As I mentioned in last week’s Wednesday with Walt, Walt really enjoyed the quiet life in Palm Springs at Smoke Tree Ranch. He loved that easy, cowboy kind of life and since it was only a 20-minute plane ride from Los Angeles, he and his family visited their Palm Springs home often.
Even before they purchased their first home there, Walt visited the area many times. He loved being outdoors and he loved horseback riding. According to Frank Bogert, the former mayor of Palm Springs, it was Walt the horseman that drew him to the area in the first place. In an article in Palm Springs Life (Dec ‘97), Mr. Bogert said that “in 1936, he and Walt rode with the Rancheros, a riding group embarking on an annual mounted journey.” For 3 years, he and Walt were in the same camp during the horseback odyssey. He said, “when you camp with a guy, you really get to know him. Walt was the best.”
When Walt and Lily decided to buy a home there in 1948 some of the neighbors worried about what the arrival of the Beverly Hills famous would do to the landscape of their peaceful desert community, where nature was at its best and small animals scurried around in the rocks and cactus. They were surprised at how “normal” Walt was for being such a famous celebrity, and they really liked his friendly and unassuming manner.
Walt enjoyed a certain anonymity in Palm Springs. Everyone knew the name Walt Disney, but it wasn’t until he started appearing on television that people would begin to recognize his face. He was happy to live that way. From all I have ever read about Walt, he did not carry his celebrity status around with him like he was different from anyone else, he was just a regular guy.
Horseback riding wasn’t Walt’s only favorite past-time in Palm Springs. He also loved lawn bowling, a sport started in 1938. In fact, Walt was influential in getting the Smoke Tree Ranch bowling green started. Walt was hooked on playing and even entered local tournaments. According to his Palm Spring friend, Marjorie Merwin, he was as proud of those local trophies as he was of the army of Oscars he had won.
Even though he so enjoyed his Smoke Tree home, Walt would soon sell it to invest in Disneyland. In 1957, two years after Disneyland opened, Walt and Lily purchased their second Smoke Tree Ranch home. Walt had a sign-up sheet placed on the bulletin board at the Disney Studios, where employees could sign-up to use the Smoke Tree Ranch home whenever the Disney family wasn’t using it. He was happy to share this beautiful place with them.
Walt was so fond of his property at the Smoke Tree Ranch that he had the ranch’s brand embroidered on all of his neckties. When you are at Disneyland or Walt Disney World next time, get an up close and personal view of his neck tie on “The Partners” (the bronze sculpture of Walt standing next to Mickey Mouse which I have shown here) and you will clearly see the brand on Walt’s tie.
As fond as he was of Smoke Tree Ranch, the colonists were equally fond of him. In fact, Disney Hall still stands at Smoke Tree Ranch right next to the pool, facing the mountains and not far from the bowling green Walt helped to establish.
Related articles
- Wednesday with Walt: At the Ripe Young Age of 47 (chipandco.com)
- Wednesday with Walt: The Gift That Keeps Giving (chipandco.com)
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