An Abu Dhabi resident of nearly 30 years, Lizzie Eschauzier spent much of her childhood on the coast of California. It was there that she fell under the spell of her grandparents’s neighbour, Walt Disney.
“He acted like a godfather to me,” she recalls. “I was probably three years old when I first met him and he used to walk along Laguna Beach and draw Mickey Mouse in the sand with a stick.”
During the Second World War, Eschauzier’s American mother was one of Disney’s animators, working on the 1940 movie Fantasia. It was during that time that Lizzie, then 9, went on a special outing.
“Walt took me to Disneyland. He said: ‘Go and enjoy yourself, do whatever you want, look at all the people having a good time.’”
Eschauzier’s memories of the master cartoonist were brought sharply into focus when she watched John Lee Hancock’s recently released film, Saving Mr. Banks.
“I loved the movie and thought Tom Hanks was fantastic, so like Disney,” she says. “Walt had such foresight in persuading author P L Travers to give him the rights to make Mary Poppins. And although it took him 20 years, it showed his incredible determination and vision.”
Disney died in 1966 and while the world knew him as a creative business magnate and screenwriter, Eschauzier saw his softer, more generous side.
“He was kind enough to give me an original frame of Mickey Mouse from Fantasia.
“Being young, I hadn’t a clue who he was, only realising much later in life. He was much like a grandparent to me and I remember him as a very charming, lovely person. And just look how many people he made happy.”
rduane@thenational.ae
