Can you believe it has already been about a year since The Walt Disney Family Museum opened? Since its debut last year in Presidio  San Francisco, the award-winning 40,000 square foot building has been host to enthusiastic visitors from around the world. To celebrate their 1st anniversary, the Museum will host a weekend of family fun and festivities from October 1 to 3.

“It’s hard to believe that a year has passed since we opened our doors in the Presidio,” said Richard Benefield, founding executive director of the Museum. “Our efforts to present the life and achievements of Walt Disney in an interactive and imaginative way are ongoing and we’re pleased to see families, teens, and seniors all enjoying different elements of the Museum.”

In celebration of its first anniversary, the Museum will host a weekend of family fun and festivities from October 1 to 3, and will extend its admission hours to 9:00 pm on Saturday, October 2.

Events on Friday, October 1 – Sunday, October 3, 2010

• Live Music throughout the weekend. Bring a picnic lunch for the front lawn and we’ll serenade you with ragtime jazz. Friday from 2 :00 pm – 5:00 pm and Saturday 11:00 am – 2:00 pm

• Our first Saturday Night Soiree. Half-price on Museum Admission tickets and a cash bar from 6 pm to 9 pm on Saturday night.

• The “Where’s Walt?” Treasure Hunt Contest – Grand Prize is a Private Screening of a Disney classic for you and up to 50 of your closest friends in our Theater.

• Learn more about Walt Disney and his legacy with our “LOOK CLOSER”  gallery talks.  Museum staff will share details about the visually dramatic “Steamboat Willie” Wall – our special Pinocchio Animator’s desk – and the first underwater movie camera.

• A 25 minute “Best of” Video in our theater will feature special guests who appeared this past year, including Disney Legends, executives, animators, and stars.

• Radio Disney Road Crew on Saturday from 1:00 – 3:00 pm with games, contests, and music for the whole family.

• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs  – A treat for the whole family on our Big Screen at 1:00 pm and 4:00 pm (Free with Museum Admission).

• Create your own moviola in our Learning Center. New Drop-in Craft activities Friday, Saturday and Sunday 11 am to 4 pm.

The fascinating and inspiring story of Walt Disney, whose artistry, imagination and vision helped define 20th-century America, has been brought to life at The Walt Disney Family Museum in the Presidio of San Francisco.  The Museum illuminates Walt Disney’s tremendous successes, disappointments, and unyielding optimism as he worked tirelessly to advance the art of animation, produce classic motion pictures and develop the first great American theme park.  The Walt Disney Family Museum, L.L.C. is owned and operated by the Walt Disney Family Foundation, a non-profit foundation and is open Wednesday – Monday 10:00 am to 6:00 pm on the on the Main Post of the Presidio.

John Blackstone of CBS Sunday Morning News joins Diane Disney Miller and takes viewers on an insightful video tour around The Walt Disney Family Museum, which officially opens tomorrow, October 1, 2009 in the Presidio of San Francisco.

The video not only shows some of the state of the art technology that the museum employs but provides a brief history of who Walt Disney, the man himself, is and how what we know as “Disney” today all started with a mouse.

Built for approximately $110 million by the Disney family, the museum resides in the Presidio District of San Francisco in the converted barracks of an old Army base.

Everyone who enjoys a visit to the museum should thank Walt Disney’s daughter and son-in-law, Diane and Ron Miller, Walt’s namesake grandchild, Walter E.D. Miller, and other members of the Walt Disney Family Foundation. Diane was motivated to establish the museum in part by a few unflattering biographies of her father and some urban legends that had popped up about Walt’s life and death. But she also wanted today’s children and future generations to understand that her father was a real man with a very compelling and inspirational life story.

Her original plans to simply open the family’s leased warehouse loaded with Walt’s awards, art, miniatures, and other personal items to school field trips, Disney fans and small groups grew.  What visitors will now experience was influenced in part by her son, Walter, who said people would expect more than the impressive but static collection the family had assembled.

The original air date of the CBS video was September 27, 2009 and is displayed via YouTube here courtesy of CBS Sunday Morning News.

The fascinating and inspiring story of Walt Disney, whose artistry, creations, and vision helped define 20th century American culture, will be brought to life at The Walt Disney Family Museum, scheduled to open in San Francisco in the fall of 2009.

The Museum will illuminate Walt Disney’s tremendous successes, disappointments, and unyielding optimism as he pursued innovation and excellence while entertaining and enchanting generations worldwide through his pioneering ventures.

The creator of Mickey Mouse, Disneyland, and the global yet distinctly American company that bears his name, Walt was an independent risk-taker who started his first business at the age of 19 and worked tirelessly to elevate animation to an art form.

He invented timeless characters and stories that brought the fantastical to life and continue to inspire a sense of wonder. Through animated and live action films, television programs, and theme parks, Disney created global symbols, icons, and characters that, more than 40 years after his death, are an indelible part of popular culture in America and around the world.

The Walt Disney Family Museum will illustrate how Disney’s irrepressible creativity enriched the imagination of generations. The Museum will tell the story of the man behind the myth in Disney’s own voice and in exhibits that reveal his expansive vision, from early drawings of some of his most popular characters to plans for Disneyland and EPCOT.

“My father’s name is probably one of the most well-known names around the world, but as the ‘brand’ or trade mark has spread, for many, the man has become lost,” said Diane Disney Miller, one of the Museum’s founders. “We are committed to telling the story of Walt Disney’s life, in his own words, and in the words of others who knew him well and worked with him. My father was very open and approachable, and in many conversations and interviews that were captured in audio, you will be able to hear in the galleries as you learn the story of his life. It is a wonderful story. Dad himself loved to tell it. Thanks to the amazing work of many dedicated people, we are fortunate to be able to tell it here using the tools he worked with—art, music, film, and technology—to present an honest yet affectionate portrait of this amazing artist and man.”

“From Steamboat Willie to Pinocchio to EPCOT, Walt Disney’s unyielding ambition was to ignite a sense of wonder and to enrapture audiences through great storytelling,” said Richard Benefield, founding director of The Walt Disney Family Museum. “He recognized the power of art to spark the imagination, and time and again, pushed himself and his companies to the breaking point as he pursued the highest level of excellence in feature animation. The Walt Disney Family Museum will present the compelling story of his life—of his successes and failures—as he entertained and enlightened the nation while it struggled with the Great Depression, joined the fight of World War II, and entered a golden age of prosperity and preeminence.”

The Walt Disney Family Museum will shed light on Disney’s remarkable life from his early starts at developing live and animated films, including the hardship with his first cartoon company in Kansas City to the creation of the “happiest place on Earth” and the legacy that he left behind.

The stories of Disney’s life, creativity, family, and the processes and innovations he brought to his art will be told through a series of ten galleries. Highlights of the Museum will include:

• Drawings Disney made in his youth

• Drawings and cartoons from Laugh-O-gram Films, Disney’s first company

• Early drawings of Mickey Mouse

• Storyboards, a Disney innovation that mapped out timeless film classics

• The technically innovative Multiplane Camera that brought vibrancy and depth to his revolutionary feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

• The unique Snow White Academy Award®, which included a full-size Oscar® and seven miniature castings

• The narrow-gauge Lilly Belle train he built for his Hollywood home, which recalled his youth and helped spur his vision for Disneyland

• A model of the Disneyland of Walt’s imagination

Throughout the exhibits, visitors will find rare film clips, concept art, scripts, musical scores, and cameras that Disney and his staff used in creating his characters and films. The visually stunning design incorporates movie posters that come to life to show scenes from Disney films, interactive light tables, and discovery drawers that add nuance and layer to the story of his life. Visitors will find hundreds of individual animation cels that reveal the labor-intensive animation process.

The exhibits will also pay tribute to Disney’s many groundbreaking achievements and firsts, among them:

• Hollywood’s first feature length animated film

• The first movie soundtrack released as a consumer recording

• The first original song from a cartoon to become a national hit (“Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?”)

• The first nature documentary

Walt and his family will be represented, as well, in photographs, artifacts, and home movies. Although famous for his work behind the camera for Walt Disney Productions, Disney was an avid home moviemaker throughout his life. The Walt Disney Family Museum will exhibit to the public for the first time clips that ranged from experiments with trick shots (unspilling a glass of milk) to reels that documented Disney’s life at home with his wife, Lilly; his daughters, Diane and Sharon; and his brother and business partner, Roy, and his brother’s wife, Edna Francis.

The Walt Disney Family Museum is located in three historic buildings within the Presidio of San Francisco, which is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area of the National Park Service.

The centerpiece is a former army barracks at 104 Montgomery Street, redesigned and upgraded by architecture firm Page & Turnbull of San Francisco, and with interior architecture and installations designed by the Rockwell Group. The Museum uses the building’s original domestic-scale rooms to frame the story of Disney’s life and incorporates a wide range of materials and technologies, from historic documents and artifacts, to listening stations and other interactive displays, to more than 200 video monitors. In addition to the galleries, the Museum contains a 123-seat screening facility, a learning center, a store, and a café.

The Museum campus includes 122 Riley Avenue, a former gymnasium that houses the Walt Disney Family Foundation’s collections and offices. The Riley Avenue building is the site of a 2,000 square foot hall that will be used for special programs and concerts until the special exhibition program begins in January 2012. A third small building in the Presidio will house the Museum’s mechanical equipment.

The Walt Disney Family Museum, L.L.C. is owned and operated by the Walt Disney Family Foundation, a non-profit foundation. The Museum is partially funded by California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank revenue bonds.

So, keep your eyes and ears out for further developments. The next time I will be in San Francisco will be either in August of this year or February of 2010. Providing that my wife will allow me the pleasure, I do plan to visit the next time I’m in the city by the bay.