The Walt Disney Speaker Series delves into company history, draws unprecedented attendance

Photo courtesy of Jeff Kurtti

“He was like a great conductor,” said Chapman Presidential Fellow and Disney historian Jeff Kurtti about Walt Disney. “He could put an orchestra together very frequently of talents that were incredibly diverse, or in many cases, talents that didn't like each other, and would bring them together.”

Everyone knows the name Disney. Few people shaped popular culture as much in the 20th century, and millions of people engage with the Disney legacy every day, whether it’s visiting the iconic theme parks or watching a Pixar film. The history of The Walt Disney Company is crucial to understanding the entertainment media landscape of the past century, but many still have questions about the man who started it all. This year, Kurtti is bringing some answers to Chapman University. 

“There's not anything anywhere that's a serious institutional academic study of Walt Disney's life, his work and the relevance in resonance of what he did,” Kurtti told The Panther. “And yet, here we are today, almost 60 years after his passing, and the things that he did still have effect. Certainly this giant major corporation continues to find its philosophical base in the founder, which is very rare, especially in corporate environments.”

The Walt Disney Speaker Series began on Feb. 21 in the Argyros Forum when Kurtti brought former Disney Imagineer Tom Morris to speak about the early stages of theme park design under Disney in the 1950s. The lecture was expanded virtually into three overflow rooms after an unexpectedly large turnout of almost 400 people on a Friday night. 

On March 14, Jeffrey Sherman joined Kurtti in the larger Sandhu Conference Center to screen his 2009 documentary film “The Boys: The Sherman Brothers Story” (which Kurtti also produced) and discuss the legacy of composer duo Robert and Richard Sherman, Jeffrey’s father and uncle, respectively. The Sherman brothers wrote award-winning music for Disney classics like “Mary Poppins,” the film that sparked Kurtti’s passion for Disney and entertainment media. 

“Disney spoke to me so young,” said Kurtti. “I went and saw ‘Mary Poppins’ at five or six years old, and it changed me. It was so amazing and so interesting and so magical. And so I started to kind of consume everything that I could, like books, the encyclopedia and the weekly TV show. It kind of became my thing. Disney has a communication pathway and it touched a lot of things in me that stimulated other areas of interest as well. So it made me a seeker, it made me a historian.” 

Kurtti is one of the leading authorities on Disney history. He’s the author of over 40 nonfiction books, the producer of award-winning documentaries and a pioneer of the supplement material feature on DVDs, all about Disney. Having worked in both Imagineering and marketing for The Walt Disney Company, as well as having been the creative director for The Walt Disney Family Museum, Kurtti himself is a part of Disney history, and he observed Walt Disney’s unique impact on culture firsthand.

“Everybody has a personal connection to something Disney, whether it's a song or a character that they've identified with,” said Kurtti. “It's interesting to think of why that is, and I'd say most of the time, it points back to something that Walt Disney put there. That was a part of his philosophy, his vision, his effort, his ideas and his work that has created that cultural strength that continues. And you know what? One of the reasons for me to be here is that a lot of young people want to know who that was. Why did he do what he did? And why is it important?”

The final event in the Speaker Series is on May 16, which will feature a screening of a personal documentary about the original core animators at Disney. The series’ third event took place on April 4 with a panel featuring theme park designer and artist Joe Rohde and biologist Brian J. Alters. 

“Joe is a Disney legend,” said Kurtti. “He's probably most famous for having complete creative control over Disney's Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World.” 

The panel discussion focused on Walt Disney’s incorporation of nature and animals into the company’s culture, as well as the company’s nature conservation programs and the foundational philosophies of Animal Kingdom.

“Our last speaker is a documentary filmmaker named Ted Thomas. Ted's dad was Frank Thomas, one of Disney's nine old men, the legendary Disney animators,” Kurtti said. “Ted made a documentary with the kids of the nine old men, about growing up with them, and it's an interesting perspective on who these guys were and what their relationship was with Walt Disney.” 

The Speaker Series is part of Kurtti’s Presidential Fellowship at Chapman and accompanies the scholarly papers, lectures and academic committees that Kurtti is currently spearheading. The ultimate goal of this fellowship is a Walt Disney “think tank” at Chapman that formalizes how this crucial history will be recorded, taught and harnessed for inspiration going forward.

“I think the goal is manifold,” said Kurtti. “You want to be a good research center. You want to be a good purveyor of information. There's a desire to teach. There's a desire to create academic gravitas through the creation of a minor in Walt Disney studies. So a think tank is really a known commodity where the discussion is ongoing. We've sort of created a gathering of like minds where this is an ongoing conversation.”

Kurtti elaborated on why Chapman is the right place for this program: “Chapman is a kind of university that felt so correct because the disciplines that are gathered within the university all had a relationship. There's also a less restrictive, uptight university environment. We are in the backyard of Walt Disney Studios and Disneyland, so it offers us opportunities to not only resource from, but become a resource to, those entities. There's also a tendency within this institution to try things out and say, ‘Let's see how that works.’ And of course, we have a very open-hearted university president who said, ‘Let's try this.’”

Kurtti aspires to spark the excitement he felt for Disney as a kid in the Chapman community and is committed to finding a home for the wealth of knowledge he has cultivated of Disney’s history at Chapman. 

“I want people to have that moment of enlightenment or excitement about learning something new and saying, ‘I knew there was something there,’” said Kurtti. “I think that particularly as I get older, there’s a lot of asking, ‘What is this human experience? Why are we here?’ And ultimately, I think we’re here to learn and we’re here to teach, and I think Disney felt the same way.” 

Admission to the Walt Disney Speaker Series is free and open to all, and seating is first-come, first-served. Find more information here.