Douglas, Lakeland, Florida
A: Is there a negative number on the verso of the photograph? That would help us identify it if it’s indeed a photo shot by a Disney staff photographer. You might want to send your question and a copy of the photo to the Walt Disney Archives.
Larry, Tampa, Florida
A: Sadly with the passage of the years (45-plus), there are only two people left at the Disney Studios who were hired during Walt Disney’s lifetime: animation director Burny Mattinson and publicist Arlene Ludwig (as of July 2012). There are still several people at Disneyland who were hired pre-1966.
Richard, Council Bluffs, Iowa
A: When Walt was 14 years old, he enrolled in children’s art classes three nights a week at the Kansas City Art Institute. The next year, when he was 15, the Disney family moved to Chicago, and besides enrolling in high school, Walt attended night classes at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. There he studied pen technique, anatomy, and cartooning, but he learned the most from professional newspaper cartoonists teaching there, such as Carey Orr of the Chicago Tribune and Leroy Gossett of the Chicago Herald.
Toni, Los Angeles, California
A: Walt Disney was a collector of miniatures, and he originally envisioned a series of settings in which miniatures could be displayed. He even built Granny’s Cabin, a pioneer farm home filled with miniature furniture and other pieces, which was exhibited at a 1952 “Festival of California Living” show in Los Angeles. But he soon realized that capacity per hour would be extremely low for such an attraction, so one was never built at Disneyland.
Stamp, Vancouver, Washington
A: There was just a single stamp design, featuring a portrait of Walt, with a stream of children coming out of a castle, though first-day cover envelopes were issued by various companies with a variety of cachets. The release date of the 6¢ stamp was selected by the U.S. Postal Service; it does not have any particular significance to anything else in Disney history. The First Day of Issue ceremony was held in Marceline, Missouri, Walt’s boyhood hometown, with Disney family members in attendance.
Brad, Madison, Mississippi
A: One of my first jobs in 1970 was to inventory Walt’s offices. Not only did we do the inventory, but we photographed the offices from all angles. The working office, to which you are referring, is currently on display in the One Man’s Dream attraction at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The formal office is reproduced in the current Treasures of the Walt Disney Archives exhibit at the Ronald Reagan Library. The shelves you mention, in the working office, were indeed for scripts, the ones for current projects he was working on.
Martin, Akron, Ohio
A: The re-creation of Walt’s office is the original, with all of the furniture and furnishings as I inventoried them in 1970. It was on display at Disneyland for three decades. There is no similar office at The Walt Disney Family Museum. The 13-inch figure of a man has no history behind it; I assume that it was a gift to Walt. It is wooden, with the man holding a clock under his arm, having the ability to turn his head and whistle.
Chris, Delray Beach, Florida
A: The editorial cartoon of the earth, with Mickey Mouse ears, crying, was drawn by artist Karl Hubenthal for the now-defunct Los Angeles Herald-Examiner on December 16, 1966.