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WALT DISNEY: You know, people are always analyzing
our approach to entertainment.
Some reporters have called it "the special secret of Disney Entertainment."
Well, we like a little mystery in our films,
but there's really no secret about our approach.
We keep moving forward, opening up new doors,
doing new things because we're curious
and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.
DON HAHN: I've walked onto this lot a million times,
but, you know, today is really special,
because about 50 years ago, a guy named Dave Smith founded
what would become the gold standard for Hollywood studio archives.
Now, what better way to celebrate that amazing achievement
than to visit one of the crown jewels of the Walt Disney Archives,
the restored offices of Walt Disney himself.
Hi there, my name's Don Hahn,
and here we are at the corner of Mickey Avenue and Dopey Drive
in the center of the legendary Walt Disney Studios.
This is where it all happened.
This is the old animation building,
the orchestra stage, the commissary, the theater
and somewhere in here is Walt Disney's office,
and that's where we're headed right now.
In fact, there was a great old movie about 80 years ago
called The Reluctant Dragon, that starred a guy named Robert Benchley,
who came here to this very sign
and wandered for hours looking for Walt's office.
We're going to do the same thing today,
and along the way we might learn something.
So let's go.
Follow me.
Nice eucalyptus.
So I'll take you around, be your tour guide.
But along the way, I'd like you to stop
and listen to a few people who really understand and use
and appreciate what the archives is
and why it's so important to the history and legacy of Walt Disney.
To start out, here's the director of the archives and my pal, Becky Cline.
BECKY CLINE: The Walt Disney Archives has become a very special place.
I always jokingly say that it's Mecca
for Disney fans to come to to the place where all these
wonderful treasures are kept and used.
It's also a very important place for the company.
We use the materials here in the archives
all the time for inspiration and for knowledge
about how things were made in the past.
Here in our book, The Art of Animation, is an account
of what was probably the strangest educational effort ever recorded.
CLINE: We stand on the backs of giants and we stand on the shoulders
of people who have have created an amazing legacy
and to see how they did it and then move forward
and do the same thing in our own time.
I think that's really what's special about the archives.
The Walt Disney Company has an incredibly rich legacy
of great storytelling and of great art and collecting pieces
from our rich history and putting it in a place
for people to see and feel and touch and learn about it is incredibly important
whether you're working for the Walt Disney Company
or whether you're someone who's interested in the Walt Disney Company.
When I came to the company and it was to start
a proposal for the archives in the fall of 1969,
all nine of the Nine Old Men were still here.
Ub Iwerks was still here.
Roy O. Disney was still here.
I picked their brains,
and I love that I learned so much from them.
One of the great things about the archives is they have these displays everywhere,
and this one's actually a really old one from 1963
from National Geographic magazine,
and it shows kind of the process of animation,
the old school process of storyboarding and recording voices
and drawing it with an old-fashioned pencil
and painting cels with real paint and backgrounds
and shooting with cameras on film, which is like a clear strip of celluloid
that has silver on it, but more on that later.
And then they cut it together and everybody goes
and sees it in the screening room.
So this is a display just down the hallway walking around,
and it's still here for everybody to see. Thanks, archives.
I can speak from experience as you're creating these movies,
it kind of goes through your head and is gone.
And so, to have a place
that is committed to keeping any scrap of paper
that contributes to how these amazing films
that are part of our DNA were created,
that is such a godsend, especially for us nerds.
What I love about the archives is the tangible connection to the past,
is the tangible connection to these things
that have taken on such mythic proportions.
It's also a great pleasure coming to work
into the Frank G. Wells Building and walking through the lobby
and seeing the exhibit that the archive puts up.
One exhibit that I loved was the 35th anniversary of Epcot
and being able to be on my way, to and fro,
for some big important meeting or another,
and looking across the lobby and going,
"Is that the guy that blew on his foot from World of Motion?
"Oh, my gosh, he's in this lobby that I work in."
Becky?
Becky!
-It's me, Don. -Oh, welcome.
-So good to see you. -What you doing?
I am prepping for a brand new exhibit and I've got all kinds of cool stuff out.
I was just going up to Walt Disney's office,
and I had to come by and see if it was okay, get the keys
-and kind of go up there and say hello. -Great.
Well, you're welcome to go up there, but I've got some really cool stuff
you might want to see before you go.
-Yes. -You got a few minutes?
-Have a seat. I'll show you. -Uh-huh.
I have got with me here something pretty cool.
It is the contract that started the Walt Disney Company.
-Oh, come on. -Yeah.
This is the Alice Comedies contract.
-No. Is that the real thing? -The real thing.
And you can see right there,
it's signed by Walt Disney and Margaret Winkler, her producer.
-Robert Disney? -Robert Disney, his uncle.
That's who he lived with.
And this was signed at Uncle Robert's house over in Los Feliz.
-I've driven by. How cool is that? -Yeah.
So that's where this contract... And this was on October 16th, 1923.
So it's the official start of the Walt Disney Company with this contract.
-HAHN: That is unbelievable. -Isn't that great?
-I love that. -I love all the goodies you have here.
Oh, yeah. I mean, you know, we don't get a chance
to share this kinda stuff too much 'cause it's paper...
-You can't put it out. -It's fragile.
Yeah, and so we do it for very special things.
But that's fun. And then speaking of paper...
These your summer vacation pictures?
-Yes, in my memories. -Yes, uh-huh.
This is a scrapbook that was put together for a man named Vern Cauger...
-Oh! -...who was the guy who gave Walt Disney
his start in animation and Ub in Kansas City...
And all the guys got together out here at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel,
-in 1944 and had a dinner for him. -Wow.
And so they all signed this book.
-And I love this because... -Oh, my gosh, look at that.
-It's signed by Walt. -Signed by Walt and with the Walt drawing.
-Yeah, Mickey Mouse! -Which you rarely see.
-It's a really good Mickey Mouse, too! -It is.
That's a treasure, and his signature looks exactly like his signature.
It does! You can see that that the signature today
-is based on his actual signature. -HAHN: Wow!
I love the little circles on the "Y" that's flipped all backwards.
-There it is, the real thing. -Isn't that great?
We also have things in our collection that are
more modern and intrinsically valued.
I mean, this is of great historic value, these pieces.
But this one is also intrinsically very valuable
because it's solid gold and it has diamonds and rubies.
-No. -It's a World Series ring.
It's a California Angels World Series ring.
It is. We owned the team in 2002,
when they won the World Series, and that's the ring.
-That is the coolest thing I've ever seen. -It says Disney, right on the side.
Wow, could I have that?
-Mmm, I don't think so. -Okay, thanks. I just had to ask.
But if you'd like to wear it, you'd have...
-Can I? -You have to put gloves on?
Totally can.
-There you go. -It is beautiful.
See? You could've been a baseball player and got one of those.
I feel like I'm engaged to the Angels. That is so beautiful.
Well, your wife is an angel.
Yes. And she is. Thank you for covering me.
-You got it. -That's beautiful.
Isn't that pretty?
And then this is one of my favorite pieces in the whole archives.
What's this?
-This is... -Oh, my gosh, that is amazing.
That is the prop storybook that opens Sleeping Beauty.
HAHN: Unbelievable. So this would've made in the '50s.
Late '50s, yeah. '57, '58, when they were shooting the film.
These are faux jewels that have been embedded into this hammered brass cover.
Wow, and looks like it's all handmade.
And it's been in this condition all that time?
Well, you know what? Over the years,
it kind of got banged around and some of the jewels
were getting loose and the spine was cracking,
so we took it over to the Huntington Library...
-HAHN: Oh, yeah. -...and had it conserved.
-HAHN: Great place. -And they did an amazing job.
They took out all the beautiful Eyvind Earle art
that was inside and conserved each page individually and separately
boxed that up so that we can keep it very safe.
And then they added blank paper
and put a new spine on it so that we could display it.
So now we can share it publicly.
And I think... I don't often think of that,
you not only store things, but you do a lot of conservation.
We do, we do.
Not only on books like this, but on papers and on, you know,
just things that need a little help along the way.
CLINE: Art, blueprints, things like that.
We have a huge collection of blueprints.
They're all folded up. They were stored that way originally,
and now they're so old that just opening him up will crack them.
So now we're taking them to conservation labs and things
and having them opened up and have the creases taken out, relaxed,
yes, so we can share them.
Well, thank you so much for sharing all these goodies.
-You're welcome. -I'll come by often.
Yeah. Come by again.
I'm sure I'll have plenty of other treasures.
Thanks. We're going to run off to Walt's office, and I will see you later on, then.
Well, yeah. You know, before you go to up to Walt's office,
you know, it's going to be there.
-You'll get to see it. -Okay, good.
But you should go over to the photo library first
because Mike Buckhoff is also working
on some really cool stuff that he'll have out.
And you might want to see it first.
-So just knock and sneak in? -Yeah.
-Yeah. Just go on in. -Okay. I will.
I was starting the film I did on my grandfather, Ub Iwerks,
and I was able to access the archives, and they came in
and brought this folder of materials on my grandfather.
And I had never seen most of the material that was in there,
and I just spent, you know, days in here just looking through
and getting to know him because he was...
I was one when he passed away.
And so, sitting in here and reading the interviews
that Dave Smith, the founder of this archive,
did with my grandfather was brand-new to me,
like, you know, I had never heard some of his stories like that.
-Hey, Mike, how you doing? -Hey, Don.
Good to see you. Hey, you're wearing gloves. This is creepy.
-Yes. -Why do you wear gloves?
Do you do it all day long?
We have to keep good care of our assets.
So we gotta wear gloves when you're handling these.
Okay, good. I'm just going to take your word for it on that.
I was over in the reading room, and Becky said I should come over
and see you and see all the great stuff you're doing at the photo library,
which is where we're at right now, in an undisclosed location
deep in the bowels of Disney.
That's right. We cover the entire history of the company, from film and television
to theme parks to personnel to, of course, Walt Disney himself.
We store over four million images here at Glendale.
And with the addition of the Fox photo archives, that number has quadrupled.
You have goodies here. It's not just photos,
You have artifacts and things, which we're conveniently standing in front of.
-Yeah, that's right. -What is this?
So, what we have here is Walt's projector.
You can even see the little asset tag there.
-HAHN: Wow! -Walt Disney Company.
-HAHN: Walt Disney Productions. Yeah. -Yeah.
And we also have some film canisters of Walt's.
-We just turned these up a few years ago. -HAHN: Wow, man.
MIKE BUCKHOFF: And actually had original film in them from some of Walt's trips.
-HAHN: Yeah. -And his daily life.
HAHN: That's amazing. So that's like Walt would have handled these
-and had these in his hand. -Oh, absolutely.
-BUCKHOFF: Yeah. -Amazing.
BUCKHOFF: We also have Walt's 16MM Bell and Howell camera.
HAHN: Oh, my God. I've seen that in pictures. And that's the actual camera.
BUCKHOFF: This is the actual camera.
He took that on quite a few trips,
including his South America goodwill trip.
HAHN: I was going to ask you because you see him all the time, laying on the beach.
-And he's taking pictures. -BUCKHOFF: Yes.
And, interestingly enough,
some of the footage from this camera showed up in the 1943 film Saludos Amigos.
That's amazing. And you said you have four million images here.
-Yes. -Can we see them? Can we go through them?
Well, I don't think we have time for all of that,
-but I can show you a few. -Yeah, let's do.
We mentioned Walt's 1941 South American trip.
Right. Didn't the government send him down there as a goodwill thing?
-Goodwill mission. -Yes, that's correct.
Now, upon his return, the Cinematography Association of Argentina
put together this special photo album of Walt's trip.
And this is the actual photo album.
-Yes. This is it. -With drawings.
BUCKHOFF: Yeah, they did some custom-themed artwork.
HAHN: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
BUCKHOFF: There is some additional photos. Walt with his wife Lillian.
-HAHN: So cool. -Yeah, that's really fun.
-HAHN: This is full of that trip, then. -Yeah, that's right.
And all the photos were taken by their photographers.
So these are the only copies that we have.
And I love the little, um, drawings that go along with him. That's so sweet.
BUCKHOFF: They obviously took
a lot of time to put this together for him.
I have never seen these before.
So it had a lasting effect on them and Walt.
HAHN: Wow! Love that.
What else you got?
Well, moving along,
there are many unique aspects to our collection,
and one in particular are the amount of behind-the-scenes and production photos,
you know, for our live-action features.
HAHN: Wow. And that's what this is.
BUCKHOFF: Yeah, so one of my favorites is the original Parent Trap from 1961.
-HAHN: Hayley Mills. -Yeah, that's right.
And Brian Keith and Maureen O'Hara.
-Can we sing the song? -Uh, maybe next time.
Okay. Good.
BUCKHOFF: So what we have here is some really fun behind-the-scenes shots
-of the sodium screen process. -HAHN: Wow!
Where Hayley Mills is interacting with her invisible sister.
-HAHN: Right. -To be added later via movie magic.
HAHN: Oh, God, that's in here, and there's multiple shots.
-On some of them, it says "Kill." -BUCKHOFF: Yeah.
Yeah. So that means that was not to be used for publicity.
And occasionally we will run across one that says "Killed by Walt,"
so he personally did not want that one out.
That man was, his fingers into everything. This is so interesting.
And I look like down here there's books and books and books,
like of different titles, and this one was really cool
because it's... I'm not making this up.
Salty, the Hijacked Harbor Seal. Just not to put too fine a point on it.
Soon to be on Disney Plus.
So all this stuff back here is the same thing. It's like...
This says The Love Bug and Robin Caruso and Mary Poppins,
Gus the field goal kicking mule...
So if I open any of these books, they're packed with production photos?
BUCKHOFF: That's right. Production photos, behind the scenes.
Uh, sometimes some artwork.
HAHN: Unbelievable. You could spend the rest of your life here,
-which you may do, actually. -Yes.
It's okay. (LAUGHS)
You must have Walt Disney pictures in here, which I think I see over here.
We have many Walt Disney pictures.
The most photographed guy of the 20th century.
Yeah, one in particular is this iconic shot of Walt
-and Mickey. -HAHN: Mmm-hmm.
BUCKHOFF: But there was some debate
over many years as to where the photo was actually taken.
Right. Because I thought it was taken at the Hyperion Studio.
Some thought it was Hyperion, however none of the details seem to match
And it didn't seem to match his Woking Way home in Los Angeles, either.
I'm sorry. I thought you said, "Woking Way home."
-Woking Way home. -What's that?
That was the name of the street which it was on.
Oh, okay, got it.
And that house is long gone now or...
Uh, the house is still around.
-It's still there? -It's only a hop, skip and a jump away.
-So maybe you wanna go check it out. -Do you have the keys?
I don't have the keys, but we have someone there for you.
-You go check it out. -Goodbye.
The first day here was like Christmas.
I sat at the desk like I'm waiting for Santa Claus,
and then they bring out the boxes and you open the boxes.
And there are things there... (LAUGHS) that you've read about,
that you've looked at, at Disneyland,
that you've always wondered.
I mean, forget being a historian. I'm a geek.
I am geeking out over this stuff.
You usually find something amazing in what it is you're looking for.
But then, "Hey, what's this over here?
"Here's a memo about
"when magnetic film was first used to record the audio in 1954.
"What? I wasn't even looking for that." But it just helps
put the whole studio in context
as a place that wasn't cemented in stone.
It was constantly reinventing itself,
and those little scraps just help bring that to life.
(LIVELY MUSIC PLAYING)
(LAUGHING)
Whoa, this is amazing.
Hey, Don, I'm up here.
-Hey, Kevin, how you doing? -Good.
-Nice to see you. -It's good to see you.
I just came over from the photo library, and I can't believe where we are.
It's a pretty cool house, right?
-It's amazing. -Rare treat to be in Walt's house.
It is. Well, come on down.
-I'm glad you're here to show us around. -Yeah.
Where are we? Like, we're up in the hills in a mysterious place in Hollywood.
-And this is Walt's house. -That's right.
-We're at his house on Woking Way. -HAHN: Unbelievable.
He lived here from the early 1930s till 1950.
HAHN: So he built his house?
KEVIN KERN: Yep. The architect was Frank Crowhurst,
who was also one of the architects
for the Hyperion lot, which was just down the hill.
-HAHN: Oh, seriously? -Yeah.
The Walt Disney Company has always had quite the photography collection.
They were documenting a lot of different things.
So we can go deep into the photo archives
or for a photo library where you just were.
-Yeah. -We can take them. Good example.
-HAHN: No! -Match up the exact spot.
HAHN: Look at that. Like the detail on the ceiling is up there, too.
Yeah. And the remarkable thing is, we have more examples
-we can do that with in this house. -Really?
-Wanna go check it out? -Oh, let's go look. Come on.
So one of my favorite photos is this one.
-Oh, my gosh. Yeah, absolutely. -Right.
-This iconic shot of Walt. -Whoa.
And actually, where you're standing,
-is just about that spot. -No, that was shot here?
-That was shot right here. -I thought that was shot at the studio.
Well, thanks to our photo library folks,
Mike Buckhoff and some lovely Disney historians, like Hans Perk...
-Yes. -We were able to pinpoint the exact spot.
How? That's, like, amazing detective work. How do you figure that out?
-One really telling clue helped. -Yeah.
A telephone.
-The room we just came out of... -HAHN: Right. The screening room.
...there's this photo that we see, and we can just make out a phone
-in this part of the image. -HAHN: Oh!
And thankfully, we have...
I'll give this to you for the tour.
-So you can look around. -Oh, my God.
It's the layout of the house.
-KERN: We can see... -It has telephone outlets on it.
KERN: Right there, there's a phone.
HAHN: Oh, and the jack is still there?
Yeah. And we know that behind us,
this part of the hallway here was remodeled a couple times.
-Yeah. -Remodeled at least once.
So it doesn't totally match.
So if that photo was taken here, that means there'll be a window there,
which there is, and there'd be a light switch or something there.
-Which is right around that area. -Which it is.
-Yeah. -Okay, so Walt Disney stood right here...
-Right there... -Took one of the most famous
-photographs of his career. -If not the most famous photo.
HAHN: With his hand on his hip.
-Real-life research. -Real-life research.
KERN: So that leads us in here, which is Walt's living room.
HAHN: Oh, man, this is amazing.
The details in here are just remarkable.
Well, like there's this kind of opera box thing up here with,
I guess was, musicians would play there
and you think, like, Tchaikovsky probably sat here.
KERN: We can take some other hints, though,
from our photo library collection. We pulled out some more photos.
One of my favorites is that killer photo of Walt
standing right in front of this window
with a bunch of Mickey dolls in front of him.
-If you look on that table... -What do we got?
-HAHN: Oh, my gosh. -In the photo, you also see some examples
of those Charlotte Clark Mickey dolls.
HAHN: They're all over the place.
So we went in the archives and pulled out a sample
of Charlotte Clark's from our collection.
-And there's one now. -Right here.
Yeah, the one you just pointed out in the middle here,
-it's from the 1930s. -HAHN: And Charlotte Clark was who?
Charlotte Clark wanted to make Mickey Dolls and sell them,
but she knew that she needed Walt and Roy's permission to do so.
So Walt and Roy loved the idea.
She made this.
KERN: They commissioned her to make a doll. Yeah, a Mickey doll.
And it was so popular she couldn't keep up with demand.
-HAHN: Really? -So,
the Disneys licensed the patterns to McCall's.
Anybody could make their own Mickey doll.
-HAHN: Is this a McCall's pattern? -We think so.
Yeah, we think this is a McCall's Mickey.
Which in some ways might make it a little bit more rare.
Yeah, 'cause somebody made this by hand. And these are reproductions?
Yeah, later reproductions,
which helps serve the point of when people are looking for inspiration
within the Walt Disney Company they can come to us,
look at an original to help inspire a new product they wanna make.
That's just one example.
-And this is your hat. -Yeah, I actually brought this.
No, you know, we're very lucky.
We have some of Walt's personal effects, like an example, one of his hats
and his polo mallet and polo trophies
from the time that he lived in this house.
HAHN: Unbelievable.
KERN: And who knows, Don, It could be
the last time these items were here was when Walt lived here.
That's spooky and wonderful at the same time.
It is. It is.
So that's actually Walt Disney's polo mallet?
-KERN: Actually Walt's polo mallet. -Unbelievable.
All this stuff you have is great, and these trophies are just priceless.
We do have some other really cool photos that we pulled,
but in order to match those up, we're gonna have to go outside.
-By the swimming pool? -By the swimming pool.
-I brought my trunks. Let's go. -Follow me.
KERN: All right, if we go out here. HAHN: Yeah.
There's another shot we can line up.
Oh, wow. There's a view here.
You can see the ocean. You can see downtown.
And look, look, look what's still here. I can't believe it.
I know it's the playhouse that Walt built for his daughters.
-HAHN: Unbelievable. -Yeah.
HAHN: So that's the one that Walt had his carpenters build for Diane and Sharon?
KERN: Yep. Yeah. That's the one that the kids played in.
And there's pictures of Walt playing in it too.
-HAHN: Unbelievable. -Speaks to how the house was used
-as a family home. -HAHN: And he loved those kids.
-He did. Yeah. -And they loved him.
It's a lovely view of Walt Disney, the person.
Yes. Yeah, exactly.
Which which we love to talk about whatever we can.
Yeah. So what about that photo?
This is my favorite photo, I think.
-For this whole, this whole property. -Yep.
-That puts Walt... -Oh, my God.
-...right here in this backyard. -Yeah. Yeah.
KERN: I think if we stand...
-The tree here. -Yeah. Right about there.
HAHN: Wow, that is so amazing.
KERN: We take it as a huge honor to be able to tell this story.
And thankfully, kind of at our disposal,
we've got warehouses full of historical Disney everything.
Warehouses full of historic everything?
-That's right. Everything from props... -Oh, do tell.
...costumes, attraction vehicles,
-artwork. -Attraction vehicles?
Yes, attraction vehicles.
Did you happen to have, like, a Heimlich?
Yeah, we do.
I'll be right back.
I don't know what I would do without the folks that work in this department.
They're just amazing people
and so great at what they do.
And the thing that I'm proudest about is
it's constant. Every time I open my email,
just about every time I get an email from somebody
thanking me for the great work that somebody on my team has done
and that makes me so proud and so happy.
It's so much part of their own interests.
And the amount of material they have is so voluminous
that if you didn't have those people
who really cared as much as the archive folks do,
I don't know that we'd ever find it.
I am so happy.
Hey, Don, I'm not sure what's going on here,
but we don't normally let people sit in the Archives' assets...
I am so sorry. I just was fulfilling a childhood dream.
This is a great place! Where are we?
Yeah, it is. It's really cool. This is one of the archives' warehouses.
Wow!
Everything we store here comes from the parks, films, TV shows,
and it's all kind of the larger, oversized dimensionals.
-Like myself. -Why... Pfftt!
-Yeah, exactly! -And Heimlich.
And Heimlich, yeah, exactly. Can we walk around a little bit?
Sure. Let me have you exit the vehicle first.
Oh, okay. I'll undo my seatbelt, hold on...
-I know what these are from. -You recognize these, eh?
-I do. -Yeah, they're pretty iconic.
These are the carousel horses from Mary Poppins.
-Yeah. -RICK LORENTZ: We've got Mary's horse here
and then over here we have Bert's.
Bert's horse was painted by Peter Ellenshaw.
-HAHN: Oh, come on. -Yup. He did that one.
-Tony Walton did Mary's and Jane's. -HAHN: Come on!
They're like celebrity horse painters.
They're art pieces too. Not just carousel horses.
HAHN: So cool!
And they look different too. This looks so pristine and beautiful.
This is one of those examples we were talking about restoration,
where Mary's horse has been repainted and restored.
But we've left Bert's in the original condition.
Oh, I like him. He looks like he's a priceless antique.
He is. He is. Yeah.
That's amazing. You can do the restorations or not,
depending on kind of archivally, what's the best for the...
Exactly. And for exhibiting them,
and like I said, I think it's a good example of before and after.
What else you got here?
We have something in another room I'd like to show you.
I think you'll be interested in seeing these.
I love other rooms.
-Okay, let's go. -Here we go.
(LIVELY MUSIC PLAYING)
Those horses were amazing, but you've got to be kidding me.
-Is this actually what I think it is? -Yeah, probably.
This is one of the most iconic pieces we have.
The carpet bag from Mary Poppins.
I'm in awe. This prop has been seen by millions of people around the world.
LORENTZ: Around the world.
HAHN: And this is probably like on a list of top 10 Disney props.
Yeah.
It's terrific and it's held up well.
It's in good shape. Just some wear and tear on the leather.
Is this something that was always in the archives,
and you keep these things, or do you acquire them?
Actually, we acquired this about a dozen years, 12 years ago.
-Wow! -It wasn't something we had originally.
It was just something we were searching for
and came across to where...
It was in the trunk of Dave Smith's car.
(BOTH LAUGHING)
-He was hiding it all those years! -Someone should've asked him sooner.
This thing here looks like it's from the same movie.
It is. This is one of the chimney sweep brooms from the film also.
HAHN: Oh, wow.
We did a little bit of work on this.
We added the handle here. We didn't have the handle,
so that took a little bit of creating there.
-Amazing that still exists. -Yeah.
There's no reason why it should, 'cause it's all natural materials,
and it could easily have degraded somewhere along the line.
I think this is the one that Dick Van Dyke had.
Of course it is.
-HAHN: I believe that. -Yeah.
You'll probably recognize the next piece...
Oh, I've spent a good couple of years in London working on this movie.
It's the Dipmobile from Roger Rabbit!
This is the model for the Dipmobile,
-which we have, the larger. -You have the full-size one?
-We do. -Can we take a spin later?
-Sure. I'll dip you in... -Great.
It's funny, 'cause we shot this in a warehouse in London,
'cause we shot most of the movie in London.
And ILM used a lot of models for reference
and to shoot some of the miniature things for it,
so this must've been from that era.
One of my favorite movies.
So, a little bit of Don history. That's so cool.
I have never seen that before.
LORENTZ: And one more interesting piece.
-Oh, man. Wow! -"It's a small world."
It's a piece that you'd really appreciate when you see it up close
and you can see the detail.
The level of the detail, the hand embroidery and all that stuff,
which I think was Alice Davis, the Disney Legend.
She worked with Mary Blair on all this stuff for the World's Fair.
-Exactly. -And you still have it.
-And we still have it. -Unbelievable.
-Yeah. -Wow, that is a treasure.
(INTENSE MUSIC PLAYING)
HAHN: So, you have a cold room. Do you have a hot room?
(LORENTZ LAUGHING)
Look! Like that video game from Tron.
-Yes. This is actually, uh, Tron Legacy. -Amazing.
-Right next to... -Maximilian from, uh...
-Maximilian. -From, um, The Black Hole.
I actually worked on that movie. I'm very elderly.
Here's another one. Some characters you might be familiar with.
Worked on this too.
It's Cogsworth and Lumiere,
and Mrs. Potts! The live-action Beauty and the Beast movie.
-Exactly. -Wow!
Hi, guys, you're looking good.
Okay, this has all been really good to look at.
But there's one more thing you should see that we...
-Which is? -Costumes!
Oh, yes.
Robert's over now with some mannequins and costumes.
-Let's take a look. -I'll go slip into my ball gown.
HAHN: Robert?
-Hey, Don, how you doing? -How are you?
BOTH: Good to see you.
Who is your friend here?
ROBERT MAXHIMER: This is Nicole Kidman's outfit from Moulin Rouge!
-No, you've got to be kidding. -MAXHIMER: Yeah. The black diamonds.
HAHN: Oh, my God. How did you end up with it? What's it doing here?
I don't know if you heard, but Fox
was recently acquired by the Walt Disney Company.
One of the benefits was that the Walt Disney Archives
was able to bring in about 4,000 costumes.
-No! -Yeah.
Part of my role in the archives is to put together exhibitions.
So, bringing these to the public. And, uh, right now what I'm doing
is trying to put together something that shows
strong female leads like Nicole Kidman.
So... Fox has so much Hollywood history. What else did you bring along?
What else have you unearthed in this amazing treasure trove?
This one's very exciting. This is Shirley MacLaine's
from Can-Can.
-HAHN: So tiny. -Yeah.
-1960. -HAHN: Yeah.
This was the scene that she had with Frank Sinatra.
-HAHN: Yeah. -Big musical number.
Yeah, it was great. So, part of Fox is all these great legacy films
that we have some costumes from.
-What's this one over here? -This is one of my personal favorites.
This is Winona Ryder,
from Edward Scissorhands, designed by Colleen Atwood.
-HAHN: Tim Burton movie. -Tim Burton, absolutely.
So, Colleen Atwood's designed tons of movies...
-HAHN: And won tons of Oscars. -Tons of Oscars.
So, we have even more of her work in our collection, which is fantastic.
HAHN: Just gorgeous.
This next one here looks like something I'd like to wear out on a weekend.
This is Michelle Williams' costume.
HAHN: No, you're kidding!
-MAXHIMER: From Fosse/Verdon. -I love that show!
-MAXHIMER: One of our recent acquisitions. -It's so fun,
'cause it really brings alive the Hollywood legacy.
And it's a great compliment to Disney too,
to have all this as a piece to plug into it.
Thank you for showing me around. It's a pleasure.
No problem! Actually, there's some people down at Disneyland,
-archivists from the archives. -HAHN: Yeah.
Maybe you could go see them.
That's great. I just can't go to Disneyland.
I have to go to Walt's office at the studio.
I've been trying to make it there all day.
I can't go there.
(TRAIN WHISTLE HOOTING)
Ah, the simple pleasures of a delicious corn dog.
Walt Disney wanted entertainment that the entire family could enjoy together.
And I think that's why Disneyland is such a huge success.
Much like the books, movies, everything else that's Disney.
It's not just for grown-ups, not just for kids.
It's for everyone, and Walt knew that and embraced that.
It's so important to preserve Disney history,
but in particular Walt Disney's history because Walt is Disney.
And, you know, it is impossible to talk about Disney,
whether in animation, in parks, in merchandise,
in live-action movies without somehow coming all back to Walt.
(BELL DINGING)
(ANNOUNCER SPEAKING)
-Becky? -Oh, hi, Don!
What are you doing here? How did you get here so fast?
(MYSTICAL MUSIC PLAYING)
-CLINE: We have our ways. -Oh, you're harboring magic.
What are you doing down here? We're at Disneyland of all places,
and you have what, a display? What is this?
I'm doing a presentation later here in the train station.
So I thought I would bring a couple of really fun pieces
to share from opening day of Disneyland.
-You brought this down from the archives? -I did.
-And Donald Duck is spectacular. -(CHUCKLES)
Well, this is his best friend.
Oh, I'm sorry. Sometimes I get them mixed up.
-This is Mickey Mouse. -Fantastic!
He is here. He's engineer Mickey.
So this is the Mickey Mouse that actually rode in on the train,
with Walt on opening day.
-Seriously? Back in 1955? -Exactly.
So, this is like him coming back home again after a lot of years.
This is the first time we've brought him back here to the train station.
-Is that right? -Yeah, 65 years ago, nearly.
It's a historic occasion.
It is indeed, and to keep him company,
I also brought another very historic piece,
which is the Disneyland name tag that Walt Disney wore on opening day.
-HAHN: That's actually Walt's name tag? -That's his actual name tag.
-It's number one. -HAHN: And it's brass.
It is. It's brass.
-It has a pin back on it. -That's beautiful!
CLINE: And it says number one on there.
Of course, they didn't have names on them at that time.
They just had numbers in the early years. So he, of course, had number one.
BOTH: And he should.
We know this is Walt's, because we have a photo of him wearing it.
Also, it was in Roy's collection when Roy turned over his personal effects
to the archives in the '70s. This was in his materials,
and there was a note there saying this is Walt's name tag.
-HAHN: Isn't that something? -Yeah.
-So we know for sure. -HAHN: It's a little treasure.
It is indeed.
What else is going on here?
You're doing a presentation, and you have exhibits down here all the time.
What else you doing?
Well, after this, I'm going over
to the Carthay Circle Restaurant over in Disney, California Adventure,
across the way, and we're gonna go over there.
We have exhibit cases over there and we change out exhibits,
so I'm gonna go there next.
-Can I tag along if I behave? -Of course.
-But no eating corn dogs on the way. -Then I'm out.
-Okay, sorry. -No, sorry.
What I love is the archives isn't just this kind of
dusty holding tank for the past.
It's like this living, breathing archive, and you guys do exhibits everywhere.
So, Becky, we're here at the Carthay Circle restaurant,
which is the most beautiful place.
-Isn't it gorgeous? -It really is.
And you have some displays here that are breathtaking.
Yes, actually, this particular display case was built for us
-when this building was constructed. -HAHN: Really?
They added this in so we could share
some of our assets with the guests who come to the restaurant.
So if I come here to dine, I can learn about the company
and see some really cool stuff about Walt Disney.
We do that in a lot of our parks.
-You have the best job ever. -I do.
You really do. You brought some other stuff with us
about the Carthay Circle Theatre, which isn't there anymore.
But that's where Snow White premiered.
So, I brought some, what we call ephemera, from our collection.
One of the most amazing things about the Carthay Circle
was that it hosted the premiere of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
-HAHN: That's right. -1937.
And so I brought along something from the premiere,
which is this program.
Isn't that beautiful?
This looks like it was printed yesterday. This is the original?
Yeah, it is from the...
I won't touch it 'cause I have corn dog everywhere.
Okay, but this is really special because it features this centerpiece,
-which is silver foil. -Yes.
And this, I love, this ad. "Best wishes to Walt Disney
"from the Harman-Ising Studios."
Oh, yeah. It's like Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising.
They were colleagues of Walt's from Kansas City. Yeah.
And so here is the centerpiece showing Carthay Circle Theater
and introducing the film to the world.
HAHN: Wow!
And this shows what a big event it was.
This is the police pass from the world premiere for Snow White.
HAHN: You would have had this maybe in your vehicle or...
Oh, my gosh.
CLINE: And this was from Bill Cottrell's collection.
So he was one of Walt's chief guys and his brother-in-law.
It's interesting because the archives has these precious piece of artwork,
which the Walt Disney Company is known for,
but you also have this great ephemera that's kind of...
It tells the story of the history so deeply.
We have lots of eye candy, like the costumes
and the props and things like that.
But it's the document collections that were the start of the archives.
-Yeah. -And this is one of
the most important parts of our collection, is this kind of stuff.
Well, I know you wanted to get back up to Walt's office,
so if you want to go ahead and head up, the staff will be there to let you in.
I will, because it's so cool being here at Disneyland.
I'm not sure how I got here, but...
(WHOOSHES)
Becky?
The magic of the archives is that everybody
who comes in here with a project
brings in their own passion,
and then will bring in their own materials, too,
and say, "Hey, we have this. What do you have?"
And then you end up having this great cross-collaboration
and pollination of new material that makes it even better.
It's an exciting feeling to go in there
and see all these things that we all grew up with,
that were all some kind of pop culture
milestones or touch points for us.
And it enthuses you to add to that legacy
and to contribute to this great history that Disney has.
It's really, really valuable to be able to keep these things in one place
where you can have access to them for your business purposes.
But then we've taken it and done a lot of outreach since then.
We're doing exhibits
and we're sharing the assets of the archives with the world.
You know, it's really important.
Hey, Joanna, whatcha doing?
Were you and Becky on the teacups at Disneyland this morning?
(BOTH CHEERING)
Yes... No! I mean no, we weren't.
-I mean yes... Well, hi! -Hi!
Yeah, so we... I was on my way to Walt's office, and we're here in Legends Plaza,
and I see... I walked by all these great names
like Fred MacMurray and Richard Sherman.
The Legends Ceremony's been going on for decades, hasn't it?
Yes. Fred MacMurray was actually our very first Disney Legend.
The Disney Legends Program started in 1987.
And the company started it to honor the men and women
who have made a significant impact on the Disney legacy.
HAHN: It's great. I see people I work with over here like Woolie Reitherman,
that I started out with, and Eric Larson and Frank Thomas
and all Ollie Johnston, and all these people.
And it's just a great way to commemorate people
that have helped build the Disney Company.
-Absolutely. -Now, what's this behind us?
JOANNA PRATT: So this is a sculpture of the Disney Legends award.
It was sculpted by the very talented sculptor Andrea Favilli.
HAHN: Oh, he's amazing.
PRATT: Yes, and this statue is actually 14 feet tall
and weighs 1,652 pounds.
That's close to what I weigh, actually.
-That's amazing. -(LAUGHING)
The actual Disney Legends award that we give the honorees at the ceremony
is 22 inches tall and weighs around 14 pounds.
It's a very special thing to be part of the Disney legacy.
Keep in mind, when I came here as a kid,
I was working alongside
the men and women who made the Disney classics.
That is, the same films I saw as a child.
That's very special.
I can't think of anything more special than that.
HAHN: Dave's around here. Oh, here he is. Dave Smith...
He's right here. We have to visit Dave Smith.
I know, because we wouldn't be standing here if it weren't for Dave Smith.
What a great legacy he left us by starting the Disney Archives.
PRATT: Yeah. He became a Disney Legend in 2007
and started the archives in 1970.
HAHN: Yeah.
I actually worked for him for a little while,
like, carting stuff around when I was a kind of mail room guy...
and always good, always the consummate
-encyclopedia of anything Disney. -Absolutely.
HAHN: Thanks, Dave.
This is so great. This is all the Star Wars people.
There's George Lucas and Carrie Fisher, who I love...
and Mark Hamill.
But look how he signed his name. It's "Luke Hamill."
PRATT: Luke Hamill. We just spoke
to Mark Hamill about becoming a Disney Legend.
Please welcome Disney Legend, Luke Skywalker, Mark Hamill.
(CROWD CHEERING)
MARK HAMILL: When I heard I was going to be given
a Disney Legend award, I was... shocked.
You know, uh... I'm still in a state of shock
because you never expect
anything like that to come your way.
I mean, from Fred MacMurray on, these are incredible people.
Disney made you feel that no matter
where you came from, you were welcome.
And I like that, and that's what I always wanted.
Thank you for letting me be a Legend. I'll try not to mess it up.
(CROWD LAUGHS)
I still, to this day, can't really reconcile the fact
that I was recognized in this way,
and it was bittersweet because, you know, it was Carrie Fisher, as well.
And she wasn't there.
And, had she been, it would have been even more fun
because it was impossible to not have fun being around her.
You know, if she were here now, she'd be behind you,
giving me the middle finger and trying to make me laugh on camera.
Disney was such an important part of my life as a child.
I mean, the Disneyland television show, Walt Disney Presents,
Wonderful World of Color, were important in more ways
than just seeing wonderful animation on television.
Walt Disney was one of the first people to pull back the curtain
and show how movies and television were made.
Which I was fascinated, because at the time,
even then I knew... I didn't know if I wanted to be an actor,
but I wanted to be in the business of making that magic.
You know, he was very clever.
He would do, you know,
the making of Darby O'Gill and the Little People,
but he did it as a documentary.
And where the premise is that leprechauns were real.
Fantastic, and he really became a iconic figure.
You know, Uncle Walt.
I remember being at Disneyland as a kid
and seeing him riding down Main Street
and, just riveted, because it was hard to imagine
having to see him in the flesh.
For me, it was like seeing Abraham Lincoln
or somebody that was monumental in my upbringing.
So, you know...
I owe him a lot.
Well, I'm very humbled to be a part of it.
To be even a small part of it.
It's a thrill. It really is.
And I tell my kids
when they roll their eyes and go, "Oh, Dad."
I say, "Look, you're talking to a Legend, okay?
"I have a physical object that proves...
"It's empirical evidence... (LAUGHS HEARTILY)
"that I am a Legend."
But they're not completely convinced.
I'm still Dad.
But, like I told you, it's too late, even if there's a recount,
I'm not giving it back.
HAHN: Oh, that is so great.
Well, Joanna, thank you so much for showing me around Legends Plaza.
-I get so inspired when I come here... -You're very welcome.
...but I'm just going to nip off to Walt Disney's office.
-Sounds good. -So, see you next time.
-See you next time. -EERIE VOICE: Don.
Don!
Mark?
You will go to the digitization lab.
It's very cool.
Digitization? I'd love to, but I've...
I really need to get to Walt's office.
You don't need to go to Walt's office right this second.
I don't need to go to Walt's office right this second.
You should check out the digitization lab.
I should check out the digitization lab.
And you should bring me
the next time you go to Disneyland for a corn dog.
I should go to Disneyland for a scrumptious corn dog.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)
Ah, no, no, no, no!
Digitization!
(SIGHS IN EXASPERATION)
Digitization.
Got it.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)
(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS)
HAHN: Ty. TY POPKO: Hey, Don.
-HAHN: How are you? -What brings you out here?
I just, uh... I have no idea how I got here.
To be honest, I think it was the Force.
What are you doing? Where are we? What's this?
This is the digitization department.
We're doing some photogrammetry scanning right here.
So, essentially, what we're
doing is taking pictures all around this object
and trying to create a 3D model out of that.
So, let me get this right for my dinosaur brain.
You're taking this on a turntable, taking pictures of it,
-many pictures of it... -POPKO: Correct.
...that go into the computer. And then where does it go?
Once the photographs are taken here, we bring it over into another application.
Ah!
This application is looking at like points between the photos
and then aligning the photographs in 3D space.
Every one of these blue pieces inside of this image
are actually a photograph inside of here.
HAHN: Really?
Any of this stuff could be sent over to a 3D printer.
We can create a version of it.
And then sometimes we've done that in order to replace
maybe original inside of a spot that somebody might need to pick up,
or if it's in a situation where the original item might be damaged.
You must've scanned a lot of interesting things.
Like the archives has everything,
-which I love. -Mmm-hmm.
What's some of the weirdest stuff you've scanned?
POPKO: One of my favorite things that we've scanned is a ride vehicle
from Snow White's Scary Adventures.
HAHN: Really? Isn't that huge?
POPKO: It's gigantic.
It took more than 100 photos, for sure.
But it was amazing to be able to kind of
-pull that up inside of a computer... -HAHN: Wow.
...and rotate around it very easily and send it around.
We're scanning sculptures,
and here you're scanning this beautiful piece of one sheet art
from Beauty and the Beast, which is really close to my heart.
So, who did this and what are you doing here?
POPKO: This piece of art is made by John Alvin.
So, because it's so large, we need
-to capture it in several different tiles. -HAHN: Mmm.
POPKO: This piece itself, to capture in such
a high resolution that we're looking for,
we needed to capture it in about 12 sections.
We bring those 12 sections into the computer
and stitch it together into
a one single piece at the very end.
HAHN: So, you're getting, like, a mega file of what this looks like in the end
that you can use in probably almost any size, then, if you need to blow it up.
Yeah, so once something leaves our table here,
it goes over to the unsung heroes of the metadata department.
-Anything that gets captured here... -I love saying, "metadata department."
-Metadata department. -Mmm-hmm.
Everything that gets captured here has to get the information added to it
so that somebody can find it and search for it later.
Do you have artwork like from live-action movies here,
for example... (ECHOING) The Black Hole?
-We actually do. -Mmm-hmm.
So a piece like this is really fantastic
because we can actually capture it in one shot,
but on the back side...
The reason why we kind of pulled this out is on the back side,
we found some additional artwork while we were capturing
that is a really light drawing...
Oh, yeah. Like a pencil drawing of an abandoned piece or something.
POPKO: Correct. We see history that we didn't know of
-before we captured it. -HAHN: Oh, it's really great.
So, I should let you get back to work
because obviously you've spent far too much time with me.
And next? What's around here?
-What can I look at? -Sure.
So, this item came from our cold storage out here.
So if you wanted to go and see more stuff like this, you could check that out.
Cold storage, I'm there.
HAHN: Hey, Nikki.
Hi, Don.
How you doing? It's good to see you.
-Good to see you. -Uh, Ty sent me over here,
he said you were working on some stuff from Epcot.
Yeah, I'm looking at some costume art from the World of Motion attraction.
HAHN: Oh, my God, I love that attraction. Sadly, it's not there anymore.
But it's great that you have all this kept from it
because it was like a huge animatronics thing. Wasn't it?
NIKKI NGUYEN: It was, it had the largest number of audio animatronics figures
-of its time. Yeah. -HAHN: I didn't know that.
Wow. So what are we looking at specifically here?
Well, I pulled a number of different pieces here.
We've got some from the scene with Leonardo Di Vinci and his flying machines.
-We've got some from the bicycle scene... -HAHN: Oh, I love that.
NGUYEN: ...and then these out front are all from the invention of the wheel scene.
HAHN: There's like fabric stapled to all this stuff.
-NGUYEN: Yeah. -What's the deal with that?
NGUYEN: These fabric swatches would help as they envisioned a final look
-for the design. -But the attention to detail is amazing.
I know Ward Kimball, among many other people, worked on this attraction.
And it is so specific and amazing and had such a great sense of humor
which a lot of these drawings kind of show.
This looks like the end of Indiana Jones.
Like, what are in all these crates like, what is this?
So these crates contain our matte painting collection.
-HAHN: Matte paintings. -Some of our rarest
and, uh, most exciting pieces in our art collection.
They're stored in these crates, so they're well protected and safe for travel.
And they're almost unbolted. Shall we unbolt the rest of them?
Yeah, let's do it.
Okay.
And of course, uh, gosh, the security,
but mainly, the safety of this artwork is crazy.
Yeah, you have to make sure that it's protected
-and it's safe for any bumps on the road. -HAHN: Why are you letting me handle it?
Yes, okay and there's, like, foam inside.
Yes, we've got foam in between each of the matte paintings.
-HAHN: The suspense is killing me. -And we're about to unveil.
HAHN: Oh, my gosh, look at that.
This is a matte painting from Bedknobs and Broomsticks...
-HAHN: Wow. -It features the town of Pepperinge Eye.
And it was from a scene early on in the film
when the British officer is driving through the town.
Right, right, right. Like this technique is something
that Disney Studios is really known for,
Peter Ellenshaw, especially,
and so this clear area in the middle would have been
-where the car drove through. -NGUYEN: Exactly. Yeah.
Matte painters use plates of glass or sometimes Masonite board
on which they craft highly detailed paintings
to mask the live-action scene that they don't want.
Yes. And so this was painted on glass?
-Yes. (LAUGHS) -Nothing fragile here. Okay, good.
Well, let's just put the stuff back on top of it, so it doesn't go anywhere.
And these were all full of, like, things like this?
-Yes. -You have the best job, that is so cool.
-All right, well, let's keep moving on. -Okay.
HAHN: What's over here?
NGUYEN: Over here, we have some of our animator models.
Oh, wow. Look at that. Oh, my gosh.
-Pinocchio. -Yeah.
Got Geppetto over here. I pulled a few from Pinocchio for you to see.
Now, so when were these made?
So these were made by the character model department,
which operated from 1937 to 1941.
HAHN: It was the great Joe Grant ran that department.
NGUYEN: Yes, exactly, under the leadership of Joe Grant.
HAHN: Yeah, he's a good friend, yeah.
I really love working with these, especially since I get to pick him up
and hold them and find out even more by looking at not just the model itself,
but looking at the underside.
-HAHN: Look at that. -And from that, you can see the return
to character model department stamped.
So we know that, um, these were ones that were lent out to animators
and then needed to be returned to the character model department.
They had some sort of tracking system that was used at some point along the way.
And then this sticker right here is actually something
from the Walt Disney Archives, the AM160,
and that was an early way that the Walt Disney Archives
tracked these animator models.
And so when I see bits like this, it connects me with the history
-of the archiving that's been done here... -Absolutely.
-...connects me with our past. So, yeah. -Unbelievable.
But we have a number of animator models, and some are glazed,
some are not, we see different coloration choices.
HAHN: 'Cause he doesn't look like the Jiminy Cricket that's in the final movie.
He has kind of more of a buggy thing, but I know
Ward Kimball changed the model a little bit
to a little green man, but they did do a new maquette for it?
Well, we have this maquette also, which you can see has...
-Looks like Jiminy Cricket. -Yeah, so we can see the evolution
of the characters over time through our collection also.
Say, that's pretty swell.
HAHN: This is really strange, Nikki.
You have all kinds of things, but this is an Alien poster.
What's this doing here?
Well, this is part of our Fox publicity collection.
HAHN: Oh, I get it. Okay.
We have materials that date back to 1915
and are examples of domestic and international posters,
-standees, lobby cards. -You're starting to inherit and merge
with the people of Fox that keep all of this stuff.
-And what a treasure it is. How fun. -Absolutely.
And over here there's some blueprints of what looks like the studio.
-Is that what this is? -Yeah.
These are some architectural plans that date back to the late 1930s
of the Walt Disney Studios Burbank studio lot.
This one up here is for a proposed administration building.
However, it was never constructed.
But we do know a little bit about what was intended to be their offices
for casting, publicity, legal and even a suite of offices for Roy O. Disney.
Really? So Roy would have been over in the administration building
and Walt would've been somewhere in the animation building
-with his artists, presumably so. -NGUYEN: Exactly.
Yeah, Walt's office was right there.
Oh, I know. I've been trying to get there all day.
You should really go.
Tell me about it. Is it... Is it time? Can I go down?
-Yeah. -Okay.
-Here I go. -(CHUCKLES)
LEONARD MALTIN: Dave's first actual job was inventorying
the contents of Walt's office,
which he did, uh, diligently and that has paid off handsomely
in just the last few years, as the company decided to restore Walt's office.
When I first heard the idea
of restoring Walt's office and the fact that
much of what had been in Walt's office on the day that he died in 1966,
we still had and had been preserved,
I thought it was a fantastic idea. Like the archives, I thought
the office could serve as an anchor of sorts,
in a great reminder of what this company was, and in many respects,
an example of what this company still is, and I thought that this would
bring Walt to life a little bit more in more of a physical manifestation
than he had been in a long time.
I think it's very appropriate that the archives started
in Walt's office with Dave doing that inventory.
Now here, we are today again in Walt's office sharing his legacy.
Hello? Whoa!
Well, we finally made it.
This is Walt Disney's office,
and it's so beautifully restored by the archives.
And I wanted to bring you up here because you get a sense
not only of the business side of it and the meetings
that may have taken place here,
but there's also a sense of Walt Disney, the man.
I mean, this is where he worked, where he sat.
This is his desk. It's so iconic.
ED OVALLE: This is the desk that he would come in every day
first thing in the morning and sit here at this desk,
and one of the first things he would do would be sign autographs.
-HAHN: Really? -The secretary would bring in
a little stack of note papers and red grease pencils.
"Well, write this to this person or just sign your name."
Can you imagine? And was he a clean desk or like a messy desk guy?
-Secretaries say that he was messy. -I like that about him.
A lot of things around.
He used to have his color pencils spread out across the desk,
ready for him to use to write on his scripts or anything else.
Well, let's hope some of the afterglow
-of this desk comes off on both of us. -Right.
Let's go in the next room because I hear that's
more of an informal office in there.
-Is that right? -So let's head over.
Oh, man, there's a whole another office in here.
What's the deal with this?
-Right, this is Walt's working office. -Wow.
So that one was a formal office.
-So that's where he would greet visitors. -Right.
This is where all the real work was done.
-Kind of a "roll up your sleeves" place. -Right.
All the meetings were in here.
All of my childhood memories, your childhood Disney memories
were talked about in this office, theme parks, TV shows.
Everything was talked about in this space here.
We've often been asked, where do we get the ideas for our stories?
So, on this program, we will try to answer in part this question.
We hope that through our television shows
that you will join us and take part in the building of Disneyland
and that you will find here a place of knowledge and happiness.
Now that we've told you all about fares,
shown you how to build a dinosaur
and explained the principles of audio animatronics,
the only thing left for us to tell you about is our next program.
I always marvel. He's like the hardest working guy in Hollywood.
Just the work ethic from these guys was amazing.
OVALLE: And all the different projects he was working on at the same time.
HAHN: Yeah, dozens 'cause he's got scripts going here
and I noticed on this wall, there's even Disneyland maps and things over here.
Was this going on while he was in this office?
-I guess. -OVALLE: Yes, this is Disneyland 1965.
So when Walt was planning Disneyland, it would've been a drawing.
So as time went by, they updated it.
And you can see this is the last photo that Walt had here.
Unbelievable. And these tags, are those original or...
OVALLE: Yes, everything original here.
So these little tags here are calling out things
that are now open in red and yellow and coming attractions.
HAHN: What an amazing space. And you kind of feel
the good ghosts in here, of all the people that have come and gone,
all the conversations that have happened in here with Walt and Roy
-and his business associates. -OVALLE: Right.
And I heard there's actually somewhere in here, a kitchen.
There is, considering that, you know, 1940, but it's state-of-the-art back then.
So there is a kitchen. It's right over there.
-That wall is moving! -Sure is.
That's the kitchen.
Oh, my God, is that, like, an original?
It's original. Thankfully,
no matter who moved in here and changed the layout of this office space,
this kitchen stayed exactly the way it was when Walt was here.
The stove, the range, all the cabinets and the little pulls,
exactly the way it was when Walt was here.
That is so amazing. So let's... We can close the magic doors.
I have one more question about... In the formal office,
is that what you're calling it here?
Okay, so, Ed, this is the place.
This is where Richard was,
like where Richard and Robert played all their songs here for Walt.
-Is that right? -OVALLE: That's right.
This is the piano that Richard and Robert would sit and play
Feed the Birds from Mary Poppins, Walt's favorite song.
RICHARD SHERMAN: There's a story that goes with this song,
and it's really kind of special because it means a lot to me, too.
Friday afternoons, many times he'd call us into his office
and he'd ask us what we were working on.
We tell him we're working on this and that, and he knew it.
But do we tell him anyhow?
And then he'd say... He'd look out that north window
out of his office and he'd say, "Play it."
And I knew he wanted to hear his favorite song, Feed the Birds,
because that was his credo.
He was feeding the birds.
He was giving that little bit of love to the world all the time,
and it was his quiet, little personal thing.
He loved that. He loved the idea that it doesn't take much to give love,
and that's what the song is all about.
And so I played it for him
and I played it on this piano many, many times.
I played it on this piano the very first time.
(SINGING) Early each day to the steps of St. Paul's
The little old bird woman comes
In her own special way to the people she calls
Come buy my bags full of crumbs
It's always eerie to walk into this office
because it looks almost exactly the way it did
when I first saw it over 45 years ago.
I had just come here to the studio to become
the archivist for the company, and they allowed me access
to Walt Disney's office, and it was amazing.
I mean, I've never been in a famous person's office before.
KATHRYN BEAUMONT: So he said, "Well, let's just go over to the couch
"and take a look, so we'll sit down here
"and we'll look at the book
"and I could tell you some of the things that
we're going to be doing to change
"and use both stories together."
Oh, this is like a time capsule to me,
uh, coming in here and seeing, uh,
what Walt was really focused on in the last, uh,
period of his life, you know, the expansion of Disneyland.
I mean, this is an early master plan of Walt Disney World.
So much of it ended up
exactly as he drew it, uh, on a napkin
the first time...
(SINGING) Though her words
Are simple and few
Listen, listen, she's calling to you
But I'll never forget the feeling. Uh...
It's like I was in here a week ago. Uh...
I, you know... I spent a lot of time on that lot out there
and I spent some time up here,
and, uh, yeah, I, uh...
It's a wonderful feeling. It's just a familial feeling.
Thank you.
So one more thing. I want to ask you about this.
-I think it's a mouse girl, which is... -CLINE: Hey, there.
-Heard you were here. Good to see you. -Becky! Good to see you.
I've been bumming around here all day, and it's spectacular.
Ed's put up with me and showed me around.
Explained everything in here.
It's like the whole history of Disney
-kind of comes from this office. -It is. It's the heart of the studio.
You must be so proud about this restoration and what it means.
And I feel, like, Walt in the walls,
-a little bit of Dave Smith everywhere. -Yep.
And it's just so cool to see you up here
-and all the work that you're doing. -Oh, thank you.
-So happy anniversary. -Thank you.
-50 years for the archives. -Amazing.
And I really appreciate your letting me
stay up here overnight because I just won't move
anything around, I'll sleep on the sofa.
-No problem. -It's been wonderful being up here.
Thank you for letting me come up here and see this really, really special place.
Well, please come back anytime.
Hey, let's walk off in the sunset.
-(GASPS) Perfect! -Okay, here we go.
CLINE: I'll even let you hit the lights.
HAHN: I'll hit the lights. Good night.