A MOUSE CLUBHOUSE EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
DAVE SMITH
talks about his favorite Disney memory

by Scott Wolf

(Pictured right is Dave Smith in the Walt Disney Archives in 1990 holding an original drawing of Mickey Mouse by Walt Disney himself.)

I met Dave Smith in 1988 on my first day working for The Walt Disney Company. He told all of us new employees about the Disney Archives, which essentially is the department that, through their own collection of materials, has the answers for anybody who needs to know about the Disney history.

As an employee, I visited the archives countless times often without any need to or reason to other than it was fun and I usually saw Dave piled in work at his desk.

Dave has a very casual demeanor, almost as if he doesn't realize the importance of his role in creating such an important entity of The Walt Disney Company, the Disney Archives.

While Dave probably is asked more questions than any other person I interview, and he is answering questions every work day, this time the questions aren't about Walt Disney or the history of the company, but about Dave, and it's a pleasure to share these interviews with you.

Scott Wolf: Do you have any favorite parts of your job?

Dave Smith: No, my favorite thing is the variety of it and having the opportunity to meet and know so many of the Disney legends through the years and finding out what delightful people these have all been.

SW: Dave, do you have any favorite memories of working for Disney?

DS: I think some of my favorite memories go back to my earliest years with the archives because when I started here Roy O. Disney (Walt Disney's brother) was still working here, Ub Iwerks was still working here, the “nine old men” were still working here and I got to talk with them and know them. Roy, in fact, hired me in my spare time to compile the Disney genealogy and sent me on a trip around the country to visit with Disney family members and to search out gravestones in cemeteries and all sorts of interesting things like that so I really was fascinated by that work that I did for Roy and I think he was very appreciative of it. I was able to show him my slides and go over the information I found not too long before he died.

SW: Roy was an essential part of the company right from the beginning, in fact originally it was the Disney Brothers company wasn’t it?

DS: Correct.

SW: We hear so much about Walt of course, what kind of a person was Roy?

DS: Very modest. He didn’t want to be in the forefront, and one thing that I hear a lot was that even thought they started as the Disney Brothers Studio, Walt was the one that forced them to change it to the Walt Disney Company. Well, that’s not what Roy told me. Roy was very insistent that he didn’t want his name on the company and he felt that the creative brother should have his name on the company so it was his idea to change it Walt Disney Productions.

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed by the participants in the interviews are solely those of the interviewee and do not necessarily reflect the views of Mouse Clubhouse. Mouse Clubhouse accepts no legal liability or responsibility for any claims made or opinions expressed within.