Visiting the Walt Disney Family Museum #DisneyPixarEvent
In April, I had the awesome opportunity to visit the Walt Disney Family Museum. I grew up with a mom who worked for Disneyland and had lots of experiences with Disneyland growing up, but didn’t know much about the family background. The Walt Disney Family Museum was definitely a great experience. There was so much that I learned about Walt and about the birth of one of our favorite amusement parks – Disneyland!
Here are some of the fun facts I learned on my trip:
– Walt Disney was born in 1901 and passed away in 1961.
– The first time Walt was paid for his artwork was when he was a boy. He was paid a quarter for a drawing of a horse he made for a doctor.
– Walt served in the military in France where he continued to draw. He would draw pictures for the soldiers to send home with letters they sent to their family and friends.
– Walt loved to shoot videos of his family. He loved using special effects with his camera.
– Walt arrived in Hollywood in 1923 with mismatched trousers and $40 in his pocket.
– The first mouse that Walt drew was Mortimer Mouse, later renamed Mickey Mouse.
– The cartoon short, Steamboat Willy, was 7 1/2 minutes long – made up of 10.5 thousand frames.
– Snow White is the first film to be released with its own score (musical soundtrack).
– Donald Duck was the Disney character featured in the most cartoons – even more than Mickey Mouse.
– The first action film Walt created was Treasure Island.
– Walt came up with Disneylandia, a series of miniature dioramas depicting historical Americana. He shelved the idea.
– At the Walt Disney Family Museum is the bench where Walt sat down at Griffith Park, as he watched his daughter on the carousel and came up with the idea of Disneyland.
– Walt Disney wanted a train to go around his park, so he sketched Griffith Park for his train layout.
– 3 Disneyland attractions were featured at New York’s World Fair – Carousel of Progress, It’s a Small World, and the Great Monument of Lincoln.
One of my favorite parts of the Walt Disney Family Museum was the model of Disneyland. It was so much fun looking at the miniature parts of Disneyland. There were lands and rides that I could identify that are still at Disneyland, and even some that are not! There are even rides that I remember as a kid that have been replaced by newer rides, such as the rocket ships or the people movers. What’s even cooler is that if you get down to the ground level of the model and crouch down, you can see Walt and his daughter holding hands. You have to get down and look through the gates of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle. It’s pretty awesome!
The Walt Disney Family Museum is open on Mondays from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and Wednesday through Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Disney/Pixar provided me with an all-expenses paid trip to screen “Brave,” “Chimpanzee,” and “La Luna,” as well as visit the Walt Disney Family Museum. All opinions expressed in this post are 100% mine.
What a neat trip! Interesting that some Disneyland items were at a New York World’s Fair– that must have been quite an effort to transport those items across the country. Thanks for the review!
my grandsons would love to see that,they were too young the last time we were in flordia at disney to do much but ride the rides so next time maybe they will want to see something else too
I didn’t know Treasure Island was the very first one. It’s so great to go out, have a blast, and learn some great tidbits along the way.
I didn’t know this existed! Quite neat and something to put on my bucket list to go visit. I was watching behind the scenes of The Jungle Book and it said that while he died before the film’s release, he made the last decision of his career by giving the Jungle Book’s ending with the village girl.