138: Butch Rigby: Building Restorer, Founder of Thank You, Walt Disney

This week we're chatting with Butch Rigby, a Kansas City developer — or restorer, might be a better term — entrepreneur, lawyer and founder of Thank You, Walt Disney.

Rigby has developed real estate in and around the Kansas City area for more than 30 years, starting when he was a full time student at the University of Missouri-Kansas City where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies, and a Juris Doctor from the UMKC School of Law.

Right after school, he headed to Hollywood to work in movies. A few years later, Butch returned to Kansas City with some great stories.

He founded the Screenland Movie Theatre Circuit, and as a part of that venture, he restored the Historic Granada Movie Theatre Building in downtown Kansas City, Kansas. He then renovated the historic Armour Theatre Building in North Kansas City, Mo. He placed the two buildings on the National Historic Register.

In the 1990s he formed Thank You Walt Disney Inc., and as Chairman of that organization, he and a group of volunteers purchased Walt Disney’s first cartoon studio, the Laugh-O-Gram building near 31st and Troost and took the building off of the city’s condemned building list, restored its structural integrity and have prepared it for re-use as an interactive historic site.

Butch will talk about those things and much more, including taking a swing at some "Pregame Batting Practice."

LINKS:

To learn more about Thank You, Walt Disney, please visit their site.

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