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| View from the Presidio |
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| The museum is, like its subject, far too complex and vast to suggest a single narrative other than here is Walt's life and work; "it all began with a mouse" he was fond of saying... but it didn't really...by the time the mouse came along, there had already been a few successes, a few failures, a bankruptcy, a removal...not to mention a rough childhood and adolescence that were more about work and employment than about fun and education... |
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| Anyway, I'll just post some of the better pix without much more commentary |
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| I always thought the Mickey Mouse Club was a thing of the 50s...no, there were hundreds of chapters in the early 30s, and the merchandising, which became so integral to Disney, began then: pictured above, some 1930s MM merchandise |
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| There were a number of break-throughs and innovations: improving the quality of animation, making it believable, developing animated personalities, adding sound, doing it in color...but none bigger than the first animated feature, Snow White in 1937 |
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| By the late 30s, there was a whole Disney campus, complete with a studio restaurant |
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| Organizational chart from the period...lest anyone be confused about who was (totally) in charge |
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| Animators learning to draw Bambi |
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| Disney traveled in fast company...here a sketch given his daughter Diane by Diego Rivera; when he visited Rome in the mid-30s, vacationing, he was entertained by the Pope and Mussolini |
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| With Rachmaninoff and Horowitz; the association with Stokowski well known; one of the rare photos of Disney smoking (three packs a day, I've read) |
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| With Dali and Gala in Figueres, a long association |
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| The multi-plane camera, one of many technical innovations |
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| Unionization radically changed Disney and his relationships with employees; and began his veering off into the political right |
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| 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, a movie I saw when I was probably 7 or 8 years old (I acquired my coonskin cap a bit later); at the right is one of the under-water cameras used in making the movie |
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| A list of favorite meals Walt prepared for a new cook at the family residence |
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| His fascination with trains revealed itself in many ways... |
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| One of his model trains, the model above showing its route around his southern CA mansion |
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| Click to enlarge...how he did most everything... |
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| Giant model of Disneyland...most helpful model ever |
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| One of the 360 degree cameras employed for the 1964 NYC World's Fair and then the parks |
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| Among the many tributes following his death in 1966 |
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| There are many trophy cases at the museum; Disney won 26 Oscars (by comparison, among actors/actresses, Hepburn, the leader, had only 4); of course, many of Disney's Oscars were "special" rather than in a given category...the lot of innovators like Disney...you create the categories that are later recognized... |
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| Perhaps the most famous, for Snow White... |
