Here’s How a Four-Page Contract Started The Walt Disney Company
Explore the origin of The Walt Disney Company: A four-page agreement that paved the way for an entertainment titan’s magical 100-year legacy.
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Inside Walt’s Disneyland, an Immersive Guide to the Park Walt Helped Create
By the D23 Team Most Disney Parks fans can guide you through Disneyland with ease, thanks to their countless trips to The Happiest Place on Earth and a passion for learning the park’s history—but perhaps the only person who could explore the park more in-depth is Walt Disney himself! With that idea in mind, author …
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Did You Know? 8 Genius Facts About Ludwig Von Drake
By Jim Fanning Hello there, you kooky people, you! Are you in for a treat! 60 years ago—on September 24, 1961—the egotistical, erudite, eccentric professor Ludwig Von Drake made his debut on the premiere episode of Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color. The only major animated character Walt created especially for television, Professor Von Drake …
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Just Announced: Inspiring Walt Disney: The Animation of French Decorative Arts Opens at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in December 2021
By Beth Deitchman For the first time ever, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City will feature the work of Walt Disney Animation Studios’ hand-drawn animation in a new exhibition opening December 10, 2021, and continuing through March 6, 2022. Inspiring Walt Disney: The Animation of French Decorative Arts will draw new parallels …
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6 Degrees of Walt Disney—How the 2021 Oscar® Nominees Relate to Walt
By Courtney Potter It’s true: Walt and Oscar go way back. All told, he won or received 32 Oscars®, from an incredible 67 nominations, during an iconic decades-long career—and he still holds the record for most Oscars in history. As D23 has highlighted in years past, Walt weaves a truly historic path through film industry …
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D’scovered – “Are You Walt Disney?”
By Becky Cline, Director, Walt Disney Archives When doing research in the collections of the Walt Disney Archives, it’s always fun when you stumble across interesting tidbits from Disney History. One day, while looking in Walt Disney’s 1955 correspondence files (for something else entirely), I came across this very charming note to Walt—and his equally …
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Up and Up and Up: 65 Years of Twirling with Dumbo the Flying Elephant
By Kevin Kern, Walt Disney Archives Sometimes, the most memorable delights are those which are the simplest. Walt Disney’s Dumbo the Flying Elephant attraction has withstood the tests of time to become not only a beloved tradition for families to seek out when visiting Disney Parks, but also as a sort of “rite of passage” …
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Walt’s Maps of the Magic
By Max Lark Walt Disney once said: “I’ve always wanted to work on something alive, something that keeps growing. We’ve got that in Disneyland.” Anyone fortunate enough to visit Walt Disney’s office suite in the 3-H wing at the original Animation Building will see pictorial proof of Walt’s commitment to evolving and adding to his …
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Walt’s Woking Way
By Mike Buckhoff, Walt Disney Archives In perhaps the most iconic photo of Walt Disney, Walt stands with a serious gaze out of a doorway as the shadow of his most famous creation reflects off the wall. For many years, the most puzzling aspect of this photo was… where was this taken? Of course, those …
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Revisiting Walt Disney’s True-Life Adventures: The Vanishing Prairie
By Dave Smith In helping to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Walt Disney Archives, the Archives staff wanted to dig deep into their vaults to share an enlightening historical article with Disney fans. The following is an essay that Disney Legend, and Walt Disney Archives founder, Dave Smith wrote for a screening series hosted by …
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