Old Blog Posts: The Game

Chapter 3 focuses on Walt’s early career and successes. I think it’s really telling that Walt strove to portray himself as innately successful, and I like how this chapter focuses on that.

                My Mother has always taught me about what she calls “playing the game”. It pertains to the idea of putting effort into getting to know the right people and casting the right light upon yourself in order to earn favor with people who will make you successful, as mentioned in Dale Carnegie’s work. Rather than acting disingenuous, it is the act of highlighting one’s best qualities so that they are obvious to those around you who may be able to help you promote yourself. I think it speaks to Walt’s character in a big way to see him utilize this same technique without having explicitly been taught it himself. What’s odd, though, is that these traits for success seem more applicable to Elias Disney’s working society as things had begun to change around the time that Walt began working professionally. My hypothesis, then would simply be that Walt appeared that much more dedicated and ambitious.

                However, we also see that Walt exhibited ambitious tendencies that didn’t always “win over” his colleagues, such as the act of abruptly changing the name if his studio to the Walt Disney Studio when Roy Disney was still his partner. Eventually Disney’s animators left him because of his abrasive business tactics. If nothing else, I think that that’s explicit proof that he either never took cues from Dale Carnegie’s work or that he didn’t learn them himself until much later, because if he had been a legitimate study of the “playing the game” philosophy he might have behaved differently. Alternatively, it’s possible that Walt’s way of “playing the game” was to play it but remind people of who he really was as he made his way in the world. As someone who has the working world in the forefront of their mind, it leaves me with a lot to think about.

                Continuing with this line of thought, I think anyone could learn from the idea of making one’s failures a part of their overall image. Watts talks about how Walt always looked at “a good, hard failure when you’re young” as a good thing because it made a person learn and made them better. Walt not only promoted his drive and talent, but the mistakes he made and how they made him an even better person. I think this is an ideal that is often preached but never practiced, and I wish the world practiced more of it. I think that culturally we focus too much on what people have done in the past and present and not enough on what they could do in the future.

                The cutthroat nature of the business world at the time is also touched on in this chapter, and I find myself wondering how things might have changed today. I would suspect that in the film and television world things will always be very aggressive, but now that we have much easier ways to track things like fraud, I wonder if the practice has become any more or less honorable. The Watts book describes it as a world where even animators working together in a company were pitted against each other, because ultimately “everyone wanted to be a producer” (44). From what I’ve seen I can’t imagine that happening now, but I’ve been exposed to different sects of the media industry and therefore might see things differently.

               

                I think that the way Watts touches on Walt’s relationship with Ub Iwerks in this chapter is particularly telling. It’s almost like he is a foil to the rest of Walt’s personality-Watts goes into great detail about the many efforts Walt made to showcase Iwerks’s contribution to the Disney studio, going so far as to give him a higher salary than his own or that of Roy Disney’s. I think it says a lot about Walt that he was not only wildly ambitious, but also (eventually) capable of recognizing hard work and ambition in others, and encouraging and cultivating it. It most any general TV special or book about Walt Disney it would be easy to hear about how visionary and hard-working he was, but I’m pleasantly surprised to see someone explore how hard he worked to bring out those traits in those he worked with. What makes it difficult to understand this behavior from Walt-what makes it hard to understand how he “plays the game”-is the fact that he was also quick to put down and dismiss his fellow colleagues as being lesser than himself. He would “simultaneously motivate and browbeat artists” because they weren’t performing a task exactly as he would, but at the same time that’s part of what propelled the Disney company to the heights of success. I could easily spend another semester studying Walt Disney’s managerial style alone.

Old Blog Posts: World Experience

                Chapter 2 focuses on Walt’s tumultuous childhood, his life growing up on a farm, his early artistic career and jobs, his experiences with the armed forces, and the many difficulties he faced as a youth.

                Based on what I know about people, when it comes to moving they tend to be in extremes-they either hate it or enjoy it. However, I recognize that the tone of a move depends on why it’s happening. The one move I experienced that I didn’t like was the one that took me away from the home I had mentioned in my last blog post. I’m noticing more of what I mentioned in my last post about how difficult it was for Walt to leave the farm, as it was like watching one’s world disappear.

                I find it interesting that Walt was deemed “too young to do much useful work” (8). If my parents had seen that I was well and fit enough to get dumped into creeks by hogs and wander around dense woods all day, they would think I was well enough to do something-and they did. I can barely remember not having chores. It makes me wonder how parenting perceptions might have been different back then, or if perhaps it was part of being on a farm and even the most menial fetching tasks would have been beyond Walt as a child. However, also unlike Walt, I don’t know many people who were subjected to intolerable amounts of work the second they were able, as noted when Watts recounts Walt’s early job as a paper boy. Perhaps it balances out that way.

                The chapter also speaks gratuitously to Walt’s boundless energy and work ethic-something I tried to capture in my presentation. I find it interesting that Walt favored mental labor over physical jobs; I certainly understand the appeal as someone who has chosen a creative career path, but some days I can work on something for hours and I won’t feel like I’ve accomplished anything until I get up and do some physical work-make some impact on the physical world. It doesn’t make sense to me. What does make sense to me, though, is the aversion to poverty. I’ve heard it from my Mom as well as many of my older friends: when one spends an extended period of time living hand-to mouth they become so opposed to feeling that way again that they’ll gladly put in the extra effort to make sure their children or other loved ones get something better than what they got. I would like to think that that’s a fundamental part of anyone’s work ethic.

                This chapter talks a lot about the many jobs Walt took to facilitate his artistic education, and I feel like I can relate. As one who is studying game development, people bother me a lot asking me why I don’t play more video games than I do. I hardly play any games at all because I always end up putting something else before it, to the point where a lot of “hardcore” gamers would just call me a poser or something. For some reason, I keep having to explain to people that understanding what one needs to know to create such a thing requires infinitely more than what playing games can teach a person. What I learned isn’t going to do me much good if I put off my primary education to do it, and all the time I spent playing games is only going to matter so much when I walk into an interview. By the same token, I feel like one might look at Walt and wonder why he didn’t take part in jobs that were more relevant to his career, as opposed to working on the railroads or delivering postage (or why he didn’t focus on his art more intensely). In both cases, I feel like the two key things are priorities and exposure. When one limits their focus to just the one thing that they desire and allow for no deviation, they limit their capacity to fulfill that desire. In keeping one’s horizons broad, one can better understand what about that goal is truly pressing or important.

                Overall, very enlightening-there’s a lot of that “lifting the veil” type stuff in this chapter. A good read, and I’m liking how I’m relating to a lot of this as I reread it.

Old Blog Posts: The Early Days

I know the class is essentially over, but I wanted to make up my blog posts on principle; I just didn’t feel right not doing them. So, I’ll just be summarizing the chapters I read and offering a little commentary (I would like to still do a movie review, but it will probably have to wait until after finals. We’ll see). Chapter 1 of the Watts book reports on Walt’s early life: his fascination with his hometown and its values, its impact on his creativity, and its popularity despite the decline of small town America.

I can’t help but wonder what things would have been like if Walt hadn’t grown up in such a small, idyllic, idealistic community. I have similar feelings of where I grew up-I lived in the neighborhood across from my elementary school, and it was small for us because we lived in a tiny subdivision of the neighborhood. I could spend all day running and walking and playing and I was safe, because there was nowhere to go. Being in the absolute heart of Orlando, we could walk out into the middle of our street and see all the fireworks from every theme park anytime there was a celebration. We had annual passes and spent every Friday night at Disney, and I spent every free day either playing in my room or vanishing outside for hours on end. Everyone loved each other and it was great, and I know for sure it had an effect on me. Some people I know think I’m too nice, and I contribute it to my upbringing. I never needed to know how to “put up a fight” or be really assertive because nothing bad or confrontational ever really happened there.

Furthermore, growing up this way left me comfortable and happy enough to let my imagination and creativity do as they pleased; I imagine that this would have impacted Walt as well, in addition to the fact that his portrayal of the rural Midwest stems partially from the fact that he spent very little time in it as a child. When one finds that environment that provides the perfect conditions for this sort of dreaming, it’s going to be painful every time one has to be pulled away from it, and this happened to Walt quite frequently.

It makes a particular amount of sense to me because I think my childhood had a big impact on my career choice-I grew up in this wholesome little place and spent most of my time playing video games, usually those made by Nintendo. Nintendo has always marketed themselves as a family and children’s company and to me they always appeared more optimistic and light about the future of gaming than any other company would. I owe them for making the vast majority of my childhood into the bliss that I remember it to be, so by deciding I would like to one day work for them I not only return the favor they gave me but I also increase the odds that I may capture some of that childhood idealism. It didn’t occur to me until now, but it makes perfect sense to me that many of Walt’s career endeavors reflected this same thought process-I don’t know why the Watts book carries so many accounts if his friends and family finding this surprising, because now it seems so obvious.

Overall, the kind of read that’s better the second time around. The first time I read this chapter I was so focused on looking for details that would be relevant to my presentation that the real substance of it was lost on me, so I’m glad I did this post and forced myself to revisit it.

Disney's Land Purchases in Central Florida

It’s pretty impressive that Disney owns 27,000 acres of land in Central Florida and it’s even more impressive that Disney bought all of this land before anyone knew what was happening. When Disneyland opened in California, the surrounding area quickly became encircled by tacky gift shops and other businesses that attracted tourists. Walt did not like this development and vowed to have more control over his next park.  Walt had seen what happened to other amusement parks like Coney Island that were transformed into gross and sleazy areas not suitable for family entertainment. He wanted to avoid this at all costs and instead build “themed parks” that could instead cater to the audience that he wanted to attract.

So as early as 1960 the Disney team started “Project X” to secretly buy thousands of acres in Central Florida. They set up dozens of shell corporations that would offer to buy land without the owners figuring out who was buying the land. If residents knew what was going on, they would hold out for a higher price and Disney would be forced to pay it. After the Orlando Sentinel broke the story, land prices shot up 1000% and Disney was hit hard by the increase in prices. However, it was too late to stop the purchases and Disney owned a parcel of land twice the size of Manhattan.

Disney wanted the autonomy to make their own building codes and other land-use powers to avoid the conundrum in Disneyland, so they pressed the Florida Legislature to form the Reedy Creek Improvement District. Originally, Disney had proposed that they needed the RCID because they were going to create a centrally-planned city called the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. However, after Walt’s death there was no push to complete this city so the Florida Legislature had been duped into granting Disney this special status. Now Disney has unprecedented authority to offer services like nuclear power that should not be granted to private corporations.

With all this land and the authority to control it, Disney was able to create Walt Disney World just as they wanted to, sans any outside interference. These developments allowed Disney to create a magical land in Florida that is now recognized as one of the greatest attractions in the world.

Sources:

http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474976719796

http://www.mouseplanet.com/dtp/archive/other/history.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reedy_Creek_Improvement_District

E.P.C.O.T.

Just a quick blog post on this, because if I'm asked to talk about it during class I'll be able to go on for a long time. So as you may have noticed, the title is in all capitals with periods next to each letter, signifying an acronym! That's right, EPCOT isn't some made up word that Imagineers thought sounded cool (although Epcot is). EPCOT stands for Experimental Prototype Community (City) of Tomorrow. Walt's original plan for the Florida Project was to make not only a vacation destination, but a thriving metropolis that would be shown off to the world as they came to see the Magic Kingdom. I'll leave out details of the position of EPCOT and the actual layout of the city until we're in class, but Walt had the ideas and the resources to create his own utopia, and due to his untimely death, that vision was never realized.

Disney Park(ing)

                Well during our last class segment it was decided that I would do some research on the past mottos/themes that the Disney Parks have had over the years. Unfortunately even after scouring the internet for over an hour my results were limited. There does not seem to be a consolidated list almost anywhere but I did manage to find a forum thread which had sentiments similar to Collin’s in that it held a position arguing that in recent years the Disney Corporation has fallen short in this area. While the motto’s or annual themes used to be a huge deal they have become more or less just a marketing ploy that holds very little meaning. To continue my theme from last week I will continue to discuss the runDisney races that are offered including full and half marathons for the serious and amateur runner alike. A special race for girls, the Princess Half-Marathon is only for them and has a more “girly” feel to it while the Expedition Everest Challenge is available to the adventurous type.

                As for the Disney mottos that I have found, the “Give a Day, Get a Day” promotion encourage volunteering by offering a free Disney day to any person who volunteered for a day. This year’s promotion was “One More Day of Magic” in a reference to the extra day we gained for the Leap Year. “What Will You Celebrate?” and “Year of a Million Dreams” are two other themes that we can discuss in class but are essentially explained in themselves. An interesting tidbit I learned was that you can fit the entirety of Disneyland inside of the Magic Kingdom parking lot and still have enough room for 500 cars. Lastly, there are lots named after each of the seven dwarfs except for Doc. The reason being that they wanted to avoid confusion between "Doc" and "Loading Dock".

Disney's Celebration: An Element of the Culture Industry

My Father is obsessed with buying and selling real estate and one of his favorite places to go to look at houses is Celebration. We have gone there as a family a good number of times, enough for me to comment on personal experiences as well as my own research.


Celebration is a small town that was developed to merge the best aspects of American suburbanism with European modernism. The town is laid out in a grid pattern, with a main street (called Market Street) that encompasses the commercial district. Celebration was a centrally planned town and for this reason is held to Disney’s high standards. There is virtually no litter, housing contracts are not negotiated, crime is negligible, and the image of perfection is conveyed on every square inch of the town.


Once again, Disney is trying to achieve utopia, but instead of a theme park designed for entertainment this is a real place where real people live. In one author wondered “whether Celebration's developers had learned from the past or just gone back to some glorified version of it. Was Celebration selling nostalgia or peddling amnesia?” In Disney’s quest for perfection, they may have ignored progressivism and instead tried to recreate a place where people never have to deal with issues or face pressing problems. Many critics contend that Celebration is a continuation of the Disney Delusion:

“A trip to Disney World represents the perfect vacation—clean, controlled, filled with predictable magic and regulated fantasy. To critics, and there are plenty, Disney's theme parks, combined with its movies and animated films, are illustrations of the defilement of American culture. The parks are, as writer James Howard Kunstler described them in his book The Geography of Nowhere, capitals of unreality dedicated to temporary escape from modern life”

           
 Perhaps the greatest criticism of Celebration is its rejection of creativity and individualism. Builders must adhere to strict codes and residents are usually not allowed to make personal touches on the outside of homes. In an effort to achieve utopia, Disney has embraced totalitarianism and rebuffed democracy. One goal of Celebration is to promote community (this is why yards are small to encourage residents to walk to parks) but this community is forced instead of organically created. Although Celebration might try to recreate small town America, the demographics are not nearly diverse enough to establish Celebration as a microcosm of America. The town is made up of mostly white, upper or middle class families that do not represent the country as a whole. For this fact alone, residents are robbed of the experience of living in a “real” community setting where all different cultures are put into a melting pot and a new culture comes out.

            
Of course, Disney probably had no intention of creating a realistic expression of the American town. Instead, Disney tried to take the best elements of American culture and put them in a town where everything can be controlled and regulated. This is, in essence, part of the Disney way of doing business. Celebration is really just a festering wound covered in makeup. In an effort to put their own dash of the culture industry on this town, Disney has succeed in bringing their own view of the American Dream to thousands of visitors each year. 


sources: http://ezinearticles.com/?New-Urbanism---A-Critique-of-Disneys-Celebration---Social-Elitism,-Developers-Practicality-Profit&id=851222

http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/f/frantz-celebration.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebration,_Florida