Tag Archives: Jim Korkis

The Christmas Boots That Changed Walt Disney’s Life

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Long before Mickey Mouse and Disneyland, a thirteen-year-old Walt Disney had simpler dreams: a fashionable pair of high leather boots with metal toes and decorative strips over the laces. It was 1914, and every kid at school seemed to own a pair. 

What Walt couldn’t have known was that this Christmas gift would become a turning point that would shape his entire future – though not in the way anyone expected.

In the Vault of Walt Christmas Edition, author Jim Korkis – one of the most respected chroniclers of Disney history – curates a festive collection of essays exploring how Christmas traditions have woven themselves into the fabric of Disney storytelling, parks, films, and corporate legacy.

The book is structured as a series of standalone chapters, each spotlighting a specific piece of Disney Christmas lore. Topics include:

  • Walt Disney’s personal Christmas traditions, including anecdotes about the Disney family’s holiday rituals at home and in the studio.
  • Behind-the-scenes stories of classic Disney Christmas productions, such as Mickey’s Christmas Carol, Babes in Toyland, and various holiday television specials.
  • The evolution of Disneyland and Walt Disney World holiday celebrations, from early parades and decor to today’s highly orchestrated seasonal events.
  • Obscure and rarely told stories, such as abandoned concepts for Christmas attractions, little-known character appearances, and holiday tie-ins with Disney marketing and merchandising.

True to the Vault of Walt series, the book presents a mixture of deep archival digging, oral histories, and Korkis’s signature informal, conversational storytelling.

As an example, here’s a little-known story from Walt’s childhood that literally changed his destiny…

A Newsboy’s Hard Life

Young Walt’s childhood in Kansas City was far from magical. Working as a newsboy on a route owned by his father Elias, Walt experienced hardships that would stay with him forever. His days began at 3:00 in the morning, when most children were still sleeping soundly. By 3:30 a.m., he’d already be out in the brutal Kansas City winters, trudging through snow and slush to deliver newspapers. He’d barely make it back in time for school, exhausted before his day had truly begun.

When Walt spotted those stylish boots, he saw more than just a fashion statement. He tried to convince his father they were practical – they’d give him better traction in the slush and rain, helping him deliver papers more quickly. But Elias Disney wasn’t buying the argument. Money was desperately tight, and such extravagances were out of the question.

Walt persisted, hoping the boots might appear for his birthday on December 5th. Instead, he received something practical and forgettable. With his birthday falling so close to Christmas, Walt often had to settle for one gift to cover both occasions.

A Mother’s Secret Sacrifice

What Walt didn’t know was that his mother Flora had been quietly setting aside pennies from the housekeeping budget, hiding her savings from her husband. Walt’s older brother Roy had found extra work and contributed his earnings to the cause. Together, they made the impossible possible.

On Christmas morning, there beneath the tree sat a wrapped package. When Walt tore it open, his face lit up with pure joy. The boots were finally his.

Pride Before the Fall

Unable to contain his excitement, Walt immediately put on his prized boots and ran downtown. He positioned himself against a drugstore at the intersection of Thirty-First and Indiana, hoping his school friends might pass by and see his new footwear. It was an unusually warm winter, and the ice had begun to melt.

As darkness fell around six o’clock, Walt started walking home. The streets were filled with chunks of ice – remnants of winter that melted first on the roadway. With his new boots, Walt invented a game to pass the time: kicking the hunks of ice across the street, experimenting with different angles and force.

Then came the kick that changed everything.

Trapped in the Twilight

Walt approached what seemed like just another chunk of ice. But when his boot made contact, he couldn’t pull his foot back. Panic set in as he realized the horrible truth: a large horseshoe nail frozen in that block of ice had pierced straight through his new boot and into his foot. He was stuck to the ice, unable to move.

The street was empty. Everyone was home celebrating with family. Walt yanked and pulled, but without leverage, escape was impossible. He began shouting for help, frantically waving at passing streetcars. People looked at him and continued on their way, assuming he was just a kid playing around.

For more than twenty minutes, Walt remained trapped on that darkening street, fear mounting with each passing moment. Finally, a horse-drawn delivery wagon approached. The driver initially didn’t believe the boy’s cries for help and started to move on – until Walt broke into tears.

The driver got down and assessed the situation. He had to fetch a tool to chop the ice loose, then carried the small, frail boy to a nearby doctor’s office. Without any anesthetic to ease the pain, Walt had to endure the doctor cutting off his boot and using metal pliers to dig out the nail while two men held him down. After cleaning the wound came the dreaded tetanus shot.

Adding insult to injury, Walt’s father had to be called to pick him up and pay the medical bill.

Two Weeks That Shaped a Legacy

Walt spent two weeks laid up on the living room couch with his foot elevated, consumed by guilt and shame. The boots his mother and brother had sacrificed for were destroyed. The family could never afford another pair. Nightmares of being trapped alone on that cold, darkening street haunted his sleep.

With no school, radio, or other entertainment, Walt had only books and a sketch pad given by his aunt. He had once considered becoming a doctor or lawyer, but his exhausting work schedule left him catching catnaps in class and missing important lessons. He lacked the grades for a good college, and his family couldn’t afford tuition anyway.

During those two weeks of convalescence, something crystallized in Walt’s mind. He realized he loved cartooning. His drawings earned chuckles at the local barbershop, where the barber would accept cartoons as payment and display them in the window. His classmates loved his work. Each day, when his mother delivered his homework assignments, she’d drop off his cartoons and return with reports of enthusiastic reactions.

By the time his foot healed, Walt Disney had made a firm decision: he would become a professional cartoonist.

The Gift That Kept Giving

Reluctantly, Elias allowed Walt to take Saturday morning art lessons at the Kansas City Art Institute. When the family moved to Chicago, Walt pursued classes at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, studying three nights a week after school. As his daughter Diane later recalled, Walt loved being at a drawing board so much that he’d hold off going to the bathroom until class ended.

Almost three years after that fateful Christmas, Walt returned from serving with the Red Cross Ambulance Corps in France, ready to pursue his cartooning dreams.

Those Christmas boots – longed for, briefly cherished, and tragically destroyed – became the unexpected gift that gave the world Walt Disney. Sometimes the most transformative presents aren’t the ones we keep, but the ones that force us to discover who we’re truly meant to become.

A Gift for Fans of Disney Lore

The Vault of Walt Christmas Edition stands out as one of the more personal and intimate volumes in Korkis’s long-running series. Christmas already carries emotional weight for many readers, and Korkis skillfully blends that sentimentality with his extraordinary knowledge of Disney history.

  • Rich, Primary-Source Material: Korkis’s strength has always been his access – to artists, Imagineers, animators, and studio staff – and he uses it here to paint a vivid picture of how Walt Disney approached the holidays both personally and professionally. Chapters about Walt’s own family are particularly compelling and help humanize a figure many only know in mythic form.
  • Deep Cuts for Enthusiasts: Hard-to-find stories are where this book shines. Fans who think they “know everything” about Disney Christmas will discover, including: abandoned scripts, forgotten televised specials, rare park entertainment initiatives, and internal studio celebrations from the 1940s–1960s. These chapters reflect the best of Disney historiography: carefully researched, yet told with warmth.
  • Accessible for Casual Readers: While Disney historians will appreciate the depth, the writing style makes the book approachable for anyone. The standalone essay format means readers can dip in and out like opening doors on an Advent calendar – each chapter its own small surprise.
  • Tone and Style: Korkis’s voice is friendly, nostalgic, and occasionally humorous. He avoids academic dryness without sacrificing accuracy – a tricky balance he manages well.

As with all Vault of Walt books, the essay structure can feel slightly episodic; readers looking for a single cohesive narrative may prefer other histories. But this format is also part of the series’ charm.

A warm, meticulously researched, and heartfelt exploration of Disney’s holiday heritage.
For anyone fascinated by Disney parks, animation history, or Walt Disney himself, The Vault of Walt Christmas Edition is a delightful seasonal read packed with stories that rarely appear in official company publications. It captures the magic of both Christmas and Disney in equal measure – an ideal addition to any Disney historian’s bookshelf.

Part of a regular series on 27gen, entitled Wednesday Weekly Reader.

During my elementary school years one of the things I looked forward to the most was the delivery of “My Weekly Reader,” a weekly educational magazine designed for children and containing news-based current events.

It became a regular part of my love for reading, and helped develop my curiosity about the world around us.

Disney at 100: The Leadership Lessons from Walt Disney

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Courage is the main quality of leadership, in my opinion, no matter where it is exercised. Usually it implies some risk – especially in new undertakings. Courage to initiate something and to keep it going – pioneering and adventurous spirit to blaze new ways.

Walt Disney

Walt Disney was no stranger to adversity and even failure.

The setbacks, tough times, and even failures of Walt Disney are well-documented. In every case, he led the company bearing his name to greater success in spite of adversity.

March 2020 was a sobering, disconcerting time to be a Cast Member of any Disney organization. As the reality of the COVID pandemic set in, I had conversations with both current and former Cast Members, and to a person, there was been one trait that stood out.

Optimism.

Even when it was hard to see in the increasing numbers of Cast Members laid off, the curtailment of operations, the postponement of work in progress, and the likely cancellation of future planning, optimism is the underlying strength of the Walt Disney Company.

Even now, three years later, there have continued to be many ups and downs.

So where does the optimism come from?

Jim Korkis was a Disney historian and long-time writer and teacher about Walt Disney and the organization he created. Who’s the Leader of the Club: Walt Disney’s Leadership Lessons is a departure for Korkis in that his usual subject matter was about the culture and history of Disney, a topic which he is uniquely qualified to write about.

As a boy, he grew up grew up in Glendale, California, which just happened to be located next to Burbank – the home of the Disney Studios. Korkis was an inquisitive and undaunted fan of Disney who not only watched the weekly Disney television series but took the initiative to write down the names he saw on the end credits.

He matched passion with inquisitiveness and began to look for those names in the local phonebook. Upon finding one, he would call the individual up and ask them about their work. Many were gracious enough to invite Korkis to their homes where he spent hours being enthralled by their stories of their work at the Disney organization.

Fast forward decades, where you will find that Korkis relocated to Orlando FL to take care of aging parents. In his own words,

I got a job at Walt Disney World that included assisting with the professional business programs, where I met many executives who had worked with Walt Disney and been trained by him.

I was often called on to research, design and facilitate customized programs for different Disney clients like Feld Entertainment, Kodak, Toys “R” Us and more that touched on both the connections of the individual companies to Disney history, as well as how Walt did business.

I was tapped to do this work because of my knowledge of Walt Disney and his approach to business.

I got the opportunity to meet with some of Walt’s “original cast.” I was enthralled by their stories and experiences and took detailed notes. Hearing stories about how Walt led and how he expected others to lead with compassion, integrity and common sense made a huge impact on me.

Twenty years later, the result was Who’s the Leader of the Club.

Korkis goes to great lengths to use Walt Disney’s own words, from a variety of published and unpublished interviews, as well as the words of those who personally experienced him in action, to help elaborate and describe the basic concepts.

In doing so, Korkis delivered to us a refreshing breath of fresh air – a business book using the words and actions of a rare genius that are glaringly absent from most organizations today.

68 years after Walt Disney’s death, and on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Disney Company, his achievements and legacy continue to inspire new generations.

In my case, it’s actually to re-inspire older generations! As a Baby Boomer, I grew up with “The Wonderful World of Disney” as a weekly television show. As a child, I was taken to see most of the Disney films of the 60’s and early 70’s. As a teenager, I took myself – and then, once I became a father, took my family to see those movies. Though I only visited Walt Disney World once as a teenager, I maintained a fascination with the Disney organization that has continued to grow through the years.

In the early 2000s my vocational role as a consultant with churches took on a specific niche – a focus on guest experiences. That lead to a Disney immersion of research, books, films, on-site visits, and conversations with Disney Cast Members past and present. Over the past decade plus, I have spent over 100 days on Disney properties from coast to coast – and on the oceans. My Disney library numbers over 475+ volumes – the oldest released in 1939; the newest released in the last few weeks.

Vital to that immersion was the work of Jim Korkis – through his books and writings for and about Walt Disney and the Disney organization.

By his own admission, Who’s the Leader of the Club was the most difficult book Korkis has ever written. That may be true from his perspective, but the words and stories flow off the page and into the reader’s conscience in an almost imperceptible manner.

Leaders of any organization would do well to settle in with Who’s the Leader of the Club, and be prepared for a story-filled journey of insight into one of the most creative geniuses of recent history.

Along with the stories the reader will find seven “lessons” about Walt Disney’s leadership. Best of all, Korkis concludes each of the “lesson” chapters with a one page checklist called “What Would Walt Do?” summarizing the key points in the lesson and a space to write notes.

For those who are more curious about the chapters in the book, here is the Table of Contents:

Section One: Disney And Leadership

  • Who Was Walt Disney?
  • What Type of Leader was Walt?
  • Leaders and Managers: Walt and Roy
  • Roy O. Disney and Manager Skills
  • Walt Disney and Leadership Skills

Section Two: Leadership Lessons

  • Lesson One: Know The Story
  • Lesson Two: Share The Story
  • Lesson Three: Take a (Calculated) Risk
  • Lesson Four: Make ‘Em Laugh
  • Lesson Five: Eager To Learn
  • Lesson Six: Understand People
  • Lesson Seven: Live The Story (Integrity)

Section Three: Additional Guidance

  • Walt’s Bad Leadership Traits
  • Walt’s Advice to Leaders
  • Create Leaders
  • Letting People Go
  • Walt and Money
  • Do You Know Your Story?
  • Remembering Walt’s Leadership (Quotes from those who worked for Walt)
  • Final Words from Walt (Quotes from Walt not previously used in the book)
  • Recommended Reading
  • Quotation Sources

Of course, when Korkis wrote the book, he could not have anticipated the  uncertainty caused by the disruption to the Disney “kingdoms” around the world by the pandemic in 2020 and the ongoing uncertainties since then.

Disney emerged from the pandemic a greatly-changed organization – and future generations of families – and leaders – will benefit from it. Recent announcements highlight a 60 billion dollar investment in Disney properties around the world. Only time will tell if they come to fruition.

After all, Walt Disney himself went through countless setbacks, and even failures, before the launch of the Walt Disney Company in 1923…

…and look what that has brought to the world in the 100 years since!

What are you waiting for? It’s time to join the “club!”

J. Jeff Kober’s book, “Disney, Leadership, and You” is an excellent work that more than delivers on its title.

Drawing from an inquisitive mind and keen insight, Kober has nearly five decades experience with Walt Disney – from both within and without the company – which provide a very readable, practical, and thoroughly enjoyable leadership book that you will find yourself returning to time and again for just the right nugget to use.

I have known of Jeff for years through his writing, and several years ago was grateful to meet him and engage his services for an immersive park experience with a group I was leading. The warmth, wit, and sheer knowledge of Disney, coupled with his ability to instantly link it to practical applications of my group, was one of the highlights of our experience. That same experience has been translated into this book.

If you are a leader in any size or type of organization, the stories Jeff Kober has captured in “Disney, Leadership, and You” should be a valuable addition to your library, a source of personal encouragement, and a wealth of practical training for both you and your team.

The book is divided into four sections:

  1. Defining Leadership
  2. Leaders Attain Results
  3. Leaders Build Relationships
  4. Putting It All Together

In those four sections you will find 18 themed chapters, each chock full of leadership principles illustrated with stories of Disney leaders from all ranks. The principles are solid in themselves, but what makes them memorable is the stories of the Cast Members.

The stories and principles perfectly describe how Disney Cast Members create magic each day through their hard work and respect for Walt Disney’s original vision.

You organization is not Disney, but you can learn from their excellence. “Disney, Leadership, and You” is an extraordinary source of lessons and learning to help you make a dramatic impact on why you do, what you do, and how you do it.

Leadership means that a group, large or small, is willing to entrust authority to a person who has shown judgement, wisdom, personal appeal, and proven competence.

Walt Disney

Research

The Story of Disney’s Magical Connection to the Christmas Season

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Disney magic is alway special, but at Christmas time, it seems to soar to even greater heights.

A new book by Jim Korkis, Disney Historian and an internationally acknowledged authority on Walt Disney, delivers over 30 stories about Disney’s connection to Christmas over the years. Each meticulously gives the background details and sources that bring the story to life.

The Vault of Walt: Christmas Edition is divided into four sections:

  • Walt Disney Stories
  • Animation and Television Stories
  • Disney Park Stories
  • Mouse-ce-llaneous Stories

Here is one paragraph of one story that perfectly captures the delightful depth and breadth of the book:

“It was that Christmas gift of a pair of boots that gave the world the Walt Disney we know today. It was that gift that helped a thirteen-year-old focus on what his future would be as a cartoonist and to work to make that dream come true. The right Christmas gift can transform a young person’s future as it did Walt Disney’s life.”

This absolutely fascinating teaser is just one example from an excellent book. If you are looking for the perfect gift for the Disney fan in your life, look no further than The Vault of Walt Christmas Edition by Jim Korkis.

Summer Time is Reading Time!

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What’s on your bookshelf for reading this summer?

Here’s a couple of new books for your consideration:

Who’s the Leader of the Club: Walt Disney’s Leadership Lessons, by Jim Korkis

Who's the Leader of the Club

Disney’s Hollywood Studios: From Show Biz to Your Biz, by J. Jeff Kober

DHS from Show Biz to Your Biz

Korkis and Kober are no strangers to the Disney organization – both are former Cast Members, and both have written extensively about various aspects of Disney.

Who’s the Leader of the Club is Korkis’ first venture into a business application of his vast knowledge of all things Disney, and he certainly doesn’t disappoint. He provides a section on Disney and Leadership and then follows that with seven leadership lessons as exemplified by Walt Disney. The final section is a collection of quotes, bad leadership examples, and stories by and about Walt Disney’s leadership.

Disney’s Hollywood Studios is Kober’s second Disney-specific book with a business theme, and takes the reader “behind-the-camera” to understand and apply the Disney magic to any organization. The book contains over forty chapters of park history, Disney trivia, and business best practices designed to help your organization get ready for its closeup.

Remember: Leaders are Readers!