The Walt Disney Studios in 1997
Old Photos
For Christmas, Laura gave me a negative scanner, for all you ancient ones like me who remember when cameras had film in them. I have scanned several negatives, and I still have lots and lots more to go. But I thought I would share a few photos today.
In October of 1997, I was in California as part of the Disney Store Trivia Contest finals for Disney Store Cast Members. One part of our trip was a visit to the Walt Disney Studios to visit the Disney Archives. Here are a few photos from that trip.
Water Tower and Cutting Building
The water tower of the Walt Disney Studios rises above the Cutting building in Burbank, California. And unlike the Earfful Tower back in the Disney-MGM Studios days at Walt Disney World, this water tower really did hold water for many years, although it no longer does.
Looking back now, I wish that I had gotten more of the Cutting building in the photo because that was one of the original buildings going all the way back to 1940. Film editing was done in the Cutting building, which got its name from the process of physically cutting film to splice it together in the editing process. As with digital photography, editing is all done digitally now.
Team Disney Building
The Team Disney building houses the offices of the top executives of the Walt Disney Company. The building was designed by architect Michael Graves and opened in 1990. Since 2006 it has been officially known as Team Disney - The Michael D. Eisner Building.
You will notice six of the Seven Dwarfs holding up the roof of the building. I inadvertently did not get Sleepy in the frame at the left of the building. Sorry about that Sleepy. No hard feelings?
Animation
In the final photo of our brief tour, you can see the backside of the Roy E. Disney Animation Building, which had opened two years earlier and was designed by Robert A.M. Stern. At that time, the building was known as the Walt Disney Feature Animation Building, and it was renamed for Roy E. Disney following his passing in 2009. Behind the ladder protective railing near the center of the frame, you can see the large sorcerer hat near the front entrance of the building, which housed Roy E. Disney’s office.
Also on display here was the Environmentality logo featuring Jiminy Cricket. That logo was prominently featured on many things at that time, as caring for the environment was still somewhat new.
About the Photos
Looking back at these photos, I wish I had taken more photos during our visit. But back in those film camera days, I guess I wanted to make sure I had enough rolls of film for other things, such as going to Disneyland. Plus, film cost money, and developing the film cost more money, so I was not in the habit of taking as many photos of everything as I possibly could, as I do now. Be thankful that these days we are only limited by memory card size and battery life.
I did not do much at all to touch up these photos. I considered working on the Team Disney photo a bit to add in a sky because the sky in the photo is completely blown out. But I decided to leave it as it was. These photos will not win any awards, unlike my more recent photos which have also not won any awards. I am presenting them as they are.
Photo: Each photo is from a scanned negative
Camera: Pentax K1000
Lens: 35mm
Date: October 1997
Location: Burbank, California
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. - James 4:10
