FROM: No Event Too Small Published Wednesdays

Charlie Ridgway: Pre-Disney, Part 1

Charlie Ridgway began writing press releases at Disneyland in 1963. Before that, he was a journalist; before that, a radio broadcaster; before that, a soldier in WWII. And before that? Well, we're back to Disney...

- by Charlie Ridgway, May 25, 2011

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Growing up in the 1920s and 1930s, I was never a Disney 'nut', but I do remember going to see the Mickey short films once I turned 10 or 12 years old, and liking them.

When I was about 14, I saw my first Disney movie, Snow White, which came out in 1937. I didn't fully appreciate it at the time, either because I was too old to enjoy it as a story or too young to enjoy it technically as a film.

It wasn't until 1951, after I had gotten out of the Army (I served during World War II in a field artillery unit of the 13th Armored Division), that I remember seeing my next Disney film: Alice in Wonderland.

Just because I didn't see all the films doesn't mean I wasn't aware of Walt Disney himself. My father was born not too far from Marceline, Missouri, where Walt had spent several years of his childhood. When I was old enough to realize the connection, I began to follow Walt's career, though of course in those days I had no intention of working for him.

From as far back as I can remember, I wanted to write. My father was in the newspaper business, and so I naturally gravitated toward it. I don't think I ever seriously thought about doing anything else. My father, however, encouraged me to go into radio instead, because he believed radio (and not newspapers) would be the 'big thing' of the future.

I earned my degree in Journalism from the University of Missouri. As it turned out, my father got his way, at least in the beginning: my first two jobs were at radio stations.

I worked for a year at a little station called WDZ in Tuscola, Illinois, near Champaign-Urbana. It was the third oldest station in the country, and when I started work there, it had a day-time oldies format. I did a little of everything: gathered news, wrote commercials, and even broadcast some shows myself.

I got married while at WDZ, and I decided to move to a bigger market, namely Erie, Pennsylvania, where I worked for three years at the local NBC station, WERC. I wanted to become a broadcaster, but it was soon obvious that my voice would never invite comparison to Walter Cronkite's voice, and so I left the station and went into newspapers.

It was through my work as a newspaper feature writer that I first met Walt Disney.

NEXT WEEK:
How Charlie's work as a reporter led to Disneyland.

Don't want to wait another week to read more from Charlie Ridgway? Don't blame you! I can help: first, read my review of Charlie's book, Spinning Disney's World, and then... buy it! The book brims with Charlie's well-told stories, and it spans the length of his Disney career, from Disneyland to Disney World and beyond.

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