INTERVIEW
Disney artist John Hench (left) and Marty Sklar during the construction of Epcot
unprecedented expansion, taking the number of Disney theme parks from two to 11. Throughout this period, Sklar maintains that motivating his fellow creatives was the most important aspect of his job. “It was vital to instil self-belief and imagination in the team,” says Sklar. “I always said there are two ways to look at a blank piece of paper – it’s either the most frightening thing in the world or the greatest opportunity. You need to get people to see it as a chance to let their imaginations run wild and create a new thing.”
When the magic happens As for the creative process, Sklar believes a key framework of goals and objectives is essential in keeping a team focused. “Sometimes we had a blank piece of paper and we had to turn that into a theme park. When we started on Epcot, we had Walt’s concept of a city, but turning that into the park was a huge challenge that took eight years,” he says. “You have to fi gure out where you’re going and motivate people to help you get there. As a creative leader, I was focused on getting people to follow the foundation that we had set up and getting them to buy into and understand it. If you have a team of talented creative people, once they understand where you’re going, they really respond. That’s when the magic happens.” Despite the fact that the Imagineering
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If you have a team of talented creative people working
together, once they understand where you’re going, they really respond. And that’s when the magic happens
team were effectively creating theme parks from scratch, there wasn’t any room for egos or resting on personal laurels. Sklar would encourage risk-taking and innovation, but at the same time would remind his colleagues that at Disney “there’s only one name on the door” and if they wanted their name in lights, they’d need to look elsewhere. It wasn’t like showbusiness, adds Sklar. There was no individual glory – Imagineers had to take their satisfaction from contributing to a successful team. But there was one major pay-off. “What
we all enjoyed more than anything was watching the people coming to the parks and having a great time with their families,” Sklar says. “Boy! That’s a great satisfaction, witnessing people taking such great enjoy- ment from something you helped to create.”
A true world stage Disney was able to expand its empire exten- sively after the launch of Walt Disney World in 1971 thanks to the capital it was able to raise through commercial partnerships. The seeds for this strategy – which was revolutionary among attractions at the time
– were sown through Disney’s starring role at the 1964 World’s Fair in New York. As Sklar recounted at the IAAPA 2014 Legends Session commemorating the Fair’s 50th anniversary, the Imagineering team produced four major pavilions for corporate sponsors – Ford, GE, Pepsi and the State of Illinois – all of which were launched on the same day, using previously untried technology. Walt Disney took a huge gamble and
diverted the entire Imagineering team’s efforts from Disneyland towards the World’s Fair projects, hoping to showcase the famous Disney magic on a true world stage. “The World’s Fair was extraordinary as
it was a stepping stone to Walt Disney World in Florida and brought huge growth for Disneyland. We didn’t know the details of the deals Walt made with the companies, but here we were stopping work on Disneyland for fi ve years. We later found out that as part of the contract, Walt owned everything we produced for the World’s Fair, so everything we developed – even the troughs for the boats for It’s a Small World at the Pepsi pavilion – all came back to Disneyland as
AM 2 2015 ©CYBERTREK 2015
PHOTO: WALT DISNEY IMAGINEERING © DISNEY
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