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In honor of Mickey's special day, noted film historian and author, J.B. Kaufman, penned this ode to everyone's favorite mouse: Thursday, the 18th of November, marks an important birthday in Disney history: the birthday of Mickey Mouse. Today, the venerable mouse turns 82 years old.

The Walt Disney Family Museum was fortunate to be the subject of two new bonus features in Disney Home Entertainment's newest DVD/Blu-ray release of Fantasia, a film that's still regarded as one of Walt Disney's greatest achievements!

On October 3rd, 1955, a phenomenon known as the Mickey Mouse Club began. The Walt Disney Family Museum recently reunited three of the original Mouseketeers at a special event, hosted by Lorraine Santoli, author of The Official Mickey Mouse Club Book. Lorraine introduced the special guests: Cubby O’Brien, Sharon Baird, and Bobby Burgess, and led the discussion of their experiences with the show and working with Walt.

On December 5th, what would have been Walt Disney’s 109th birthday, the museum hosted “Memories of Walt: A Conversation with Legends, Featuring Alice Davis and Marge Champion.” Diane Disney Miller joined the lady Legends and moderator Charles Solomon on stage in celebration of her father’s birthday.

In celebration of Hanukkah, we sent our friends at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco complimentary tickets to give away to CJM visitors, at sunset, every day for the past eight days! Whatever special occasion it is you may be observing this holiday season, we'd love to celebrate with you at The Walt Disney Family Museum!

The Walt Disney Family Museum is filled with personal treasures from Walt’s life. These artifacts open a window into a world of a very ordinary man albeit one of the most ingenious men of his generation. The menu that we are highlighting was written in Walt’s own hand for the family's Master Housekeeper and Cook, Thelma Howard. For someone as prominent and important as Walt, you might expect extravagant items like champagne and caviar; instead, you find spam and eggs.

Design in the work of Walt Disney is a major emphasis in our programming here at The Walt Disney Family Museum during the first months of 2011. And, we are using the term “design” in a broad sense: of a duck and the voice of a duck; of new characters and a new look for Disney animated films with 101 Dalmations; and of a monumental classic—Mary Poppins­­—with a focus on costumes and music.

As 101 Dalmatians is our Film of the Month in February, Floyd Norman, Andreas Deja and Don Iwerks will visit the Museum on Saturday, February 12th, to chat about a classic Disney film that will have you seeing spots!

Walt's first cartoon series in Hollywood, "The Alice Comedies," was a loose adaptation of the literary principle: a young girl finds herself transported into another world, in this case, a live-action girl into a cartoon world.

In keeping with our "Gardens of Wonderland" event this weekend, we asked Volunteer Coordinator (and avid hiker) Reed Milnes to write about the natural wonderland that surrounds The Walt Disney Family Museum in The Presidio of San Francisco.

I am so lucky! I was one of the attendees in the sold-out audience for the The Art and Flair of Mary Blair. Author and lecturer John Canemaker presented a host of drawings and film snippets of Mary’s work, strung together with a colorful palette of words. Canemaker described her work as flat and stylized and polar opposites of reality, while her painting displayed a simplicity that conjures up Grandma Moses. The other artists at the Studio didn’t like her artwork, not being able to understand why so much attention was paid to her.

Next month, The Walt Disney Family Museum celebrates Walt Disney’s brilliant and timeless 1942 animated feature, Bambi. In this column, we revisit the observations of legendary Disney animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston from their 1990 book, Walt Disney’s Bambi: The Story and the Film, in which they discuss the work of Tyrus Wong.

As part of this month’s observation of Walt Disney’s space age visions, guest blogger Jeff Pepper provides an overview of Walt’s pioneering series of Space Exploration programs. “Man in Space” will have a rare public screening in the state-of-the-art digital theatre at The Walt Disney Family Museum on Saturday, July 23 at 3:00PM. Internationally-respected Disney Historian Jim Korkis (The Vault of Walt) will be hosting the presentation and providing insight into this groundbreaking television programming. Tickets are available at the Reception and Member Service Desk at our museum, or online at www.waltdisney.org.

From Walt Disney Family Foundation Films, "Walt & El Grupo" is a documentary chronicling a 1941 South American expedition, led by Walt Disney and a team of animators, affectionately dubbed "El Grupo." Featuring rare candid accounts from the studio’s head and his artists, the documentary illustrates the impact the trip had on American and global culture, and brings new perspective to the Disney heritage that continues to inspire the world...

Disney historian, Jeff Kurtti, takes time to reflect on the passing of Leslie Neilsen and reminds us that in the beginning of his career, Nielsen had been part of the Walt Disney family of television stars.

To anyone who has read a Walt Disney biography, you know the story of Walt Disney's 1926 Moon roadster. Walt was quite proud of that car, and it was the very automobile he used to court Lilly. However, after losing Oswald, Walt and Roy fell on hard financial times. Of course, that didn't seem to disturb the ever-optimistic Walt Disney. Instead, he came up with a new character, Mortimer Mouse (aka Mickey)...

Continuing our celebration of Walt Disney's birthday, we asked guest blogger, Jonas Rivera --an Academy Award-winning producer at PIXAR--to share his thoughts on what Walt meant to him and how Walt's legacy influenced him for the future. It's hard to imagine that there's anything to say that hasn't already been said about Walt Disney. I've spent a good hunk of my life trying to learn about him, his work and his influence. It's impossible really, to summarize how much he means to the world. So...

Christmas with Walt Disney screens daily at 1pm & 4pm. (except Tuesdays and December 5, 11, and 25 ).

Since its founding on St. Cecilia’s Day 2004, Artists’ Vocal Ensemble (AVE) has been engaging audiences with thoughtful programming and consistently exceptional choral singing that has set it apart from other ensembles in the Bay Area. Composed of mixed voices (male and female) that are especially suited to Renaissance and contemporary repertoire, their reputation has spread rapidly as a leader in sacred choral music.

In the 1940s, Walt Disney once referred to Donald Duck as the Clark Gable of his stable, meaning that the irascible duck was as important a talent to the Walt Disney Studios as Clark Gable was to MGM Studios. Donald’s importance to the Disney “stable” is evidenced by his starring role in more cartoon shorts (128) than any other Disney character, including Mickey Mouse.