Tommy Walker, 63, Fireworks Magic Man, Dies

Showman Tommy Walker, a Disney veteran who created fireworks extravaganzas for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and this year’s Statue of Liberty celebration in New York Harbor, has died after a long battle against heart disease, his family said Tuesday.

Walker, 63, died Monday during open-heart surgery at Carraway Methodist Medical Center in Birmingham, Ala.

His wife, Lucille Walker, reached at the offices of Tommy Walker Productions in Irvine, said her husband had undergone two previous heart bypass operations at the Alabama hospital and returned there “because he had confidence in the surgical team there.”

“He was sure they would succeed in helping him this time too,” she said, “but his problems were just more serious than anyone knew.”

In addition to his wife, Walker leaves three daughters, Dianne Stocks of Pomona, Debra Jill Walker of Aptos and Patty Scaglioe of Grants Pass, Ore.; a sister, Dianne Beverly of Orange, and six grandchildren.

Funeral services are scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, followed by interment at Pacific View Memorial Park in Newport Beach.

A specialist in public spectacles throughout his half-century career, one of Walker’s most spectacular efforts was the 1980 Reagan inaugural, where red white and blue skyrockets flared as Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man” played and lasers lit the sky.

More recently, he was in charge of aerial effects for the Statue of Liberty centennial celebration on July 4, and the celebration for Harvard’s 350th Birthday.

“He inspired everybody around him to work for perfection,” his wife said. “He never settled for mediocrity. He just never quit.”

Walker’s active career began during his undergraduate years at USC in the early 1940s, when he was known as “Tommy The Toe” for his peculiar double-duty on football weekends: He was the Trojans’ place-kicker . . . and also drum major of the marching band.

“I wore my drum major’s outfit over my football outfit and I didn’t wear any pads,” he recalled, “and when you had an extra point situation, I just peeled off the drum major uniform and trotted onto the field.”

Walker’s place-kicking prowess was sufficient to get him the offer of a contract with the Washington Redskins after graduation, but he turned it down to return to USC as director of the marching band, a post he retained until Walt Disney hired him to stage the opening ceremonies at Disneyland in 1955.

“And when the opening was done,” he said, “I decided I liked the place, so I stayed . . . “

Walker was director of entertainment at Disneyland for 12 years, producing the nightly aerial fireworks shows and other extravaganzas that helped make the Anaheim amusement park world famous.

In 1964, he presented Disney’s famous “It’s a Small World” exhibit of animated children at the New York World’s Fair.

Along the way, he staged special effects events for five world’s fairs and for three Olympics, including the 1984 Games, which ended in an ear-splitting barrage of fireworks over the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum accompanied by the flight of an artificial flying saucer.

In 1982, he captured the Guinness Book of World Records mark for a release of balloons at opening ceremonies for the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, Nev.

“He had a magic about everything he did,” his wife said. “Other people could put the same ingredients in a show and it just wouldn’t come out the same way. He created a certain magic.”