Showing posts with label Walt Disney The French Quarter New Orleans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Walt Disney The French Quarter New Orleans. Show all posts

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Seeing Walt Disney in the Flesh Just Before He Died

The French Quarter in New Orleans is a very small area. It is also a place where you might see anyone at anytime. In the past I ran into and talked with Tennessee Williams in the summer of 1972 and on another occasion I ran into Bob Dylan there at the Mardi Gras of 1964. I saw Margaret Mead there at a Mardi Gras in 1966.
But the biggest surprise of all was one day in 1966 when my wife Rachel and I were walking down Royal Street and we were passing the Royal Orleans Hotel we walked past a man and I told Rachel to stop. "Do you know who that was we just walked past?" "No", she said. "That was Walt Disney", I said. More than meeting William Burroughs this passing of Walt Disney on a narrow sidewalk was the most amazing unexpected event I can remember. Walt Disney died in Dec. of 1966.