First known by the title Blue Bayou Lagoon, what came to be Pirates of the Caribbean was Walt’s crowning achievement in full-dimensional storytelling.
One story was about rubber and another was about a flying car; inspired by the stories of Samuel Taylor's short stories, the writers at The Walt Disney Studios created The Absent-Minded Professor.
President of the highly esteemed Courvoisier Galleries in San Francisco, Guthrie Courvoisier believed that the Disney paintings on celluloid that were used to create Snow White could be sold as valuable art pieces to the public through art galleries and museums all over the world. And he was right.
Walt’s varied experience with outside distribution companies, would take to heart owning his own characters, stories, and means of production; a lesson The Walt Disney Company embodies to this day.
Les Clark was a hard-working young apprentice animator at The Walt Disney Studios and would become one of Walt's most prized animators as well as an iconic member of “The Nine Old Men.”
Marc conceptualized characters, while Alice dressed them. To date, they are the only married couple to be dedicated Main Street, U.S.A. windows for their contributions to Disneyland.
The Disneyland Monorail System is one of many great examples of Walt Disney turning his dreams into reality. As fate would have it, Walt noticed a monorail train on a trip to Germany and immediately envisioned it as the transportation system of the future, and knew he wanted one in his park.
Walt first became acquainted with Scottish playwright J.M. Barrie’s story, Peter Pan, about the boy who did not want to grow up when watching a touring company’s production of the famous play forty years prior. Walt remembered the tale and kept it in his back pocket until 1939 when he acquired the rights to embark on his own version of Never Land.
December 1, 1966 saw the release of Walt Disney’s Follow, Me Boys! only two weeks before the visionary storyteller would pass away at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Burbank. Though other productions that had featured Walt’s involvement continued after his death, this film would be the last Disney feature to be released in his lifetime. Follow Me, Boys! stands as a lasting testament to the spirit of nearly every film that Walt gifted to audiences around the world.
Even if you don’t immediately recognize the name Ed Wynn, you are most likely familiar with his work. You may know him best as the quivering voice of the Mad Hatter from Walt Disney’s animated feature Alice in Wonderland (1951) or as the incurably giggly Uncle Albert in the live-action film Mary Poppins (1964)