Disney Theatrical’s ‘The Lion King’ Items Become Part of Smithsonian Collection (Updated)
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WASHINGTON, Sept. 24 — In a special ceremony today, Disney Theatrical Productions donated objects from the Tony and Olivier Award-winning musical “The Lion King” to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. Costume elements from the show’s protagonist Simba and the tribal shaman Rafiki will join objects from the musicals “Cats,” “Rent” and the “King and I” in the museum’s permanent entertainment collections.
Designed by Julie Taymor, the costume components include Simba’s stylized lion mask and headdress — co-designed by Michael Curry — and the costume, custom shoes and hat designed for Rafiki. The donated items were conceived for the original Broadway production of “The Lion King,” which opened Nov. 13, 1997.
“Taymor’s designs bring the story of Simba the lion cub, fulfilling his destiny to become king in the African Pride Lands, to life,” said Brent D. Glass, director of the museum. “This donation is a significant addition to the museum’s entertainment collection and joins materials representative of Broadway hits.”
The Simba mask-headdress is made of carbon graphite, a lightweight but durable material cast from a silicone mold, paint and polyester fibers. The Rafiki costume is made of cotton fabric, decorated with metal amulets and a horsehair collar. The hat is made of textured kente cloth, and the custom shoes are made of rubber.
Categories: Theatre Tags: Julie Taymor, Lion King, Michael Curry, Museum, NMAH, Smithsonian, Thomas Schumacher
A Sneak Peek Inside the Walt Disney Family Museum: Gallery 10, Remembering Walt Disney
Our series peeking into the galleries at the new Walt Disney Family Museum comes to a close with Gallery 10: Remembering Walt Disney.
Walt Disney died on December 15, 1966. Reactions from around the world, in newspaper articles, editorial comment, and letters and telegrams present an appreciation of the joy, hope, and inspiration Walt provided to millions of people around the world.
All images © Disney Enterprises, courtesy of the Walt Disney Family Museum
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Categories: Uncategorized Tags: Museum, Presidio, Walt Disney Family Museum, WDF
A Sneak Peek Inside the Walt Disney Family Museum: Gallery 8, Walt and the Natural World
Continuing in our series of exploring the Walt Disney Family Museum, set to open on October 1, we are pleased to bring you a look at Gallery 8: Walt and the Natural World
Walt — who had a love of nature since his youth in Marceline — also ventured into live-action documentaries during the ‘40s and early ‘50s. The first of these was a nature documentary, Seal Island, a 27-minute account of the seasonal habits of seals that won the 1949 Academy Award™ for best two-reel documentary. Later documentaries in the series, “TrueLife Adventures” continued to focus on nature, while “People and Places” highlighted peoples and destinations around the world.
Exhibits in the gallery include some of the specialized equipment used in the production of the “True-Life Adventures” series.
All images © Disney Enterprises, courtesy of the Walt Disney Family Museum
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Categories: Uncategorized Tags: Museum, Walt Disney Family Museum, WDF
A Sneak Peek Inside the Walt Disney Family Museum: Gallery 7, Post-War Rebuilding: Mid-‘40s to the early 1950s
Continuing in our series of exploring the Walt Disney Family Museum, set to open on October 1, we are pleased to bring you a look at Gallery 7: Post-War Rebuilding: Mid-‘40s to the early 1950s
With the end of the war, Walt and Roy found inventive new outlets for animation and ventured into live-action production. They developed new package films for theaters that combined shorts and feature-length animated films, as well as movies that combined live action and animation. In addition, the Studio produced the enormously successful Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and Lady and the Tramp, the studio’s first wide-screen animated feature. Disney also produced his first live-action features, including Treasure Island and 20,000 Leagues under the Sea.
Concept and animation art from Disney’s films of the period will be prominently featured in this gallery, as well as artifacts from live-action movies, including an underwater camera used in the filming of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and works from Walt’s extensive personal collection of miniatures.
All images © Disney Enterprises, courtesy of the Walt Disney Family Museum
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Categories: Uncategorized Tags: Museum, Walt Disney Family Museum, WDF
A Sneak Peek Inside the Walt Disney Family Museum: Gallery 6, the Late ’30s – ’40s
Continuing our series into the galleries at the new Walt Disney Family Museum, we are pleased to present to you some of the artifacts that can be found in Gallery 6: TheLate ’30s – ’40s
This difficult period in Walt’s life included the deaths of his parents, a studio strike that threatened the company’s viability, and a period when the U.S. military used part of the studio as a base. The company released Dumbo and produced training films for the military, public service shorts, and morale- boosting films, and Walt embarked on a goodwill tour of South America to strengthen ties between the U.S. and Latin American countries. He later produced two Latin American-themed animated movies based on the trip.
Photos and union flyers from the 1941 Disney animators’ strike as well as samples of Disney films in support of the war effort will be among the gallery highlights. Also on view will be original art from Dumbo and insignias that the Studios created for numerous regiments and squadrons.
All images © Disney Enterprises, courtesy of the Walt Disney Family Museum
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Categories: Uncategorized Tags: Mary Blair, Museum, Walt Disney Family Foundation, Walt Disney Family Museum, WDF
A Sneak Peek Inside the Walt Disney Family Museum: Gallery 5, New Success and Greater Ambitions
Continuing in our series of exploring the Walt Disney Family Museum, set to open on October 1, we are pleased to bring you a look at Gallery 5: New Success and Greater Ambitions
The worldwide success of Snow White let Disney Studios create new studio buildings in Burbank, CA, and produce even more ambitious features, such as Bambi, Pinocchio and Fantasia. The last film featured classical music and an orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski. Although well 
regarded by critics, none of the films was immediately financially successful, in part because overseas revenues were affected by World War II.
Highlights of the gallery will include one of the studio’s original multiplane camera cranes, an animator’s desk and rare production art.
All images © Disney Enterprises, courtesy of the Walt Disney Family Museum
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Categories: Uncategorized Tags: Museum, San Francisco, The Presidio, Walt Disney Family Museum, WDF
A Sneak Peek Inside the Walt Disney Family Museum: Gallery 4, the First Animated Motion Picture
Continuing our series into the galleries at the new Walt Disney Family Museum, we are pleased to present to you some of the artifacts that can be found in Gallery 4: The Move to Features: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Having redefined the art of animation, Walt dares to produce a feature-length film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. During the four years that it was in development, Disney and his brother Roy secured six-figure loans – each loan enough to finance an entire movie – time after time, and skeptics called the film “Disney’s Folly.” Disney brought in an art instructor to work with his team and insisted that the animators study live models and animals.
The studio created a Character Model Department, which constructed small sculptures of characters which let animators study characters in the round. Snow White premiered on December 21, 1937, and Disney won a unique Academy Award™ for the innovative movie: a standard-sized Oscar™ and seven miniatures.
Original art from Snow White, three-dimensional
model figures, magazines of the period, audio clips, and a wide array of related 1930s merchandise will help recreate the story of Disney’s pioneering effort to produce Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
All images © Disney Enterprises, courtesy of the Walt Disney Family Museum
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Categories: Uncategorized Tags: Dopey, Museum, Snow White, Walt Disney Family Museum, WDF
A Sneak Peek at the Walt Disney Family Museum, Gallery 3: The Emergence of the Walt Disney Studio
Galleries 3 New Horizons: The Emergence of the Walt Disney Studio (1928 to 1940)
The success of Mickey Mouse let Walt Disney expand the newly renamed Walt Disney Studios and improve the quality of Studio animations, so he embarked on a series of ambitious projects, including the “Silly Symphonies,” one-reel shorts that let him experiment with images, music, and story lines. In the following years, the Studio created the first Technicolor cartoons, introduced a multiplane camera to create the illusion of depth in animated films, and developed distinctive styles of movement and personality in their characters. Also in this period, Walt and Lillian’s family grew to include daughters Diane and Sharon.
The continuing success of Walt’s cartoons led to a revolution in the art and technology of animation. Vintage artifacts, animation art, character merchandise, and family photos chronicle the creative explosion of the 1930s, Walt’s sudden world fame, and Diane and Sharon.
All images © Disney Enterprises, courtesy of the Walt Disney Family Museum
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Categories: Uncategorized Tags: Museum, Walt Disney Family Museum, WDF
The Walt Disney Family Museum Website is Live; Tickets Available for Dates Starting October 1
The Walt Disney Family Museum site has gone live. Visit it online at waltdisney.org to learn more about the museum, obtain timed tickets, watch videos and the chance to pre-order the museum’s book, The Walt Disney Family Museum: The Man, the Magic, the Memories written by noted Disney historian J.B. Kaufman and Diane Disney Miller with preface by Richard Benefield and introduction by Diane Disney Miller. At 96 pages and containing 124 illustrations, the book tells the story of Walt Disney in ten chapters that coincide with the museum’s galleries. The book will be available exclusively from the museum beginning October 15, 2009, but is currently available for pre-order for $19.95
Categories: Uncategorized Tags: Diane Disney Miller, J.B. Kaufman, Museum, Richard Benefield, Walt Disney, Walt Disney Family Museum, WDF
A Letter From Walt Disney Family Museum’s Executive Director, Richard Benefield
The following letter was published earlier today on the Facebook page of the Walt Disney Family Museum and has been copied here with permission. We encourage all of our readers to become a Fan of the Museum on Facebook to be apprised of the latest news and announcements from the Museum as well as images of just some of its amazing collection on display. You can also follow the museum on Twitter.
Walt Disney was a storyteller.
Whether he was making a film or developing a theme park, Walt was always telling stories, and what great stories they were: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,Old Yeller (the first movie I, personally, remember seeing), and Mary Poppins to name just a few! Starting this fall, The Walt Disney Family Museum will tell the inspiring story of the man himself, Walt Disney, using his own words, his own voice, and the voices and words of many of his collaborators and family members in video and audio exhibits. You will also find original animation art; photographs and film clips; Walt’s train, the Lilly Belle; a meticulously hand-crafted model of the Disneyland of Walt’s imagination; as well as examples of the technologies that Walt pioneered, like the multiplane camera and the optical printer.
As you enter the Museum, the first thing you will notice is an extensive selection of some of Walt’s more than 900 awards for his artistic work and service to mankind. Among them are 29 of his 32 Academy Awards®, including the only special Oscar® that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences® ever made: one regularsized Oscar with seven small ones. The award, of course, was presented to Walt in recognition of his distinguished work on the feature-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Walt’s amazing achievements—not only cartoons, film, and television, but also Disneyland, exhibits for the 1964 World’s Fair, and plans for EPCOT—will come to life in the new museum located in an historic army barracks in the Presidio of San Francisco. Because we want everyone visiting us to have a wonderful Museum experience, all admission will be by timed-entry ticket, allowing a set number of people through the door every fifteen minutes. Once you’re in, you can stay as long as you wish! To find out how to purchase your timed-entry tickets, please visit us at www.waltdisney.org.
The Museum is also home to a state-of-the art theater where we will hold screenings, lectures, classes, and live performances. It’s a beautiful place to see an old favorite, like Pinocchio, or something new from one of the Bay Area’s hottest animators. You can find out about these events on our website, but if you become a member of The Walt Disney Family Museum, you will receive a quarterly newsletter and special advance announcements of upcoming events and programs in print or via email. Members also receive discounts on admission to many of our programs and screenings, and they can always go online to get their free timed-entry tickets to the galleries.
We do hope you will visit us again and again to learn more about Walt Disney and to experience the wonderful programs we have in store. We look forward to seeing you at the Museum this fall.
Richard Benefield
Founding Executive Director
Categories: Uncategorized Tags: Museum, Richard Benefield, Walt Disney Family Museum, WDF
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