:02:03.120 I mean the whole um Howard Hughes, uh deal, you know, 0:02:03.720 --> 0:02:06.040 the millionaire And I think that that's part of it too, 0:02:06.120 --> 0:02:07.800 Like people think of Howard Hughes and they think of 0:02:07.800 --> 0:02:10.280 Walt Disney, and they kind of they kind of bring 0:02:10.280 --> 0:02:13.560 the two together in their mind into some um um 0:02:14.200 --> 0:02:18.079 version of like an an eccentric billionaire from the past. Yeah, 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:20.720 and then there's those this whole thing too about Walt 0:02:20.760 --> 0:02:24.160 Disney being like a guide in the wool futurists. Yes, 0:02:24.280 --> 0:02:26.560 the real deal, And that's what we're really going to 0:02:26.600 --> 0:02:29.280 talk about in this podcast now that we've swept the 0:02:29.320 --> 0:02:33.520 urban myth out of the way, because that's the thing. Disney, um, 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:36.200 you know, mostly is known for Disney World, Mickey Mouse 0:02:36.800 --> 0:02:42.560 maybe more becoming more affiliated with Pixar today and you know, 0:02:42.600 --> 0:02:45.240 and some of these are great products, but the man 0:02:45.360 --> 0:02:48.040 himself was was so much more interesting than any of 0:02:48.040 --> 0:02:52.040 these one things and for a while was a really 0:02:52.080 --> 0:02:56.560 powerful force, uh as far as futurist thinking goes, and 0:02:57.040 --> 0:03:02.320 just in contemplating and just advocating how technology can can 0:03:02.400 --> 0:03:06.000 shape the course of our future and and better everyone's life. 0:03:06.240 --> 0:03:10.239 Well not it's just not just the future, but public opinion, um, 0:03:10.240 --> 0:03:13.160 even even our government. And we'll talk a little bit 0:03:13.200 --> 0:03:16.480 about that later, but um, you know, I mean this 0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:19.919 is a guy who was an absolute optimist when it 0:03:20.120 --> 0:03:23.320 when it comes to technology, and he kind of felt 0:03:23.360 --> 0:03:26.799 like you could solve any problem with technology, you just 0:03:26.880 --> 0:03:29.400 had to put it in place, so which you have 0:03:29.560 --> 0:03:33.280 this guy with a lot of money, a lot of imagination, 0:03:33.919 --> 0:03:37.480 and this absolute faith in the future right now. He 0:03:37.520 --> 0:03:40.080 was born in NT one to give you a little um, 0:03:40.200 --> 0:03:42.840 you know, time for nineteen o one through nineteen sixty six, 0:03:43.640 --> 0:03:49.400 and he indeed started off with the whole animation thing, uh, drawing. Um. 0:03:49.440 --> 0:03:51.600 I forget what the first character was, but it looked 0:03:51.600 --> 0:03:52.920 at There are a couple of characters that he came 0:03:52.920 --> 0:03:56.040 out with, one of which ended up getting taken away 0:03:56.040 --> 0:03:58.920 from him due to to some rights issues. But then 0:03:58.920 --> 0:04:02.560 he settled on nicky Um. But he was not he 0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:05.839 was not really a gifted artist per se. I've heard 0:04:06.080 --> 0:04:07.960 I've read some descriptions what they said. He could really 0:04:07.960 --> 0:04:11.040 barely draw Mickey, you know, But but he had all 0:04:11.040 --> 0:04:13.080 these ideas, you know, and he'd get this idea and 0:04:13.120 --> 0:04:15.160 he'd be like, all right, here's Mickey, Let's get some 0:04:15.160 --> 0:04:18.200 talented people to make this happen. Let's get some some 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:21.839 high end production stuff lined up, and will will produce 0:04:21.920 --> 0:04:24.840 this thing. So he was he was big. I've also 0:04:24.920 --> 0:04:26.520 seen that as one of his criticisms, that he was 0:04:26.560 --> 0:04:29.440 more of an idea starter, you know, that someone that's like, 0:04:29.440 --> 0:04:31.160 all right, guys, I got this idea for a party. 0:04:31.160 --> 0:04:33.560 We're gonna have X, Y and Z go do it 0:04:34.920 --> 0:04:36.400 and then I'll show up, you know, kind of a thing. 0:04:36.839 --> 0:04:39.440 Um and he uh so he was, but he was 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:42.640 a big idea man. And he left the money stuff 0:04:42.680 --> 0:04:45.000 to his brother Roy, who and there was also this 0:04:45.080 --> 0:04:49.200 kind of older brother younger brother dynamic there because Walt 0:04:49.240 --> 0:04:52.640 was the younger brother, so he was the wild imagination 0:04:52.720 --> 0:04:56.839 kid and Roy was the older brother who looked after Walt. Okay, 0:04:56.839 --> 0:04:58.800 so you've got the pragmatic part, you've got the kid 0:04:58.839 --> 0:05:01.840 with moxie. Yeah. And apparently throughout I was reading about 0:05:01.839 --> 0:05:05.880 this in the book Reality Land by this guy David Cone, 0:05:06.839 --> 0:05:09.520 and it's a it's really good, but it goes into 0:05:09.520 --> 0:05:11.400 a lot about that, Like there were basically like two 0:05:11.440 --> 0:05:14.640 factions within Disney, uh for for for a long time, 0:05:14.680 --> 0:05:17.760 and there was like Roy's guys and Waltz guys. Wow. Yeah, 0:05:17.920 --> 0:05:20.480 this is like gangs. Yeah, it was like rival gangs, 0:05:20.520 --> 0:05:23.400 one with calculators and the other, um, I don't know, 0:05:23.520 --> 0:05:27.320 dream goggles. I was gonna dream goggles. That's nice standard 0:05:27.400 --> 0:05:31.400 issue in corporate Disney back in the day. Yeah, Um, 0:05:31.400 --> 0:05:33.440 but I mean it's interesting to look at it from 0:05:33.480 --> 0:05:37.880 the historical perspective and realized that Disney was sort of 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:42.120 fed um on futurism from the get go or future 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:44.800 futuristic is m I guess that you could say there's 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:48.680 sort of a difference. UM. And you know, here's this 0:05:48.720 --> 0:05:50.680 guy born in nineteen o one, as you say, died 0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:53.240 in nineteen sixty six. He saw a tremendous amount of 0:05:53.240 --> 0:05:57.280 progress and he again he had the imagination, he had 0:05:57.279 --> 0:06:00.200 the moxie, he had a vehicle, Mickey, and he the 0:06:00.200 --> 0:06:02.960 money to to do what he wanted to do. And 0:06:03.080 --> 0:06:05.479 at the same time, you have all of these things 0:06:05.560 --> 0:06:10.160 happening in in the United States concerning space race right right, 0:06:10.520 --> 0:06:13.440 which is really sort of fueling his own ambition, not 0:06:13.520 --> 0:06:17.360 to mention you know, national pride being part of this equation, 0:06:17.920 --> 0:06:20.880 and you actually look at the timeline and you can 0:06:20.920 --> 0:06:23.520 see where Disney is starting to think that he needs 0:06:23.560 --> 0:06:27.839 to take this issue on himself. UM. And certainly it 0:06:27.920 --> 0:06:29.760 was actually one of his animators who came up with 0:06:29.760 --> 0:06:32.359 some of the ideas about space exploration as a topic. 0:06:32.800 --> 0:06:35.080 But you know, he was a big proponent of of 0:06:35.320 --> 0:06:39.760 UM making this sort of technology known to people, and 0:06:39.960 --> 0:06:44.279 and really big into planning and designed to UM, which 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:46.760 which a part of that apparently came out of when 0:06:46.800 --> 0:06:50.640 they when they established Disneyland in California. UM he began 0:06:50.680 --> 0:06:53.320 to notice that, like they didn't really plan out hotel 0:06:53.440 --> 0:06:56.520 arrangements and so like it went from after Disneyland was 0:06:56.560 --> 0:06:58.880 built and went from there being like eighty available rooms 0:06:58.880 --> 0:07:01.440 in the in the area surrounding area to just you know, 0:07:01.640 --> 0:07:03.880 countless hotel to the point where they're they're having to 0:07:03.920 --> 0:07:07.520 worry about skyscrapers rising up to where you don't really 0:07:07.560 --> 0:07:09.960 have like the pristine because because they have the different 0:07:09.960 --> 0:07:11.880 areas of Disneyland are are broken up to be like 0:07:11.960 --> 0:07:13.960 periods of the past, and so there's gonna be a 0:07:13.960 --> 0:07:17.280 skyscraper peering over, you know. And uh, and he wasn't 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:20.679 he wasn't happy with the city planning going going around 0:07:21.320 --> 0:07:24.240 outside the park so part so he had this idea, 0:07:24.280 --> 0:07:26.080 It's like, hey, well even if we start start fresh, 0:07:26.160 --> 0:07:28.760 start new, then we'll plant everything out. And you know, 0:07:28.800 --> 0:07:30.480 I have this idea that if you if you plan it, 0:07:30.480 --> 0:07:33.440 if you design it enough, then then humans can do it. 0:07:33.520 --> 0:07:36.080 You know, we can. We can we can start fresh, 0:07:36.120 --> 0:07:38.880 and we can create a system that absolutely works well. 0:07:38.920 --> 0:07:41.480 And that's what I really love about you know, part 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:43.960 of his vision is that you know, you employee technology 0:07:44.200 --> 0:07:48.320 so that humans can have easier lives, they suffer less, 0:07:48.360 --> 0:07:50.679 And that really is sort of the crux of UM 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:52.880 where he was coming from. But just to talk a 0:07:52.920 --> 0:07:55.600 little bit more about the conditions during the nineteen fifties, UM, 0:07:55.760 --> 0:07:58.160 because yeah, this is this is crucial. It's really big, 0:07:58.160 --> 0:07:59.920 and you've got the space race is heating up. You've 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:05.800 anxieties about overpopulation, technology, atomic warfare, the environment. All of 0:08:05.840 --> 0:08:09.640 these different problems are sorting or straightening and come up. 0:08:10.160 --> 0:08:13.280 And again, space race really important because I think of 0:08:13.320 --> 0:08:16.520 the timeline ninety seven fruit flies were launched into space 0:08:16.600 --> 0:08:19.920 by the US UM and then in nineteen fifty seven, 0:08:19.960 --> 0:08:24.680 ten years later, you have the first artificial satellite spot Nik. Okay, well, 0:08:24.680 --> 0:08:26.240 and we know that was launched space by other than 0:08:26.360 --> 0:08:28.720 USS ARE And this is important to to keep in 0:08:28.760 --> 0:08:31.559 mind that, I mean, it's easy to forget even reading 0:08:31.560 --> 0:08:34.600 about it, and in knowing you know about just how 0:08:34.760 --> 0:08:38.319 polarized our ideas were during the Cold War. I mean, 0:08:38.360 --> 0:08:40.160 this was a time where if you were if you 0:08:40.160 --> 0:08:43.000 were if you were an American and and you knew 0:08:43.040 --> 0:08:44.920 about the Cold War because there's also a huge chance 0:08:44.960 --> 0:08:48.080 you were just preoccupied with everything else in life, and 0:08:48.120 --> 0:08:50.480 you know, the lightening weren't reading all the papers. But 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:53.320 if you were, you were tuned into what the Cold 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:55.719 War was and what was going on, then you had 0:08:55.760 --> 0:09:00.520 this very very stark, stark idea of what the Soviet 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:03.800 Union was. I mean, they were, uh, in many people's minds, 0:09:03.840 --> 0:09:07.640 this great enemy that represented just tyranny and the loss 0:09:07.679 --> 0:09:11.160 of the individual and the loss of freedom and and 0:09:11.320 --> 0:09:14.760 uh and you know the kind of polarization you see 0:09:14.880 --> 0:09:18.079 in uh in some of these uh, these fantasy works 0:09:18.080 --> 0:09:21.320 that came out of out of Disney studios, right, and 0:09:21.400 --> 0:09:23.640 so you know, to your point, then all of a sudden, 0:09:23.640 --> 0:09:27.280 you see that, you know, the USSR is making big 0:09:27.320 --> 0:09:30.079 strides here in the space race, especially this butt Nik 0:09:30.120 --> 0:09:32.400 starts to freak everybody out on a national level. They 0:09:32.400 --> 0:09:34.080 start to say, this is something that we need to 0:09:34.559 --> 0:09:37.920 be doing as well. We need to have a space program. 0:09:38.000 --> 0:09:42.520 So here you have Disney who began to produce TV 0:09:42.600 --> 0:09:46.360 shows to help support the opening of Disneyland. Um so 0:09:46.520 --> 0:09:49.400 a very smart move. Right a year in advance of 0:09:49.480 --> 0:09:52.640 Disneyland opening, he starts to decide, okay, well, I've got 0:09:52.640 --> 0:09:55.680 these four different parts of Disneyland that I really need 0:09:55.720 --> 0:09:58.160 to get people on board with and and you know, 0:09:58.200 --> 0:10:00.640 take the time and money to come in is at us. 0:10:00.679 --> 0:10:05.320 So I'm going to promote promote Fantasyland, Frontier Land, adventure Land, 0:10:05.360 --> 0:10:08.880 and tomorrow Land. And tomorrow Land. Is this sort of 0:10:08.920 --> 0:10:13.439 like his brain child, right, And he's able to assemble 0:10:13.559 --> 0:10:16.760 what he calls imagineers, which I kind of love. Um, 0:10:16.800 --> 0:10:19.880 he's got a top animator, Walt Kimball, who actually pitched 0:10:19.880 --> 0:10:23.160 the whole tomorrow Land to him. You've got rocket scientists 0:10:23.200 --> 0:10:27.600 and other experts who get to craft space exploration futurist 0:10:27.640 --> 0:10:32.240 programs that promote these technologies that the US hasn't fully 0:10:32.240 --> 0:10:35.880 adopted yet. Just really fascinating. Oh and I had to 0:10:35.920 --> 0:10:37.920 jump in there real quick talking about the different sections 0:10:37.920 --> 0:10:40.800 of Disneyland. This is great quote where a parent was 0:10:40.840 --> 0:10:43.480 like over the gates to Disneyland that said, here you 0:10:43.600 --> 0:10:46.200 leave today and into the world of yesterday tomorrow in 0:10:46.240 --> 0:10:48.480 fantasy And there was a promotional brochure that to the 0:10:48.520 --> 0:10:51.599 park had nothing of the present, like nothing of the 0:10:51.640 --> 0:10:54.600 present exists in Disneyland, which which is in a way 0:10:54.600 --> 0:10:56.920 it's awesome because it's like, you know, it's like we're sold, 0:10:57.000 --> 0:10:59.360 you know, forget about what you're facing right now. We're 0:10:59.400 --> 0:11:02.280 just gonna focus on how awesome the past was and 0:11:02.320 --> 0:11:04.200 how super awesome the future is going to be. But 0:11:04.240 --> 0:11:06.920 it's also kind of like the most anti Buddhist statement 0:11:07.280 --> 0:11:09.800 I could I could possibly imagine, because because you know, 0:11:09.840 --> 0:11:12.600 the whole you know, like meditation, as we've we've spoken about, 0:11:12.679 --> 0:11:14.880 you know, it's all about like, stop worrying about the past, 0:11:14.880 --> 0:11:17.640 stop worrying about the future, and just live in the moment. 0:11:17.880 --> 0:11:20.360 While Disney was like, stop living in the moment. Yeah, 0:11:20.520 --> 0:11:23.560 come to this, don't be here now. Um. And actually 0:11:23.559 --> 0:11:26.560 in the opening to uh when it opened, Disney said 0:11:26.600 --> 0:11:29.520 to all who come to this happy place, welcome, Disneyland 0:11:29.600 --> 0:11:31.760 is your land. He didn't really sound like this, but 0:11:32.760 --> 0:11:35.120 here age relives fond memories of the past as you 0:11:35.160 --> 0:11:37.920 spoke about, and here youth may savor the challenge and 0:11:37.960 --> 0:11:40.800 promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, 0:11:40.800 --> 0:11:43.599 the dreams, and the hard facts that have created America, 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:45.800 with the hope that it will be it will be 0:11:45.840 --> 0:11:48.400 a source of joint inspiration to all the world. So 0:11:48.440 --> 0:11:52.480 you see these things coming out children future, this sort 0:11:52.520 --> 0:11:56.720 of manifest destiny which is hidden a bit in in 0:11:57.040 --> 0:12:00.200 his agenda, that comes out in Space X where shan 0:12:00.240 --> 0:12:03.640 that certainly comes out in frontier Land when he talked 0:12:03.640 --> 0:12:07.480 about David Crockett so uh so in a way, it 0:12:07.520 --> 0:12:11.199 was kind of like and identifying that the the children, 0:12:11.280 --> 0:12:14.040 the use of that day and age kind of had it. 0:12:14.160 --> 0:12:16.360 We're facing this identity crisis of who they were. There 0:12:16.400 --> 0:12:18.520 were all these different forces going on. There's all this 0:12:18.600 --> 0:12:20.360 fear about the future, and he saying that hold on, 0:12:20.760 --> 0:12:22.719 look at these past models. This is who you are, 0:12:22.800 --> 0:12:25.680 this is your heritage. And then look at this model 0:12:25.920 --> 0:12:29.000 of the future. This is what you can accomplish with technology.