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The Person Behind Disney's Most Famous Quote Tells Her Story · Project Horizons

• Mike: the Walt Disney Company since the opening of Horizons in 1983, when this quote was displayed just inside the entrance to the spectacular attraction. And today we're going to have exciting conversation with someone who was not an Imagineer, but who created probably one of the famous quotes associated with the Walt Disney Company. And that is Sherilyn Silverstein. So if you're a fan of Horizons, this is probably the episode for you. Sherilyn, we are excited to have you with us today. How are you doing this evening? Sheralyn Silverstein: I'm doing well and if you can dream it, you can do it. That's what I wrote. And I worked for, and I created that line for a company called Marsteller for whom I worked from 1980 to 1982. Mike: really excited for this conversation because Horizons is a favorite of mine. And I know many others who follow the site and are interested in these old Epcot Center attractions. feel free to tell us your story. about your journey that quote and beyond. Sheralyn Silverstein: Well, I'll tell you, Mike, that's a, I don't know, it's longer than the American Revolution series that Ken Burns did and feels to me as though it dates back that far, but it doesn't. I entered the world of advertising as a young woman in my mid to late 20s. It was not anything I had ever planned, it was just serendipitously I got there. And in 1980, I got my first really big job, I would say. at a company called Marsteller. And at that time, Marsteller was its own company owned by Bill Marsteller. In fact, he had just left and this company had been sold to a bigger company. at any rate, I was, they had had women on staff before I got there. But when I arrived at Marsteller, I was the only female creative on staff as a junior writer, 27 years old and terrified. because every writer on that staff was absolutely stellar, stellar writer. They went on to do great things, all of them. And all men, not that that was a problem, but you know, it was like, wow. Mike: different time. Sheralyn Silverstein: so I was afraid and I was terrified, but I knew that I could do it. I loved writing and I generally got the kind of the assignments that nobody else wanted when I started out. Because as a junior writer, that's what you get back in the day. I don't know how it is now, but you didn't get the big plums. got, oh gosh, nobody wants to write this. You do it. You do it. And I saw those opportunities as opportunities. I learned from my grandmother, When opportunities come your way, you take them and you never minimize them. You do what you can and you make the most of it. And by doing that, I got awards and I got started to get noticed. And along came this assignment from, for General Electric. General Electric was run by Jack Welch at that time. And he was a formidable, I mean, everyone who Jack Welch was, whether you were in business or not, he had a reputation as a very hard driving, brilliant businessman. And he was running GE at the time. And we knew, Maristella, we were very small. BBDNO was a very huge agency. They had the General Electric account. They had a great tagline. BBDNO. always did great work. That was where you wanted to work really at some point. And their tagline for General Electric was, we bring good things to life. And that wasn't going anywhere. That was etched in stone. And it was a great tagline because think about it. You we bring good things to life. It works in so many different ways. At any rate, they wanted someone to work on their recruitment division. BBDNO didn't want to do it. And I'm only speaking from what I heard. I'm not going to say that I knew this for a fact, but it seemed to be too small and a part of the business for them. And it was an opportunity for Marsteller to really get a good name on their roster. So we pitched, we were told we were going to pitch the recruitment division. So all the big guns in the agency, they were working on TV and they were working on bigger things. And I was assigned to do the print ads. that we would run or that GE would run, the recruitment ads, which, my God, when people in our business heard recruitment ads, they ran as fast as they could the other way, because who wants to do that? So, okay, let's see what happens. So I wrote a whole series of ads that would run in small publications. I'll show you an ad, to show you what the type, what it looked, Mike: you Sheralyn Silverstein: these were the recruitment ads that we did. This Mike: Mm-hmm. Sheralyn Silverstein: isn't what happened, but that was the layout. And I wrote on one of them, in quotes, someone saying, if you can dream it, you can do it. And that went to the presentation. I couldn't go, I was a junior. They Mike: Mm-hmm. Sheralyn Silverstein: put together the whole presentation. They went to see Jack Welch and GE. And I went my merry way and the following day the president of our company came in and he said I have to tell you what happened now this is like something out of a movie because For the rest of my career. This probably happened maybe twice Twice two more times so you can imagine me. I'm 20. I'm a kid. I Don't know what I'm doing I don't think and he said well we went to the meeting and we showed the work and we had the work all lined up And he said, Jack Welch himself pointed to the ad you wrote and said, I am hiring your company because I want to buy that line. If you can Mike: Wow. Sheralyn Silverstein: dream it, you can do it. And I, this was like, it was like I'd won the lottery. I've said that before. Mike: Mm-hmm. Sheralyn Silverstein: My jaw dropped and I thought, my gosh, I can't even believe it. He said, we're Mike: Yeah. Sheralyn Silverstein: getting the business and you're going to work on it. And I did. So. my partner Marilyn, who was a great art director, she and I created a series of ads. We didn't have, the tagline was not, we didn't call it a tagline, we called it a theme line, but it was, it was, if you can dream it, you can do it, was the theme. We had a brochure. This is one of the ads we ran that ran in the brochure, and you can see up here, This is hard to read, if you can dream it, you can do it. It Mike: yeah. Sheralyn Silverstein: is right up here. And I saved these. This was an ad for electric cars. Now this is in 1981. GE sent me to Schenectady to their R &D division to walk through and to hear every, and I took, you can't even imagine that I have. I had 200 pages of notes, think, everything that they were creating up there. And one of them was the electric car. Another one was MRI scans. There was no such thing as CT scans. Mike: Mm-hmm. Sheralyn Silverstein: So we would go into these buildings and they'd show us what they were doing. And this seemed like science fiction to me. Who's going to have an electric car? How are they going to look at your brain in slices? How are they going to ever do that? And it all came to pass, you know. So at any rate, it was very successful. We did very well. And then a few months in, several months later, he came in again, the man who ran our company. And he said, guess what they're going to use. If you can dream it, you can do it. he's going to put it on their Epcot Center at Walt Disney World. And I said, my gosh. I said, I love Walt Disney World. So that was where it started, you know. So fast forward to about, I don't know, how many years ago, five years ago, my husband and I are watching TV and there's a bank that advertises and they use quotes. And one of the quotes comes on and says, if you can dream it, you can do it, Walt Disney. And my husband turns to me and says, Walt Disney, Walt Disney didn't write that, you wrote it. I said, well, what am I supposed to do about it? He said, I wonder, he said, you, you, haven't even talked about that. Cause that was the very beginning of my career, Mike. It really kind of launched me into other things. I've done probably things, as famous, one thing as famous as that since, but I said, well, I'll go Google it. And there it was his name all over it. And I have a great respect for Walt Disney. But I also have learned over time that when you have done something your name should go on if you've written something or if you've painted something or you've written a piece of music, your name needs to be on that. and that piece of work, it's Mike: Mm-hmm. Sheralyn Silverstein: all you have is your name, you know? And so I said to my husband, Harold, H-A-R-R-E-L, I said to my husband, all right, I'm going to pursue it. So I started writing in different websites and different blogs and different posts. You know, I'm the person who wrote this, not Walter. And needless to say, I know there's a lot of people that Well, how could she say that? That's blasphemy, but it's not. here I am, you Mike: like you, I have a very high respect for Walt Disney I think one of the greatest, business people, animators, great minds our time and his influence on 20th century entertainment is you can't compare and so having said that, Walt Disney created some of the most famous quotes that we've ever seen. There's a long long list and I'll be happy to talk about them but when it comes to this specific quote as it relates to horizons Which was an attraction created? after Walt's passing as they developed Epcot the theme park and then GE jumped on people may think Walt Disney may have said it in the fifties or sixties, but there's no record. There's no record of that. I'll be the first to defend Walt Disney on many things But Sherrilyn Silverstein wrote this quote. So, so. Sheralyn Silverstein: Yeah, doesn't have the same ring to it, Mike, I get that. to get credit for what you do is really important. And and I would also say to people who are young and starting out, know, there's always going to be people who and it's just a fact of life who take credit for your ideas, who don't give you credit for your ideas. Mike: Mm-hmm. Sheralyn Silverstein: Stand up for yourself. and make sure people know what you've written and what you've done, what you've painted, what you've, once again, what music, what have you, if it's yours, it's yours. And it's really important, particularly with AI, it's really important because Mike: Yes. Yep. Sheralyn Silverstein: AI is doing a lot. AI is doing so many things. And so it's really important as few as a person did it to make sure your name gets on it. And it's not attributed to Mike: Exactly. Sheralyn Silverstein: some AI kind of AI platform, which I'm not disparaging AI. I am a proponent of it actually for many different reasons. I don't think it's going to overtake us as creators. I think that it will be helpful to us in some ways. do see that it will, anything like that has incredible potential to cause harm. Mike: Mm-hmm. Sheralyn Silverstein: if you look at it as, trying to look on the positive side, what good could it do? What good can it do us? That's how I see it. Mike: Mm-hmm. Sheralyn Silverstein: as regards, know, giving people getting credit for their work, make sure people know AI didn't do this one. Mike did, Sheryl did it, know, Renee with a name did it, you know, so, yeah. Mike: Right. Right. Yeah. like I said before, like this quote has resonated with so many people, so many Disney fans. your story valuable. story means a lot to those that are looking at horizons and seeing this missing piece. And we see quotes around Walt Disney World and Disneyland probably as well that have this quote um, and seeing it misquoted. it's a very meaningful attraction and there's a missing link. There's a missing piece to that, And again, we focus a lot on the history of these attractions and theme park planning and design. We wanted to make sure that what we're saying is true and accurate from the creators and those who brought these attractions to us. And this is just one piece of that. not the biggest piece of it, but it's one Sheralyn Silverstein: No, no. Mike: piece that's vitally important to understanding these attractions Sheralyn Silverstein: a quick story about my grandmother, Stella, Mike: Yeah, Sheralyn Silverstein: She was from Greece and self-made Mike: Mm-hmm. Sheralyn Silverstein: and the strongest person I've ever known in my life, about two feet tall. Don't get mad at me. And when I first started working in the business, when I first got my junior job, she said to me, you have to have courage. You have to be brave, because she knew I was a cow. But anyway, I wound up having a full page on the back cover of Forbes magazine, which was at that time a huge business magazine. It was one of the biggest. And I was for a bank and I had a headline and we had a, for the illustration, we had a famous artist at the time. He would draw the illustrations. We would send him the headline and he would draw it to the headline. And he always signed his name. on his illustration, that was part of the deal he did with the bank. I don't give you an illustration unless I sign my work. So I ran home when I got the copy, I got it off the newsstand, because that's how we did it back then. And I raced to my grandmother's house, I couldn't wait to show her. So she sees the back of the magazine, and she's looking at it, she says, where's your name? And I said, what do you mean? She said, all in Greek, she's saying to me, all this man, his name is on his work. Where's your name? This part where you wrote it, where's your name? And I said, well, I don't have my name on this. She said, well, why does he? I said, well, he's famous. And she said, well, that's how he got famous because people know his name. She said, you have to tell them you want your name on this. And I said, well, that's not the way it works. But even my grandmother, even before any of this, she was saying to me, you have to have your name on it. So she was right. So I kind of carry her tradition with me too. Mike: Absolutely, No, to take the credit for it, somebody else is, right? So credit's Sheralyn Silverstein: Yeah, I mean. Mike: going to be given somewhere. And if it's going to be given, it should be given to the person who actually did it. Sheralyn Silverstein: Yeah, well not to compare ourselves or myself with anyone like that, but walk into any museum and tell me what painting doesn't have the artist's on it, Mike: the quote incorporated into the Horizons If we can dream it, we can do it. I know was they changed the you to the we And that was from imaginary Tom Fitzgerald, who currently still works for the company and does, amazing things. did. Tom or anyone reach out to you and recognize you as the original creator Sheralyn Silverstein: Not that I know of, Mike: Okay. Sheralyn Silverstein: And I would say, I mean, I don't know how they would know how to reach me or whatever, Mike: Mm. Sheralyn Silverstein: but no, no, man. And I find Mike: Yeah. Sheralyn Silverstein: it interesting that Tom is still doing what he's doing, because I would imagine that neither one of us is a Gen Z or a Gen Xer. And it's interesting to me that his imagination and is still accepted and praised and that he's still celebrated for the work he does and is still doing great work because one thing I did want to say quickly is that in the work I've, in the world I've worked in, which is, was advertising and marketing now, it's got all kinds of different names, branding, whatever you want to call it. Many people that are older or marginalized, it's not something people talk about, but I, I know people in the business that are 50 and 45 and not finding work. And I say to myself, well, I'm still working. I still work freelance quite often. Mike: Mm-hmm. Sheralyn Silverstein: And I say to that, well, I don't understand it because people, we've been doing it a long time. We understand conceptual. We can still think conceptually. We're never going to come to the table with antiquated ideas. And I should say that, you know, two of my taglines, one is Olive Garden, When You Hear Your Family. That's on the air now. I wrote Mike: Yeah. Sheralyn Silverstein: that in 1997. It ran for many years. They dropped it and changed it. Now they brought it back. So that's on the air. And I wrote another tagline for Bank of America. which is what would you like the power to do? And that's now if you, it's all over their app, it's all over their advertising. And if you watch Ken Burns, Ken Burns, American Revolution, you'll see that line on every episode because the bank is sponsored, is a sponsor of that program. So what I'm saying simply is that don't walk away from every generation of creativity because all generations have something to offer. And my hat's off to Tom because he's still doing this too. And he's still impressing people and he's still making people happy in the happiest place on earth, And I think that's, Amazing. my favorite attraction is two of them. One of them is still, it's a small world. Mike: That's a classic. That's a classic. Sheralyn Silverstein: I because I still think it's relevant, more global we get, the more relevant it becomes. But, and also I loved Pirates of the Caribbean. I just love that. Mike: Yeah. Sheralyn Silverstein: Do they still, I mean, they still have it, right? Pirates of the Caribbean. Yeah. Yeah, I love that one. Mike: Yeah, I mean, there's been some modifications to it. But yeah, it's generally the same attraction. Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion. It's a Small World, which again, holds relevance to Walt Disney World's, especially because was one of the attractions at the New York World's Fair in 1964, which was basically used an experiment to see if the Coast audience at that time gravitate towards, Disney's attractions saw how successful the 64 World's Fair was. And with that attraction being of the major ones there and carousel progress. those attractions that if they were ever to close, I can understand why people would be upset. Sheralyn Silverstein: Well, yeah, mean, Orlando, just thinking about Orlando, it turned out to be sort of a place for my career for some reason, because Olive Garden was, that's where Olive Garden started also. And Mike: Yeah, that's right, right. Sheralyn Silverstein: when I first started working on Olive Garden back in the day, they had four restaurants. mean, Mike: Mm-hmm. Sheralyn Silverstein: the first time I worked on it, and then I kind of did other things and then I came back to it in 1997. And that's when I wrote, When You're Here, Your Family. But so Orlando is, where everything happened for me, you know, I need to tell you a quick story about, we went to Disney World, my husband and my daughter and I, went and they had the Disney parade at that time and we went to the parade and all the characters come down, know, come marching down, you know, and Mike: sure. Sheralyn Silverstein: this huge balloon of, Ursula, and we're sitting on the curb there and she comes over and she looks and she says, well, there's a handsome man if I've ever seen one and this is my husband. Mike: my. Sheralyn Silverstein: And she says, wait, and we were just so, we couldn't believe it. And he's looking at her, says, that's you, that's you. And my daughter was so excited. I'll never forget that. It was so funny. We had a great time. we went there twice. We went when she was smaller and she didn't remember it really well. Mike: Mm-hmm. Sheralyn Silverstein: So we said, we have to go back because that way she'll remember, you know, she insists she did, but she didn't. Mike: I have devoted this, Sheralyn Silverstein: yeah. Mike: this podcast to learning about and speaking with those that, have an involvement with the Walt Disney company and that were part of that story and including you. You're part of that story. And so I think it's important lifelong Disney fans, especially the parks, understand and appreciate the work that went into these attractions and experiences. Each of these attractions were conceived and developed and made a reality because of a enormous team that worked on every bit of detail on those attractions. And it's a pretty impressive undertaking how every attraction had the also learning from those who were actually there building it, that's pretty impressive. So it's good to know their perspective and the stories that went along with that. obviously Disney has to know who you are. Your name is out there and it's gonna be out there even more after this interview. And so do you Disney should have taken that extra step relation that quote? are you fine if it just continues as it is Sheralyn Silverstein: I think it's important for people to know that I wrote it. Mike: Yeah. Sheralyn Silverstein: As far as Disney reaching out, I never even gave it a second thought because Mike: Yeah. Sheralyn Silverstein: my feeling about it was, you know, how would they know and why would they? And if they wanted to, that would be fine. I'm perfectly happy because when you know what you've done and you know what your work's been. And particularly my husband, you know, my husband passed four months ago. Mike: Mm-hmm. Sheralyn Silverstein: And one of the reasons I'm doing this is because of him. He Mike: Mm-hmm. Sheralyn Silverstein: was the one, as I said to you, turned to me and said, Walt Disney, he didn't do that, you did. And he kind of got me going. But no, just as long as I get it out there that I did it, you know, there's a lot of people that don't have any idea. at all that I wrote, When You Hear Your Family for Olive Garden. I tell them because, but it's nowhere, there's no attribution for it. The company certainly, that was in 1997. It's not incumbent Mike: Mm-hmm. Sheralyn Silverstein: upon them to say anything, I guess. But so if it's up to me to do it, I'll do it. No, have no, I have no second thoughts about that. If they Mike: Yeah. Sheralyn Silverstein: do, they can, but I'm perfectly content knowing that I did it and. that now everyone else knows or to the extent we can tell them, no, that's fine. when Jimmy on NBC. bought the Olive Garden tagline, When You Hear Your Family, they were hanging it up and they were going to do, we're all family here. And so Mike: Mm-hmm. Sheralyn Silverstein: it was an advertising stunt they did, When You Hear Your Family. And I wrote to him and I said, well, you just bought it for a dollar, can now I buy it from you for a dollar? Because then I can have it because it really, and Mike: Right. Sheralyn Silverstein: I never heard back. That was a little disappointing because I thought, well, he can answer, but I know I did it. yeah, no, no, Mike: Yeah. Sheralyn Silverstein: I have no problem with that. Bambi Mike: Yeah. Sheralyn Silverstein: was the first movie I ever saw with my mother. How can I ever be mad at Disney? Mike: of course, of course. I know you mentioned your husband, Harold just passed. we send our condolences to you Sheralyn Silverstein: Thank you. Mike: and also dedicating the show to your husband as well. I want to Sheralyn Silverstein: Thank you so much. Mike: make sure we do that. Very important, And I just wanted to ask you. I know you mentioned your husband's influence and encouraging you to talk about this story, about the Horizons quote. Could you tell us more about your husband and how he encouraged you and influenced you take this extra step to tell your story, the story that should be told about your involvement with the Horizons quote? Sheralyn Silverstein: Harold was a fine human being. He was kind and good and had the most wonderful sense of humor and very dry. And he was my champion, my partner. We were together for more than 50 years, or 50 years we were together. And through every phase of our lives, he always supported everything I wanted to do. I was a working mom. Back then it was even harder than it is now. and I struggled with that from time to time. I wanted to be a good mother, but I to pursue my life as a writer. I had always wanted to do that. And he was there for that always. And in that business, in the advertising business as it was called then, I really am not quite sure what they call now, marketing I guess. I work in it, but I don't know what they call it. Mike: Mm. Sheralyn Silverstein: It's particularly, was really stressful and really competitive. you know, as a woman in the early days, competitiveness was kind of frowned upon. was, you know, you're not supposed to be competitive. Well, I am. He was always there and always supportive. And he said, you know, it's really important to stick up for yourself and to make yourself heard and to make yourself understood. He felt as though, I mean, I was always the glass half empty and he was the glass half full but I learned to be the glass half more full because of him. Mike: Mm-hmm. Sheralyn Silverstein: So he was also in advertising for a long time. and an absolutely fabulous father, the best father ever. So I always think, you know, there was my life before I met Harold and then there's my life now, but there was my life with him. And whatever I became or whatever I've become better because of him, that is what I want to carry on for him. I can't, I don't want to drown in sorrow because he would absolutely not want that. And yes, he said to me, I know it's Walt Disney and I know you're going to get flack. He said, but I know what the truth is. So do you. I said, Mike: Yep. Sheralyn Silverstein: okay, I'll do it. But anyway, thank you for letting me talk about him because he was the love of my life. Mike: thank you for sharing all of that. it's important that this quote becomes when I started doing more research and looking deeper into it, I was like, when did Walt say this? I mean, he said so many wonderful, wonderful things and it's only fitting that he said this too, because it's Sheralyn Silverstein: It's he's not here because he could verify this from his place. Mike: He could and he what we're going to do. I'm to get in touch with Disney. And I want to tell them about this story, if you don't mind. Sheralyn Silverstein: no, no, Mike: But I'll let them know that this conversation was had. your name is associated with this quote, if you can dream it, you can do it. And then evolve to do my part in helping your Sheralyn Silverstein: You might. Mike: story get to where it gets where it has to be. Sheralyn Silverstein: of the taglines that I wrote in the last several years that I feel is really compelling, I wrote for the Army Lead the Way Fund. And the Army Lead the Way Fund is for Army Rangers who have been lost. It's a fund for their families and a fund for Army Rangers who've been catastrophically injured. And Army Rangers, as you well know, they are the elite group. They go and they do many deployments several, many times. And Jimmy Regan was a young man who lost his life and his father started the Army, we do a fund for the Army Rangers. And the tagline I wrote for that is peace can be held too. War is Hell was a famous line that came out of the war, I believe World War II. But I Peace can be Hell too because for these people who are returning catastrophically injured or for their families who have lost these men, it's very, very difficult. So, Peace can be Hell too. While it's not famous and while it's not if you can dream it, you can do it or any of the others I've written, to me is probably the one that I hold most dear. because I feel as though people should understand these men have lost a lot and their families have lost a lot. And to contribute to the Army Leave the Way Fund is a good thing. So I just want to say that because I Mike: Mm-hmm. Sheralyn Silverstein: don't only do this and the people that I know who do it also, we don't only do this to make money We do this also for pro bono. We do pro bono work for a lot of different organizations. A lot of them, a lot of my colleagues have done a lot of pro bono work. And that's one I just wanted to mention because I felt as though it would be important. Mike: thank you for mentioning that. any support for the Army It's important to me. It's important to many of us listening as well. so if you like, you can send me a link to that. I can post it on our show Sheralyn Silverstein: certainly do that. Mike: notes I'm happy to do that. Sheralyn Silverstein: Thank you Mike: is, related to Horizons. did you ever ride Horizons? Sheralyn Silverstein: No, no, no. Mike: Oh, okay. Interesting. was there from 1983 to 1999. GE ended its sponsorship in 93. sponsorships were a major, part of Epcot center attractions. had a huge impact, not just on me, but on many others. And when people think of this attraction, the quote is what comes to mind. It's always the and really was an engineering masterpiece, as I like to call it. And you're part of that amazing story. because Of that quote, your name may not be associated with it, know in the general public but we're gonna try and change that and I think it's important to make that happen, but thank you for your work that you've done and um, Sheralyn Silverstein: Thank you, Mike. Mike: conversation about Horizons is a great conversation for me. Sheralyn Silverstein: Of Mike: And I'm fortunate to speak with a very nice person like yourself. I really appreciate that. Sheralyn Silverstein: Thank you. On behalf of Harold and me, thank Mike: thank you so much. Thank you. And so we will definitely talk soon. I'll let you know when the video gets posted and we'll go from there. But thank you so much again. Thank Sheralyn Silverstein: Yeah, keep in touch, Mike.