Disney Family Museum

onesandzeros

Active Member
Original Poster
If you’re a Disney Fan living near or visiting San Francisco, you might enjoy visiting the
Disney Family Museum. It documents the Disney brothers lives, their business ventures,
film innovations and reactions to Walt’s passing. It’s located on the former 6th Army post
known as the Presidio. As you travel through the museum, you’ll also get some spectacular
views of the Golden Gate Bridge. There is an entrance fee and there are senior and AAA discounts.

http://www.waltdisney.org/
 

Zweiland

Well-Known Member
I wanted to go here on my last trip to San Francisco but unfortunately there wasn't enough time to fit it in. Oh well, gives me an excuse to take another trip :D.

Oh and by the way does anyone know why they chose SF as the location for this museum?
 

RonAnnArbor

Well-Known Member
Because that is where his daughter who funded the museum lives...

Its an AMAZING museum -- designed to show how Disney's ideas followed his own life timeline -- there are things like photos of his kids in his pool in their backyard in LA -- right next to movie clips and gels of the same shape pool in his drawings...its awesome cool...and it all ends with the history of Disneyland, complete with a full 3D working model -- its very very impressive.

And the Presidio itself is awesome. You have to do some walking to get to the museum since it is on the Main Post of the old military installation -- but the entire area is beautiful and I can't wait to win the next lottery so I can buy one of those million dollar houses in there....

SO worth the trip to see this.
 

mharrington

Well-Known Member
If you’re a Disney Fan living near or visiting San Francisco, you might enjoy visiting the
Disney Family Museum. It documents the Disney brothers lives, their business ventures,
film innovations and reactions to Walt’s passing. It’s located on the former 6th Army post
known as the Presidio. As you travel through the museum, you’ll also get some spectacular
views of the Golden Gate Bridge. There is an entrance fee and there are senior and AAA discounts.

http://www.waltdisney.org/

I love that museum! And I love that it's in one of the best cities in the world.
 

radiohost

Well-Known Member
My wife and I went to the museum last year...A few of the really cool items on display.

1. Earliest known drawing of Mickey Mouse from what is believed to be from Walt Disneys hand. This is on a piece of paper about 3x5 inches. They sell an exact replica of this in the souvenir gift shop in the form of a paper weight. Yeah, I bought it!

2. Walt Disneys certificate of baptism, not a birth certificate, since in 1901 baptism certificates were just as common.

3. One of the park benches Walt sat on while he watched his daughters ride the Merry-GO-Round in Burbank, coming up with the idea of Disneyland. You can sit on it, and if you google Diane Disney Miller you can see her sit on this bench with actor Tom Hanks when he visited the museum last year.

4. The "Seven Dwarfs" Oscar statuette Walt received in 1939.

The gift shop has one of a kind souvenirs not found in any Disney park...Also,I parked across the street with no trouble at all. 2 minute walk.
 

MOXOMUMD

Well-Known Member
The gift shop has one of a kind souvenirs not found in any Disney park...Also,I parked across the street with no trouble at all. 2 minute walk.
Did you notice if they sell Disney Museum ears? I collect them and would seriously buy a pair if they did.
 

TP2000

Well-Known Member
How big were these displays? They look super huge.

The famous Disneyland Dream Model is about 20 foot wide by 20 foot deep. It's viewed from above on a sloping walkway that moves you from the upper Disneyland exhibit down to the lower exhibit on the last few years of Walt's life.
IMG_8372-copy.jpg


WARNING For WDW Fans: The Walt Disney Family Museum is not a museum about Disney World, although Disneyland is featured heavily. It is a museum dedicated to Walt Disney's entire life, focusing most on his working career from the 1920's to the 1960's and all the projects he personally worked on. The museum exhibits follow a timeline of his life from 1901 to 1966, and the exhibits end abruptly in 1966, and you exit into the gift shop. WDW is mentioned very briefly in the very last exhibit, as a panel near the New York World's Fair info about his ideas for the "Florida Project". But WDW opened five years after Walt died, and what opened in 1971 didn't have much in common with what Walt had planned in 1966, and thus WDW has no place in the museum based on Walt's actual life.

There is lots of info about Walt Disney's Magic Kingdom of Disneyland in the 1950's and 60's, including this fabulous model. But if you are interested in learning about Meg Crofton's Disney World, this isn't for you.

My first visit about five years ago, I wedged the Disney museum in to a big museum day between morning at the Legion Of Honor and afternoon at the California Academy of Sciences, and I gave myself two hours to see the Disney museum. Big mistake, not enough time! The second time I visited a couple years later, I took the whole afternoon and spent four hours there, including a movie presentation in the theater in the basement. There's a very good café there, and a nice gift shop, and you can make it a full afternoon for those who really appreciate Walt Disney as one of the greatest Americans of the 20th century and the gifts he gave to the world.

Plus, the Disney museum is in the Presidio and the scenery around the museum itself is stunning.

Ho-hum, it's the Presidio in San Francisco, just your average little city park. :cool:
Palace-of-Fine-Arts-and-Golden-Gate-Bridge-San-Francisco-Engagement-Photographer-by-Rubin-Photography-0001.jpg
 
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RoyWalley

Well-Known Member
tom_hanks_disney_museum_visit.jpg

Tom Hanks with Diane Disney Miller on one of the benches Walt Disney sat on as he thought up Disneyland.
The actor visited the Disney Family Museum in San Francisco to research for the role of the famous mogul.
 

216bruce

Well-Known Member
Seeing it in October on an ABD DVC members-only trip. After-hours and private tour of the museum. Really hope we aren't rushed. Heck, I'd spend the night if they'd let me.
 

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