You can't talk about Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland without acknowledging the contributions of artist, Mary Blair. We asked Michael Labrie, Director of Collections, to share with us the story of the acquisition of the Mary Blair collection.
We are saddened to note the passing of Collin Campbell, who died in Florida on April 2. He was a layout and background artist in the Disney Animation Department, and was a long-time art director and concept artist for Walt Disney Imagineering.
English poet Alfred Austin said, “Show me your garden and I shall tell you what you are.” Our Consulting Historian Paula Sigman Lowery has turned the earth in the Disney garden, and her discoveries are pleasant revelations of Walt’s life at home.
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.
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.
Often lost in the public perception of Walt Disney’s personality is his wicked sense of humor. He has frequently been characterized as simply a lowbrow, fond of barnyard humor and gags involving the rear end. Although Walt admitted, “I can’t laugh at intellectual humor, you know? I want to be hit here. I’m just corny enough. I want to be hit right here in the heart...
New to Gallery 7 within The Walt Disney Family Museum is an enlarged display of the Museum’s tiny treasures, including several pieces of Walt’s unique collection, mentioned in this excerpt from Jim Korkis’s book, The Vault of Walt.
Ever since I began working for the Museum in September 2009 and learned that we’d be offering a Film of the Month for our guests, I anxiously awaited the showing of Mary Poppins. It had always been my favorite Disney feature-length film, and when it was finally scheduled to run this month, I was thrilled. Not only did I have the chance to watch it again in our intimate Fantasia-themed theater, I also had the pleasure of introducing it to visitors throughout the month, and then making the book behind the movie the focus of our March Look Closer presentation...
Throughout the month of March, The Walt Disney Family Museum is showing Walt Disney's classic film Mary Poppins. In celebration of this beloved movie, the Museum hosted an extraordinary afternoon with the film's costume and design consultant, Tony Walton. Brad Rosenstein, curator of the San Francisco Museum of Performance and Design, moderated the discussion on Tony's life and work. The conversation focused on Tony's designs for Mary Poppins, his firsthand experiences working with Walt, and a few behind-the-scenes secrets of the film...
In observance of St. Patrick’s Day, our consulting historian, Paula Sigman Lowery, offers this tribute to Walt’s relationship with Ireland.