The Walt Disney home in Los Feliz

Recently I had the opportunity to tour the Walt Disney home in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles. Even the driveway had a sense of Walt’s showmanship, as I anxiously walked up and around the corner of the brick wall for the big reveal. And it did not disappoint! Behind me was one of those most magnificent views of downtown Los Angeles. You could see the city, but still feel that you were tucked away in a serene spot where people and nature could cohabitate.



Walt and his wife Lillian moved into this F. Scott Crowhurst designed home in 1932, just as Walt was feeling the commercial success from Mickey Mouse. Daughters Diane and Sharon grew up there until 1950 when Walt moved to Carolwood Drive in the Holmby Hills neighborhood. Below is an ad from the Architectural Record, December 1933, which Shirley Temple expert supreme Rita Dubas alerted me to. “Ma Bell” gushed over the recently completed Disney home and included the floor plans for readers to see.



The obligatory selfie after I arrived.



A panoramic view of the exterior:



The tour guide turned out to be Dusty Sage. To say that his “Disney Resume” is impressive is truly an understatment:

The founder and CEO of MiceChat.com. When he's not visiting theme parks and writing, editing or speaking about Disney and theme parks worldwide, Dusty is involved in multiple Disney related projects and charities. He helped save and restore the charming Walt Disney Birthplace in Chicago, launched the Dick Van Dyke Foundation, and is the curator of Walt Disney's historic 1930's estate in Los Feliz.

 

I was most impressed that for the most part, this storybook-style mansion appeared untouched. Original front door, light fixtures, and hardware!



The foyer is the type that could take your breath away, and I’m not just talking about the low railings on the staircase or the wide circles that kids could easily fall through…I’m talking about the aesthetics! As Dusty so perfectly put it: “Today, if a kid fell over the railing, the parents would sue. If a kid fell over the railing back in Walt’s day, they’d be laughed at.”



The forced perspective of the second floor ceiling placement makes the foyer tower look much bigger than it actually is.



The current owner of the home has done an incredible job of furnishing the home to look as if you had stepped back into the 1930s.



The living room; oh, the stories that could be told here.



Projection rooms in Hollywood homes were not all that uncommon, so it’s not too surprising that Walt, the head of a film studio, had a pretty room one here on Woking Way.



You can see the hole in the wall for the projector:



The outside metal door was for the room where the films and the projection equipment were kept. Because of the flammability of nitrate film, lead-lined doors were a necessity.



This beautiful pool is one of the few things not original to the house. The original five acres that Walt owned was eventually sub-divided. Walt’s original pool still exists, but at the house next door. The one shown below is a more recent addition.



However, this little Storybook Playhouse IS original. It was built on Christmas Eve, 1937, while the Disney girls were sleeping. Studio craftsman built, plumbed, and electrified this structure all in one night so that Diane and Sharon could be surprised by it when they woke up Christmas morning. There was even a phone inside, which first greeted the sisters with a call from Santa himself!



A vintage shot of Walt (sans shoes!) with his daughters, from the Walt Disney Family Museum collection:



The backyard gave definite Disneyland Haunted Mansion garden vibes!



Original light fixtures; I was in geek heaven.



I don’t have any photos of the actual bedrooms where Diane and Sharon grew up, but I did get to tour them. To walk through the rooms where Walt read to his daughters (Pinocchio in this particular photo) was mind-blowing. The Disney movies “Mary Poppins” and “Winnie the Pooh” were basically begun here, as they were the favorite stories of the girls and the reason why Walt had his studio make them.



If you get a chance to tour this home, I highly recommend it!

See more vintage and contemporary Los Angeles photos at my main website.

Pollyanna and the Blue Bayou

The 1960 Disney live-action classic, “Pollyanna” first brought the charms of Hayley Mills to audiences in the U.S. when it premiered in New York City on May 19, 1960.



In one of the sequences, Pollyanna and the townspeople hold a charity bazaar to help build a new orphanage for the town of Harrington.



Notice anything in these screenshots?



In this vintage shot of the Blue Bayou Restaurant at Disneyland, you can see the very same style of Japanese Lanterns hanging overhead.



The Blue Bayou opened six years after the release of “Pollyanna”; is it possible that Disney re-used these beautiful lanterns that still hang overhead today?



I checked with a source at the Disney Archives who responded:

They very well could have been sourced from the same manufacturer or inspired the look/design of the lanterns used in the restaurant since it was only about seven years from film production to the construction of the restaurant space.



You can guess which way I want the answer to go.



In another screenshot from the film, you can see a variety of shapes:



The Bayou only has one style hanging overhead.



Even if they aren’t the same, where the heck can I get something like this for MY backyard?

See more Disneyland Blue Bayou restaurant photos at my main website.

Lost Catalina

Cecil B. DeMille’s 1924 silent film, “Feet of Clay” has been lost to the ages, unless someone finds a print in their musty attic or dank basement. Here’s the plot edited from Wikipedia:

Kerry Harlan (Rod La Rocque) is unable to work because he was injured in a battle with a shark, so his youthful wife Amy (Vera Reynolds) becomes a fashion model. While she is away from home, Bertha (Julia Faye), the wife of his surgeon, tries to force her attention on Kerry and is accidentally killed in an attempt to evade her husband. After the scandal Amy is courted by the dashing Tony Channing (Ricardo Cortez), but she returns to her husband and finds him near death from gas fumes. Because they both attempted to commit suicide, their spirits are rejected by “the other side” and, learning the truth from Bertha’s spirit, they fight their way back to life.

For DeMille’s reputation, it might be a good thing that this film has been lost!



Above are Rod La Rocque, Julia Faye, Vera Reynolds, and Ricardo Cortez. So much drama in one photo as the two couples have switched partners! Below is a surviving still from the film, which was shot on Catalina Island.



While the pier is still there (although most likely redone at some point), the building in the background does not appear to exist anymore.



In the first detailed view below, the cast is literally horsing around:



Sunbathers on the shore:



About to make a dive:



I’ve been to the Island twice, most recently in 2020. While it is beautiful, I can’t say it’s a place that I would rush back to.



See more Catalina photos at my main website.

Temple Tuesday: Rita to the Rescue!

The above photo shows Shirley Temple receiving her Rose Parade Grand Marshal ribbon from Tournament of Roses Chairman Lathrop K. Leishman, November 21, 1938. Shirley was to preside over the annual parade on the morning of January 2, 1939.



Seeing the flagstone flooring, in these images, I thought perhaps they were taken on the porch of her Brentwood home, seen below.



The style of door just didn’t line up with any of my photos, so I did what anyone would do. I reached out to the #1 Shirley Temple expert, author and designer Rita Dubas.



She quickly responded and let me know that these were taken at Shirley’s 20th Century-Fox Bungalow. Not long after she filled me in, I acquired the photo below, which expands the view to include the fence.



Yes! A match! Now it all makes sense. Below we see Shirley getting ready to film “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm” (1938), leaving her Bungalow hand-in-hand with studio tutor Frances Klamt.



Below, at her bungalow again, this time between takes for “Just Around the Corner” (1938).



An overall view of the bungalow then…



and sadly how it looked when I saw it in person a few years ago.



Thanks as always, Rita! Another Shirley mystery solved.

See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.

Babes in Town Square

Walt Disney was into sustainability years before it became a buzz word. Once the 1960 Disney feature, “Babes in Toyland” was wrapped, the soundstages had to be cleared for the making of the next studio film. Rather than discard or waste storage space for the elaborate sets and props from “Toyland,” Walt had them moved over to his Anaheim Park and converted into an attraction for his Main Street Opera House.



From December 1961 through September 1963, the sets on display included Mother Goose Square, The Toy Factory, and Forest of No Return. These two December 1961 images show the signage in front of the Opera House beckoning guests to come inside.



From May 1962:



This August 1962 image is the best shot in my collection of the signage in front.



From 1963-1964 the Opera House became the Mickey Mouse Club Headquarters, as seen in this September 1963 image: 





The next two shots from February 1964 show that the little guard booths in front of the Opera House from “Babes in Toyland” remained.





May 1964:



…and November 1964:



In 1965, the Opera House finally got a real attraction of its own, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, seen in this August 1965 shot:



Below is a screenshot from the 1960 film, showing the sets from Mother Goose Village:



Side-by-side comparison shots from the Devlin family, who visited the inside of the Opera House and posed by the sets from the film:







See more Disneyland Opera House photos at my main website.