WAKING WALT is based on an old urban legend that Walt Disney was never actually cremated and inurned at Forest Lawn Cemetery. It goes on to say, that Disney is actually in cryonic suspension, awaiting a cure for the cancer that took his life. When that cure is found he will be treated, cured, and brought back to life.
It's actually not such an outlandish idea considering that there are quite a few other bodies now awaiting the same outcome. Whether you believe that this can happen, or not, just think about the repercussions of what could happen if someday this all could be not just a dream but reality. Stranger things have already happened.
"A dream is a wish your heart makes, when you're fast asleep"*
December 1966, Arthur Nolan is a young oncology resident who would much rather be an artist than a physician. But instead of following his dream, he is following the dream of his physician father.
Then one night everything changes. Arthur is transferred to the PM shift, just as an older gentleman is admitted to Arthur's service. The older man is Walt Disney. The PM shift being slow, as most of them are, allows Arthur and Walt to become friends as they talk the nights away. Soon Walt offers to make Arthur's dreams of becoming an artist, come true, if he will help him make his own dream come true. He offers Arthur enough money to enable him to just walk away from medicine and pursue his dream of becoming an artist. All Arthur has to do is make sure that Walt is not buried, cremated or anything else after his death. Instead he is to make sure that his body will go into cryonic suspension until there is a cure for his lung cancer, and then he will be brought back to life.
Arthur agrees to the idea and becomes a member of The Circle. The Circle is a small group of very trusted men who will make sure that Walt Disney's frozen body is not disturbed, and when it is time, and there is a cure, his cancer will be cured and he will be brought back to life. A doctor, a lawyer, a banker, etc; all are men who have the expertise to pull this off.
When the time comes, each member of the of The Circle, using his own expertise, and acting under the prior direction and orders of Walt Disney spirit him off to be cryonically frozen and to wait until there is a medication that will cure his cancer. The world, and Walt's family, in the meantime think that he has been cremated and inurned at Forest Lawn Cemetery. The Circle go off to live their lives, protecting the secret, waiting for the time to come when a new drug will be discovered to cure their boss, and allow him to rise from the dead.
Years pass, the men of The Circle are aging, and there is a takeover plan of the Disney Corporation in the works. Arnold Garth and others want to split the Disney Company up. The breakup could create a lot of millionaires, but of course would destroy everything that Walt Disney had created. The Circle can no longer wait for the right time to come, they have to wake Walt now to stop the breakup of the company. He is the only one who can save it.
There is a new drug being tested and so they decide that they will get this drug, use it, and hopefully it will be the cure. They will then be able to wake Walt before it is too late. However something goes deadly wrong when Arthur tries to steal the drug, only to end up having a stroke that kills him in the process.
Due to their advancing ages, each member of The Circle has appointed a replacement in case the need arises. Arthur has appointed his nephew, Harry Poole to take his place in The Circle. Harry has no idea what in the world is going on. All he sees are a bunch of old men who have this crazy idea. But after listening to them, it doesn't sound so crazy after all, and so he decides to go along with the program.
But things are not to go quite the way that was intended. The secret gets out, and people are trying to stop the plans to bring Walt back. Keeping Walt alive isn't as easy as was first thought.
WAKING WALT is a masterfully written work of fiction based on an urban legend that has been around for years. Mr. Pontius has taken the legend and built a story that is completely fascinating. The imagination used to create WAKING WALT is absolutely brilliant, and the writing is flawless.
Mr. Pontius has managed to take something that most of us have heard and written off as ridiculous and built it into a fascinating mystery/thriller that is not only intriguing, but also quite plausible.
You come away from WAKING WALT with the feeling that maybe this could really have happened.
WAKING WALT may be a work of fiction, but is the idea? I wonder, and I very highly recommend that you read it and make up your own mind. You will not be sorry, WAKING WALT is wonderful, and makes you think. Larry Pontius has penned a winner, and well worth the read. One that you will not want to miss.
In
my opinion Mr. Pontius has a brilliant future ahead of him. One that I definitely
will follow.
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