Walt Sinks Like a Rock by Jim Korkis
Sometimes
during my research I will run across a cute story but it is too short to turn
into a long article or even to use as part of an article. I’ve talked with Didier that in some future
volumes of WALT’S PEOPLE, there needs to be a section for these short snapshots
of people’s encounters with Walt.
No
matter how big and important Walt Disney got, there are countless stories of
him taking time to visit with old friends from Marceline or other encounters.
William
C. Johnston was just a young boy from Evanston,
Illinois when he signed up to be
trained as an ambulance driver for the Red Cross during World War I. It was during training that he met another
young boy named Walter Disney.
“I
worked for the Chicago Tribune and Walt worked for the Kansas City Star. We were both paper boys,” recalled Johnson.
Their
paths parted ways but they were reunited later on the same ship returning both
boys home again. During that twenty-one
day sea voyage, Johnson remembered that Walt usually had a pen or pencil at
hand and entertained the others with his cartooning skills. Johnston
says he had wished he had saved some of those cartoons that Walt turned out by
the score.
Johnson
returned to Evanston
where he spent fourteen years as a police officer. In 1929, while attending a movie, Johnston saw the cartoon “Steamboat
Willie” and immediately recognized Walt’s name.
He wrote to his old acquaintance, “Walt, you’ve got something
there!”
Walt
replied with a standard fan card from the time of Mickey Mouse walking with his
right open hand raised in the air. Above
was a blank speech balloon where Walt had printed “To my old pal, W.C.
Johnston”. Under Mickey’s picture, Walt
had signed his name.
The
picture hung in the Johnston
home and youngsters often asked, “How did you get that picture? Did you send a quarter somewhere?”
In
the Sixties, the Johnstons
went to California
on a vacation trip. On a whim, Johnston phoned the
Disney Studios and was directed to one of Walt’s personal secretaries. Johnston
told her that Walt had probably forgotten him but he wanted to say
“hello”. Later, the secretary called him
back and reassured him that Walt had not forgotten him and wanted the Johnstons to come to
studios at their earliest opportunity for a visit.
When
they arrived at the Disney Studios, Mrs. Johnston remained in the car with
relatives while Johnston
went inside to visit with his old acquaintance.
While they talked for quite awhile about their experiences in World War
I, Walt decided to come out to the car and greet the waiting ladies and to
personally escort them through the studio.
William even got a picture taken of him standing next to a smiling
Walt. Johnston remembers Walt as being a man very
easy to talk with when he retold the story.
Perhaps
one of the reasons that Walt remembered William Johnston was an incident that
happened in World War I. The two were
swimming and Walt, who according to Johnston
“swam like a rock”, stepped off a deep spot and was pulled out of the water by Johnston.
[Jim Korkis is still looking for a permanent job or for freelance writting or speaking assignments. If you need a great Disney historian, writter, speaker, etc. Please keep him in mind and more importantly email him at jkorkis@aol.com to hire him ASAP.]
[Jim Korkis is still looking for a permanent job or for freelance writting or speaking assignments. If you need a great Disney historian, writter, speaker, etc. Please keep him in mind and more importantly email him at jkorkis@aol.com to hire him ASAP.]
No comments:
Post a Comment