Marty Sklar:Creative chief drives
Imagineering
By Richard Verrier | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted September 21, 2002
LOS ANGELES -- Just out of college, Marty Sklar was overwhelmed to find himself as Walt Disney's newest writer.
Sklar, in awe of the charismatic entrepreneur, followed behind with pen and index cards in hand, scribbling down Walt's orders, ideas and one-line gems: Know your audience. Tell one story at a time. Wear your guests' shoes.
It wasn't until many jobs later, and long after his mentor's death, that Sklar recognized the treasure trove of wisdom he had compiled at Walt's elbow. He distilled it all into "Mickey's Ten Commandments," now one of the company's most widely circulated screeds and a bible of the theme park industry.
The lessons became a cornerstone of Sklar's own icon status at Disney, where he is among the last of a generation of creative minds who worked so closely with Walt that he became known as the Sorcerer's Apprentice.
Today, Sklar is a Sorcerer in his own right as the creative head of Walt Disney
Imagineering, the company's design and development arm. The group, which ranks as one of the largest of its kind, celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.
"When people see Marty, they see Walt," says
Imagineering President Don Goodman. "When Marty says something is good, it's almost like Walt says it's good."
Sklar, 68, took on the mantle of handing down Walt's pioneering philosophy of family entertainment after the founder's death in 1966.
"It actually affected me more than when my father died," says the soft-spoken Sklar. "I finally realized I never had to think like my father, but in order to write for Walt Disney, I had to try to think like Walt Disney and use words that he used. It got so deeply into that, it had a tremendous effect on me."
Their relationship has guided Sklar during the past three decades as he headed the creative development of Disney's theme park juggernaut and led the company's forays into the cruise business, interactive TV, housing development -- even the redesign of Times Square.
Sklar's imprint is on hundreds of attractions, from It's a Small World to Space Mountain to the new Flik's Fun Fair opening next month at California Adventure.
Tough times for tourism
Sklar's role is more critical -- and challenging -- than ever for Disney. Theme parks, though reeling from a sharp drop-off in international tourism, account for one-third of the company's revenues.
Sklar's job is a balancing act between developing often expensive attractions while holding the line on budgets that have grown tighter in recent years as Disney's bottom line and
stock price have sagged.
His most important role, though, is keeping the company from straying too far from its roots.
"He was there from the beginning and walked in Walt's footsteps," says Disney parks and resorts chief Paul Pressler. "He has that Jiminy Cricket consciousness."
Jiminy presides over a decidedly quirky kingdom. The group was established by Walt Disney in 1952 to dream up Disneyland. Unlike their button-down peers in the swank corporate headquarters in Burbank, Calif., the Imagineers work out of a collection of drab buildings in Glendale where secrecy and security protocols rival that of military installations.
Sklar and his colleagues pride themselves on their unconventional ways. Consider Joe Rohde, a senior creative executive and explorer who sports a handlebar mustache and an elongated ear lobe, stretched by a string of shells and bones collected from his visits to tribal villages in Africa, Thailand and Nepal.
He once brought a tiger on a leash into a meeting with Disney CEO Michael Eisner to illustrate the allure of live animals. Stunned, and no doubt impressed, Eisner gave Rohde the go-ahead for Animal Kingdom, Walt Disney World's fourth theme park.
'Blank piece of paper'
Top creative leaders meet weekly with Sklar for brain-storming sessions where the agenda is rarely dull. At one recent meeting, the creative team took turns sniffing vials containing foul odors for a stink bug character at the California Adventure theme park.
Pitches can be equally unconventional. Two years ago, ride designer Eddie Sotto flopped back in a chair, thrust his feet into the air and blurted out his best impression of a space shuttle takeoff.
Sklar instantly grasped the concept and championed what would become an $120 million simulated space ride called "Mission: Space." The project, designed with the help of astronaut Story Musgrave and NASA, opens next year at Walt Disney World's Epcot.
"There are two ways to look at a blank piece of paper," Sklar says. "One way is to see it as the most frightening thing in the world because there is nothing on it, and you have to make the first mark. The other way is to see the blank sheet as the greatest opportunity in the world . . . you can let your imagination fly in any direction."
Sklar's world is steeped in Disney. He wears a brass Mickey Mouse ring and a Mickey Mouse watch with three faces so he can tell time in Los Angeles, Paris and Tokyo. The license plate holder on his Big Yukon suburban reads: "We make the Magic." Sklar writes with a red pen, just as Walt did.
On the wall, next to an original sketch of Space Mountain, is a framed copy of a quote from Walt: "When you believe a thing, believe it all the way. Have confidence in your ability to do it right. And work hard to do the best possible job."
Sklar reads it almost every day.
Unlike his famously intense mentor, however, Sklar is unimposing and low-key. "He's one of those very rare people who is not interested in getting credit for anything and loves to see other people get credit for what they do," says Disney Vice Chairman Roy Disney. Yet, "he has creatively influenced everything we've ever done."
Sklar is a savvy pragmatist who knows how to adapt to changing fiscal realities and bosses. In recent years Sklar has guided the division through a rocky period, when it came under fire for costly delays. Several hundred jobs were cut and the group restructured to make it more fiscally accountable.
Sklar's team doesn't always hit the mark. Disney's most recent U.S. theme park, California Adventure, continues to struggle from lackluster attendance. "He defended it greatly, even though I think privately he must have realized its shortcomings," says David Koenig, a Disney historian.
Sklar looks to the future
Sklar says it's still too early to judge the $1.4 billion project because it opened in a down economy.
"Once [the park] gets some of these new attractions, it's going to be a different park, more in line with other Disney parks," he said, noting that along with Flik's, a thrill-ride -- Tower of Terror -- will be added. "Theme parks are living things. They can be manipulated, changed and grow."
It's a lesson Sklar learned long ago, shortly after his first encounter with Walt in an office tucked behind Main Street. It was two weeks before the opening of Disneyland in 1955. Construction crews worked frantically to finish buildings and rides, and furnish shops and restaurants.
Sklar, who was raised in Long Beach, had just started a summer job. He was about to give Walt a 10-minute presentation on how he would create a Disneyland newspaper for Main Street.
"I was frightened. Here I was 21 years old, had never worked professionally," recalls Sklar, then a junior at UCLA where he worked for the Daily Bruin newspaper. "He had time for even the smallest detail, like my newspaper."
The Disneyland News was the least of Walt's problems on opening day. Fountains didn't work. Rides broke down. Women got their heels stuck in wet asphalt. "Most people had a horrible time at the opening," says Sklar. "It was a mess."
But also an opportunity for Sklar. He returned a year later after graduation to write marketing and sales brochures for Disneyland. Impressed with his writing skills, Walt soon promoted him to
Imagineering's predecessor, WED
Enterprises. There, Sklar and his colleagues developed Disney shows for the 1964-65 New York World's Fair.
The experience catapulted Sklar into Walt's inner circle. He prepared scripts for Walt's news conferences and TV appearances, and wrote the annual message to shareholders. That's when Sklarbegan taking notes on Walt's business philosophy.
As Disney and his lieutenants secretly bought up thousands of acres of swamp land in Central Florida in the mid-1960s, Sklar prepared the speeches and presentations that Walt would give at key meetings with Florida politicians, where Disney World would later be built.
After becoming creative leader in 1974, Sklar guided the creation of eight Disney theme parks on three continents.
Boosted by Eisner and former Disney President Frank Wells, the group's payroll grew from 400 in the 1980s to more than 2,500 by the late 1990s. Employment has since fallen to 1,600, as the pace of work has ebbed but another growth spurt is expected as Disney builds a theme park in Hong Kong and plans a second park in China.
Remembering the chances Walt gave, Sklar has recruited younger, often inexperienced talent to build his team.
"If you talk to every one of the creative leaders . . . they will all tell you they got their break from him," says WDI Executive Vice President Tom Fitzgerald, Sklar's heir apparent, whom Sklar hired straight out of college in 1978.
Sklar speaks of his apprentices with the pride of a father, expressing confidence that Walt's vision is in good hands.
"I think so much of the talent here, many of whom I personally hired, as kind of like my kids. And my kids have grown up and they really know how to do it."
Richard Verrier can be reached at 1-800-528-4637, Ext. 77936 or
richard.verrier@latimes.com.
Copyright © 2002, Orlando Sentinel
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Marty Sklar-Imagineer 
Hooo, glad I'm over THAT!
Michael Eisner is still here & probably has never seen the inside of a Hardees in Georgia, so don't hold your breath. 
șoș
When did the board begin to consider firing Michael Eisner? Though, Eisner has been around to build M.G.M. Studios, Blizzard Beach, the Animal Kingdom, and more, I don't think he understands, much less cares, the backbone of the Disney empire. If I were Michael Eisner, I would immediately take a paycut. This does several things. First, it shows that the company is more important than mansion(s) and limo(s). Next, it shows INVESTORS and CAST MEMBERS that manpower is more important than possessions. Overall, it would just say that he values the happiness and success of his co-workers more than his own wealth. This apparently isn't the case. I am not blaming him for the downturn in the economy and slumping park attendance. But the fact of the matter is, he is the Chief Excetive Officer of one of th most influential companies on the face of the planet. He has to set a good presedent for others to follow in the Disney company. Who knows, maybe Michael Eisner will surprise all of us here at Talk Disney. I sure hope he does.
Brendan 
