by Martin Sklar
One of the most significant tributes came from Martin Scorsese, the great movie director, who served with Bob on film festival boards in New York City:
He has had a profound impact on film culture through his writings, scholarship, and film preservation efforts. As a beloved teacher, he has inspired generations of students.
Bob will be sorely missed by those of us all over the world who admired him for his rare intelligence, passion, and spirit.
I had often thought of myself as the “black sheep” of my family—the “outsider” as a teacher. After all, my father had taught students in Los Angeles for over thirty years, Bob served as a professor at the university level for over forty years, and our sons—my Howard and Bob’s Leonard—are now respected teachers and researchers. Both have earned their PhD degrees.
When I retired from Disney in July 2009, I received many wonderful personal notes. They made me realize how much the Imagineers and others in our industry had learned from me. I have included a few of them here, and at the end of this chapter I have printed a special note from Craig Russell, chief design and project delivery executive for Imagineering.
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In many ways, whatever I’ve been able to accomplish in the last ten years, stems from my years with you. You taught me never to accept less than the best, to believe in the mission and a core set of values; to recognize the power of story; and to empower the people around me—to see their success as my own.
Kurt Haunfelner—Vice President, Exhibits and Collections, Museum of Science + Industry, Chicago
Congratulations on a fantastic career and being “the driving force” of the theme park industry for so many years. From your early days with Walt to all the CEOs to follow, they put and kept the right guy in charge of Walt’s legacy and the right person to guide and teach thousands of professionals over the decades about “quality, show, and passion for excellence!!”
Mike Davis—Senior Vice President/Executive Producer, Entertainment Department, Universal Studios Japan
Congratulations on completing what is perhaps the most extraordinary ride in the Disney kingdom. Throughout this journey your insights, creativity, and leadership talents have contributed to a new entertainment lexicon that has touched the lives of millions of families around the world. Moreover, you generously provided encouragement, guidance, and direction to thousands of colleagues who have built a global industry that, undoubtedly, would have amazed Walt.
Peter Chernack—President, Metavision
You may retire, but you will always be a lighthouse for those of us who always sought out the true Disney Magic. Invariably, our search always seemed to end with you. You have so much wonderful Disney knowledge, experience, and, especially, honor for the man we all looked to for guidance, Walt Disney. Thank you for being that light in my Disney life.
Tony Altobelli—International Public Relations Director, Disney Destinations
I am a true believer that people can make a difference. Some by their personality, some by their knowledge, and some by their actions. Rare are the ones that can make a difference because of those three things together, but I am proud to say you did and you do! Your kindness, the heritage you’re always so generous to share, and your humble way of presenting and making it easy and fun to understand and follow. More importantly than only affecting a company for business, design, or financial decisions, you inspired people who then created magic for guests, and it all started with a spark of your imagination…or a Sklar of your imagination, if you allow me.
Laurent Cayela—French Language Show Writer, WDI Disneyland Paris
You always made us all feel part of the magic. No one since has ever touched us guys on line in such a way. Thank you for inspiring me that I “can do” anything I can imagine. I tell my daughters that constantly.
Ken Horii—Digital Media Production, Supervising Director, WDI
You have led Disney and the Imagineers through many, many successful projects over the years, but more importantly, you supported and nurtured the creative spirit in those that worked for you. I know this both from personal experience and from countless others telling me how great it is to work for you. You have created an amazing legacy and should be very, very proud.
Monty Lunde—President, Techniflex, Inc.
Today is Thank your Mentor Day, so, Thanks!
Not only for providing a shining example of leadership, but for taking the time to show that leadership can take time to invest in the smallest contributors, and groom them into big ones!
MK Haley—Associate Executive Producer, Entertainment Technology Center, Carnegie Mellon University (former Imagineer)
I wanted to thank you again for that conversation we had some fifteen years ago, when I was planning to leave WDI. Your input that day and your many notes to me over the years (I have saved every one of them) helped me feel that I was a key part of the WDI delivery process and this was my new home.
Frank Addeman—Vice-President, Planning/Scheduling and Management Controls, WDI (former Imagineer)
A window on Main Street beats a tombstone at the Haunted Mansion.
John Horny—Creative Artist/Illustrator (former Imagineer)
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As a leader, you don’t often stop and think, “That was a great lesson I taught the Imagineers today.” It was only much later, when I developed “Mickey’s Ten Commandments,” that I stopped long enough to reflect on the topic. When your leadership spans so many years, it’s hard to know what was most effective in teaching and leading the Imagineers.
Since my wife, Leah, and I believe strongly in the value of education, we fund a scholarship at the California Institute of the Arts for graduates of the Ryman Arts program we helped to create in Southern California. Both the institution, and the program, are strongly related to my career, and my passions.
CalArts was Walt Disney’s vision of a school where all the arts are integrated and interact—just as they do in developing motion pictures, television shows, and attractions for the Disney parks. CalArts brought together, in 1969, three years after Walt’s passing, the Chouinard Art Institute and the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music as the foundation for a “school of all the arts.” Among the many notable graduates of this institution created through Walt Disney’s vision and personal funding are Pixar’s John Lasseter, Brad Bird, and Andrew Stanton, plus Tim Burton, Ed Harris, Katey Sagal, Bill Irwin, David Salle, Mike Kelly, Bob Rogers, Joe Lanzisero, and Don Cheadle.
Ryman Arts was created as a way to honor the dedication of Herb Ryman to passing on his knowledge and techniques to young artists. Herb’s sister, Lucille Ryman Carroll, joined Walt Disney’s daughter Sharon Disney Lund, Buzz and Anne Price, and Leah and me as founders. We began with one class and twelve students in 1990. Today, every weekend at the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, we have ten classes for 150 talented young artists chosen competitively from ninety different high schools across Southern California. The program is entirely free of charge to talented students; it has been so successful that Ryman graduates are frequent recipients of scholarships and attend schools from east to west, including such leading art programs as the Rhode Island School of Design, CalArts, Otis, and Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Ninety-eight percent of our graduates continue their education after high school, and our alumni surveys indicate that 40 percent of our graduates work professionally in art and design fields.
We are very appreciative of the great corporate and family foundations that have supported Ryman Arts, including the National Endowment for the Arts, The Walt Disney Company, and the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, which provided funds for a traveling art program that Executive Director Diane Brigham and her staff brought to inner-city schools in Los Angeles. It allowed us to expand our teaching program emphasizing foundation drawing and painting skills to more than 4,500 young artists since 1990. Leah and I serve on the board of directors, which I have been honored to lead as president since the earliest years.
> In 2012, the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities and its partner agencies recognized Ryman Arts as a National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award finalist. Fifty finalists were specially selected out of 373 nominations from forty-eight states. The announcement stated: “Ryman Arts will be honored as one of the country’s top arts programs—one that is transforming and enriching the lives of young artists by providing outstanding, high-quality arts instruction and opportunities in the arts.”
It was a big surprise, and significant recognition, when Disney honored me and our dedication to talented young artists on the occasion of my retirement in 2009 by establishing “The Marty Sklar Legacy Fund.” In its announcement, Disney said:
To celebrate the legacy of Marty Sklar, The Walt Disney Company has turned to Ryman Arts. Walt Disney Parks and Resorts and the Walt Disney Studios will each host a Ryman Sklar intern every year and will help endow an important new fund.
Disney has pledged $250,000 for the Marty Sklar Legacy Fund, provided it is matched by $100,000 in contributions from others. $350,000 will permanently endow an entire class of Disney Sklar Art Student scholars at Ryman Arts every year.
Within a few months, we had raised more than the $100,000 matching funds, enabling the program to begin in 2010 with a new Ryman Arts class, and the first interns—both graduates of Ryman Arts continuing their education at major universities—to participate in summer programs at Walt Disney Feature Animation and Walt Disney Imagineering. I am very proud of this Legacy Fund, directed in Disney’s words to the, “Youth of today, artists of tomorrow.”
Meanwhile, many of the Imagineers I played a role in hiring and mentoring have become today’s leaders and mentors themselves: Tony Baxter, Patrick Brennan, Tom Fitzgerald, Joe Garlington, Eric Jacobson, Joe Lanzisero, Kathy Mangum, Peter McGrath, Kevin Rafferty, Joe Rohde, Bob Weis, and many more. This tradition is one of Disney’s greatest assets; I learned so much from Imagineering Legends John Hench, Claude Coats, Blaine Gibson, Herb Ryman, Harper Goff, Marc Davis, Fred Joerger, Harriet Burns, Dick Irvine, Bob Jolley, Bob Moore, and so many others. They taught us by example, by doing, never with a textbook, until John Hench’s definitive Designing Disney: Imagineering and the Art of the Show with Peggy Van Pelt (a talented artist who became a key advisor to other artists—and to me) was published in 2003.
I would be remiss if I did not pay my respects to the first article that truly made an impact on me when I began to study the “how-to” of writing personal material for Walt Disney. It was a simple message in a book called Words to Live By, originally published in 1947, containing advice from a variety of well-known people. Walt’s quote was so exactly “Walt” that I knew this was the kind of approach I would take when I ghostwrote for him in the years to come. It was called “Take a Chance.”
TAKE A CHANCE
BY
WALT DISNEY
MOTION PICTURE PRODUCER
“In the lexicon of youth…there is no such word as fail!”
—EDWARD BULWER-LYTTON
I wonder how many times these sturdy old words have been used in graduation speeches each year. They take me back to my own high school days, when I had my first pair of white flannel trousers and the world ahead held no heartbreak or fear.
Certainly we have all had this confidence at one time in our lives, though most of us lose it as we grow older. Perhaps, because of my work, I’ve been lucky enough to retain a shred of this youthful quality. But sometimes, as I look back on how tough things were, I wonder if I’d go through it again. I hope I would.
When I was about twenty-one, I went broke for the first time. I slept on chair cushions in my “studio” in Kansas City and ate cold beans out of a can. But I took another look at my dream and set out for Hollywood.
Foolish? Not to a youngster. An older person might have had too much “common sense” to do it. Sometimes I wonder if “common sense” isn’t another way of saying “fear.” And “fear” too often spells failure.
In the lexicon of youth there is no such word as “fail.” Remember the story about the boy who wanted to march in the circus parade? When the show came to town, the bandmaster needed a trombonist, so the boy signed up. He hadn’t marched a block before the fearful noises from his horn caused two old ladies to faint and a horse to run away. The bandmaster demanded, “Why didn’t you tell me you couldn’t play the trombone?” And the boy said, “How did I know? I never tried before!”
Many years ago, I might have done just what that boy did. Now I’m a grandfather and have a good many gray hairs and what a lot of people would call common sense. But if I’m no longer young in age, I hope I stay young enough in spirit never to fear failure—young enough still to take a chance and march in the parade.
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I hope I never forget Walt’s advice. It was instrumental in building and nurturing my career. It led me to develop “Mickey’s Ten Commandments” as an adjunct and expansion of Walt’s own teachings. It inspired me to communicate the opportunity we were given over and over again at Imagineering, to fill blank page after blank page with new and exciting concepts for our Disney fans around the world. It helped make us dreamers and doers.
As Ray Bradbury told us when we were developing Epcot Center for Walt Disney World, it made us contemporary Renaissance people. Bradbury said we were acting out what Albert Schweitzer often spoke of in his philosophies years ago. Schweitzer said, “…set a good example for the world. If you are excellent, if you are of high quality, the world will imitate you.”
Bradbury told us, “It’s a big project. But of all the groups in the world, while everyone else is busy talking, you’re doing the stuff that’s really going to count.”
Among all those “retirement e-mails,” the supreme compliment came in a familiar “top ten” format from Craig Russell, chief design and project delivery executive for Imagineering:
Pretty amazing couple of days a week ago, celebrating the fulfillment of a truly amazing career. I found myself talking with countless Imagineers past and present, about what you have meant to our company and have taught us over the years about being a disciple of Walt’s. It was at the same time humbling and melancholy to be celebrating the end of the most fruitful career in the history of our company. As I reflect upon those celebrations and the first week of the “Post-Marty” era, I feel it’s important to thank you for the many things you have helped teach me about being a great Imagineer. Stealing your idea of Mickey’s Ten Commandments, here’s a shot at the ten most valuable lessons you helped to teach me about leadership, our company, and the product we create:
The most valuable implements in our trade are trust, collaboration, and partnership. With these tools, you can do truly amazing things.
It’s all about creating and delivering great stories and immersive environments for our guests. No schedule, budget, or strategy measures up in importance to the value of a product that WOWs our audience.
We must trust our instincts as design professionals about projects which inspire us. When we inspire ourselves, we will certainly WOW our guests.
Imagineering is a true team sport—there indeed is only one name on the door. We either make it great or mediocre together.
We are blessed as a company with great people. It’s our responsibility as leaders to inspire and empower them to do great things.
One of our most important contributions as leaders is the acknowledgement and celebration of outstanding contribution and great achievement.
We must balance our tremendous success with an uncompromising will to improve.
We must every day remind ourselves to have fun in this business of fun.
Our heritage is important—so is the health of our culture and community.
As a group of professionals, we are set apart from most by our strength of passion for the guests we entertain and product we build. Our role as leaders is to allow that passion to flourish.
Thank you, Marty, for everything you’ve
done to help build this amazing company and to teach those of us who are now privileged to carry on the legacy. Please stay in touch and feel free to stop by anytime you can. We’re all anxiously awaiting the book—it will most certainly be required reading for all lmagineers!
“Thanx!”
“I’M WAITING FOR A MESSAGE.”
When our children, Howard and Leslie, were very young, Leah and I read many stories to them, hopefully accounting for their love of good stories and good writing today. One evening, the story I read mentioned something about the brain; Howard quickly asked, “What does your brain do?” Not being an expert in neuroscience, I answered simply: “Your brain sends messages—orders to act—to different parts of your body.”
I continued reading the story, but suddenly I realized that Howard was exceptionally still and quiet, so I asked if anything was wrong. Howard responded: “I’m waiting for a message.”
At the time, I struggled not to laugh. But as I reflected on his answer, I realized that “out of the mouths of babes” was not a cliché. Whatever message Howard received, there was also a lesson for my approach to leadership…and it found its way into my “Mickey’s Ten Commandments” in several important ways.
You will find it in Take time to teach—mentors are mensches. But there are few leadership skills more important to those you lead than this advice: Be responsive and make decisions—that’s what leaders do!
We’ve all been there: everyone does his or her assignment; the time comes for the decisive meeting, and—nothing. How deflating is that? Granted, not everything is always black and white. But leadership is about making directions clear—and moving on. If you’re not willing to make a decision and move on—to be responsive—then leadership isn’t for you.
Shortly before I retired, a colleague at Disneyland reminded me of a note I had sent her. “We always have plenty of executives,” I wrote, “but we never have enough leaders.” Her note made me reflect on a few simple ideas I often pondered.