Forever Magical
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Once again, "we’re walking, we’re walking" over to the Frank G Wells Building. We were told "the lobby interiors are done in black and white imagery with walls covered in digitally pixalted marble acting as a backdrop for the brushed aluminum info desk and patterned terrazzo floor." The building also houses the Walt Disney Archives which we were able to step into the lobby of.

There are large windows with a display of Disney memorabilia beside the Archives entrance. Once inside, the first room contains glass case displays of various artifacts. A row of bookcases along the wall that held various Disney published books, bound editions of the newspapers produced for cast members at Walt Disney World, Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland. There were also binders full of black and white images from Disney history as well as several large tables for researchers to sit at while they worked. All along the top of the bookcases were maquettes and other small figurines of Disney characters such as Stromboli, Tarzan and more.

The next room was organized into various boxes, filing cabinets, etc. This is the bulk of the Archives but that area, for obvious reasons,   isn’t open to the public. Becky, one of the archivists, was holding an Academy Award that had been presented to Walt Disney for White Wilderness and invited each of us to hold it and take a picture. It was fun watching each person’s moment with the Oscar. Some in our group chose to relive "classic" Oscar moments such as Halle Berry’s speech, others enjoyed "naming" the next person in line and presenting them the Oscar. It was quite obvious that each person enjoyed their own special moment holding an Academy Award. All too soon we were walking out past of the Archives, past the Toad car, the display case featuring the bedknob from Bedknobs & Broomsticks, the water globe from Feed the Birds in Mary Poppins and out the door.

Back out into the Frank G. Wells Building’s lobby we saw the legendary multiplane camera that was developed by the Disney Studio and first used in the 1937 short The Old Mill.