Goodbye, Roy Edward Disney. The last who carried Walt's vision

I just found out that we lost Roy yesterday, and as soon as I type that, I remember clearly a cast member at the Comedy Warehouse saying it years ago when he stepped down, and all the others fervently repeating it.

The last of a triangle, the last to know, love, and respect what it truly meant to hold that vision of what Disney is supposed to be in working in this company.

I just read his father's biography and learned all his parents went through to have him, how they named him after both of them, and how he looked like both of them even as he was unmistakeably Walt's nephew.  How cherished he was and how he traveled with parents, uncle and aunt as well as his cousins. 

We all know the story how the movie Pinocchia wasn't working, and then one night, Walt came in to his nephew's room, and acted how the story that would become the movie. How he did every part and weaved the fabric of the atmosphere and the action so well.  Roy said, "I think his version was better than the movie!"

When he came to join the company, he found out something that too many CEOs and company presidents don't do with their family: he had to start out at the bottom and work his way up.  Both Walt and his father told him that if he ever wanted to be in management, he had to earn it and learn the company from the bottom up.  The benefit was: he would have earned it, not been handed it, and he would understand not only company, but the people that Walt insisted were the reason Disney was what it was.  Roy E. Disney's first job was in movie inventory for True Life Adventures.

He learned something else as he worked at each level: what his father and uncle knew.  Know what you can do and hire great people to do the things you can't.  Walt wasn't an artist, Roy O. wasn't a lawyer or accountant.  "Walt's Boys" and "Roy's Boys" were the people who so greatly did what they couldn't, and Walt and Roy were the geniuses with the vision.  And like his father, Roy E. made the tough decision and fought the hard battle that when the brilliant person you brought in becomes bad for Disney, don't be stubborn and not see that your decision has gone wrong.  He also learned the guiding light that his father held: Never hurt Walt.  And that meant, not only but what he created:  the characters, the movies, the parks, and Mickey Mouse.  Oh yes, Mickey had to be held dead because after all, his father said the day Walt Disney World was dedicated:

Roy Disney stood facing the microphone before a crowd of guests ready to deliver the dedication speech at the opening ceremony. He suddenly turned and looked around, and I heard him say quietly, “Somebody go find Mickey for me. We don't have Walt any more, and Mickey is the nearest thing to Walt that we have left.” Mickey appeared and Roy promptly began his speech, with Mickey standing proudly at his side.

He even happily became animated in a House of Mouse cartoon so that he truly was part of Mickey's world. And most importantly, through Mickey and everything else, he held Walt's vision. 

One example of all of that is when Chris Saunders came to Roy E, then head of animation in the new Golden Age, and said he wanted to do a movie about a little girl and an alien that lands on Earth.  Roy hated the idea, but he remembered what he learned.  Chris Saunders was an integral part of the great new great age for Disney with credits like Lion King.  He deserved respect and he had proven he was good at what he did: Roy had to give him the chance to show what he believed in.  And as he listened, he heard someone with courage of their conviction, like Walt, who respected the great works of what was done before by bringing it forward -- doing the first watercolor Disney picture in 40 years, sitting with those artists and asking them, are we doing this right? -- and at the same time, creating something new with an art style to represent a little, lonely girl's view of the world.  Saunders represented the people who could do what a Disney couldn't while at the same time showing he had learned as Roy E had done, starting at the bottom and working up, respecting Walt and doing what he told his people to do.  All of that and intrigued by the Hawaiin setting, something new and something Roy E loved, he gave Chris Saunders a chance while at the same time being there when they needed guidance and to ensure Disney quality.

Compare that to when Eisner started restricting the animation department and when Saunders asked Lassiter to believe in him and his vision, and he got driven out of Disney instead, just one of the people that's happened to.  Even Mickey has three key pieces of his wiped out just in Florida alone in the past year, thrown aside as not good enough.

I always hoped I'd get to meet Roy Disney because he always went to Animal Kingdom when he visited Florida; they had his first wife's favorite shops.  And I always had a secret hope in my heart that he'd return as a strong influence to bringing back the vision and respect for how things should be done.

I feel like the last part of Walt has died.

It's the end of an era and the loss of a wonderful man.  I'm so sorry for his family, and for the all the cast members who he guided, led, and protected, summed up in those mournful words they said as a heartful group:

We lost Roy.