The Magic Worlds of Walt Disney - National Geographic August 1963

Welcome back to Magazine Monday's. Starting back up with a repeat post from April 2008, this post consistently gets in the top five "most popular page" hits for my old posts on this blog. Since people seem to want it, here it is again.

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Here’s a lavishly well done article all about Walt Disney and Disneyland. This article is from the August 1963 Edition of National Geographic. There is a much smaller article from the October 1962 Edition, but it’s only two pages, I’ll post that another time.

This article is HUGE, 50 pages! Including a three page fold out map of the park. And on the reverse side a nice three page panorama shot of the Rivers of America. Today's post will have just a few pages, but please download the entire article in high resolution PDF format if you have a chance:

National Geographic 1963 Walt Disney Article (72mb)


I sure like this cover; to me, it feels like “Camelot” at its peak, America’s innocence still not lost.

This map has a neat look to it. “J.E. Barrett – Staff Artist” I am guessing this artist was with the magazine? I don’t recall seeing art like this on other Disney material of the time. High resolution version of the map here: 1963 Disneyland Map (10mb)





The reverse side is this great panoramic shot. There is text below the picture, but you’ll have to download the whole article for that. High resolution version: 1963 Panoramic Rivers of America (2mb)





This is really a fine and detailed article with great photo's and layout work.









Please read this last page, some fascinating stuff here. The “One Nation Under God” show with the “Hall of Presidents”, references to the French Quarter Square in old New Orleans, the Haunted Mansion under construction in Frontierland!

But most of all read the last few paragraphs were Walt discusses his mortality; it gave me goose bumps…





Update: An amazing image from page 201.