Walt Disney at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank

Move of the Disney Studio to Burbank Completed

On this day in 1940, Disney employees completed their move to the current Burbank home of the Walt Disney Studios, but Associated Press reporter Robin Coons was not sure if this meant big change in the future of Disney’s work. She wrote at the time, “I was worried because the removal to the new factory, still in progress, could change the Disney atmosphere as drastically as a Disney venture into big business. So I went out and browsed around the big new lot, and I’m happy to report that Disney is still Disney, and the Disney lot is still like no other in this town or any other. The artists work in roomier, air-conditioned, more convenient quarters, but their walls are still adorned with those extra-curricular inspirations indicative of the sans-souci spirit of old… There was Walt himself in a leather jacket, still being called plain ‘Walt’ by everybody in sight… There may be other lots with almost as much loyalty to the head man as here; there certainly are lots with more formidable lines of time clocks; but there isn’t another with a higher morale.”