The story surrounding the origin of Mickey Mouse is well-known. Walt, feeling defeated after losing the rights to produce films with the Oswald character that he created, was on a train ride home when he began thinking about a new star.
On Thursday, October 10, The Walt Disney Family Museum hosted an intimate evening celebrating the outstanding achievements and life’s work of Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE, at the museum’s historic location in the Presidio of San Francisco.
For your next visit to our latest special exhibition, Mickey Mouse: From Walt to the World, we have selected a few of our favorite highlights to keep a pie-eye out for!
Disney historian, musician, and composer Ross Care provides us with an in-depth look into the marvelous music of Walt Disney’s groundbreaking series of cartoon short subjects—the Silly Symphonies.
Disney historian, musician, and composer Ross Care provides us with an in-depth look into the marvelous music of Walt Disney’s groundbreaking series of cartoon short subjects—the Silly Symphonies.
When the Disneyland television show premiered in October 1954, it promised stories and programs from four distinct lands in the still-under-construction theme park: Fantasyland, Adventureland, Frontierland, and Tomorrowland. With no existing library of material to populate the Tomorrowland segments, Walt assigned a team, directed by veteran animator Ward Kimball, to develop “science-factual” programs about human space exploration, among other topics.
Alice’s Wonderland—the last film Walt Disney made in Kansas City, Missouri—depicts the animated adventures of a true-to-life young girl in a make-believe world. In the original 1923 short film, Alice arrives by train in “Cartoonland.” A large welcoming committee of animated animal characters greets her with excitement and adoration. Walt’s subsequent arrival in Hollywood, also by train, was a bit humbler.
Former Disney artist Willie Ito recalls his first visit to the Studios 65 years ago, including a chance encounter with Walt Disney on an elevator, and his time working on Lady and the Tramp (1955).
Former Disney artist Willie Ito was 5 years old when he was taken to a neighborhood theater to see Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Two years later, returning to San Francisco from a weekend family outing to Santa Cruz, “There were armed soldiers stopping some of the cars,” as Ito remembers. The United States had been attacked at Pearl Harbor by the Empire of Japan that morning.
In late 1919, Walt Disney returned from his voluntary Red Cross service in post-World War I France. An independent eighteen-year-old, he’d resettled in Kansas City, Missouri and attempted to establish a career in illustration, graphic design, and cartooning. However, within a year’s time, a different art form caught his attention.