Wednesday with Walt: No Beans About It!

Walt Disney believed that if you live right, good things just happen. I believe this is true also. Sometimes a tough trial in one way manifests into a positive blessing in another way. There is a great example of this from early in Walt’s life.

Things weren’t always good for Walt. In fact, there were periods in his life when he was extremely poor. Sometimes  if Walt’s older brother, Roy, hadn’t heard from him in a while, he would drop Walt a note that would say that he thought he might need a little help. He would enclose a blank check and tell Walt that he could fill it in for any amount he needed up to $30. Walt always filled them out for $30 and he used the money to pay the two owners of a Greek restaurant where he ate and ran a tab.

There were two gentlemen who owned the Greek restaurant below the Laugh-O-Gram studio; their names were Jerry and Louie. They allowed Walt to eat at their restaurant until his tab reached $60.00. Walt was only nineteen years old at that time and had already failed in business with his Laugh-O-Gram venture. Walt owned only one pair of shoes and even had to trade his barber funny drawings for haircuts.

Walt was never out of debt during that time, but at least Jerry and Louie would feed him until his tab reached $60.00. Once, when Walt’s restaurant tab went over the limit, Jerry came to see him. He told him that he would give Walt unlimited credit, but his partner said they had to cut him off.  Walt said, “Alright, Jerry, I understand.”

A couple days later, Jerry wandered into the Laugh-O-Gram studio and saw Walt sitting on a box eating cold beans from a can and dry bread. They were props that had been left over from a photographer’s studio next door. Walt had lived on beans and bread for 2 days.

When Walt spoke later about this period in his life, he said it wasn’t so bad; after all, Walt loved beans. But when Jerry saw him sitting on that box eating those cold beans out of a can, Jerry’s heart melted and he said, “Walt, I don’t care what Louie said. You come down to our place and get something to eat.”

When Walt received $500 for Tommy Tucker’s Tooth, he paid off as much debt as he could, but it wasn’t enough to pay all of his debt. He talked to Jerry and Louie and to his other creditors and they told Walt that “they were for him and he could send it to them later.”

I think that the person Walt was made it easy for Jerry and Louie, and others at that time as well, to reach out and help him during that very trying time. I also think Walt’s love for beans turned out to be a blessing in disguise, or in this case, in a can.

Related articles

• Wednesday in the World- Walt Disney: One Man’s Dream (disneyonwheelsblog.com)
• Wednesday with Walt: Master of Sneakiness (chipandco.com)

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