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The Disney Family Legacy w/ Roy P. Disney | Destination D23 A Journey Around the Worlds of Disney
Sep 25, 2025
Experience Disney history through the lens of Roy P. Disney in this panel that is hosted by Director of the Walt Disney Archives Becky Cline. Don't miss Daps Magic's official weekly YouTube show Geeks Corner here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAF91C7183BAB676B Visit Daps Magic: https://dapsmagic.com Join Our Patreon Community: https://patreon.com/dapsmagic Daps Magic was created by a very special group of Disney Fans who had a dream for a place on the internet where people young and old could share their love of Walt Disney and his legacies in a safe and fun atmosphere.
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0:00
[Music]
0:04
very
0:07
I'm very excited today to be able to
0:08
come out and talk to you a little bit
0:10
about something that's very near to my
0:12
heart and that is the legacy of the
0:14
Disney family and so I would like to
0:16
invite someone here on stage it's so
0:19
great to be here with him and he's a
0:21
dear friend and you know it's Disney so
0:25
he's the son of Edward Disney and the
0:27
grandson of welcome
0:31
Disney. So please join me in welcoming
0:34
Roy.
0:40
[Music]
0:42
[Applause]
0:50
Let's have a seat and we're going to
0:51
talk.
0:54
First of all, I'm honored and humbled to
0:56
be here. Thank you3.
0:59
Thank you very
1:04
much.
1:05
[Applause]
1:10
She has a collection of hands in her
1:12
house that goes back over 150 years and
1:17
without archives, thank God to the day
1:19
started it. Hollywood is a very
1:21
disposable industry. Throw things away.
1:24
But the fact is that we create culture,
1:27
art, uh, personal importance to everyone
1:32
in this room and certainly everyone
1:34
globally. And instead of throwing it
1:37
away, Dave Smith figured it's better to
1:41
remember the past, learn from the past,
1:44
learn about going forward, doing the
1:47
right things, and Becky is the one
1:50
person responsible for all of that. So,
1:52
thank you. Absolutely.
1:55
[Music]
2:04
But he was he was hired to do so
2:09
[Music]
2:17
in 197.
2:20
Speaking of the Disney family legacy,
2:22
we're talk a little bit here and start
2:25
at the very beginning. This is the
2:27
Disney Brothers cartoon studio and it is
2:30
Roy who was a crucial part of of the
2:34
founding of the company and um you know
2:36
I wanted to see you know what do you see
2:40
as his behind the scenes and starting
2:44
and moving to Grand.
2:46
So let's go back in time before this. By
2:50
the way, my grandfather was a shorter
2:51
one there.
2:54
Thank you very much. Um,
2:57
the fact was that that Elias Disney
3:00
Walt's father's father was a loving man
3:03
but an extraordinarily tough man. And
3:06
the reality was that in 196 17 18 all
3:11
four of the boys
3:14
Roy basically ran
3:18
and uh
3:20
Right. And uh Walt and Walt uh went out
3:26
on his own. Of course, he had a he had a
3:28
very unformed
3:30
but obsessive vision in his head and he
3:33
didn't know how to accomplish it. So he
3:35
went out uh first in Kansas City and
3:38
then partly through the persuasion of
3:39
Roy uh Hollywood where the action was uh
3:43
but struck out repeatedly. He did things
3:46
like standing on the side of a set
3:48
hoping to be cast as an extra if you can
3:50
imagine that. Um he tried carpentry. He
3:53
tried loading camera. He tried
3:55
everything he could do. Uh and failed
3:58
repeatedly. And then he went with the
4:00
help of his uncle Robert uh Elias's
4:04
younger brother who lived in Hollywood.
4:05
They just dedicated this house by the
4:07
way in Kingsville. Um and my cousin
4:10
Joanne restored it. um set up the uh the
4:15
garage. It's an animation studio
4:17
essentially and he created products like
4:21
the Alice comics
4:24
but then Hollywood is in business and he
4:28
lost everything. He lost his artist
4:33
which he finally got back. Anybody else?
4:38
[Applause]
4:42
But every morning he would go to his
4:44
brother had done World War I and gotten
4:46
tuberculosis through the war and was
4:49
conilelesing at that point at the center
4:51
of the hospital and um he would go to
4:55
every night. I remember it's 8 years old
4:58
u and would tell Roy the story of you
5:03
know how he lost and his brother was a
5:05
nononsense bank anchor from Kansas City
5:09
and I mean no nonsense and uh the
5:12
reality was that Roy finally checked
5:14
himself out of the hospital against his
5:17
brother's advice or his doctor's advice
5:19
and the two of them went business of the
5:22
Disney brothers
5:24
and
5:34
You know what our theme this year is um
5:37
around the world and Roy
5:41
company with Royal He took a lot of
5:44
really interesting businesses and went
5:47
all over the world and built an empire
5:50
of digital consumer products and
5:51
publishing and all kinds of amazing
5:53
things as
5:55
business instead of a business in the
5:57
studio. Could you tell us a little bit
5:59
about you know some of the highlights of
6:01
things? So if you know half the company
6:05
is built on on foreign business and uh
6:08
in those days it was marketing and
6:11
product that we were producing that was
6:14
and remember we're the first character
6:16
so we also work with that but he would
6:18
go to Europe every other year the
6:21
distributors in every company he knew
6:23
their families he knew their kids
6:24
birthdays
6:26
uh and every other year he would fly
6:28
them to his house which is the house I
6:30
live in and
6:32
the families and that's what I grew up
6:34
with as a kid.
6:37
And so he built the company until World
6:40
War II on that and then of course World
6:42
War II. So he had to start over again.
6:46
But just to give you an idea of one of
6:47
the famous trips he did in 1946
6:50
he flew to London to meet PL Travers
6:54
in London
6:54
in London to start negotiating Mary
6:57
Poppins
6:59
which is crazy to think that it was in
7:02
production in 1964 and we still didn't
7:04
have a contract. But
7:07
who's a great man?
7:08
I'm just saying I'm not saying that he
7:09
wasn't a good negotiator, but but yeah,
7:12
he traveled the world and my dad who had
7:14
access to cameras at 3 years old
7:17
photographed a great deal of it. So, I'm
7:19
lucky to have some of his photos.
7:21
They're great.
7:23
Now, let's get to you and you can tell
7:26
me what's some of your earliest Disney
7:29
memories.
7:29
Okay. That's enough.
7:35
And secondly, I will tell you that my
7:36
dad had access to every toy we ever made
7:38
and broke them all.
7:43
So, uh, he and I have never quite worked
7:45
that out, but
7:46
that's that's your grandfather holding
7:48
the hand of your father.
7:49
Yep. I think that's Lyric Avenue if I if
7:52
I'm correct.
7:53
Yes.
7:54
And uh it it's it's really remarkable um
7:59
that that we have all this stuff. We
8:01
have I still have some of his stuff, but
8:02
not a whole lot.
8:04
Well, your father grew up and took you
8:07
and your siblings to Disneyland. Now you
8:09
have your brother and two sisters,
8:12
correct?
8:13
Correct. We're um we're all on your
8:16
part. They used to call that Irish twins
8:18
or
8:21
I don't know if I can say that.
8:25
I don't know how much my brother would
8:27
say about that. But anyway, this this
8:29
photo of my dad and my younger sister
8:32
and younger brother is probably one of
8:33
my favorite Disney moments of all time
8:35
just because it is the classical family
8:38
Disney moment. Uh that that was my
8:42
mother in the Dumbo my grandmother in
8:43
the Dumbo ride. She was fearless.
8:46
She was the first person to sit on Space
8:48
Mountain at 80 years old. She was the
8:51
first person first person first to sit
8:52
on uh on the people who were on the
8:54
rocket rods ride if you remember that.
8:58
This uh there's my grandmother on the
9:01
left hand side of the bench, the Matorn
9:04
at Disneyland. They don't do that
9:06
anymore. And this is my aunt
9:09
uh who was a tour guide. And that's the
9:11
outfit they made.
9:14
Great.
9:15
If anybody seen these,
9:17
Here's another great shot with the
9:20
parents.
9:21
Yes. And by the way, this is how I had
9:23
to dress
9:27
because we had to represent. And and I
9:30
and I have a great story about that. Um
9:32
when we were kids back in the day, my
9:34
parents let us just freerange the park
9:38
and uh and they said, "I want you back
9:40
at city hall at 12:30, and if you can't
9:44
make it to city hall, ask a security
9:46
guard and they will help you." So, I did
9:49
one day just to find out how that
9:51
worked.
9:55
I'm not saying I didn't know how to get
9:56
to City Hall, but I am saying I thought
9:58
it was cool to talk to a security guard.
10:01
And the first thing he said to me is,
10:04
"What's your name?"
10:06
[Laughter]
10:09
And I of course said Disney. And he of
10:11
course said, "Oh, yeah."
10:15
And then you said Roy Disney. that make
10:17
it even worse.
10:20
Yeah. Okay.
10:22
So, speaking of Disneyland, I have a
10:24
question. Did you ever um spend time
10:26
with Wolf at Disneyland? He was your
10:28
great uncle.
10:29
So, I spent more time in Walt's outer
10:32
office when I would go we would go visit
10:34
my grandfather. My grandfather was an
10:36
essentially so boring boring outer
10:39
office. But Walt had the outer office
10:42
that wouldn't quit. It had every cabin
10:44
in the morning. It had all new toys in
10:46
it. And we would sit out in that other
10:48
office for hours. But Walt was
10:52
slept two hours.
10:55
He never stopped. Never stop. Uh but I
10:58
do have one special moment that I can
11:00
remember so clearly. Uh when I was
11:04
probably about 7 years old, we used to
11:06
have a ride at the park and that's not a
11:08
ride. It's a show. But a guy on the jet
11:12
was sponsored by helicopter.
11:17
[Music]
11:22
Go ahead and speak over this.
11:24
Yeah. So, it was this was the loudest,
11:26
silkiest ride we ever did,
11:30
as you can see.
11:32
Uh, but Walt picked me out of the crowd
11:34
that day and he had two chairs set up on
11:37
top of this little one-story control
11:39
tower that they had around that little
11:42
circle. And he put the chairs up there
11:44
and he and I sat up there and watched
11:47
this event. And I, the king of the
11:51
world, I felt like the most important
11:54
person on earth. And he had a way of
11:56
doing that to every single child we ever
11:58
ran into at that park. God bless him.
12:01
Oh, that's wonderful.
12:04
That must have been so exciting.
12:09
That's just wonderful.
12:11
[Music]
12:14
Well, now here we have another wonder,
12:17
wonderful, momentous event that you got
12:19
to witness, and that was the opening of
12:21
the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World
12:23
in 1971. You were there?
12:25
October 23rd, 1971.
12:27
Uh, and was anybody there?
12:31
Congratulations.
12:32
That's great.
12:33
Cuz I'm only 39. So,
12:37
um, yeah, you know, it swap land to
12:41
Florida and I I grew up, uh, in my
12:46
childhood, we drove from California to
12:48
Key West and one of my dad's jobs was to
12:51
do was to reconoid the state of Florida
12:53
in 1966
12:56
just to see what the entertainment
12:57
industry in the state looked like and it
13:00
was alligator farms, bush gardens,
13:03
cypress gardens,
13:05
Uh, and that was it.
13:08
And some cats uh at the Hemway House.
13:13
But in any event, um, when we drove up
13:16
to this park in the week before it
13:18
opened, every tree that you see on the
13:20
property was still in a box. They had
13:22
not even planted the trees. The rooms of
13:25
the Contemporary were still being
13:27
plugged in by frames. And you asked, why
13:30
didn't we get it perfect before we
13:32
opened it? And I thought to myself,
13:34
thing kind of had a momentum
13:38
and it kind of had to open. So, um, and
13:42
that said, uh, if you see the picture of
13:45
my grandfather, who never gave a public
13:47
speech speaking, standing next to Mickey
13:50
and Lily and my grandmother,
13:53
they had uh, Meredith Wilson conducted
13:56
a,076
13:57
piece marching band that came, we were
14:01
standing on the top of the train
14:02
station. They came out from underneath
14:04
us. They went around the main street
14:06
circle and they went up I think six wide
14:10
and they went up main street and up to
14:12
the castle and at that point they were
14:14
still coming out from underneath the
14:17
train station. It's one of the most
14:19
profound moments in my life.
14:21
There's nothing better than a big
14:23
marching band.
14:25
That's wonderful. Now um I want to move
14:28
on a little bit now and start talking a
14:30
little bit about your father who was Roy
14:32
Edward. Uh Roy was also there of course
14:36
at the opening of Walt Disney World and
14:37
you got to spend some time with him
14:39
there, didn't you? You have any fun
14:41
memories of that?
14:42
Yeah, we were there probably anywhere
14:45
between six and eight times a year for
14:47
the first couple years and it was a
14:49
playland for sure. If you see there,
14:52
there are hacks uh which are cattle and
14:56
then of course I got to sail these
14:58
around too when they rented sailboats
15:00
back in the day, but they've stopped
15:01
that probably because of me.
15:04
In any event, my father and I used to
15:06
get the Hobie up on one hole and we
15:08
would sail by the ferry boats going to
15:11
the park and uh those guys those drivers
15:14
needed us.
15:17
But they couldn't say a word, could
15:18
they?
15:20
I can't say one way or the other, but
15:21
there are no more sailboats. So,
15:26
Well, there are some other sailboats
15:28
though in your family history. I've got
15:30
a shot here of a very special one. Yeah,
15:32
this is a movie that my father and I did
15:34
called Morning Light, which is still on
15:36
iTunes, I think. Uh, youngest crew ever
15:38
to sail to Hawaii. Uh, he trained them
15:42
for two years. Um, two of these kids
15:45
that I still call them kids, they're not
15:47
anymore. Uh, he eventually competed in
15:50
the round the world race and won it the
15:53
last time. Charlie and Mont. And, uh,
15:57
this was a project that I was a personal
15:59
trainer on as well as
16:01
master for these kids for two years.
16:04
Great.
16:04
Terrible job.
16:08
Well, there's also another famous boat,
16:12
the New York family history, and I found
16:14
something recently that I thought was
16:16
really hilarious.
16:18
If you've been to the yach club, stayed
16:19
at the yach club and walked
16:22
up.
16:23
Well, they used to have these wonderful
16:25
shower curtains in the rooms.
16:27
That's my shower curtain.
16:29
Exactly. If you look at it really
16:31
closely there, you'll see a ship that
16:32
has the name Pywacket on it. And
16:35
Pywacket was Royy's other boat. You want
16:38
to tell us a little bit about Pywacket?
16:39
So Pywacket is a boat that my dad and I
16:42
have been sailing together since 19 I
16:44
want to say 87.
16:47
And uh before that the boats were all
16:48
called Shamrock
16:50
um after for my mother I imagine. But u
16:54
her main name was Daily. So quite Irish.
16:56
But uh in any event uh so there have
16:58
been a lot of pywackets. Pywacket the
17:01
name itself
17:02
is uh well frankly it's a cross word
17:04
puzzle word but um it means uh magical
17:09
cat
17:10
or in druid it means male witch and it's
17:13
a cute it's a cute name. It's not an
17:16
evil name but for those of you into
17:18
villain's land I don't know there.
17:23
Well, let's talk a little bit more about
17:25
your your father's huge impact on the
17:28
history of the Walt Disney Company. He
17:30
was he was integral. He traveled a lot
17:32
just like his father Roy did. But let's
17:35
go back a little bit further and tell us
17:37
a little bit more about Roy and the
17:38
family. And um I think I love this
17:41
picture there of Lillian. Lily. And this
17:45
is the press opening night, December,
17:47
I'm sorry, June 17th, 1955,
17:50
where my mother is showing off her
17:52
massive giant quarter karat diamond
17:55
ring. Um, and that's Lily at the Golden
17:59
Horseshoe Review congratulating both of
18:02
them uh for getting engaged. Now, I
18:06
wasn't born for two years after that, so
18:08
I have questions. But
18:10
anyway, this is the wedding day and
18:12
there's Walt or there's my grandfather
18:15
and Edna and my grandmother and uh
18:19
grandfather on my mother's side and the
18:21
happy young naive couple.
18:25
Well, then after that they uh ended up
18:27
getting married and they went to
18:29
Switzerland.
18:30
They went to Geneva. Walt had just done
18:33
a Roy had just done a TV show called
18:36
Perry for Disney Sunday Movie. Harry was
18:40
not squirrels.
18:41
You know how squirrels talk.
18:44
Aware that animals talk, right?
18:47
And so Walt had tasked my father with
18:49
writing the book to go with the TV show.
18:53
And uh my dad proceeded to get
18:55
pneumonia. So,
18:57
uh, but they spent, um, quite a bit of
19:00
time, I think almost a year in Geneva.
19:03
Well, this is really funny. I I we are
19:06
going to be doing a show about down the
19:08
rabbit hole, which is about all the
19:10
things we find in the archives when
19:11
we're not really looking for them. And
19:13
just the other day, I wasn't even
19:15
prepping for this presentation, but I
19:17
came across something while I was
19:18
looking for something entirely
19:20
different. And it was in the Mickey
19:22
Mouse Club magazine, which came out
19:24
1956.
19:25
And there's a story in there about
19:27
Switzerland written by Pat and Roy E.
19:30
Disney.
19:32
I had never showed that to you, did I?
19:33
Isn't that fun?
19:34
I need to read this.
19:36
Yeah,
19:37
they told their whole story and all the
19:39
photos that they took for the article
19:41
are were shot on their honeymoon. So, I
19:43
thought that was adorable.
19:44
Remember, I told you my dad had cameras
19:45
and he shot all those photos in there.
19:48
Now, here's a lovely picture. You're
19:50
still dressing up for all of your
19:52
adventures. Does anybody remember flying
19:54
like this?
19:57
This is how we used to have to fly all
19:59
the time. Not anymore. People do their
20:01
nails. People do all sorts of
20:04
Now that's Pan Airways in the background
20:07
at LAX. I think we were on our way to uh
20:10
Washington DC. We both got the Medal of
20:14
Arts Award from Richard
20:16
and so we were traveling to DC. My
20:18
mother Chanel won it.
20:21
That's great.
20:24
The other one I had was a pilot when he
20:26
was 16 years old, which is quite recogn.
20:29
[Music]
20:40
So, let's move on now to your your
20:42
father is so famous for his contribution
20:45
to saving animation at Disney and we've
20:48
been celebrating so many of the films
20:50
that you know came out during his time
20:53
overseeing the animation division and
20:55
tell us a little bit about that and
20:57
yeah so can anybody keep a secret in
21:00
this room
21:02
anyone
21:05
because I see all the cameras up
21:09
so When um when we ended up replacing
21:12
management in 1984,
21:15
the first item from the business plan
21:18
was to eliminate animation.
21:21
And uh we had just made two films, The
21:24
Black Cauldron and The Black Hole. Now,
21:28
that's a direction
21:30
that we were going. Um and my dad said,
21:34
"No, no, no. Time out. You let me take
21:37
care of
21:39
my was personally directly responsible
21:42
for the renaissance of Disney.
21:45
[Applause]
21:54
So you worked at the company for about
21:56
15 years yourself, right?
21:58
Correct. I worked first at the Disney
22:00
Channel uh film and television
22:02
post-productions and then uh for a while
22:04
as an Imagineer. And in that time you
22:06
worked with your dad on one really great
22:08
project, right?
22:10
Yes. Uh so in the late 80s early 90s
22:13
there was a thing called Japan Inc. and
22:15
we all thought Japan was they were
22:16
buying everything and their economy was
22:19
booming. But it occurred to me that 98%
22:22
of everything they have they import and
22:24
they have nowhere to put it. And it
22:27
occurred to me that that if we could
22:30
somehow
22:32
be sustainable and and manage our
22:35
environment and still make a profit, we
22:37
would have a product that we could sell
22:39
to them. Uh so that was the the genesis
22:42
of the idea. So I went to my dad and I
22:44
said, "What if we had an environmental
22:46
policy?" and he said, "Okay, I like the
22:50
idea, but if you could sell this to
22:52
Frank Wells, who was the the CEO of the
22:55
company or the COO of the company, uh,
22:58
then we'll talk about it." And Frank was
23:01
a Harvard educated lawyer who climbed
23:03
six of the seven summits and one of the
23:05
smartest, most intimidating men I've
23:06
ever met, a super guy.
23:10
Basically, it was three hours of me
23:12
saying, "Why not?" And he would say,
23:14
"Why?
23:18
Well, I would say and we have
23:20
departmentality today. I hope right now
23:24
I'm very very
23:31
about a minute left and so I wanted to
23:33
just ask you one final question. This is
23:35
a lovely uh montage here of all three of
23:38
the Roy Disneys that have worked at
23:40
Disney and I just want to see you know
23:43
what is your you know what philosophy
23:46
would you take?
23:46
Well, first of all it's a trick
23:47
question.
23:48
Oh there's there's
23:51
there's actually more than three boys.
23:53
There's I have a son named Roy but I
23:57
think we're done with the Roy talking
24:03
very old school name but it's
24:06
easy to spell.
24:09
So the question was what philosophies
24:11
did I learned growing up that that I
24:15
think are are can still apply today that
24:19
the company um should keep in mind and
24:23
let me say that first of all I believe
24:25
those philosophies are deeply imbued in
24:28
the company now already
24:31
but that said you know it starts with
24:34
telling a quality story that's the most
24:36
important endearing thing you have
24:38
because things endure
24:40
so he was a writer and he's still
24:42
standing waiting for her and that's 1932
24:45
what um
24:49
uh so telling the strong story having a
24:51
strong
24:53
connection musically God bless Benson
24:56
for instance God bless Howard Ash
24:59
and all the Broadway writers and singers
25:02
that you just saw villains those are
25:04
amazing people
25:06
absolutely
25:07
sustainable quality
25:09
do the right thing.
25:11
[Applause]
25:18
One more thing that I wanted to leave
25:20
you with. This is a really sweet little
25:23
edited piece that we want to share that
25:25
features your grandfather Roy and the
25:28
founding of the Walt Disney Company and
25:30
the founding of Walt Disney World. So,
25:32
we're going to leave you with that. But
25:33
before we go, big round of applause
25:37
[Applause]
25:45
is a tribute to the philosophy and the
25:48
life of Waltering Alliance Disney
25:52
and to the talent, the dedication, and
25:55
the loyalty of the entire Disney
25:57
organization
25:59
that made Walt Disney's dream come true.
26:03
May Walt Disney World bring joy and
26:05
inspiration and new knowledge to all who
26:09
come to this happy place. Imagine
26:12
Kingdom where the young at heart of all
26:14
ages can laugh and play and learn
26:18
together.
26:19
Dedicated this 25th day of October 1971.
26:25
[Music]
26:30
[Applause]
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