Disney's Wonderful Boyhood Home

During the five boyhood years that Walter Elias Disney lived in Marceline, Mo. (pop. 2,558), he often sprawled under a large cottonwood, studying critters that eventually inspired his cartoon icons—Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.

“More things of importance happened to me in Marceline than have happened since—or are likely to in the future,” wrote Disney, the world’s most famous cartoonist, in a 1938 letter to Marceline.

In Marceline, Disney sold his first drawing, of Rupert the horse, for 5 cents. His first charge-admission show in the family’s barn was a failed attempt to convince other 8-year-olds that farm animals in baby clothes made a circus.

“Walt learned his first lesson in show business in the barn,” says Kaye Malins of Marceline’s Main Street USA foundation. “Always give the public more than it expects. We use that premise.”

Disney’s legacy—and affection for his boyhood hometown—are evident throughout Marceline. Disney used the town’s main street, formerly Kansas Avenue, as a model for the small town atmosphere he created at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., Disney World in Orlando, Fla., and other Disney theme parks around the world.

At Walt Disney Elementary School, a desk bearing his carved initials is on display, along with wall murals of Disney characters, Disney-designed playground equipment, and a flagpole, all donated by the school’s namesake. On special occasions, the Disneyland flag flies over the school. It’s the only location the banner is permitted to fly outside Disney theme parks.

Last September, Marceline paid tribute to its most famous resident, hosting a three-day celebration of Disney’s birth in 1901. Two hundred local volunteers donated time and sweat equity to the event, which attracted 35,000 Disney loyalists and featured Mickey and Minnie Mouse, lectures by Disney authorities, and a parade down Main Street USA, past the Zurcher building and town-square park which Disney replicated at his theme parks.

“No one was paid,” says Beverly Solomon, who served as the celebration’s volunteer accountant. ”People did this because they wanted to.”

Marceline’s Walt Disney Museum was dedicated during the celebration. Housed in the former Santa Fe Railroad depot, the museum was bought and is being developed with $5 million in private donations and government grants. The project, scheduled to be completed in 2003, will feature 3,000 pieces of Disney memorabilia, including rare letters, photos, and documents, and an interactive exhibit of Marceline’s railroad past.

“The primary focus will be educational,” Malins says. “It’s a people’s museum, a place to come and research. Disney scholars are most anxious to study the collection.”

Marceline residents also are working with state officials to realize Disney’s dream of developing a showcase for agriculture’s past and high-tech future at the Disney family farm. Plans for The Marceline Project, as it is called, had progressed to blueprints and land purchased when Disney died in 1966.

“We’re really proud of our rural heritage,” says Malins, whose father was a financial partner with Disney on the project. “It’s time that people know farming is high-tech. Almost all farming patents came from the Midwest. We’re going to celebrate that.”

Meanwhile, Marceline’s perennial Toonfest—a nationwide gathering of artists and cartoonists—returns to Ripley Park Sept. 21. The Uptown Theatre, where Disney himself premiered The Great Locomotive Chase in 1956 and The Spirit of Mickey was first shown in 1998, will present the classic films.

“We laugh a lot in Marceline,” says theater owner Debbie Pore.

At last the rest of the world is finding out why.

Vicki Cox is a freelance writer in Lebanon, Mo.

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