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Walter E. Disney is one great dead Angeleno

Xeni Jardin at 10:47 am Thu, Oct 18, 2007

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The folks at Blogging.la are doing a cool series of posts about Greatest Dead Angelenos, and Sean Bonner has an item up today about Walt Disney, who is great, dead, and an Angeleno. Snip:
Like Orson Welles, he's most famous for the products of his early career, even though he continued to produce work through out his life until he died in 1966. His most famous works were the Alice Comedies and a little character named Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. After the massive success of these two franchises he went on to create another character, this time a mouse but it never achieved the same fame as Alice and Oswald.


Another thing you could say about Walter was that he was a man who appreciated efficiency and didn't like wasting time. In what can only be called a predecessor to many web 2.0 companies dropping the letter "e" from their name to create catchy brands like flickr and dopplr, Walter also shortened his name with the intent of saving an extra syllable every time he would introduce himself. Walter took it a step further than the modern versions and dropped both the last "e" as well as the following "r." Unfortunately this didn't stick as well as he'd hoped and no matter how many times he tried to tell people his name was Walt, they always ended up calling him Walter.

Link. Sean's post is fun, but incomplete. For instance, I heard that one time Walt Disney was eating at a diner. And when some dude dropped a spoon Walt Disney killed the whole town. My friend Mark said that he saw Walt Disney totally uppercut some kid just because the kid opened a window. And that's what I call REAL Ultimate Disney!

Update: ZOMG here's Cory dancing on his grave! No, okay, standing next to it. Still, cool. Link.

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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  • Skep

    Hmmm….I’ve got to stop reading so fast. I thought Disney was one great dead Anglo…guess I got the spin wrong :-)

  • antikewl

    Walt Disney is watching you.
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/wardomatic/1603241044/

  • monopole

    But Cory, you’re nowhere near the cryonic vaults underneath Disneyland!

  • Patrick Nielsen Hayden

    Richard Thomson retells a joke common north of Hadrian’s Wall:

    (Q:) What’s the difference between Bing Crosby and Walt Disney?

    (A:) Bing sings…and Walt disney!

    Ar har har, little knee-slapping Scottish humor there. You may now return to your homes.

  • Chris

    “Sean’s post is fun, but incomplete. For instance, I heard that one time Walt Disney was eating at a diner. And when some dude dropped a spoon Walt Disney killed the whole town. My friend Mark said that he saw Walt Disney totally uppercut some kid just because the kid opened a window. And that’s what I call REAL Ultimate Disney!”

    Say whu?

  • Cory Doctorow

    And here’s me with his grave:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/doctorow/1148167993/