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[Tom K]. Morris started at Disneyland in 1973 as a teenager selling balloons for Nat Lewis Balloons, a lessee, because he was underage at the time and couldn't be hired by Disneyland. One of the customers on his paper route, Jack C. Sayers, who was vice president in charge of the Disneyland Lessee Relations at the time, was extremely helpful in him getting that job.
Morris was fascinated by Disney animation and wanted to be an animator or layout artist, but the work he did in high school on architectural and mechanical drafting got him an entry into another division at Disney. By 1979, he had moved into Imagineering, where he was hired as an apprentice show draftsman. His first real assignment was the original Journey into Imagination attraction for EPCOT Center.
Later, Morris was put in charge of all of Fantasyland for Euro Disneyland (now Disneyland Paris), and was the leader of the team responsible for Le Chateau de la Belle au Bois Dormant (Sleeping Beauty Castle) after several others had tried to come up with an acceptable design.
From working on Cars Land in Disney California Adventure Park to serving as executive producer for Hong Kong Disneyland, Morris was involved in dozens of both big and small projects throughout his career. However, I was interested in his earliest Disney experiences and talked with him in December 2017.
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