Things I Didn’t Know About Walt Disney Before Visiting His Museum
What I learned about him on my trip to The Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco, California
If you’re a fan of The Walt Disney Company. You probably have a pretty good indication of who the man behind it all was. Born December 5, 1901, he grew animation into the hit is today and — obviously — founded the now multi-billion-dollar powerhouse that has its hands in movies, theme parks, cruises, merchandise, and pretty much anything else you can think of.
As a fan of Walt Disney myself who’s done my fair share of digesting and creating content about him, I thought I knew it all. (HE LOVED TRAINS!!!!!!) That was until I visited The Walt Disney Family Museum in San Fransico, California.
The entire museum is dedicated to the family, career, and life of Walter Elias Disney, beginning from the Disney family’s immigration to the United States years before Walt was born and ending when he passed away on December 15, 1966.
I visited on Walt’s would-be 120th birthday and my 23rd birthday! (Sorry, I have to flex!!) In short, it was AWESOME! I have so much to say about the main exhibit and their World War II Special Exhibition, but in this article, I’m focusing on random facts I personally didn’t know about Walt and his life in the general exhibit.
Walt was not only the cartoonist for his high school newspaper but the staff photographer too!
Walt wasn’t known for being a star pupil in school, but he thrived working for McKinley High School’s newspaper, The Voice. He joined as an artist, creating topical cartoons and illustrations. His duties were later expanded to staff photographer! Which came in handy, because later in his career he used a plethora of film cameras to help him with his animations.
Walt needed his parents to sign a permission slip for him to join The Red Cross
When the United States entered World War I, Walt wanted to do his part and join the war effort as a soldier. Unfortunately for a 16-year-old, the military would not take him, but the Red Cross did take 17-year-olds. I knew he served in the Red Cross Ambulance Corps, but what I didn’t know (but I should have assumed) is that Walt needed his parents to sign a permission slip to let him go.
In a video narrated by Walt in the museum, he explained that at first, his mother approved and his father did not. It took some convincing on his mother Flora’s part, but Elias decided that he’d rather know where his son is rather than have him sneak off.
Once they signed the permission slip, 16-year-old Walt changed his birth year from 1901 to 1900, making him 17 years old. While serving as an ambulance driver in the Red Cross, Walt got to travel the world — and he still had time to draw!
Here are some pictures of the exhibit I took with the artifact’s caption.
Walt surprised his wife Lilly with a dog in a hatbox
Sound familiar? Lady and the Tramp fans know what I’m talking about, and it happened just like it did in the film! In a story I listened to narrated by Walt, he described that his wife Lilly wanted a chow. So, Walt bought the dog a few weeks before Christmas, hid it at a different house, and in the middle of a Christmas celebration, had someone put the pup in a hatbox and put it under the tree. Walt recalled Lilly being mad at seeing the hatbox because she didn’t want anyone to pick out a hat for her—she had her own particular taste. She was pleasantly surprised when it was a puppy!
Walt collected miniatures
OK, so we all know that Walt loved trains and that he had a miniature train set up in his backyard, but what I didn’t know is that Walt was an avid collector of miniatures. He had houses, complete with furniture, food, tableware, and even books like the Bible and the Qur’an! Take a look at some of the miniatures on display at the museum.
I had such a great time at the museum, and I can’t believe I didn’t know some of these fun facts! Even if you already knew some of them, I hope you learned something new too!
Let us know if you learned anything new about Walt in this article by tweeting us @BoardwalkTimes!
Elizabeth Pfeiffer is the senior editor of Boardwalk Times.
