the love for disney runs deep

it's no secret that the girls and i love all things disney.  and not just disneyland/disney world, either...we've made pilgrimages to visit places that have some sort of disney-related historical significance.  the old lady and i were just talking about how we'd love to go back up to the walt disney family museum up in san francisco, so we can take our time to scour through every exhibit and really take in all of the information there.  probably won't happen anytime soon, but it's definitely on the list of things we want to do again.

facebook alerted me to an upcoming auction at van eaton galleries out in sherman oaks where they'll be taking bids for hundreds of vintage and commemorative disneyland items.  there's everything from merchandise to cast member costumes to pieces of disneyland itself, and the biggest ticket item up for sale is a hand-drawn presentation map of disneyland that walt and roy disney used back in the 50s to sell investors on the idea of the park.  it's expected to attract bids in the six figures...crazy.

it sounded like a fun idea to head out to the valley to check out the items up for bids, even though we'd be out in the gross heat and potentially driving through traffic.  this is the last week of the items being on display before the auction this weekend, so we got in the car and headed out.  it was a little later in the afternoon, but luckily the traffic was going in the opposite direction for most of the way there.  parking on ventura boulevard isn't an easy task, but we managed to score a decent spot right across the street.

we weren't really sure what to expect when we got there, but as we walked in the door our efforts were rewarded with an entire room dedicated to the disneyland auction.

i guess it doesn't really look like much, but there was a ton of fun stuff in there.  there were pieces of rides and lots of signage from the last 60 years of disneyland:

 this sign is from 2007...just ten years ago.  if you want to park at disneyland now, it's $20.

cast member uniforms:

and check out this hand drawn concept design for a fantasyland operations member, complete with fabric and trim swatches.

this is a park guidebook from disneyland's opening day signed by walt himself.  if you have $7,000-$9,000 to drop, it can be yours.

a piece of wrapping paper that they used in disneyland's early days is available for a minimum bid of $500.

this little "mouseorail" model was part of the swag given to disney VIPs back in the 90s.

an old bench from fantasyland.  i didn't even look at the price tag on this one.

and the display cases held all sorts of souvenirs and fun stuff from practically every decade that disneyland has been in existence.  these were really fun to look at.

original cast member badges and lillian disney's club 33 membership card.

and there were complete sets of the old attraction ticket books.  these were still in use during my first couple of visits to disneyland when i was little...too bad we never saved the extras we had left over.

in the other room, we found more disneyland treasures.  look at this original poster for the skyway, a ride that's been gone for years.  $7K!  yikes!

and here's one for the peter pan ride.

this was an invitation given to cast members for the rededication of fantasyland when it was renovated back in the 80s.

a catalog of every item available for this auction was for sale, and just flipping through it showed us that what we'd gotten to look at in the other room was just a small sampling of what will be up for bids this weekend.  the old lady thought it would make a fun coffee table book, but since we don't even have a coffee table and the entire book is available online anyway, we passed on taking home a copy.

there were lots of animation cels and actual pieces of animated movies for sale, and not just disney but from all of the other studios.  it was fun to go through some of them and see drawings from familiar scenes in our favorite movies.

look at how old this particular drawing is!

not to mention, that's back in the days when they used to just throw all those pieces of paper away.  even that presentation map i mentioned earlier was destined for the dumpster if not for a cast member who asked walt if he could keep it as a souvenir.  he then took it home, where it stayed out of sight for 60 years.   and now it's going up on the auction block for hundreds of thousands of dollars.  sheesh.

there's a bus tour that goes through burbank, glendale and l.a. narrated by bob gurr, who's one of the last two original imagineers hired by walt disney.  he's one of the "disney legends" and is responsible for designing a lot of the rides at disneyland.  he even has his name on one of the main street windows.  the old lady and i are considering taking the tour while it's still available...because doesn't it sound like it'd be right up our alley?  it sure does to me.