From: Rich_Koster@agwbbs.new-orleans.LA.US (Rich Koster)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.disney
Subject: Disneyana - Dave Smith & Archives Treasures
Distribution: world
Date: 9 Nov 92 06:01:28 CST
Organization: The Amiga GateWay BBS * New Orleans, La.

Here's the Disney way of introducing Dave Smith, head of the Walt
Disney archives, to the enthusiasts at the Disneyana convention:
 
The place, the Contemporary Resort's Fantasia Ballroom.
The time, around 9 on the morning of Saturday, September 26, 1992.
 
Spotlights pointed over to the back doors of the ballroom, revealing
a Wells Fargo armored truck.  Mickey Mouse was sitting on top of the
hood and was waving to his fans as the truck was driven into the
ballroom, if I'm not mistaken to the soundtrack of the Main Street
Electrical Parade.  The truck drove around the perimeter of the
ballroom to the front.  Most of the guests in the room were on their
feet at this point and clapping with the music.  Out of the truck
came Dave Smith and his assistant carrying a briefcase containing the
rarest and most fascinating things, direct from the Disney archives.
Here are highlights of what Dave showed us.  He held up the objects
he was talking about, and a large rear-screen projector showed them
close up at the same time.
 
Dave showed what are believed to be the earliest drawings which Walt
did which are still around -- they were done when Walt was in grade
school.
 
At 15, Walt Disney drew two drawings in his sister Ruth's high school
graduation book -- and he signed one of the drawings.  This is the
first known signature of Walt which still survives.
 
Walt's first contract was displayed, where he unknowingly signed away
the rights to Oswald the Rabbit to his distributor.  Dave also showed
Walt's 2nd contract, where again he did not retain the rights to the
character and afterwards he learned to keep all rights to his
characters.
 
Even though in later years Walt basically worked from a script in his
head, which went directly to storyboards after he told the story to
his animators -- there is an actual script for Steamboat Willie with
text on the left by Walt and thumbnail sketches by Ub Iwerks on the
right.  This method was used for one or two years before switching to
storyboards.
 
Because the Disney archivists have found the original theater playbill
from the first public showing of a Mickey Mouse cartoon, they have
determined from the date and time of that showing that the actual
birth of Mickey Mouse was on November 18, 1928 at noon -- at the
Colony Theater in New York City with the showing of Steamboat Willie.
 
Dave showed us a Donald Duck toy from the archives which was in mint
condition and also had its original packaging in mint condition.  You
can see this toy on page 101 and page 104 of "The Collector's
Encyclopedia of Disneyana" by David Longest and Michael Stern (which
can be found in fine bookstores or by writing to Collector Books,
P.O. Box 3009, Paducah, Kentucky  42002-3009).  It is a celluloid
windup toy of Donald with a long bill, and Donald waddles along when
the toy is wound up.  Dave didn't have one of these early Donald Duck
toys in the archives and was thrilled to find this one at a yard sale
out in California.  He has gone to many yard sales and garage sales
and has found them a good source of Disney material for the archives,
at least before the prices of Disneyana collectibles shot up years
ago.  The woman selling it was asking twenty dollars for it.  Dave
walked away with his new prize possession, after talking her down to
the selling price of $18!  The Disneyana book mentioned above lists
this toy as selling for $5,500 in mint condition as this one is, and
that according to many of today's advanced Disneyana collectors, the
mint condition box nearly doubles the value of the toy!  Dave said he
saw the same Donald toy for sale by an independent dealer at the 1st
Disneyana Convention Trade Show (the convention we're writing about),
but without the box and not in mint condition like the one he had.
 
The first ticket for Disneyland was numbered 000001 and was bought by
Roy Disney for one dollar.
 
In October of 1958 the first ticket book for Disneyland was for sale,
costing $2.50 for the book of A, B, & C tickets.  The D ticket was
added in 1956, and the E ticket was added in 1959.
 
In 1982 using ticket books was stopped and they started the use of
passports.
 
Besides showing the first signature of Walt Disney in their collection
(the 1915 graduation book), Dave also showed the last signature which
they know about.  It almost didn't make it into the archives.  One day
a cast member working at the shredding machine rescued one of the
papers from the pile he was supposed to shred and instead gave it to
Dave because he thought it might be good to save it.  Dave had heard
the story of Walt transferring stock to his daughter so that she could
afford to pay off her home mortgage, but he had never seen the actual
document which transferred ownership of the stock.  What he held in
his hands at that moment was the paper with the last signature of Walt
Disney, which just like the story said, transferred stock to his
daughter.  Walt signed it just days before he died.
 
Dave Smith told us that the information in the Disney archives is
available for any serious research project.  He said just call the
archives for help with any serious research and writing projects and
they'd be glad to share their knowledge with you.
 
Dave showed us many more fascinating things which he was kind enough
to bring all the way from the Disney archives in California.  I hope
he gives another presentation at the 2nd Disneyana Convention in '93
at the Disneyland Hotel so that more Disney enthusiasts can see his
treasures.
 
End of Dave Smith's presentation. Next: Tony Baxter about Euro Disney.

-- Via DLG Pro v0.995

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