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This article was in the Asheville Citizen-Times.
Walt Disney in Asheville: the question remains unanswered
By John Boyle, Senior Writer
May 25, 2003 10:23 p.m.
Here we go again with the Walt Disney legend.
Among Asheville's intriguing tales of yore is this little nugget: Walt Disney supposedly lived and worked here in the early 1920s. The only problem is the folks at Disney are adamant he never did.
Why do I bring this up?
Because prominently displayed in the window of the Mission at the Grove antiques shop in the Grove Arcade is a draftsman's desk with Walt Disney's picture on it - and a $16,000 price tag. The attached note reads, "Walt Disney's drafting table. Used at the Asheville Citizen- Times while employed there in the 1920s."
The folks at Walt Disney Co. beg to differ when it comes to the company founder, who died in 1966 at age 65. "He (Walt Disney) never worked for a newspaper, and he never lived in North Carolina," said company spokeswoman Michelle Bergman.
Keith Davis, who owns Mission at the Grove, didn't return my calls. But Brenda Robinson, an antiques appraiser who works for him, maintains that Disney did use the table. She said they acquired it from the estate of a local artist who died in 2000. The artist told a family friend repeatedly that the table belonged to Disney.
"If he never lived here, then how is his signature on all those plats in the courthouse?" she said.
The legend of Disney in Asheville goes something like this: In 1924, he found work as a draftsman for Maj. Thomas A. Cox Jr. in the Jackson Building on Pack Square. Disney was competent, but he doodled little mice and other cartoon creatures on his work, and Major Cox had to fire him.
Otto DeBruhl, register of deeds for Buncombe County, keeps a list of the alleged Disney plat maps. They feature elaborately drawn north-south arrows, and one has a small set of hands drawn on it pointing to the north-south arrow. But there's nary a mouse or a Walt Disney signature.
"I don't see anything out of the ordinary except the arrows," said DeBruhl, who has held his job for 25 years. "And nobody has ever brought something like that to my attention."
A 1966 article in the Asheville Citizen quotes Cox's wife talking about Disney, but it mentions she "struggled" with her memory and had only a photocopy of the original cartoon Disney supposedly drew for Cox after being fired.
Bob Terrell, a columnist here at the paper, wrote about Disney in 1997, citing local resident Red Hoyle's memories of making deliveries to the Jackson Building and seeing Disney there in 1924.
"I ran the blueprint machine for Mr. Cox, and Mr. Disney, he would make sketches and I would print them," said Hoyle, 88.
After Terrell's 1997 column, the Disney people sent us a letter stating Disney never lived in Asheville. Our entertainment editor, Tony Kiss, addressed all this in December 1997, relating how the Disney folks said Walt Disney moved from Kansas City to California in July 1923 and started his animation studio. By 1924 he was already working on three films.
Our employment records here at the paper do not go back to the 1920s. Bernard Smith, an editor at the at the Asheville Times from 1948 to 1987, said he never heard of Disney working at the newspaper.
So, what's the bottom line about Disney in Asheville? I guess we'll never know for sure.
How's that for a Mickey Mouse answer?
Walt Disney in Asheville: the question remains unanswered
By John Boyle, Senior Writer
May 25, 2003 10:23 p.m.
Here we go again with the Walt Disney legend.
Among Asheville's intriguing tales of yore is this little nugget: Walt Disney supposedly lived and worked here in the early 1920s. The only problem is the folks at Disney are adamant he never did.
Why do I bring this up?
Because prominently displayed in the window of the Mission at the Grove antiques shop in the Grove Arcade is a draftsman's desk with Walt Disney's picture on it - and a $16,000 price tag. The attached note reads, "Walt Disney's drafting table. Used at the Asheville Citizen- Times while employed there in the 1920s."
The folks at Walt Disney Co. beg to differ when it comes to the company founder, who died in 1966 at age 65. "He (Walt Disney) never worked for a newspaper, and he never lived in North Carolina," said company spokeswoman Michelle Bergman.
Keith Davis, who owns Mission at the Grove, didn't return my calls. But Brenda Robinson, an antiques appraiser who works for him, maintains that Disney did use the table. She said they acquired it from the estate of a local artist who died in 2000. The artist told a family friend repeatedly that the table belonged to Disney.
"If he never lived here, then how is his signature on all those plats in the courthouse?" she said.
The legend of Disney in Asheville goes something like this: In 1924, he found work as a draftsman for Maj. Thomas A. Cox Jr. in the Jackson Building on Pack Square. Disney was competent, but he doodled little mice and other cartoon creatures on his work, and Major Cox had to fire him.
Otto DeBruhl, register of deeds for Buncombe County, keeps a list of the alleged Disney plat maps. They feature elaborately drawn north-south arrows, and one has a small set of hands drawn on it pointing to the north-south arrow. But there's nary a mouse or a Walt Disney signature.
"I don't see anything out of the ordinary except the arrows," said DeBruhl, who has held his job for 25 years. "And nobody has ever brought something like that to my attention."
A 1966 article in the Asheville Citizen quotes Cox's wife talking about Disney, but it mentions she "struggled" with her memory and had only a photocopy of the original cartoon Disney supposedly drew for Cox after being fired.
Bob Terrell, a columnist here at the paper, wrote about Disney in 1997, citing local resident Red Hoyle's memories of making deliveries to the Jackson Building and seeing Disney there in 1924.
"I ran the blueprint machine for Mr. Cox, and Mr. Disney, he would make sketches and I would print them," said Hoyle, 88.
After Terrell's 1997 column, the Disney people sent us a letter stating Disney never lived in Asheville. Our entertainment editor, Tony Kiss, addressed all this in December 1997, relating how the Disney folks said Walt Disney moved from Kansas City to California in July 1923 and started his animation studio. By 1924 he was already working on three films.
Our employment records here at the paper do not go back to the 1920s. Bernard Smith, an editor at the at the Asheville Times from 1948 to 1987, said he never heard of Disney working at the newspaper.
So, what's the bottom line about Disney in Asheville? I guess we'll never know for sure.
How's that for a Mickey Mouse answer?
