binwinbinwin
Disney fan
- Joined
- Oct 21, 2007
- Messages
- 114
Did you know Walt Disney's father was Canadian? Here are the details from a Walt Disney interview in 1963 with CBC Telescope interviewer Fletcher Markle as described in the book "Walt Disney Conversations, Edited by Kathy Merlock Jackson, University Press of Mississippi, 2006 ISBN 1-57806-712-X". At the time of the interview, Walt was 61 years-old (Walt would die a few years later in 1966 and would never see his Orlando Disneyworld, which opened in 1971). Walt's dad, Elias Disney, was born in Ontario.
"FLETCHER: These are the things you can never know about in advance. Actually, the part of the Canadian story that interests me more than any other is the fact that your father was born in Canada and lived a good part of his life there before he moved to parts of the south and began producing sons.
WALT: Yes, he was born in a little town, I think they call it Bluevale. It's right out of Goderich. The Disney family were Anglo-Irish, and they migrated over there in the 1830's, which makes me feel that the Disneys had foresight because it was 1840 when they had the potato famine in Ireland. But they were smart enough to get out before that. And my father was born there and raised there, went to school there-in fact he went to school in Goderich. He was about twenty years old when my Grandfather went to Kansas...out in the same area where General Eisenhower, ex-president Eisenhower, came from, and he was an alien, of course being a Canadian. And he had to buy his land. He couldn't homestead. And he bought a section of railroad land and that property stayed with the Disney family until just a few years ago. And my uncle had it and I told him, "Before you sell, let us know." And so finally he wanted to sell it and retire. And I went to my brother and said, "Let's buy, this virgin land that our ancestors acquired and he said, "What do we want with farming land?" He wouldn't go with me, so I didn't go ahead. I found out later that they struck gas and oil on it. (Walt laughs)
FLETCHER: Well, you can't win them all!
WALT: NO!! (He laughs.)
FLETCHER: Tell me, Walt, have you been back to your father's homestead at all in recent years?
WALT: My father and I had planned to go back 'cause as a boy my father always told me about his boyhood in Canada. And you see here fourth of July is a big deal here, but my father always referred to the Queen's birthday, and that was Victoria, and that was when they had their big doings. I always wanted to go up there with my father because he told me about all these different things he did as a youngster. And the country. He thought it was the most beautiful country in the world. And yet he came down here to live. He died before we had a chance to do that."
Later in the interview, Walt talks about his visit to Goderich, Ontario, to see his father's homestead.
"FLETCHER: These are the things you can never know about in advance. Actually, the part of the Canadian story that interests me more than any other is the fact that your father was born in Canada and lived a good part of his life there before he moved to parts of the south and began producing sons.
WALT: Yes, he was born in a little town, I think they call it Bluevale. It's right out of Goderich. The Disney family were Anglo-Irish, and they migrated over there in the 1830's, which makes me feel that the Disneys had foresight because it was 1840 when they had the potato famine in Ireland. But they were smart enough to get out before that. And my father was born there and raised there, went to school there-in fact he went to school in Goderich. He was about twenty years old when my Grandfather went to Kansas...out in the same area where General Eisenhower, ex-president Eisenhower, came from, and he was an alien, of course being a Canadian. And he had to buy his land. He couldn't homestead. And he bought a section of railroad land and that property stayed with the Disney family until just a few years ago. And my uncle had it and I told him, "Before you sell, let us know." And so finally he wanted to sell it and retire. And I went to my brother and said, "Let's buy, this virgin land that our ancestors acquired and he said, "What do we want with farming land?" He wouldn't go with me, so I didn't go ahead. I found out later that they struck gas and oil on it. (Walt laughs)
FLETCHER: Well, you can't win them all!
WALT: NO!! (He laughs.)
FLETCHER: Tell me, Walt, have you been back to your father's homestead at all in recent years?
WALT: My father and I had planned to go back 'cause as a boy my father always told me about his boyhood in Canada. And you see here fourth of July is a big deal here, but my father always referred to the Queen's birthday, and that was Victoria, and that was when they had their big doings. I always wanted to go up there with my father because he told me about all these different things he did as a youngster. And the country. He thought it was the most beautiful country in the world. And yet he came down here to live. He died before we had a chance to do that."
Later in the interview, Walt talks about his visit to Goderich, Ontario, to see his father's homestead.
