{"id":108721,"date":"2017-07-28T02:54:57","date_gmt":"2017-07-28T06:54:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=108721"},"modified":"2017-07-28T02:54:57","modified_gmt":"2017-07-28T06:54:57","slug":"leading-disney-parks-imagineer-martin-sklar-dies-at-83","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/07\/28\/leading-disney-parks-imagineer-martin-sklar-dies-at-83\/","title":{"rendered":"Leading Disney parks ‘Imagineer’ Martin Sklar dies at 83"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Disney<\/a>
Disney Imagineer Marty Sklar signing autographs (Photo<\/a> by PROJeffChristiansen\/Flickr<\/a>, CC BY 2.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LOS ANGELES \u2013 Martin A. \u201cMarty\u201d Sklar, a right-hand man of Walt Disney and central figure in the development and expansion of his company’s theme parks around the world, has died.<\/p>\n

Disneyland spokeswoman Suzi Brown confirmed Sklar’s death for The Associated Press. A company statement says he died Thursday at his Hollywood Hills home at age 83. No details were released on his cause of death.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy,\u201d Sklar said in 2005, reading from a plaque at the front of the park. \u201cThat says so much about what Walt intended here,\u201d Sklar told the AP.<\/p>\n

Sklar had roles in the development of every Disney park, from the original Disneyland in Southern California in 1955 to the Shanghai Disney Resort last year, and was revered by employees as a living link to the founder.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything about Marty was legendary \u2013 his achievements, his spirit, his career,\u201d Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger said in a statement. \u201cHe embodied the very best of Disney, from his bold originality to his joyful optimism and relentless drive for excellence. He was also a powerful connection to Walt himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sklar was still a college student at UCLA when he was hired to create The Disneyland News for the original park and became a full-time Disney employee the following year.<\/p>\n

For the next 54 years he led the development and expansion of the company’s parks, and was among the first to have the unique-to-Disney title of \u201cImagineer\u201d when he became the company’s chief creative leader for theme parks.<\/p>\n

\u201cMarty was one of Walt’s most trusted advisers and helped turn his most ambitious dreams into reality,\u201d said Bob Weis, current president of Walt Disney Imagineering. \u201cFor us, it’s hard to imagine a world without Marty, because Marty is synonymous with Imagineering.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sklar scripted speeches for Walt Disney along with design and marketing materials for the parks and a film showing Disney’s vision for Walt Disney World and Epcot in Florida before they were built.<\/p>\n

He was a low-key and unimposing figure who condensed Walt Disney’s ideas into a widely circulated creed called \u201cMickey’s Ten Commandments.\u201d<\/p>\n

He had a hand in the design of memorable Magic Kingdom attractions such as the \u201cThe Enchanted Tiki Room,\u201d \u201cIt’s a Small World\u201d and \u201cSpace Mountain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like most Disney designers he had to face criticism from hardcore fans. He felt the need to respond to complaints when \u201cIt’s a Small World\u201d added characters from Disney films to its usual cast of international children.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not trying to turn this classic attraction into a marketing pitch for Disney plush toys,\u201d Sklar said at the time. \u201cWe are not ‘young marketing whizzes’ trying to make a name for ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the company made over Disneyland’s Tomorrowland in 1998, he explained the company’s constant intent to forge forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe future is a moving target, and you have to keep aiming at it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Sklar retired in 2009 but was still a frequent presence and ambassador at Disney events, including the company’s D23 Expo earlier this month.<\/p>\n

He is survived by his wife of 60 years Leah, and son Howard.<\/p>\n

At Disneyland’s 50th anniversary in 2005, he summed up his life’s work as he walked into the park.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Disneyland is so much about reassuring people the world can be OK, that things can be orderly, that you can speak to a stranger,\u201d he told the AP. \u201cAll those things that we are losing or have lost in our daily lives.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES \u2013 Martin A. \u201cMarty\u201d Sklar, a right-hand man of Walt Disney and central figure in the development and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":108732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[19979,13701],"class_list":["post-108721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","tag-imagineer","tag-walt-disney","mauthors-andrew-dalton","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}