On this day in 1961, The Great Locomotive Chase chugged into theaters. It told the story of Civil War Union leader James J. Andrews (Fess Parker) and Confederate train conductor William A. Fuller (Jeffrey Hunter) and the actual historical events that occurred on April 22, 1862 when a party of 22 Union spies stole a train from 4,000 Confederate troops near Atlanta, Georgia, and began a race that might have brought an early end to the Civil War. Marceline, Missouri, resident Kaye Malins fondly recalls attending the film’s premiere. “Walt held the Midwest premiere of The Great Locomotive Chase here in Marceline. It was a gift to the people of Marceline. Walt took the stage and he looked at the crowd and said, ‘You children are lucky to live here. My best memories are the years I spent here.’ That really had an effect on me. I thought, ‘We ARE lucky to live here,’ because we can be a kid a lot longer. Actually, I’m still not grown up. But, it was at that moment that I felt a connection with him, and yes, I was a Disney fan. They wanted us to sing the Mickey Mouse song to Walt when he walked in the theatre but we didn’t know it. We didn’t get it here. We’d heard of it but we didn’t get the Mickey Mouse Club. So they taught us the song so we could sing that to Walt when he walked into the Uptown Theatre for the premiere. It was a lot of fun.” Today, the Walt Disney Hometown Museum in Marceline has a very large collection of The Great Locomotive Chase memorabilia exhibited, including the screenwriter’s script with final corrections.” As for Kaye, who is affectionately known as the Queen of Marceline, she remains an avid Disney fan and lives in Walt Disney’s childhood home.