FROM: Pontius on Park Published Every Other Tuesday
It All Started with a Plane Ride
In 1974, Larry Pontius said hello to a guy sitting next to him on a plane. That 'guy' turned out to be John Hench, and within a few weeks Larry was hired by Disney executive Jack Lindquist. Soon, Larry was Vice-President of Marketing. Magical? You bet.
I was on my way back to East Lansing from a visit with my mother in Lake Wales, Florida. Once the plane was in the air, I couldn't help saying something to the man sitting next to me. He looked like Walt Disney. When I told him, he smiled and shook his head. "I get that all the time," he said. "I only work there." And that was the beginning of a conversation that stretched all the way to Chicago.
I had spent a day - my first - at Walt Disney World on this trip to Florida and was full of questions. When the man learned that I'd been a creative director with advertising agencies and was now an associate professor in advertising and marketing at Michigan State, he had just as many questions for me. We both enjoyed the flight and when it ended, we exchanged the normal banter, "nice to meet you, have a good day," and went our separate ways.
Or so I thought.
Of course, I had no idea who John Hench was then. He had suggested he was some kind of designer for Disney and this was long before Google. Besides, I had no reason to snoop around an interesting man in the next seat on a plane. Not until two weeks later when I got a telephone call from another man I didn't know: Bob King.
Larry Goes to Disneyland
Bob told me he was advertising manager for Disney's motion pictures and asked if I would fly out to Burbank to talk with Card Walker, president of the company. I managed to say yes without passing out and King suggested I bring some samples of my work. When I explained that I had been working in Australia for five years, he said fine, bring that stuff.
So I did.
When I landed in Los Angeles, a rental car was waiting for me and, with King's directions, I made it to the studio in Burbank. Once there, I was ushered into Card's office and the two of us chatted for fifteen or twenty minutes. He was interested in my experience in Australia and how much I knew about the Disney Company, which was almost nothing beyond being brought up on its movies and television shows.
After a while, he suggested we look at the sample reel I'd brought and we walked down to a screening room. I do remember getting a jump on Han Solo and "having a bad feeling about this" when Card made no comment at the end of the reel.
Then he phoned someone - who, I don't remember - and shortly that person joined us and we sat through the whole reel again. They asked a few questions, and then Card said he wanted me to meet someone else - at Disneyland. The 'someone else' was Jack Lindquist, Vice President of Marketing for Disneyland and Walt Disney World.
More directions and a long freeway drive later, I met Jack. He introduced me to a few people in the marketing department and then took me on a guided tour of Disneyland. After that, he wished me a safe and pleasant trip back home and said goodbye.
Naturally, I figured that was that. But I was wrong.
Larry Goes to Disney World
A couple of days after I got back to Michigan, Jack Lindquist called and invited me to fly to Florida and meet him at Walt Disney World. When I got there, I discovered that Jack had arranged for me to stay in one of the Disney townhouses in Lake Buena Vista. He said I could use that as my base of operations. Pardon me?
Then he explained that he wanted me to "get a feel for the place." Visit the Magic Kingdom, the Polynesian and Contemporary hotels, Fort Wilderness, the Golf Resort, the Lake Buena Vista Club. I had to think about it for almost a second before I agreed.
In between these forages, Jack took me backstage and introduced me as a marketing consultant from Michigan State to management people from operations, merchandise, personnel (as human resources was called then), and marketing, of course.
After nearly a week of this pleasant but rather strange interview, Jack Lindquist and I had a drink on the patio of my townhouse and chatted about the (first) gasoline crisis and the drop in tourism it was causing. He also mentioned that the original director of marketing for Walt Disney World had recently resigned. I kept waiting for the next shoe to drop, but it didn't happen. As he had done at Disneyland, Jack wished me a safe and pleasant trip back home and said goodbye.
The 'Outside Bright Boy' Gets an Offer
If you've read this far, you know that phone is going to ring again. This time it was almost a week. It was Jack Lindquist with a job offer: Director of Marketing at Walt Disney World.
And it all started with a plane ride.
Later, I learned that I was the first 'outsider' ever hired at the director level, and everything made sense. Then I understood the drawn out and multiple approvals. Still later I learned that being an 'outside bright boy' can throw logs in your way.
But that's for another column.
Larry Pontius is the author of Waking Walt, a novel that posits the incredible: Walt Disney really was frozen and now he has returned to life. The book is available in hardcover and soon in Kindle. Larry's second book, Future King, is imminent.
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