Inspiration from Disney drives James Hammond's auto success
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FIRST:
"I was eight years old and my grandparents brought this pennant back to me from their visit to the opening of Disneyland in 1955. It's real felt." (Photo courtesy of: katebalwinphotographycom)
MOST VALUABLE:
"Swarovski, the famous crystal maker, glued hundreds of real pieces of crystal to a cast metal base. These are rare: they cost thousands and thousands of dollars." (Photo courtesy of: katebalwinphotographycom)
RAREST:
"This is the first Mickey Mouse comic book ever done. It was published in 1939; it's No. 17 so it's also one of the first comics Dell ever put out and it's in mint condition." (Photo courtesy of: katebalwinphotographycom)
Hammond is pictured near the door to his 1,000- square-foot collection room. Hammond hopes a benefactor will help him move the collection to a larger space, perhaps in Children's Hospital, where it would be accessible to children. (Photo courtesy of: katebalwinphotographycom)
James Hammond
Hammond in front of a poster of Walt Disney, with one of Uncle Walt's famous quotations: "Let's not lose sight of one thing: that it all started with a mouse." (Photo courtesy of: katebalwinphotographycom)
MOST UNIQUE:
"This is one of three handcrafted music boxes in my collection. This one makes perfect tones. It plays the theme song from Mickey's Christmas Carol." (Photo courtesy of: katebalwinphotographycom)
PORCELAIN:
"Out of the 12,000 pieces in my collection, 4,000 to 5,000 are porcelain. This is a recent bone china piece by Lenox." (Photo courtesy of: katebalwinphotographycom)
MOST PRIZED:
"This bronze (about one foot tall) is my favorite. It weighs a ton. It's Walt [Disney] and his alter ego, Mickey. They are holding hands because they are partners. It's priceless." (Photo courtesy of: katebalwinphotographycom)
James Hammond is best known for taking charge of the Seattle International Auto Show, a minor event featuring just 35 local dealers in 1973, and turning it into a massive five-day event that now fills the Qwest Field Event Center and generates $50 million in revenue.
Ask Hammond, who is co-founder and executive director of the Puget Sound Automobile Dealers Association (PSADA), one of the largest regional automotive trade organizations in the U.S., for the source of his energy and imagination, and he'll credit a mouse. Well, not just any mouse - Mickey Mouse.
"Mickey woke up the sleeping mouse in me," says Hammond, who began collecting Disney memorabilia in 1979. Now, he says, "I have the magic of Disney and I'll never grow up, because it would be boring."
It takes magic and flair to make an auto show great, says Hammonds. It requires helping people realize their own potential: "I'm an exhorter," he says, sounding a lot like his idol, Walt Disney. "I'm an encourager. I will try to lift your spirits. I will try to bring laughter to your life. But most of all, I will try to inspire you to be the person you were created to be."
Hammond first fell under the spell of Walt Disney in 1955, when The Mickey Mouse Club first aired on national television. But he says the power of Disney didn't really hit him until he began collecting. Now 60, Hammond owns a veritable Louvre of Mickey Mouse and Disney collectibles comprising 12,000 meticulously catalogued objects exhibited on specially designed shelves and in glass cases. The collection includes merchandise dating to the 1920s as well as unique items produced as gifts for Walt Disney Co. friends and employees: magnets, pencils, pins, plates, plush toys, clocks, books, records, films and figurines. Whole displays are devoted to snow globes, limited-edition porcelain by Goebel and Lenox and crystal by Waterford. Many items are worth $10,000 or more.
"The collection crosses every category in which Disney has licensed Mickey Mouse products," Hammond says. "It has to be either Mickey alone, or he has to be the dominant figure in it - but I will buy sets if Mickey is in the set." He obtains material from many sources, sometimes making finds in smalltown antique shops; many he acquired from friends and contacts at Disney.
Why identify with a cartoon mouse? "Mickey is the goodwill ambassador to the world," Hammond explains. "Walt loved people. You have to care about people; people have to come first. Mickey represents all the fruits of the spirit: love, peace, joy. ..."
Hammond knows the mouse's power to create bonds. As a children's pastor for 14 years and an Assembly of God missionary in Costa Rica, he used Mickey Mouse puppets to entertain kids. (He does great impersonations of Mickey and Donald Duck, and a serviceable Goofy.) Someday he hopes to donate his collection - his "museum," he rightly calls it - to a children's charity that can adequately house it.
But Hammond's life is not all Mickey Mouse. He's an important figure in the regional auto retail sector. "The industry of which I'm CEO accounts for 19 percent of all retail sales in the state, 10 percent of all retail payroll, and 20 percent or more of the state's sales tax," he says. "What we do matters, because if we get sick, the state gets a bad cold." Hammond was a key player in establishing the Professional Automotive Training Center, one of the nation's best training programs for Chrysler, General Motors, and American Honda and Toyota technicians. The center serves auto dealers in five states.
"Jim had the connections to the industry and to the dealerships, and had the foresight to say, 'We should be doing this with an academic institution,'" says Lee Lambert, president of Shoreline Community College, where the center is based.
Hammond's enthusiasm resonates among his constituency. "Jim bespeaks of leadership of the automobile dealers of the area," says Phil Smart Sr., founder of Phil Smart Mercedes-Benz, Seattle's first Mercedes dealership. "We've paid attention to him for over three decades, because he always speaks from the heart. He always makes good sense."
For his efforts to cultivate the businesspeople of tomorrow, Hammond was recognized as "volunteer of the last half-century" by Junior Achievement of Washington, according to David G. Moore, the organization's president. "He inspired kids to dream big dreams and gave them the tools to make their dreams a reality," Moore says.
