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From the Disney Insider:
Walt Disney Family Museum: The Ground Is Broken for a Groundbreaking Place
We are honored to bring our readers some great news -- plans have been announced for on a Walt Disney Family Museum on San Francisco's Presidio. The museum will give new life to a historic building, and honor the achievements and life of the man who brought us the Mouse. Although the Walt Disney Family Museum has been a wonderful and enriching presence online for several years, the new museum location will allow people to visit and see firsthand the treasures that recall Walt's life.
Walt's daughter Diane Disney Miller graciously agreed to answer our questions about the museum -- what it will be, how it began, and why it is needed. Here is what she had to say:
The idea for the Walt Disney Family Museum started about 10 years ago. I was grievously disturbed by things that were being written about him and rumored about him that were not only untrue, but cruel and rather nasty. Our good friends Katherine and Richard Greene suggested that we do a CD-ROM biography of my father. They had recently seen a TV film about Lucy and Desi that was done by their children, and featured family home movies. We had the home movies, but the idea of presenting any of that to the public was not at all appealing to me. We all know what family films are all about -- they are intensely personal, and generally not very interesting to anyone but the subjects. Also, my father was not in most of the film, because he was the person behind the camera.
But the idea of presenting my father in a permanent and accessible way, in a medium that people could bring into their homes (just as he had come into their homes with his television appearances), was very appealing. We decided to assemble a filmed portrait of him that would be as honest and complete as possible. We would use the technology of the CD-ROM and gather interviews of people who knew him and had worked with him, as well as interviews he had done and bits of the family film inventory. I wanted people to get to know him, to hear his voice, to see him, to know who he was. This was not difficult, because Dad had always been very accessible to the press and to the public, and was much photographed and interviewed. He knew the value of that kind of exposure, he really liked people, and he liked to talk about his life and his work.
So, with Richard and Katherine Greene, we did the CD-ROM, directed and produced by Jean-Pierre Isbouts and Cathy Labrador of Pantheon Productions. Walt Disney Interactive was very helpful, and distributed it. Unfortunately, for various reasons, our product (like CD-ROMs in general) did not have great success. But it inspired our virtual museum -- our Web site, which WD Interactive helped us launch. The Greenes ARE the museum. They create the material, answer letters, and keep it vital.
Then the Greenes and Pantheon presented to us the idea of doing a film. We would take the concept of the CD-ROM further, and do a documentary of his life. The Greenes wrote the script and were coproducers with Pantheon Productions. Our son Walt was the executive producer. Dick Van **** narrated the film, and J.P. Isbouts directed it.
There was another legacy of my father that was available to the public as well. After my mother's death we moved my dad's workshop, the Red Barn, from her home to Griffith Park in Los Angeles. It is across from Travel Town, the Live Steam facility because Dad was a live steamer, and the barn was the home of his model steam train. The barn is cared for by the members of the Carolwood Pacific Railroad Society, all volunteers who love trains and Disney. Michael Broggie, son of Roger Broggie, created the society and manages it. With our CD-ROM, our virtual museum, the Red Barn, and the film, I thought that I'd achieved what I needed to do for my dad.
But there were other things to consider. We had possession of a lot of things of my father's that had been important to him, and would be of interest to others. We had possession of a large number of Academy Awards® that had been deemed his as opposed to the Studio's, including the very unique award for "Snow White." There were many other awards and citations from all over the world that attested to the man's impact and importance. We had things my dad had collected, art of Disney artists that he had purchased at the occasional Disney Library art shows, his train ... what to do with it all? We explored several possibilities over a period of years, but finally decided to lease a warehouse in the San Francisco Presidio and to store it all there in an attractive but low-key manner, where we could make it available to interested people. The Greenes were often asked on the Web site "Where is this museum?" Now we would have a place.
That was five years ago. Our museum concept has grown from that warehouse to a much more ambitious project that involves the restoration of a 1898 barracks building facing the old parade ground, an audio-visual walkthrough show of the life of Walt Disney, which "costars" many of the wonderful people who worked with him throughout his life. Our aim is to tell his story in his own way, and to make it as interesting and entertaining as possible, because that is what he was all about. This is a huge undertaking for us, but we have some talented and dedicated collaborators. We keep gathering interviews to build our archive and searching for important artifacts to add to our museum. We want it to provide a wealth of information about Dad, his work, the growth of the Company, and the individuals who worked with him to create the films, build Disneyland, and were such and important part of all of it.
We have committed to leasing and restoring two buildings at the Presidio. Building 104 is the 1898 vintage barracks building that will be the museum proper, housing our exhibit on the first two floors; offices and a special art gallery in the attic; and the basement will have a small (about 100 seats) theater for special programs, lots of bathrooms, two rooms for activities related to our educational program, and other necessary spaces for staff use.
We will be open to the public by reservation six days a week, but will accommodate walk-in visitors as well. We will encourage schools to visit us, and hope to have one school field trip each morning ... or two, depending on numbers. We hope to develop wonderful programs for our school visitors, with one space oriented to computers and the other to artwork. Our theater can be the site of weekend festivals of all types of Disney films -- the old TV series shown in complete form, cartoon series, True-Lifes, etc.
We will have a small café and a bookstore on the main floor, and may carry other sorts of appropriate merchandise as well. But they must be special things!
Building 122 , originally the post gymnasium, is located behind the barracks. It is of more recent construction, and is a rather elegant building. It will house our archival and curatorial activities, some additional offices, and what had been the basketball court will be a space that can be used for visiting art shows and other kinds of exhibits.
This project has far exceeded my own original goals for it. But, as our son Walt kept saying, "We've got to do more for him!" We feel that this is so in his spirit ... a restoration of a historical building in an emerging national park, something to be shared and enjoyed, actually owned by the people who understood him and appreciated him, and shared his values. We must do it as well as he would have done it -- that is our goal, and our challenge.
