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Today’s podcast is brought to you by audible.com – get a FREE audiobook download and 30 day free trial at StoriesoftheMagic.com/audible. There’s over 150,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player—including my book, Faith and the Magic Kingdom.
In this episode, we continue my 3-part interview with author and Disney Historian, Jim Korkis. In part 1 we talked about how he first got interested in, and then interested in working for, the Walt Disney Company, his very first interview of someone from Disney, when he was 12 years old, how he got started working for Disney, including why he had to move to Orlando, teaching as part of Disney University, then tours with Disney Adult Discoveries, a couple of ways Walt Disney was always keeping the guests in mind and planning ahead, what he loved most about what he did, and more.
Before we get into part 2, this is the last week to get that special gift for you as a listener to Stories of the Magic. In case you haven’t heard me talk about it before, in preparation for the release of the book, I created a 1-hour audio walking tour of Disneyland. Originally this was available only to people who bought the book during the Launch, but now I’m making it available to you as a free download for the month of April, so as of the release of this episode you have a little less than a week still to get it. No strings. Nothing to fill out or sign up for. Just go to storiesofthemagic.com/faithaudiotour. That’s a direct link to the file to download it. And thank you to the dozens of you who have already done so!
In this episode, Jim talks about…
- The job he’d love to have working for Disney—which doesn’t currently exist;
- Why he wouldn’t want to work at the Disney Archives;
- Why Disney historians are so needed right now especially;
- What (or who) you may find just looking around your neighborhood;
- The Walt’s People series of books by Didier Getz, and something he just discovered in the last couple of years that people had falsely believed about Walt since 1935;
- Werner Weiss and his Yesterland.com site;
- Something special that most people never knew about a light bulb in the Car Barn at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom—something the public doesn’t get to see now;
- Jim’s Disney bookshelves—they’re impressive;
- Why he wanted a print edition of his books, not just a Kindle edition;
- How he came up with the idea of starting to write his first book;
- How long he plans to continue writing;
- What The Vault of Walt is about;
- His second book, Who’s Afraid of Song of the South;
- His most recent book, The Book of Mouse – If you’re interested in Mickey Mouse, you need this book!;
- A little tease about a couple more books he has coming soon;
- The Disney book he would like to see written and why he loves reading so much;
- A question we have for you;
- One of Jim’s favorite Disney books, and one of mine;
- Was Walt Disney anti-Semitic, or anti-Catholic, and how do we know;
- Walt’s early experience with church and religion, and how that affected him later on, including why he didn’t go to church after he grew up and his belief about how you should show your belief in God.
Find Jim Online:
- Books:
- ThemeParkPress.com
- WDW Radio appearances
- MousePlanet – Korkis Corner and Wednesdays with Wade
Faith and the Magic Kingdom:
(Note: all product links are affiliate links.)
I want to hear from you, so please email me, leave a comment below, or call the Listener Feedback line at (734) 23-STORY. If you call in, don’t worry about having to sound perfect. If you ask me to, I’ll edit out any mistakes so you sound as good as you possibly can. You’re even welcome to start your entire story over again and I’ll use the “take” you want!
If you want to submit a story anonymously, for whatever reason you may have, email it to me and tell you me you wanted it shared that way. I’ll read it on the podcast, but keep your name private.
Thanks for listening!
Music and voiceovers provided by Rick Moyer.
