The Imagineers' Secrets of Disneyland by Fox Mike

Author:Fox, Mike [Fox, Mike]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: disney secrets, walt disney, imagineer, disneyland, hidden mickey
Publisher: Theme Park Press
Published: 2015-07-24T21:00:00+00:00

The History of the Partners Statue

The following is an excerpt from an article by Disney historian Jim Korkis which appeared in The Vault of Walt: Volume 2, one of seven books that he has written for Theme Park Press:

Just two decades after his passing on December 15, 1966, Walt Disney was being forgotten by a new generation of children who had grown up without seeing him on television every week.

Disney Legend Blaine Gibson, who knew and worked with Walt Disney closely during the last years of Walt’s life, was chosen to sculpt a permanent memorial to a man and his mouse to be placed at Disneyland. In a 1995 interview, Gibson recalled:

It started one day when Marty Sklar called me on the phone and asked if I’d be interested in doing a life-size statue of Walt, holding Mickey’s hand. I chose to depict Walt as he was in 1954. I think that was when Walt was in his prime.

Gibson made the figure of Walt larger than life, roughly 6’ 5” tall. In real life, Walt was barely 5’ 10” tall. The size of Mickey Mouse was chosen based on a brief moment from the animated short The Pointer (1939). When Walt Disney was recording Mickey’s voice as he faced a massive bear, he instinctively reached out to indicate that Mickey was roughly three feet tall in comparison to the ferocious bruin. From that moment on, that became Mickey’s official height.

More than 7000 economically challenged children from different countries were at Disneyland on November 18, 1993, for a huge event called Mickey’s Worldwide Kids Party. These children were the guests of honor at the celebration of Mickey’s 65th birthday and the official unveiling of the Partners statue.

Jack Lindquist, President of Disneyland, officiated the ceremony. He spoke briefly and then introduced Roy E. Disney whose warm words charmed the audience.

Then, in front of the platform, the Fab Five (Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Pluto) appeared and a huge curtain was dropped to reveal the statue.

There was a plaque by the statue that remains there today. It has a quote from Walt Disney:

I think most of all what I want Disneyland to be is a happy place…Where parents and children can have fun, together.

At the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World the plaque sports a different Walt quote:

We believe in our idea: a family park where parents and children could have fun—together.

Disney sculptor Blaine Gibson told the media at the unveiling in 1993:

Walt gave me and many others some of the happiest times of our lives, and this project was important because it wasn’t just for Walt…it was about Walt.

Our faces are all we really have that can tell people who we are. Many people asked me what Walt might be saying as he stood there with Mickey, and the expression I tried to capture was Walt saying to Mickey, “Look what we’ve accomplished together”—because truly they were very much a team through it all.

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