Meet the Past: Walt Disney May 5, 2009

Production for the Meet the Past television series continues in May with two programs filmed before a live audience at the Central Library, 14 W. 10th St. Additional episodes will be filmed in June and July. The series will air during prime-time on KCPT (channel 19) in fall 2009.

Meet the Past features Library Director Crosby Kemper III interviewing prominent historical figures (as portrayed by veteran Chautauqua performers) with Kansas City-area connections.

On Tuesday, May 5, at 6:30 p.m., Dr. Bill Worley portrays Walt Disney, whose early years as a professional artist can be traced to Kansas City.

Disney stands as the 20th century’s foremost creator of fairy tales. He is responsible for several iconic cartoon characters, including Mickey Mouse. From 1919-23, Disney worked for the Pesmen-Rubin Commercial Art Studio and the Kansas City Slide (later the Kansas City Ad) Company before striking out on his own as an animator and founder of Laugh-O-Gram Films, Inc., located at 1127 E. 31st St. in Kansas City.

Though the studio went bankrupt, it introduced many of Disney’s classic characters to the world.

Worley is an instructor in history at the Metropolitan Community Colleges of Kansas City – Blue River and a longtime Kansas City historian. He is the author of J.C. Nichols and the Shaping of Kansas City. He has performed as Disney countless times and has earned several honors for his portrayals of Disney, President Harry S. Truman, basketball inventor James Naismith, and others. Worley portrayed Tom Pendergast in the first Meet the Past event.

Major funding for Meet the Past has been provided by a grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

Admission to all Meet the Past programs is free. A 6 p.m. reception precedes each event. Call 816.701.3407 to RSVP. Free parking is available in the Library District Parking Garage at 10th and Baltimore.

Official Website: http://www.kclibrary.org/event/meet-past-walt-disney