Each month, we ask a museum staff member to answer five questions about their position at The Walt Disney Family Museum, their fondest Disney memories, and other personal tidbits. This is the third in our series titled "What Do YOU Do?" and this month, we're highlighting John Stroh!
What is your title and what do YOU do here at The Walt Disney Family Museum?
Pay no mind to the man behind the curtain… I am the Manager of Audio-visual. I work with a small team of great techs to support the museum’s multimedia, and help with the day-to-day operations of the museum. I also support the many wonderful Public Programs, where I’ve met some incredible legends of Disney including Harrison “Buzz” Price, Lee Tope, JB Kaufman, Kathryn Beaumont, Don Haun, Tony Baxter, John Canemaker, and Alice Davis, as well as three of the original mouseketeers: Cubby O’Brien, Bobby Burgess, and Sharon Baird, just to mention a few. Bob Gurr, who helped design the mechanical workings of Disney's first Audio-Animatronic figure, Abraham Lincoln, featured in Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, visited the museum and also gave a wonderful talk about working with Walt. I still remember the first time I rounded the corner in Gallery 9 and there was part of the original Lincoln Animatronics skeleton that he designed. Wow. Incredible.
What is your favorite Gallery at The Walt Disney Family Museum and why?
Which is my favorite Gallery within the museum… I’m afraid that’s like asking a parent which is their favorite child… although I was the favorite child. Don’t tell my siblings. Another question I frequently get asked is how many monitors are there in the museum? That’s a very good question…. Have you ever noticed that once you start counting the days until your vacation, they start taking longer? That’s how I feel about counting the monitors.
How does your job communicate and interpret the legacy of Walt Disney?
Every day is a different experience here in the museum. It’s always fun to walk through the galleries and watch and talk to the visitors. I like when I find people sitting and staring at the visuals, once again being drawn in and transported to a place in their hearts, with their fondest memories of growing up with Walt Disney.
Describe your workspace OR your favorite item on your desk:
The Museum is my workspace and I keep that in tip-top shape. My desk on the other hand, is a wreck. I have a little bit of everything there; from broken equipment, to photos of my wife and daughter—who have been very patient with the long hours it takes to support such a high-tech museum—a couple of my daughter’s drawings, and a bunch of Disney character toys. Over the years, all my AV counterparts and I have joked about having a career in AV is like being Peter Pan, never wanting to grow up. I have four copies of some original sketch art from Peter Pan, as well as a little Captain Hook figure, and a stuffed Nana which my daughter gave me. Never grow up!
Tell us a little known fact about you!
When people find out you work at The Walt Disney Family Museum, they start telling stories of their memories of the first time they visited Disneyland, saw Mickey Mouse cartoons, or how Walt inspired their lives. Well, some stories came in from my immediate family as well. The story goes, when my grandmother was first married in the 1930s, she used to work in a factory in New York where she painted Mickey Mouse statues, just like the ones featured in Gallery 2. I have one and keep it on my dresser at home as a fond remembrance of my grandmother. She didn’t make it to see the museum, but I’m sure she would have loved it.