All Ears® featured article: The Other Disney

I wrote an article about Roy O. Disney and got very lucky because All Ears® published it in their weekly newsletter!

FEATURE ARTICLE

The Other Disney
by
Erin Blackwell
AllEars® Guest Columnist

In 1957, two years after Disneyland opened, the Los Angeles chapter of the Big Brothers of America asked Walt Disney to talk at a benefit dinner honoring one of his boyhood friends, Walt Pfeiffer. As they darkened the house lights so everyone could see him clearly, Walt spoke warmly. "I was fortunate. I had a big brother. And he's still with me. And I still love him. I argue with him. Sometimes I think he's the stubbornest so-and-so I ever met in my life. But I don't know what the hell I'd do without him. He's the president of the company now..."

From out of the darkened audience came a voice: "I'm Chairman of the Board, Walt."

Everyone laughed, and the loudest was Walt himself, for that voice was that of Roy Disney, Walt's older brother.

Have you ever believed so much in one of your ideas that you were willing to risk everything?  Your home, your car, your future, your family's future...  honestly bet every single thing so you'll have NOTHING if you're wrong? Now, have you believed in someone else so much you'll risk everything on them -- when everyone else is willing to bet it all against them? That's harder in some ways. That's what Roy Disney did.

And yet, I'd bet an annual premium pass that I can tell you one fact about Roy Oliver Disney that you didn't know, one fact that will show what Walt meant, when he said, "My big brother would say, 'Kid, go ahead!' He said, 'Kid, I'm for you!'"

                                 .                       .                .                       .                           .

To read the rest of the article, subscribe to the All Ears® newsletter or read it in their archives next month.  I hope you like the article!