Disney Company Timeline- The Other Forgotten Era's (1966-1984)

There is a period of Disney Company history that is largely overlooked, where the company's performance was mediocre at best, films were stagnant, and the product was not as fresh as it once was. This short period had three CEO's and additional Chairman and power players in the company. However, each period has its own significant contributions.

Roy O. Disney (1966-1971)-

Though Roy Disney had always been at the forefront of the studio hierarchy, he took over primary duties (creative and business) upon Walt's death in 1966. He was old, he was tired, and he was looking to retire soon, but he stayed on to finish Walt's dream of finishing the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. That was his primary focus as most everything else was delegated.

His tenure saw films such as The Jungle Book (already in development at Walt's death), The Aristocats, and Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Other live action films were also made, but nothing really noteworthy.

No significant changes to consumer products. At Parks and Resorts, Disneyland saw only minor improvements, but he did ensure the completion of the Magic Kingdom at WDW because he knew how to build that. He abandoned Walt's idea for the city of tomorrow because he did not know how to build this.

Roy's primary contribution though was his stability after Walt's passing. He leveled out the ship and got everyone on track.

Donn Tatum (1971-1976)-

This 5 year period was the first without a Disney at the helm and was largely a quiet time for the company in the parks and films, likely due to the tumult in the culture. The films saw Robin Hood as the sole animated feature, and the live action films continued to decline with films such as One little Indian or The Apple Dumpling gang. At the parks, Disneyland saw the creation of a new land "Bear Country", a small land to take on the new attraction "The Country Bears", one of the last attraction concepts ok'd by Walt. At Walt Disney World, Fort Wilderness and the hotels were completed, including the Contemporary and Polynesian resorts. At this point, discussions were starting to look at possibly opening a Disney resort in Asia, but that would not come during his tenure.

Tatum's contributions are measured, but perhaps his most significant one was that the company can be run as a corporation rather than just a family business.

Card Walker (1976-1983)-

Card Walker had worked at WDP for a long time and had worked his way up as one of "Walt's boys" (i.e. a creative employee). Walker's tenure was slightly better than Tatum's and did see some expansion in certain areas.

The films during this tenure included the Rescuers, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, The Fox and the Hound. Live action includes Tron, Pete's Dragon, Freaky Friday, etc. Not amazing films, but they did make some money. They began discussing the idea of the Disney Channel at this point. Consumer products saw some expansion of products. Parks and Resorts saw the opening of Thunder Mountain and Space Mountain. At Walt Disney World, the park turned into a real resort with new golf courses (because Card Walker was a golf addict). He oversaw the opening of the Tokyo Disneyland resort, and he opened up EPCOT (re-themed as a permanent world's fair) in 1982.

His greatest contribution was likely seeing expansion of the Walt Disney World resort into what it is today.

Ron Miller (1983-1984)-

The son in law of Walt, Ron had worked a few jobs at the company and worked his way up. His tenure at the top was short and was not very fruitful. There was a company recession and the company was under threat of corporate takeover. It didn't help that the Disney family was split over Ron because he and Diane Disney had separated. Films were very sparse during this time- No animated films and few live action ones.

However, this period was not all negative. His greatest impact was likely taking on more debt in order to stave off takeover. This broadened the company and its holdings. It kept Disney independent and whole. However, the stock price and lack of films had hurt the company to such a degree that Miller was ousted in favor of a film executive, Michael Eisner (see the post on the Eisner era).

Thoughts?