Inside the Whimsy Works: My Life with Walt Disney Productions

by Jimmy Johnson, Greg Ehrbar (Editor), Didier Ghez (Editor), Grey Johnson (Foreword by)

Overview

In this never-before-published memoir from the files of The Walt Disney Archives, Disney Legend Jimmy Johnson (1917-1976) takes you from his beginnings as a studio gofer during the days of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to the opening of Walt Disney World Resort. Johnson relates dozens of personal anecdotes with famous celebrities, beloved artists, and, of course, Walt and Roy Disney.

This book, also the story of how an empire-within-an-empire is born and nurtured, traces Johnson's innovations in merchandising, publishing, and direct marketing, to the formation of what is now Walt Disney Records. This fascinating autobiography explains how the records helped determine the course of Disney Theme Parks, television, and film through best-selling recordings by icons such as Annette Funicello, Fess Parker, Julie Andrews, Louis Armstrong, and Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Through Jimmy Johnson's remarkable journey, the film, TV, and recording industries grow up together as changes in tastes and technologies shape the world, while the legacy of Disney is developed as well as carefully sustained for the generations who cherish its stories, characters, and music.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781617039324
Publisher:	University Press of Mississippi
Publication date:	01/21/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	176
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Jimmy Johnson (1917-1976) devoted his entire career to the Disney organization. Johnson joined Disney in 1938 as an assistant in the publicity department and worked his way up within the company. He was general manager and later president of the Walt Disney Music Company until his retirement in March of 1975. Greg Ehrbar is a writer/author for television, advertising, publishing, and theme parks. His credits include content for Walt Disney Imagineering and Disney marketing, Warner Bros., DreamWorks, Universal, and the Television Academy. A two-time Grammy Award nominee and Addy Award winner, he has spoken at CalArts, Stetson University, Florida Atlantic University, and the Norton Museum; appeared on CNN; and consulted for the BBC. His books include Mouse Tracks: The Story of Walt Disney Records (with Tim Hollis) and Inside the Whimsy-Works: My Life with Walt Disney Productions by Jimmy Johnson (coedited with Didier Ghez), both published by University Press of Mississippi. For further information, go to gregovision.net. Didier Ghez is vice president of International New Media, Latin America&Iberia for NBC Universal. His articles about the parks, animation, and vintage international Disneyana, as well as his many interviews with Disney artists, have appeared in Animation Journal, Animation Magazine, and StoryboarD. He is the coauthor of Disneyland Paris: From Sketch to Reality, runs the Disney History Blog and the Disney Books Network website, and serves as managing editor of the Walt's People book series. Grey Johnson writes a blog at http://wordpills.wordpress.com and has had a career as a stage director—most notably as associate artistic director of Gloucester Stage. His long arts marketing career led to becoming the director of membership first at public radio jazz station, WBGO, and now at America’s National Ballet Company(R), the American Ballet Theatre. He is also Jimmy Johnson’s son.

Table of Contents

Foreword ix

Editors' Introduction xiii

Author's Introduction xvii

Chapter 1 Halcyon Days at Hyperion 3

Chapter 2 World War II 19

Chapter 3 Back to the Studio 25

Chapter 4 The Perilous Postwar Years 39

Chapter 5 Disney Publications 47

Chapter 6 Music Publishing and How Davy Crockett Turned It Around 57

Chapter 7 We Take the Plunge into the Perilous Record Business 73

Chapter 8 Disneyland Park Springs from an Orange Grove 97

Chapter 9 Buoyant Days at Burbank 105

Chapter 10 Music and Mary Poppins 115

Chapter 11 Walt and Roy and the Right Wavelength 135

Chapter 12 Walt Disney's One World 145

Chapter 13 Roy Completes Walt Disney's Dream 161

A World at War 175

Epilogue 179

Notes 181

Index 185

Editorial Reviews

"Written in a friendly conversational tone, Inside the Whimsy Works offers new and surprising perspectives on the era when Walt and his brother Roy ran The Walt Disney Company, by a person who was not only there but who created Disney's successful record division. Editors Greg Ehrbar and Didier Ghez have done a magnificent job formatting and annotating Johnson's original manuscript so that it will not only delight readers today but be a valuable resource tool for future researchers."

—Jim Korkis, Disney historian and author of several popular books about Disney history including The Vault of Walt

From the Publisher