Nothing goes together better than Laugh-O-grams and candy-grams, right? Well, if that doesn’t do it for you, this list, which highlights the love in Walt’s life—particularly the love he shared with his wife, Lillian—might just help you and your special someone gain a new perspective on some of the stories that are mentioned only briefly in our galleries.
With a heavy heart and deep sadness, we share that Ron Miller, husband of Diane Disney Miller, son-in-law of Walt Disney, President of the Board of Directors at The Walt Disney Family Museum, and owner of Silverado Vineyards, has passed in Napa, California at the age of 85.
As we celebrate The Walt Disney Family Museum’s 10th Anniversary, we are continually looking for ways to share Walt Disney’s legacy with others. With this in mind, all proceeds from the sales of this limited edition, round 10th Anniversary pin will be applied toward the museum’s scholarship fund.
Though the museum has welcomed visitors since October 1, 2009, one of the questions we’re asked most frequently by guests remains: “Why is the museum here?” Well, for over a decade, Diane Disney Miller, Walt's daughter, considered how best to memorialize her father’s life story, and landed on what we now know as The Walt Disney Family Museum.
One Saturday morning in 1953, artist Herb Ryman sat down in front of Walt Disney and started to sketch. He had two full days to create a visual concept depicting an idea of Walt’s: an amusement park that would appeal to both children and adults.
In 1951—four years before the grand opening of Disneyland—a man named Harper Goff browsed the shelves of Bassett-Lowke, a miniature train store in central London. When a particular antique train took Goff’s eye, he was told that it had been promised to someone else. “I found one,” Goff later remembered, “and the man said ‘There’s a gentleman coming in this evening who’s shown some interest in that…’”
The year was 1905. Theodore Roosevelt was president, a quart of fresh milk cost about 7 cents, and Eric Cleon Larson was born on September 3 in Cleveland, Utah. While Disney fans know Larson as one of Walt’s famous “Nine Old Men” of animation, his path to get there was hardly a straight line. In fact, during an interview not long before his retirement, he was asked how he ended up with Disney. His reply: “This is the last place I expected to be.”
Walt Disney’s Melody Time celebrates its 70th anniversary this year. Released in May of 1948, it was one of the last of the so-called package features, which took precedent from Fantasia (1940) by combining more than a half dozen short subject cartoons, each musically inclined.
A 1932 article in McCall’s magazine reported that painted on one door in red and gold is a shield bearing Mickey’s coat of arms. The mystic words “Ickmay Ousmay” are inscribed on this heraldic emblem and they puzzled studio visitors a good deal.
Veteran Disney producer and Walt Disney Family Museum Advisory Board member Don Hahn has recently completed work as Curator of our newest special exhibition, Walt Disney’s Nine Old Men: Masters of Animation. Historian Lucas O. Seastrom sat down with Don to look back on the experience of putting the show together.