The Walt Disney Museum

As a huge Disney fan for decades I wasn't going to miss out on going to The Walt Disney Museum which was located a couple miles from The Golden State Bridge.  As soon as you walked into the lobby past the entrance you see all around you trophies, plaques, and tributes to Walt Disney throughout his almost fifty year career.

Walking around there were endless stories and pictures of his life including his first successful cartoon character, Oswald the Rabbit. When he wanted more money from the guy he was working for in New York he was told no and that he could leave with nothing since he didn't own the character.  He left with nothing and on the train home to California he drew a picture of the mouse below.

Imagine, buy a loaf of bread and get a picture card of Mickey Mouse!  He was involved in a bunch of different projects his whole life.  "The story of Disneyland" was a special movie they were presenting that day and it talked about his struggles to get funded.  One story I never heard was that he needed more trees for The Jungle Cruise ride and so he put ads in the paper for anyone who wanted to get ride of their tree. They came to your house and took your tree and it wound up in Disneyland.

This was the layout for Disneyland or Disney World or both.  I was too busy taking pictures to read what it was, still it was pretty cool.  After walking through endless exhibits on several floors, it was the last small section about Walt Disney's death which was the most moving.

He had been sick, but no one knew how sick he was.  Ten days after his 65th birthday he passed away from lung cancer.  His list of accomplishments are endless, but he still holds the record for most Academy Awards by an individual, 22 and the most nominations by an individual, 59.

Below are two moving pictures that I had to photograph and one incredible tribute by CBS's Evening News, Eric Severeid, which is worth reading.  The best line in his tribute was, "He probably did more to heal-or at least soothe- troubled human spirits than all the psychiatrists in the world." He died sixty years ago this December-imagine his impact since then.

It was an inspiring few hours even for someone who has read a lot about Walt Disney.