The Spirit of the Time · Zeitgeist Design & Production

Zeitgeist's The Spirit of the Time Episode 43: Bob Weis

·1 hr 32 min·5 clips

A WED recruiter first rejected Bob Weiss, then rehired him after he called back.

1. The Spirit of the Time focuses on Bob Weiss and his career through Disneyland, WED, and Tokyo Disneyland. 2. Bob Weiss is the guest, Ryan Harmon and Tom Morris are the co-hosts, and Becky Kiefer opens the show as Studio Director. 3. The episode asks how a boy from Pomona became president of Walt Disney Imagineering and what shaped his design judgment. 4. Bob says he grew up with Disneyland, turning his birthday into the family day at the park after being born about three years after it opened. 5. He explains that asthma in the late-summer pollen season often left him on a bench with his mother while his brother and sister rode attractions. 6. He recalls one of his defining Disneyland memories as riding the flying saucers in 1961 with his father, who worked in aerospace. 7. Bob connects Disneyland to the space program by describing Walt Disney's work with Wernher von Braun and the popularization of space on Disney television. 8. He says high school drama at Pomona and later architecture at Cal Poly Pomona gave him a practical design education. 9. A teacher named Michael Devine pushed him to switch from drama to architecture because set design needed stronger design training. 10. Bob says the architecture program helped him solve complex projects while still telling stories through theater. 11. In 1976, he applied at Disneyland expecting a show job and instead got ice cream and popcorn. 12. He says Walt Disney's advice to watch the park from a bench also applied while he worked a popcorn wagon all day and night. 13. Bob describes seeing guests who had saved for years, including families with children in wheelchairs, and says the cast member can define the visit. 14. He remembers hearing about WED Enterprises for the first time from Space Mountain and later seeing a WED table while walking back to architecture. 15. After a recruiter first said his qualifications were not a match, Bob called back, returned for another interview, and got hired. 16. Bob says his first major assignment involved Tokyo Disneyland, where he worked in a cramped projection booth with Craig Russell, Steven Satti, and others. 17. He explains that the Tokyo team documented show design, interiors, graphics, and engineering so Oriental Land Company could build the park. 18. Bob says Marty Sklar later brought legends such as Mark Davis, Budd[e] Baker, and Gurr to Tokyo, and he hosted Marty for a week. 19. The conversation stays conversational and detailed, with Ryan Harmon and Tom Morris adding memories, corrections, and jokes about birthdays, radios, and old interoffice mail. 20. Listeners who care about Disneyland history, WDI careers, and Tokyo Disneyland will get the most from it. 20. Listeners who want a short, purely current-theme-park update should probably skip it.

As heard by us

A patient, detail-rich walk through Bob Weiss's themed-entertainment career, with Tokyo Disneyland as the standout chapter.

Bob Weiss's career anchors this episode, and the conversation moves through Disney parks with a focus on the practical choices that made ambitious ideas usable.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want a deep-dive into Disney Imagineering with Bob Weiss, former president of Walt Disney Imagineering.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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