{"id":83294,"date":"2025-12-05T21:57:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T21:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/83294\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T21:57:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T21:57:07","slug":"inside-the-new-exhibition-uncovering-the-creation-of-disneyland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/83294\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the New Exhibition Uncovering the Creation of Disneyland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cThe Happiest Place on Earth\u201d is at the Walt Disney Family Museum through May<\/p>\n<p>For most of us, Disneyland has always been there. You can\u2019t say the word Anaheim without conjuring up images from the wonderful world of Disney. The long and winding road to creating the whimsy of Walt Disney\u2019s dream park is the subject of the new book <a rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.waltdisney.org\/happiest-place\">The Happiest Place on Earth: The Disneyland Story <\/a>by <a rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/d23.com\/walt-disney-legend\/don-hahn\/\">Don Hahn<\/a> and <a rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/cdylanm\/?hl=en\">Christopher Merritt<\/a>. The pair have brought the book to life at a sister exhibition and documentary film that opened recently at the <a rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.waltdisney.org\/\">Walt Disney Family Museum<\/a> in San Francisco.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"low\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"907\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-280933\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Harper-Goff-Bill-Evans-Dick-Irvine-Walt-Disney-Ruth-Shellhorn-and-Joe-Fowler-examine-working-drawing.jpeg\"\/><img fetchpriority=\"low\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"907\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Harper-Goff-Bill-Evans-Dick-Irvine-Walt-Disney-Ruth-Shellhorn-and-Joe-Fowler-examine-working-drawing.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-280933\"  \/>Harper Goff, Bill Evans, Dick Irvine, Walt Disney, Ruth Shellhorn, and Joe Fowler examine working drawings, April 1955;Credit: Courtesy of Ruth Patricia Shellhorn Papers, UCLA Library Special Collections, \u00a9 Disney<\/p>\n<p>Visitors reach the temporary exhibit after an hour immersed in the story of Walt\u2019s journey from cartoonist to studio mogul to \u201cShowman of the World,\u201d as an award presented to Disney shortly before his death in 1966 proclaimed.<\/p>\n<p>The exhibit includes artifacts that shine a light on the vast team of artists and production designers who assembled to create the new park. \u201cWe wanted to highlight the people nobody really knew,\u201d says Hahn, himself a Disney legend. \u201cLook, here\u2019s Marc Davis, here\u2019s Sam McKim. Here\u2019s people you haven\u2019t heard of that did a million iterations of Disneyland. These are the really strong talents from the animation studio that designed Disneyland.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"low\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-280915\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_3478-1200x900.jpeg\"\/><img fetchpriority=\"low\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_3478-1200x900.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-280915\"  \/><br \/>\u201cThe Happiest Place on Earth\u201d exhibition at the Walt Disney Family MuseumCredit: Photo by Chris Nichols<\/p>\n<p>Hahn is especially proud of including original illustrations of cast member uniforms designed by Reni\u00e9 Conley, a film designer who won her Oscar for Cleopatra. \u201cThey are so precious and beautiful,\u201d Hahn says. \u201cThey\u2019re working drawings meant to do the heavy lifting of what a costume would look like. She even stapled fabric swatches to the drawings.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"low\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-280916\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_3480-1200x900.jpeg\"\/><img fetchpriority=\"low\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_3480-1200x900.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-280916\"  \/>\u201cThe Happiest Place on Earth\u201d exhibition at the Walt Disney Family MuseumCredit: Photo by Chris Nichols<\/p>\n<p>The book and exhibit also include ideas that never came to be, like the original version of Pirates of the Caribbean. \u201cThere is a great drawing from when it was a wax museum walk through,\u201d Hahn says. \u201cSome of those pieces are still there like the pirate ship. You can see the sweat and coffee stains and pencil marks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center is-style-altfont has-secondary-color has-text-color has-link-color has-xs-font-size wp-elements-a392843e06eac12cec56e735f4f8219f has-lg-margin-top\" style=\"letter-spacing:1px;text-transform:uppercase\">Scroll to continue reading<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"low\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"787\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-280935\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Bruce-Bushman-Pink-elephants-concept-art-for-Dumbo-attraction-Fall-1954-Courtesy-of-the-Walt-Disney-.jpeg\"\/><img fetchpriority=\"low\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"787\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Bruce-Bushman-Pink-elephants-concept-art-for-Dumbo-attraction-Fall-1954-Courtesy-of-the-Walt-Disney-.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-280935\"  \/>Bruce Bushman, Pink elephants concept art for Dumbo attraction, Fall 1954;  magineering CollectionCredit: Courtesy of the Walt Disney Imagineering Collection, \u00a9 Disney<\/p>\n<p>Both authors have worked for the Walt Disney Company and have personal relationships with many of the artists who helped create the park of the 1950s and 60s. \u201cChris (Merritt) was really close to Rolly Crump,\u201d says Hahn. \u201cA lot of things we were able to steal off his walls which I love because I makes it really personal to the people who created these strange little items.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"low\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-280918\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_3505-1200x900.jpeg\"\/><img fetchpriority=\"low\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_3505-1200x900.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-280918\"  \/><br \/>\u201cThe Happiest Place on Earth\u201d exhibition at the Walt Disney Family MuseumCredit: Photo by Chris Nichols<\/p>\n<p>Artifacts that once lived at the park, from the carpet bag used by Wally Boag in the Golden Horseshoe Revue, a plastic leaf from the Swiss Family Treehouse or signage from the Tahitian Terrace restaurant behind Walt Disney\u2019s Enchanted Tiki Room, immediately transport you to the first time you saw them at their original home.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"low\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-280919\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_3519-1200x900.jpeg\"\/><img fetchpriority=\"low\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_3519-1200x900.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-280919\"  \/><br \/>\u201cThe Happiest Place on Earth\u201d exhibition at the Walt Disney Family MuseumCredit: Photo by Chris Nichols<\/p>\n<p>Disney\u2019s idea of putting visitors in the middle of a movie adventure and letting it unfold all around you was a whole new model of entertainment, completely innovative for the time. \u201cThe men and women who designed this stuff were so imaginative and able to bring the cinematic arts to an orange grove in Anaheim,\u201d Hahn says.<\/p>\n<p>Even though the museum is located in San Francisco, The Happiest Place on Earth and Walt Disney\u2019s life are foundational Los Angeles stories. Hahn was one of the original advisors when Disney\u2019s daughter Diane was dreaming up the museum. \u201cIt has become this wonderful place of storytelling,\u201d Hahn says. \u201cIt\u2019s all about the story. That\u2019s how we human beings pass along who we are, and I think that legacy is really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"low\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-280920\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_3537-1200x900.jpeg\"\/><img fetchpriority=\"low\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_3537-1200x900.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-280920\"  \/><br \/>\u201cThe Happiest Place on Earth\u201d exhibition at the Walt Disney Family MuseumCredit: Photo by Chris Nichols<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Happiest Place on Earth\u201d is at the Walt Disney Family Museum through May For most of us,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,3588,1341,9734,6607],"class_list":{"0":"post-83294","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim","8":"tag-anaheim","9":"tag-anaheim-headlines","10":"tag-anaheim-news","11":"tag-disney","12":"tag-disneyland","13":"tag-exhibition","14":"tag-museum"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}