Welton Becket
Welton Becket was an architect who designed many of the most famous buildings in Hollywood and Los Angeles. He was responsible for two Disney-related buildings: The Ford Pavillion at the 1964/65 New York World’s Fair, which hosted the attraction Magic Skyway and the Contemporary Resort hotel, which opened in 1971 at Walt Disney World.
Becket was born in Seattle, Washington on August 8, 1902, and graduated from the University of Washington program in Architecture in 1927 with a Bachelor of Architecture degree. He settled in Los Angeles in 1933 and formed a partnership with his University of Washington classmate Walter Wurdeman and Angelean architect Charles F. Plummer.
After Wurdeman’s untimely death in 1949, Becket formed Welton Becket Associates and continued to relentlessly grow the firm.
A neighbor of Walt’s in Holmby Hills, he became a friend of the family in the ‘50s and the Disney and Becket couples traveled together on several occasions in the ‘60s. Here are some recollections of those exciting trips.
Unfortunately only a few pages of this interview survived. […]
Parent contents
- Parent entry
- 1 - Ruth Disney Beecher (Dave Smith)
- 2 - Les Clark (Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston)
- 3 - Harry Tytle (Richard Hubler)
- 4 - James Bodrero (Milt Gray)
- 5 - Sylvia Holland - as remembered by Theo Halladay (Robin Allan)
- 6 - Retta Scott (Robin Allan)
- 7 - Retta Davidson (Jim Korkis)
- 8 - Retta Davidson (Floyd Norman)
- 9 - Moe Gollub - as remembered by Mark Kirkland (Steve Hulett)
- 10 - Ben Sharpsteen (Richard Hubler)
- 11 - Lou Debney (David Tietyen)
- 12 - Jim Macdonald (David Tietyen)
- 13 - Charles Wolcott (David Tietyen)
- 14 - Bill Cottrell (Richard Hubler)
- 15 - Herb Ryman (Richard Hubler)
- 16 - Donn Tatum (Richard Hubler)
- 17 - Card Walker (Richard Hubler)
- 18 - Bob Sherman (Richard Hubler)
- 19 - Dolores Voght (Richard Hubler)
- 20 - Tommie Wilck (Richard Hubler)
- 21 - Welton Becket
- 22 - Bill Anderson (John G. West)
- 23 - Robert Stevenson (Richard Hubler)
- 24 - Don Griffith (Christopher Finch, Linda Rosenkrantz)
- 25 - Floyd Gottfredson (Jim Korkis)
- 26 - Floyd Gottfredson (Tony Fischier)
- 27 - Al Taliaferro (Jim Korkis)
- 28 - Jack Hannah (Jim Korkis)
- 29 - Carl Barks (Jim Fanning)
- 30 - Blaine Gibson (Paul F. Anderson)
- 31 - Harriet Burns (Scott Wolf)
- 32 - Roy E. Disney (Charles Solomon)
- 33 - Correspondence with Frank Thomas (Göran Broling)
- 34 - Bud Hester (Didier Ghez)
- 35 - Ken Southworth (Didier Ghez)
- 36 - Dale Baer (Didier Ghez)