Question about origins of a Walt Disney Quote

[Lou Prosperi]

Hello,

I have a couple of questions for some of you historians out there about the following quote from Walt Disney:

“There’s really no secret about our approach. We moving forward–opening new doors and doing new things–because we’re curious. And curiosity keeps leading us down new paths. We’re always exploring and experimenting… we call it Imagineering–the blending of creative imagination and technical know-how.”


My questions are:

1. Does anyone know the origins of this quote? I think the above was actually written by Marty Sklar and was first heard in a film about Imagineering, but I'm not certain.

2. Is Disney speaking specifically about their approach to designing Disneyland, or might he be referring to their approach to animation, live-action films, and theme park design? Imagineering is typically associated with design of the parks and resorts, but I wonder if the above is actually more of a statement about all of Disney's endeavors.

I look forward to your responses.

Thanks!

Lou Prosperi
Student of Imagineering

[JPL]

I believe he was talking about the approach they were using for Disneyland explaining what they do at WED. I also think it was from the original Disneyland TV Series.

[Skippy]

A quick search shows the quote referenced to a presentation by Walt Disney called "Total Image" in 1965.

[brownie]

Your quote left out an important part: "At WED, we call it Imagineering..." This quote is about WED Enterprises, which eventually became Walt Disney Imagineering. It's focus is on the parks and other projects that WED worked on, and not about the Disney company as a whole. I've seen it on film clips, and it is very likely something that Marty Sklar wrote for Walt Disney.

[Lou Prosperi]

A quick search shows the quote referenced to a presentation by Walt Disney called "Total Image" in 1965.

Thanks for the response!

I tried searching online for this online and got nothing. Do you mind telling me how you searched and got this result?


Thanks!

Lou Prosperi

[Lou Prosperi]

Your quote left out an important part: "At WED, we call it Imagineering..." This quote is about WED Enterprises, which eventually became Walt Disney Imagineering. It's focus is on the parks and other projects that WED worked on, and not about the Disney company as a whole. I've seen it on film clips, and it is very likely something that Marty Sklar wrote for Walt Disney.

Thanks for the response!

I took the quote from MIchael Eisner's introduction to "Walt Disney Imagineering". I think it's used in one of the featurettes on one of the Walt Disney Treasures DVDs I own (Tomorrowland and Disneyland), but I couldn't find it (hence my question).

I suspected the quote was about WED in specific, but as I noted above, the quote (minus the "At WED") would apply to most of the divisions of Walt Disney Productions.


Thanks again!

Lou Prosperi

[Skippy]

Thanks for the response!

I tried searching online for this online and got nothing. Do you mind telling me how you searched and got this result?


Thanks!

Lou Prosperi

I just grabbed one line of the quote and added disney to it in Google.