Walt Disney at Phantom Manor

As has been covered already on the Mousekingdom Blog The Walt Disney Family Museum will open coming October in San Francisco, California, giving guests a unique look at the man who started it all – Walt Disney. Housed in three historic building specifically redesigned and upgraded to state-of-the-art facilities in the heart of the Presidio (part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area of the National Park Service) the museum will display more than1,600 drawings, works of art and other items telling the story of Walt’s life, from his childhood days in Marceline, Missouri all the way to the top of the world of Hollywood, certainly also covering his contributions that helped revolutionize animation and forever changed the film industry and family entertainment.

Where the museum plans to set itself apart from many exhibitions and works in other media covering Walt Disney is by telling “the story of the man behind the myth in Disney’ own voice and in exhibits that reveal his expansive vision, from early drawings of some of his most popular characters to plans for Disneyland and EPCOT” … and certainly by way of the unique items on display. To increase anticipation of the museum’s opening a weekly press release featuring a unique look into different galleries and exhibits of the museum has been launched. If you are interested check out the Mousekingdom Blog for the first installment (and certainly the following installments). That first sneak peek covers the very first gallery to be encountered in the museum which covers the very early year of Walt’s life from 1901 to 1923.

As interesting as the man and the myth Walt Disney is and as relevant as he certainly is to Disneyland Resort Paris one could wonder why this post here in the DLP.info News & Rumors  Blog – just because the resort is paying tribute to Walt Disney itself in “Walt’s – An American Restaurant” and to some degrees inside Lilly’s the boutique next door named for his wife?

No, the reason is actually the photo illustrating this article that was provided by the museum as part of the first sneak peek into the gallery of Walt’s early years. But where is the connection of that photo to the Disneyland Resort Paris? Need a hint? Take a look at the title of the post again - really …

Yes, really. Fans with good eyesight can spot this photo taken of Walt Disney in 1902 (he was born 1901) inside Phantom Manor, where Imagineers have placed it as a suddle nod to the man who started the dream that millions continue to dream year after year in Magic Kingdom style park in California (the only park he every set foot in), Florida, Japan, Hong-Kong and certainly France.

Where to find the photo seen above inside Phantom Manor? It has been placed in the indoor queue area guests pass through after the stretch rooms. It can be found in the main room (with the wide stair case) in which guests board the doom buggies on a table to the right of the queue (just out of reach of guests) on its first few meters in the room.

So next time you visit the bride and phantom and their ghostly guests inside Phantom Manor look out for this unique tribute of the Imagineers to Walt Disney in Phantom Manor!

Photo copyright by Disney Enterprises, Inc. / courtesy Walt Disney Family Foundation

This entry was posted by Dirk on Thursday, July 23rd, 2009 at 7:38 am and is filed under Disneyland Park, Disneyland Resort Paris. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.