It was bibbity-bobbity-boo-ful in the desert when Walt Disney came to town. How he lived, what he played and how he tried to get local investors for his wild idea: a futuristic amusement park!
How did the man who practically invented good times, entertainment and dazzling fantasy for generations of the masses get his own kicks? What did Walt Disney, grand master of the animated film, Lord of theme parks, and daddy of Mickey Mouse do for his own fun and games?
Walter Elias Disney would come to Palm Springs.
The earliest remembered appearance of him in the desert that was to become his personal retreat was in 1936, when the blossoming genius played polo on the grounds where Palm Springs Stadium now stands. Disney was 35 that year. Mickey Mouse, the world’s most beloved rodent, was eight.
It was Disney the horseman who initially gravitated to the Coachella Valley. Frank Bogert, Palm Springs’ former cowboy mayor and leather-bound human encyclopedia of desert history, recalls that particular Walt Disney. Both were young buckaroos, tall in the saddle, who rode with the Rancheros, a riding group embarking on an annual mounted journey.
For three years Bogert and Disney were in the same camp during the horseback odyssey. "When you camp with a guy, you really get to know him," says Bogert. "He was the best."
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