Vintage Disney Parks

There are so many things that catch your eye while strolling around the Disneyland Resort. There’s the dazzling Sleeping Beauty Castle, the vibrant it’s a small world, the majestic Matterhorn, the colorful Mickey’s Fun Wheel, and the breathtaking Ornament Valley in Cars Land… just to name a few! But if you take a closer look, there are many other little Disney Details to be found around every corner.

Hani El Masri’s concept art for Walt Disney World’s Blizzard Beach.

Imagineer Pat Burke (Well known for getting all the authentic mining equipment used as props in all the Big Thunder Mountains) messing around with Godzilla in the early 1980s when Walt Disney Imagineering was using the Toho lot as a staging area for development of Tokyo Disneyland.

Back in 1982 and 83, WED Enterprises was busy building it’s first international park called Tokyo Disneyland in Japan, as well as EPCOT in Walt Disney World. The Africa Pavillion was cancelled, so I went to Japan to help with props and sets for about 13 attractions. Based mostly at TOHO Studios, I was called upon one day to visit the Monster Room where all the TOHO Monsters hung around. Godzilla the most famous of their family was having a new premier revival at the Ginza. I offered to help out with a teeth cleaning and gave him a ride to make up, as seen in the 2 photos. I heard he made a Big Splash at the opening.

The Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, 1923 - 1926

“The world’s largest media company began in a small garage in Los Feliz, CA. […] As soon as Walt and his brother Roy signed their first deal in 1923, they hightailed it out of uncle Robert’s garage and into the back of a real estate office on Kingswell Avenue. Pictures of the brothers beaming in front of their building, which now houses a copy shop, seem so immediate and alive that you can almost feel Walt’s energy and enthusiasm jump from the page.”

– an excerpt of Chris Nichols’ 2016 article for LA Magazine

Pic 1: Ub Iwerks, Rollin ‘Ham’ Hamilton and Walt Disney outside the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Los, Feliz, CA (1925). In January 1926, with the completion of the Disney studio on Hyperion Street, the Disney Brothers Studio’s name was changed to the Walt Disney Studio.

Pic 2 + 3: Walt and Lillian (in the light-colored coat), Roy and Edna (in the scarf) and their sister, Ruth Disney (center, both pics)