Biography | Donn Tatum — The June Afternoon Walt Talked Parks Instead of a Show

People treat Tatum's Disney years as a hire that began in a production office in 1956.

The later account of the visit places him on the broadcasting side of the relationship.

In June 1951 he was newly appointed Western Division director of television for ABC and general manager of KECA-TV, the Los Angeles station later called KABC-TV.

That same month, he told Broadcasting two decades later, he came onto the Burbank lot with Leonard Goldenson and Robert Kintner.

The errand was a program. Walt Disney spent most of the time talking about an amusement park that was new to the three visitors.

The studio at 500 South Buena Vista Street had opened in 1940. The Hyperion plant in Silver Lake was already behind them.

ABC did not close the deal that afternoon. Three years later the network agreed to carry a Disney television program in return for help financing Disneyland.

Tatum later called the financing the difference. He was quoting a negotiation he had watched from the other side of the table.

Walt recruited him in 1956 as production business manager. The 1951 visit is why a broadcast lawyer already knew the park argument before he drew a Disney paycheck.

The meeting's date and Burbank setting come from the later trade-press account.

[Disney's biography](https://d23.com/walt-disney-legend/donn-tatum/) separately confirms his recruitment in 1956.

Photo: State Archives of Florida, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.