Walt's Family & Friends Walt and Me: An Interview with Ray Bradbury Ray Bradbury (88) is a leading figure in American literature. He is perhaps best known for his 1950 collection "The Martian Chronicles," which formed the basis for an NBC mini-series, and his1953 novel "Fahrenheit 451," which was adapted for film by French director François Truffaut. A recipient of the 2004 National Medal of Arts award, Bradbury's most recent books include the 1997 "The Illustrated Man" and the 2006 publication "Farewell Summer." This exhibit is the first of a two-part series on this celebrated figure's close friendship with Walt, based on an interview conducted in 2001 for the film "Walt: The Man Behind the Myth." Q: When did you first become aware of this man named Walt Disney? Q: Where did you meet Walt for the first time? Q: And the two of you hit it off right away? Q: What were some of the things Walt was interested in? Q: One topic must have been the future of cities, is that correct? Q: You also shared an interest in new forms of transportation, didn't you? Q: When did you first become aware of this man named Walt Disney? RAY: All of my life I always knew I was going to end up with Walt Disney, one way or another. When I was 7, I went to the movies and saw "The Skeleton Dance" -- it was a matinee. I stayed through the film, a dreadful film, probably something with Adolph Menge and lots of mush, you know. But I stayed through to see "The Skeleton Dance" so many times that my father had to come and drag me out of the theater. When I came to Los Angeles, many years later, and went to the county museum, there were cels, celluloid cels, ... of "The Skeleton Dance." I said, "I would give my life to someday own some of these cartoon cels." Well, that's the way it finally turned out. I got my wish. When I grew up, I had a chance to meet Walt and come into the Studio. Q: Where did you meet Walt for the first time? RAY: That was at Sax Fifth Avenue around Christmas time of 1964, I would say. And I saw a man carrying a huge load of Christmas gifts, his head tucked over the top. I looked at that face, and I said, "That's Walt Disney." I've always wanted to meet him and never have. So, I ran up to him and I said. "Mr. Disney?" he said. "Yes." "My name is Ray Bradbury." "Yes, I know your books," and I said "thank God!" He said, "Why?" I said, "Because some time in the near future, I would like to take you to lunch." His response was incredible, he said "tomorrow." Can you believe that? Never in all of my life have I had such an immediate response. Not next week, not next month, not next year but tomorrow. So the next day I went out to the Disney Studios and we had our first lunch, sitting at the card table having soup and sandwiches. We babbled like a couple of kids. Like a long lost brother, or father, that's what Walt was to me. Q: And the two of you hit it off right away? RAY: Well, the way we got on is, regardless of what subject was brought up, having to do with city planning, or just pure aesthetics, or the history of animation, or what was wrong with the average motion picture, what was going on at Disneyland. I had several lunches with him. At one point, I went out to his office and his secretary said, "Now, for gosh sakes, he has an appointment at one o'clock. At two minutes to one, jump to your feet, shake hands, and get out!" I said, "Look, I'm so glad to be able to have a chance to talk to him, so, we babbled like a couple of kids until two minutes to one and I jumped to my feet and I shook his hand and I said, "Thank you, Walt, I'll see you in a couple weeks." He said, "No, wait a minute, I got something to show you." He took me out of the office and the secretary tried to stop him. And he wouldn't have it. He took me on a tour of the studio. So a lot of things I hadn't seen, including the people mover. And they were doing some work on the Abraham Lincoln robot, its substitute. And we came back to the office at three o'clock. The secretary looked daggers at me. And I said, "No, him!" And that's the sort of enthusiast he was. I think this is true of all people. If you pay attention to them, if you really listen, if you really care, they're going to talk. They're going to become your friend. A lot of people don't know how to pay attention or how to love. Or how to be with someone. And boy when I was with Walt, I really paid attention. Q: What were some of the things Walt was interested in? RAY: Walt conversely paid a lot of attention to me -- asked about my career, my various books. And how I'd gotten interested in the Studio and at one time, he was engaged in revising Tomorrowland. They were going to rebuild Tomorrowland. And at lunch that day, I suggested to him, that he hire me because I wanted to help rebuild Tomorrowland too. He said, "Ray, it's no use. You're a genius and I'm a genius and at the end of the first week we'd kill each other." And he was right. Yeah. He was a genius. And he cared intensely and the very fact that if there was something wrong with a film, he would junk it and do it over and spend a lot of money. And that doesn't happen at a lot of studios. He really cared down to the last frame of film. Q: One topic must have been the future of cities, is that correct? RAY: Well, one of the reasons, I believe, that Walt said tomorrow and had me in to lunch is he that he read an article I wrote about Los Angeles at that time in a magazine and the cities of America. And he had similar ideas, so he wanted to talk to me about that. And at one point, I said to him, "you are so concerned with cities, and you believe in the Allweg monorail, which is a great invention. Why don't you become mayor of Los Angeles?" And he then said, "Ray, why should I be mayor when I'm already king?" That's a wonderful quote. And he was right. There's no reason, he said, "Look I've given my services free to the board of supervisors and the city council of Los Angeles in connection with the Los Angeles. Zoo -- they were rebuilding the zoo. He had some ideas on how they should be constructed. They didn't listen to a thing he said. And I was astounded to know that they would let him into a room and not listen to him. So he said, he'd had his fill of politics up to that point. And from that point on, he would go his own direction and try to do things with Epcot and with Disneyland. And not worry about the politicians. Q: You also shared an interest in new forms of transportation, didn't you? RAY: At one point, I admired the Allweg monorail because I attended hearings about the Allweg monorail that the city council, the board of supervisors, in LA and they very stupidly turned it all down. And after all, Disney was one of the first people in America to use the Allweg monorail. So, I said to him, at that time, "Why can't you make plans to extend the monorail to Los Angeles?" He said, "Because, they wouldn't accept it, the city fathers wouldn't have enough brains to accept a gift like that." So, he was very much interested. In a city, like San Francisco, which has 7 or 8 kinds of transportation. The same is true of Disneyland -- you can get around there very easily in many varieties of ways. Stay tuned for Part 2 of this fascinating interview with author Ray Bradbury, coming up next month.