Imagineering: 70 Years of Making the Impossible… Possible!

Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI) is celebrating 70 years of combining imagination with engineering this year. During D23 Expo earlier this year, they held a panel focusing on “70 years of making the impossible, possible!” Moderated by Leslie Iwerks, granddaughter of Disney Legend Ub Iwerks and director of The Imagineering Story (now the author of the book of the same name!), the panel spanned multiple generations of Imagineers, both designers, and technical engineers. 

And although D23 Expo 2022 is in the rearview, there are some timeless stories that should still be shared. The Disney Imagineering panel was a really memorable offering. So, in honor of Walt Disney Imagineering’s 70th Anniversary on December 16th, here are some stories from the panel we think you’ll enjoy…

The Little Red Car

Kevin Rafferty, the Imagineer behind a ton of amazing experiences at Disney Parks around the world, including Cars Land, Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway, and Toy Story Midway Mania, began at Disney working as a dishwasher at the Plaza Inn. He recalled the little red car he parked in the Disneyland cast member parking lot (which is now where Radiator Springs’ Town Hall resides).

When it came time to design his last project, Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway (which opens at Disneyland January 27, 2023!), they gave the two titular mice a red car to drive.

After Kevin retired, a Zoom party was held. 

“I thought a couple of people would show up, but there were hundreds of people. Then the doorbell rang and low and behold, I open the door and it’s Bob Weiss (the former head of WDI)…they had set up an elaborate buffet on my driveway…Bob presented me with this statue, a replica of the little red car.”

Kevin shared a picture of that special statue:

“If there’s ever a fire, that’ll be the first thing I grab, then an autographed copy of Leslie’s book, The Imagineering Story. And then…my wife.” 

Two Old Men and the Prom

It might seem odd, but Jeanette Lomboy (Vice President of WDI) told a story about her prom night.

“I was really excited about going to prom, but I was in the animation program and unfortunately there was an animation open house on the same night as my prom. The two special guests that day were Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston.”

As you may know, Disney Legends Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston were two of Walt Disney’s Nine Old Men. Both worked on classic films like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, and Cinderella. I agree with her, what a predicament!

Of course, Jeanette convinced her boyfriend that they needed to go to the animation open house before prom, but found that it was packed when they arrive. 

“I can’t miss my prom!” she said, to which some people took pity on her, pushing her to the front of the line (all the while, her boyfriend rolled his eyes). 

“And they say all these wise words and I’m like okay. I have to run…I’m literally sprinting out and Frank stops me and says ‘Wait! …Have fun at the ball!'”

Jeanette didn’t even remember her prom, but remembered hanging out with “the most amazing old men.”

Play Day with John Hench

Kim Irvine has a storied history with Imagineering, dating all the way back to the 1970s. She told a lovely story about getting along with a lot of the original Imagineers (her mother, Leota Toombs being one of them).

John Hench would come down to Disneyland to visit with Kim once a month, every month, without fail. 

“We would walk through the park. We would talk about why things were the way they were….This lingo came from Adams Street… tearing down houses to put in the freeway… these rotisseries came from an old restaurant in New Orleans…we went into Plaza Inn and the light [fixtures] were from a shop in Paris where they bought one light [fixture] and then recreated the rest of them for going down Main Street.”

Kim explained there’s a wealth of tribal knowledge that was shared with her as Imagineers like John Hench or Bill Evans would explain where things came from. 

“And when John would come down…we’d spend two or three hours in the park and we’d ride Space Mountain. Twice. It was his favorite ride. Then we’d go to Carnation and get ice cream sundaes.”

“In the last few years of my career, I really, really spend a lot of time with our young Imagineers, having a part in trying to share all that tribal knowledge because I can’t help it. You know every time I walk through the park I hear those voices everywhere. Everywhere I look, I’d hear those stories they’d tell me and I want to pass those on.”

With so much shakeup at the company recently, passing on that knowledge is a noble and necessary endeavor.

Kevin Would Rather Go to Florida

Kevin Rafferty is an amazing storyteller, so I’m including another of his stories. 

“I don’t know if this is the worst pitch I ever did because it never happened. As many of you know…we don’t usually work on projects just one project at a time. It’s a very rare thing.”

“I was having a meeting at Walt Disney World finishing a project and I was running out of time. We had an opening day and Marty Sklar called me. ‘Are you going to the pitch?’ I forgot what exactly I was pitching. ‘Are you going to the pitch on Tuesday to Michael Eisner and Bob Iger?'”

Kevin explained that he had to stay and finish the project, there was a deadline. 

“‘So you’re not going to pitch to Bob Iger and Michael Eisner?'”

So, Marty sent this memo to the CEO and COO:

“I know they received it because the next time I saw Bob Iger he said ‘I’m sorry we missed you last week.'”

It’s Just Magic

Charita Carter (producer on the upcoming Tiana’s Bayou Adventure!) shared her favorite moment of designing an attraction: when it opens!

“One of my favorite parts of the process is after we have done an attraction, where’s there’s a soft opening…I love to just hang out at the exit and get that first, initial, raw response in reaction to what we do.”

“I remember standing at the door of an attraction that just opened up and there was a dynamic of a father and an about 14-year-old daughter. They were talking about something they had seen in the attraction and the daughter was asking the dad ‘how in the world did they do that?'”

“So the dad was giving his best explanation of what he thought…and his daughter was shooting holes in everything he said….so finally he gave up and said ‘honey, it’s just magic!'”

“That really let me know that we had done our job.”

Reminds me that Arthur C. Clarke wrote, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

The Heartbeat of Disneyland

Jeanette Lomboy had an experience I think we can all relate to.

“I stupidly used to say that my favorite time at Disneyland was when it was closed at night. I say stupidly because when we closed down…I took that back. It was really closed for 15 months.”

“We used to walk through the parks and it was energy, right?”

Jeanette Lomboy shared pictures of an empty park; she doesn’t like seeing Disneyland closed.

“You all know exactly what [reopening day] meant, as a guest. When you were back in the park that day. It wasn’t just a theme park. It wasn’t just a Disneyland day. It wasn’t just about being there…It was your memories. It was about having a place to believe again, to dream, to feel, to experience, right?”

Along with those empty park pictures, a selfie of that first re-opening day. 

“I am crying in this picture because this is the very first Disneyland attraction that opened that morning, which was a Main Street vehicle.”

“I never ever want to see Disneyland closed again because that’s why we do it. It’s nothing. It’s a skeleton without the heartbeat and that heartbeat is all of you.”

Often times something like that is eye-roll worthy, but in this case, I think Jeanette truly meant it. I appreciate that there really are people at WDI that really do mean it when they say “this is for the guests” and they felt the same pain seeing that a source of joy was unavailable for so long. 

The Hand of Lincoln

Leslie Iwerks had this anecdote to share:

“I just remember that my dad one day came home with a hand, a rubber hand that was the original mold for Mr. Lincoln’s hand… When Lincoln went out to the New York World’s Fair, his hands were too small. Therefore, when they brought him back to Disneyland, they needed someone with a larger hand. So [my dad] ended up becoming a hand cast for Mr. Lincoln.”

Leslie, being a bit of a rascal would play pranks on her friends with that rubber hand…

“I would tease all my friends with his rubber hand around the house. It was like under couches and under the refrigerator…I would take it to school and put it in the teacher’s drawer.”

I really gotta hand it to Leslie, that’s pretty hilarious. I do hope she still has that thing somewhere. 

Otto Said Hi to Me!

The latter half of the panel focused on the technical side of Imagineering, where the magic meets the technology. During a discussion about interactive characters like the AI-driven droid, D3-O9 on the Galactic Starcruiser, Alfredo Ayala told a story about an animatronic that was a little less interactive.

“We had brought in an audio-animatronic and we had built it to be an autonomous character…in between shows, there was no one in the audience. So this little girl walks up to, and his name was Otto… she’s looking at Otto, and Otto is in Auto mode just looking around and checking out the lights. Suddenly, he looks at her and does a little doodleloodaloo*”

*Alfredo making a waving gesture with his fingers

“She was seven years old. She runs out and comes back with her father. ‘Otto said hi to me. Otto said hi to me, daddy.'”

The father thought Otto might react using sensors or cameras, but quickly found that he was being ignored. 

“‘Come on, your mommy’s waiting for us outside’…so they’re walking out of the stage…and she looks back and Otto looks at her again and doodleloodaloo*…imagine the stories she will be telling her children.”

With some of the advancements made in interactive characters, we can only imagine what kinds of stories kids today will be telling their children in the future!

More Imagineering Stories

There were so many wonderful people with amazing stories and teachings to share during this panel; I only wish I had room to share everything with you. Stories like these remind us that there are some members of WDI that are just as big of nerds as the rest of us. I hope that with these few stories, you feel inspired to pursue your dreams like all of the panelists.

If you’re sitting here wondering where to go next, a good starting point is Marty Sklar’s “One Little Spark!” Or might I suggest Iwerks’ Imagineering Story on Disney+? “The Imagineering Story” book comes out next month in November. Or perhaps you love Kevin Rafferty and want to check out his book. Either way, there are a lot of stories and traditions that make undertakings like Kim Irvine’s passing them on so important.

70 Years of Imagineering Video

On the anniversary of Walt Disney Imagineering (originally WED), Disney released this video about the unit of the company that dreams the impossible dreams and then seeks to make them real…

Let’s Hear From You

Does hearing about the more human-side of Imagineering make the members of WDI more endearing to you? Do you have a story from Imagineering of your own to share? Leave your thoughts and anecdotes in the comments!