David, College Station, Texas

Garden Grove was not one of the sites considered for Disneyland. The finalists in the selection, besides the chosen Anaheim one, were in La Mirada and Santa Ana.

Richard, Bend, Oregon

Vesey Walker was the first director of the Disneyland Band. Shortly before Walker retired in 1970, James Christensen took over as director. Other directors have included Jim Barngrover, Stanford Freese, and Art Dragon.

Matt, South Pasadena, California

In the film, Dreamfinder, played by Ron Schneider, who served as the original walk-around character in the park, runs through WED Enterprises facilities during the period in which EPCOT Center and Tokyo Disneyland were being created. To our knowledge, the film never played to the public, as Magic Journeys was ready by the time Epcot opened. Portions of …

Nicole, Yorba Linda, California

It was the Willowick Golf Course in Santa Ana, which they claim is the oldest golf course in Orange County.

Larry, Sonoma, California

The Amtrak train, known as Amtrak GE P42 #156, pulled by two locomotives, was fitted out with exterior decorations and displays inside the cars, to help promote the film in 2009. Amtrak and Hewlett-Packard helped sponsor the train. At the completion of the tour, the Christmas Carol elements were removed from the train, and it …

Barbara, Oroville, California

This is a shortened version of a Disney cartoon, possibly Orphan’s Benefit (1934), in which Donald is forcibly removed from a stage by a hook. These shortened films were retitled and released by Hollywood Film Enterprises for use on home projectors; they are not rare. As I write this, a print of Getting the Hook …

Emily, Selden, New York

No, he did not take her to the park; her escort was Bill Dover, head of the Disney Studio’s Story Department.

Marie, Serris, France

The white gloves were added to Mickey’s hands in When the Cat’s Away (1929), the film made after The Opry House. John Grant, in his Encyclopedia of Walt Disney’s Animated Characters, quotes Walt Disney as saying, “We didn’t want him to have mouse hands, because he was supposed to be more human. So we gave …

Lynnean, Palatine, Illinois

Ward Greene, the author of the story which was published just before the film came out, only says “there lived in a white and green house on a pleasant street a cocker spaniel named Lady.” The filmmakers probably just decided to make the American town very generic from an era “not so long ago but …

Nicholas, Wyandotte, Michigan

Albert Hurter was a sketch artist, who was constantly drawing, sketching, and doodling, so it is possible that there are drawings of his out there. As a tribute to Hurter after he died, Disney artists compiled a book of his drawings, entitled He Drew as He Pleased (Simon & Schuster, 1948). There is also some …