As Walt Disney was growing up, he saw and absorbed the movies of the great comedians. Learn from Disney authors and historians J.B. Kaufman and Russell Merritt about how great comedians of the silent screen such as Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd, among others, influenced Walt Disney's works...
Throughout August, Walt Disney's 1962 live-action comedy The Absent-Minded Professor, starring Fred MacMurray, will be screened in the Museum’s state-of-the-art digital theatre at 1:00pm and 4:00pm daily, except Tuesdays, and Saturday August 13. Guest blogger and friend of The Walt Disney Family Museum Jim Korkis contributes this profile of the Golden Globe-nominated star of the film.
Each month, we ask a museum staff member to answer five questions about their position at The Walt Disney Family Museum, their fondest Disney memories, and personal tidbits. Without this month's "What Do YOU Do?" spotlight, it'd be really hard to publish this post as we would have no computer or Internet access. So, Larry Arndt, tell us... what do YOU do?
The impact of silent film comedy on Walt Disney is inarguable. Throughout his career, the inspiration of Chaplin, Lloyd, Keaton, and their films can be seen over and over again. In turn, there were influences on Walt’s filmmaking that not only elevated the art, and added appeal top his characters, but brought new vernaculars to motion picture storytelling.
When you ask people about Walt Disney’s works, Mickey Mouse and Walt’s great animated films typically come first, then Disneyland, and for the older of us, the ritual of Walt’s weekly TV visit. Seldom, though, is Walt mentioned as a maker of live-action films, nor as the maker of a particular type of funny film—the “family comedy.”
July’s Look Closer presentations focused on a case in The Walt Disney Family Museum that is often overlooked by visitors. Though this case seems unassuming at first (positioned in Gallery 9 to the left of a large bank of video monitors), it houses artifacts relating to a fascinating period in the Disney story....
Spend a full day at the Museum with Disney animator/director John Musker--responsible for such films as Aladdin, Hercules, The Little Mermaid and The Princess and the Frog--as he takes us behind the scenes of hand-drawn animation with a youth workshop, a master class and a screening of The Great Mouse Detective! Tickets and more information can be found at www.waltdisney.org or www.SFFS.org.
Jim Korkis is no stranger to Disney History. His articles can be found all over the webisphere (including our own blog), but his first chance to see The Walt Disney Family Museum in person came this past weekend. During this time, 3pm on Saturday, he also managed to enthrall a packed room of Disney aficionados with stories of Walt’s Fascination with Outer Space.
"Last Sunday we honored Wally Boag, the unforgettable comic genius of The Golden Horseshoe Revue,” Diane Disney Miller reports. “Jeff Kurtti put the program together and presented it, and we were honored by the presence of Wally's son, Laurence, and his family. It was, of course, a very entertaining program...
In observation of this month’s celebration of Walt’s visionary ideas about space, progress, and the wonders of the future, we share a conversation on that subject between two remarkable Disney aficionados and Walt Disney Imagineers, Vanessa Hunt (a Founding Member of The Walt Disney Family Museum) and Tony Baxter (a friend and frequent advisor of our museum).