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Please join us in celebrating the life of our museum co-founder, Diane Disney Miller, who passed away on this day ten years ago. Museum Executive Director, Kirsten Komoroske, reflected on Diane in our December 2014 member magazine: “More than being a philanthropist and enthusiastic supporter of the arts, Diane was her father’s daughter. A creative force with the perseverance to follow her dreams, make a difference in the world, and carry on her father’s legacy with dignity, grace, and devotion.”...

Meticulous, theme-enhancing horticulture played a starring role in the transformation of flat Anaheim farmland into Walt’s rich, immersive vision for Disneyland.

Strolling the galleries at The Walt Disney Family Museum, visitors discover how brothers Walt and Roy O. Disney formed a business partnership in October 1923. They quickly began producing animated short subjects known as the Alice Comedies from a small office in Los Angeles.

As part of our mission to inform and educate present and future generations about Walt Disney, we wanted to highlight some common myths about Walt Disney and provide a place where those myths can be addressed and corrected.

It was late July 1923 and Walt Disney had failed. His Laugh-O-gram Films was headed for bankruptcy and, with little prospects left in Kansas City, Missouri, he was pulling up stakes. Hollywood was his destination. “Go west, young man, go west and grow up with the country,” the newspaperman Horace Greeley had written in 1865 (Walt would later quote this phrase to his friend Ub Iwerks, still back in Kansas City).

We are saddened to hear of the passing of Disney historian Jim Korkis. Jim interviewed Diane Disney Miller many times for his projects, and Diane shared, "I have not hesitated to correspond with Jim whenever I think of something that might interest him, or to add some insights into something he has written about. Dad did not hide anything about his life." Jim contributed numerous insightful articles to the museum's blog and in 2014, presented a program on "How Walt Put a Man on the Moon." His...

In October 1966, Walt Disney filmed an introduction for a special invitational screening of Follow Me, Boys! (1966)—a live-action film notable for being the acting debut of future Disney Legend Kurt Russell—that he was too busy at the Studios to attend. To express his regrets, he turned to one of the best way he knew how—by getting on camera. After filming completed on the film, he took time to promote another upcoming film in production: “...Now, we've completed quite a few pictures since...

Based on the acclaimed 1943 novel Midnight and Jeremiah by American author Sterling North, So Dear To My Heart takes place in the fictional Fulton Corners, Indiana in 1903. A young boy named Jeremiah Kincaid (portrayed by Bobby Driscoll, who had just finished filming Song of the South) adopts a mischievous black lamb named Danny (named after Dan Patch). Jeremiah struggles to earn enough money as well as train Danny so that the lamb can be entered into competition at the Pike County Fair. Of course, there are some tough challenges along the way that help Jeremiah grow as a person as well as a surprising but satisfying ending.

So Dear To My Heart was a movie that was truly dear to the heart of Walt Disney, since it re-created on film one of the most memorable times of his life, growing up on a small farm in Marceline, Missouri at the turn of the Twentieth Century.

“A funny thing happened to me on my way to the moon…girl (with seven moons all made for love) meets boy (with chimp)…and WOW!” That was the marketing phrase that appeared on many movie advertisements for the Disney live-action “Technicolor® blast of fun and entertainment” known as Moon Pilot, first released to theaters nearly fifty years ago.

Even decades after his passing, Walt Disney still retains the honor of being the individual with the most Academy Award nominations and the most Oscar wins. While the listing of these awards for animation, live action and more is very impressive, it is fun to take a quick look behind some of the stories of those golden statuettes...