Wednesday, November 17, 2010

I was reading recently part of John Meredyth Lucas' autobiography. John was a writer who worked for Disney on the "Zorro" TV series and on the documentary about the making of 20.000 Leagues Under the Sea. The best story Meredyth Lucas tells, however, deals with an abandoned segment for the Disneyland TV show, which would have told the story of the submarine "through the ages." What makes the story interesting is that Willy Ley was assigned to work on the project along with Meredyth Lucas. Walt apparently gave up on the idea when he saw the "rushes" with a heavyly-accented narration by Ley.

Ley, along with Van Braun and Heinz Haber, was of course also employed by the Studio at the time as adviser on Ward Kimball's space shows.

The Willy Ley papers are preserved at National Air and Space Museum (part of the Smithsonian Institution) in Washington D.C. Among the documents preserved is Ley's correspondence throughout the years.

If one of you lives in Washington D.C. could you visit those archives and check Boxes 1 and 2 which contain Ley's correspondence from the '50s to find out if he discusses his work at Disney? Box 33contains documents about Man in Space (folder 7) and could also be of interest.

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