Storyboard

Seventy-five years ago on this exact day, Walt Disney's first feature-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, premiered at Carthay Circle Theater on December 21, 1937. In celebration of this Disney classic, author and historian J.B. Kaufman's new book The Fairest One of All explores the making of Walt's first feature-length animated film, including an examination of each individual dwarf. Below is a short excerpt from this book—which is available now online and in our Museum Store, as well as a video we've put together, which features the highlights from the opening premiere of this ground-breaking film. 

Among the personal family items on display in the Museum are two very special bracelets. One, the "Oscar Bracelet", and the second, the Cartier Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs bracelet...

December 18, 1933, was a date marked by a very important event in Walt Disney’s life—and in ours! At a studio luncheon that day, Walt was being honored by Parents’ Magazine with a special award for “distinguished service to children,” in recognition of the delightful worlds of fantasy he had created on the screen. No sooner had magazine representative Marion Savage Sabin concluded her speech, praising Walt’s accomplishments and conferring this special award on him, than Walt received some whispered news, mumbled a hasty thank-you to the assembled guests, grabbed his hat, and bolted from the room. The reason was fitting enough: Walt Disney himself was about to become a parent...

The inspiration of and appreciation for Walt Disney knows no boundaries. The membership at The Walt Disney Family Museum certainly reflects this diversity. Each month, we’ll introduce you to one of our Members, so you can see the varied and frequently fascinating people, who have come together to learn and experience more about the life, work, philosophies, and ideals of Walt Disney. In the spirit of the holidays this month, we’d like you to meet Les Mize who has an individual membership to the Museum... and would like you to visit him at the Mickey Mouse Christmas House on 417 Blackstone Drive in San Rafael, California!

We are saddened to hear of the passing of Roger Broggie Jr., whose death was caused by a head injury sustained from a fall while working on a parade float in his Oregon hometown yesterday...

Each month, we ask a Museum staffer to answer five questions about their position at the Museum, their fondest Disney memories, and personal tidbits. This month, in celebration of our new major exhibition--Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: The Creation of a Classic--we're thrilled to introduce to you someone who played an integral part in getting this exhibition up and running. So today we're BEN PETERS... what do YOU do?!

Tomorrow on December 8, Disney Legend Bob Gurr will be hosting a program at The Walt Disney Family Museum called “Building Disneyland,” highlighting how Walt got things done quickly. So, we here at STORYBOARD would like to share this story about a seldom-discussed Gurr creation that he whipped up in 1957 quickly, and creatively, at Walt’s request.

It’s hard to be anything but inspired when looking at all of the incredible artwork and careful planning that went into making Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. So when the Education Department saw the special exhibition, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: The Creation of a Classic, we knew we wanted to offer a special activity to celebrate the power of story with the classes who book school experiences. There are many different ways to approach this topic, but the Education Department at The Walt Disney Family Museum likes to put learners in the center, and what better way to help students learn about story than to tell a story? Stay tuned for more information!

One hundred and eleven years ago on December 5, 1901, in the upper bedroom of Elias and Flora Disney's Tripp Avenue home in Chicago, Illinois, Walter Elias Disney was born. 

There are two popular Montgomery Streets in the city we call home—one in the Financial District across town, and the other here, in the Presidio. With the Golden Gate Bridge to the west, Crissy Field to the north, and the City to the east, The Walt Disney Family Museum is housed in a restored 1890s army barrack on the Main Post in the historic Presidio, which was once the U.S. Army's premier West Coast base (and was later decommissioned in 1989 and transfered to the National Park Service). With the holidays quickly approaching, we are happy to have the Presidio Trust pen for us a little historical background on the ceremonial tree lighting, which has been a decades-old tradition here in our beautiful Presidio of San Francisco.