The studio, which will celebrate its 100th anniversary on October 16, recently opened the depot at its headquarters in Burbank, near Los Angeles, to the press. What to show “the tip of the iceberg“, rejoices the director of the archives, Becky Cline. These bookstore-like rooms house a number of relics, among which the first script of the legendary Mickey Mouse, the founding legal document attesting to the creation of the studios, and a multitude of costumes of marvel superheroes.
“We collect so many things that we are always looking for extra space“Explains archivist Nicole Carroll. Old roller coaster cars from their amusement parks, the most diverse film props: beyond the Burbank site, Disney stores millions of objects and souvenirs in “five or six scattered warehouses” in the Los Angeles area.
Many of them are to be presented to the public through the exhibition Disney100, in progress in Munich and Philadelphia, and which must then be installed in other cities, including London. For its centenary, the studio is also organizing a “multisensory experience” immersive in Paris, at the CentQuatre cultural space, centered on the friendships between its emblematic characters.
Cinderella slipper
Founded in 1970, the team of archivists is now made up of thirty people and strives to maintain a “small representation“of everything the company has done, says Nicole Carroll. On a film with 250 costumes, including four or five for each of the heroes, they select for example”some iconic looks of each character“for posterity. Despite this selective approach, each time a film ends, “we could add hundreds of things“to the collection,” she explains.
Worthy of Aladdin’s genius cave, the archives are sometimes very practical. After narrowly escaping the trash can, a snow globe from the Mary Poppins from 1964 could thus be used to design a replica intended for the sequel to the adventures of the governess with magical powers, released in 2018.
Among the most cherished relics are the collections of giant tales appearing at the beginning of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and of The Sleeping Beauty, as well as a Cinderella crystal slipper, collected after the live-action remake of the film. Including the documentary archive, which compiles the original edition of many cartoons, tickets for the opening of Disneyland in 1955 and many corporate documents, the total collection of the studio reaches “hundreds of millions” of articles, according to Becky Cline, the director.
Walt’s offices
But the most mythical space for fans remains the personal offices of the founder Walt Disney, restored a little less than ten years ago on the Burbank site. This is where the cartoonist built his entertainment empire, from 1940 until his death in 1966. The items he left behind have been painstakingly inventoried and the rooms are arranged exactly as they were then, up to the inclination of his books on Nikola Tesla or Salvador Dali.
These desks also contain unfinished amusement park blueprints and character figurines. Not to mention the multiple Oscars won by Walt Disney. Only a few groups of visitors are admitted each year to this space, revered as the holy of holies by a community of devouring fans. “People come in and cry for this amazing human being“, says tour guide Laura Sanchez. “It allows them to tread on the past.”
