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Welcome to STORYBOARD, the official blog of The Walt Disney Family Museum. A museum is a lively, energetic thing--gathering information and artifacts, growing, reaching out, and sharing with the community the things it acquires and discovers. STORYBOARD will enable us to communicate with you directly, announce upcoming plans and programs, introduce you to our staff, highlight ongoing acquisitions and share the stories behind many of the Museum’s great treasures.

On Friday evening, in front of a sold-out audience in the Museum’s theater, Executive Director Richard Benefield welcomed everyone to the program. He singled out retired Imagineer and Disney Legend Marty Sklar as the guiding force behind the weekend celebration ahead.

It truly was a Museum full of characters. This past Wednesday night, the Yelp Elite gathered at The Walt Disney Family Museum, in the Presidio of San Francisco, for an animated evening of fun, food, and a little bit of dress-up!

Due to Aloha Weekend at the Presidio, parking will not be free to our Museums guests on August 7 and August 8. We appreciate your patience during this time.

It’s hard to believe that there is just only a month left to see our Peter Pan exhibit, but this year--like so many others--seems to be flying by at a fast clip.

Grab a pen and mark your calendars! We'll be celebrating our ONE YEAR anniversary here at The Walt Disney Family Museum during a weekend packed with family fun, festivities, and music, October 1, 2 + 3! Admission is half off for our Saturday Night Soiree--think music with a live DJ and cash bar!--which will keep the Museum open until 9PM!

Whether you’re a first time visitor, or a frequent guest we know by name, here’s a new way to look and learn in The Walt Disney Family Museum: Enter our WHERE’S WALT? CONTEST during the month of October and be eligible to win a PRIVATE SCREENING of a classic Disney film for you and 50 of your friends in our theater.

he Walt Disney Family Museum is staying up late to celebrate its FIRST birthday with a party, which includes extended hours and HALF-OFF admission from 6PM to 9PM on Saturday, October 2!

We are at the end of our first year of operation as a Museum, but it has been more than ten years in gestation, beginning with our collaboration with writers Richard and Katherine Greene, and producers Cathy Labrador and Jean Pierre Isbouts of Pantheon Productions on a CDRom that created our "virtual Museum"

COMING UP! Behind the Scenes on "Treasure Island" with Harrison Ellenshaw, which will take place in our Theater this Saturday, October 9 at 3PM. In the late 1940s, Walt Disney approached Peter Ellenshaw to work on the studio's first live-action feature, Treasure Island. Thus began a professional collaboration and friendship, which lasted over 30 years and 34 films. Learn from Peter's son, Harrison, how his father recreated scenes of England with matte paintings, and also what it was like to work with Walt!

This is the first of a five-part series that looks back at the Museum's roots and its journey to opening day, Oct. 1st, 2009.

This is the third of a five-part series that looks back at the Museum's roots and its journey to opening day, Oct. 1st, 2009.

From the beginning of our museum project, I was always more concerned with story than design. That was the purpose of the thing - to tell the story of my father's life. Every life comes to an end, and it is always a time of grief and loss for family and friends. Gallery 10a deals with that in a very straightforward manner.

The Walt Disney Family Museum is offering a special admission package exclusively to D23 Members on Saturday, October 30. The $23 ticket (more than a 20 percent savings!) will include adult admission and a showing of HallowScreen! in the Museum's state-of-the-art movie theater--we even encourage you to come in costume!

Saturday, October 30th and Sunday, October 31st: Costumes welcome, so come dressed in your best! Screening Times: 10:30am, 12:30pm, 2:30pm, 4:30pm, 6:30pm, 8:30pm, 10:30pm

In 1928, after losing the rights to a character he had helped develop, Walt Disney had to come up with a new creation. His wife, Lillian, recalled, "He was talking about different things, kittens and cats, this and that and the other. He kept talking about a mouse."Walt later said, "And then the name came. I had Mortimer first and my wife shook her head, and then I tried Mickey and she shook her head the other way, and that was it!"

Our guest curator this week is Lynn Zook. Lynn is our Digital Archivist and is part of the Collections team. We asked her to pick her favorite artifact from the Collection and write about why she chose it.

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.