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Sometimes it takes a while to schedule an interview, but they’re always worth it, and today’s is no exception. If you listened to episodes 58 & 59, you heard my interview with Rolly Crump, and in it we talked about Jeff Heimbuch, who worked with Rolly on writing his autobiography, It’s Kind of a Cute Story. Well, now we have Jeff on the show! We talk about him meeting and working with Rolly, as well as his own new book, Main Street Windows: A Complete Guide to Disney’s Whimsical Tributes.
We recorded this one live at Disneyland, so you’ve got some nice background sounds. Unfortunately we didn’t get quite close enough to area music, so it’s mainly crowd noise, but every now and then you’ll hear screams from the Matterhorn or hear the Monorail passing overhead, or even the Disneyland Railroad in the distance. We have some clicking in the episode, too, and I hadn’t expected that. I can’t edit it out, though, so sorry about that!
We did have to stop recording a couple of times as fans of Jeff saw us and came over to say hello and take a picture, which was cool. Other than those pauses, though, what you’ll hear is the real-time sounds of the park and the interview. Enjoy!
In this episode Jeff talks about:
- Animal Kingdom is a full day park!;
- How his love of Disney evolved from where it started to today;
- Going from being a fan of Rolly to coauthoring his autobiography and becoming like family;
- When they made the conscious decision to write the book the way they did;
- Whether there are any other “Disney celebrities” that he still has that “superfan” reaction to when he meets them;
- Meeting Diane Disney Miller and her husband, Ron Miller;
- What still surprises Rolly about fans;
- Whether Jeff was surprised by anything when he met and as he was getting to know Rolly;
- An overview of and some great information about Rolly’s autobiography, It’s Kind of a Cute Story;
- How the More Cute Stories CDs came about;
- The “Secret Files”;
- A peek at the More Cute Stories CDs, and a sneak peek at what’s to come for them;
- What impact working with Rolly on his book had on Jeff when it came to working on his own book;
- Why he decided to write Main Street Windows and how he went about doing it;
- Some unexpected tribute windows he learned about while writing the book;
- The accuracy of the book—how much effort he put into it and how he still got stymied on it.
Find Jeff:
- Communicore Weekly (Podcast)
- Main Street Windows
- It’s Kind of a Cute Story
- More Cute Stories, Vol. 1: Disneyland History
- More Cute Stories, Vol. 2: Animators and Imagineers
- More Cute Stories, Vol. 3: Museum of the Weird
- More Cute Stories, Vol. 4: 1964/65 New York World’s Fair
- More Cute Stories, Vol. 5: Animators and Imagineers Part 2
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.
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