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In this rarely seen photo, Walt Disney poses for an old-time photo with Disney Legend Ward Kimball during their 1948 visit to the Chicago Railroad Fair, held at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry.
In an effort to get “the boss” to relax a bit, Studio Nurse Hazel George suggested that Walt take a trip by train to Illinois for the 1948 Chicago Railroad Fair, held at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry.
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Knowing that Lillian and the girls wouldn’t be particularly interested in attending the event with him, Walt invited animator and train enthusiast Ward Kimball to accompany him on the visit.
The two men took the Super Chief from Pasadena, California to Chicago, Illinois. Upon arrival at the fair on Thursday August 19, a general commemoration of the building of the railroads in America, Walt and Ward were treated royally. The president of the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, Lenox Lohr, who hosted the fair, let Walt and Ward go backstage at a pageant called Wheels a Rolling, presented on a 450-foot platform off Lake Michigan embedded with tracks for historic locomotives.
The two railroad buffs had a wonderful time at the Fair.
Walt was even allowed to run several of the old engines and gamely appeared as a player in the show. Looking at these historic photos from the trip, Hazel George appears to have been absolutely right, “the boss” seemed to have really relaxed and the two railroad buffs had a wonderful time at the Fair.
