Double Take

Walt Disney and Al Konetzni at the Disney Company.

Novel Ideas

By Missy Kavanaugh

Innovation. That’s what makes him tick. The initial idea, the sketch and the realization. The process.

After paying his dues as an advertising artist, Al Konetzni joined the Walt Disney Company as an “idea man” in 1953. What followed was an umbrella-full of innovative products Mary Poppins would have been proud to share with her charges. While working at Disney, Al designed Mickey Mouse roller skates, alarm clocks, lamp shades and a school bus lunch box, to name a few.

In 1999, he joined the ranks of Julie Andrews, Annette Funicello and Tim Allen when Roy Disney and then Disney CEO Michael Eisner pronounced him a Disney Legend.

When asked about his creative process, Al’s hard-pressed to explain it. “How do you know the next thing you’re gonna think?” he asks, his light Brooklyn accent punctuating the question.

It’s novelty that gets him. His blue eyes sparkle as he speaks. “You’ve never seen anything like it. It’s yours, and you put it on paper. I’d always bring my drawing pad to a meeting. I’m an artist and could best explain a concept through drawings.”

Al collaborates with the U.S. Postal Service on Disney stamps.

Which of his creations makes him most proud? “The school bus,” he answers without hesitation. “One day I’m driving, and I see this school bus. And I think, ‘that would make a nice toy.’

I started working on it, and it evolved into the Disney school bus lunch box.” It sold in the millions back in the ’60s, and has become a collector’s item—Hallmark made it a Keepsake Ornament in 2001. And a statue of Mickey Mouse holding the bus, entitled “Back to School,” sold for $54,000 at a Sotheby’s auction in New York for charity.

Al also loves to golf. His best-selling cartoon book, Double Bogey, celebrates blunders golfers everywhere can appreciate.

AAA had the honor of collaborating with Al a couple of times in the 1980s. “I did two covers and wrote a feature (for Going Places) on the South Pacific,” he says proudly. “My wife and I went there, and I took some pictures. It was fun.”

It has been fun. The pictures say it all.