BEHIND THE SCENES: Saving Mr. Banks Exhibit at Disney Studios and Archives

One of the many neat things I got to do while I was on my fabulous L.A. trip last month was tour the exhibit the Disney Studios had set up for Saving Mr. Banks. It featured behind the scenes photographs from the making of Mary Poppins, as well as artifacts from the film including set pieces and set dressing, along with several of the actual items from Walt Disney's office that are now housed safely in the archives. Seeing reproductions of Disney's awards, degrees, and items in his office, I felt the need to take it all in photographically, and I went a little snap-happy. Here are a few of my favorites:

The actual chair and globe from Walt's office.

A photo of "Walt" with the Mickey Mouse Club cast. Hanks' head was
photoshopped onto Disney's body in this iconic image for the film.

The Sherman Brothers with Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke on set.

Rather than load this post down with all 89 photos (yes, you read that right. And those were just the ones that were mostly in focus... I took more than that), I whipped you up another nifty slideshow. Take a stroll with me through all the neat things from Saving Mr. Banks, including photos that had Tom Hanks' head photoshopped in where Walt Disney's was to make the backgrounds in the film authentic.


Saving Mr. Banks Exhibit and Archives by Slidely Slideshow

There are also photos towards the end of our visit to the Walt Disney Archives, where we were treated to the actual recordings of P.L. Travers' meetings with the Sherman Brothers and filmmakers of Mary Poppins, as well as pictures of the actual awards on which the set dressing was based and costumes from the Saving Mr. Banks film. I recorded audio of the presentation, however we were not permitted to record the actual recordings (for obvious reasons), so I had to do it in three separate increments. You can listen to the presentation and the questions we asked of the archivist who gave it in the nifty little player below.


Now, for those of you who don't already know, I was a History teacher before I had TV Boy, so I was fascinated by all of this history. The fact that I was exhausted and my feet hurt (do NOT wear heels to walk around Hollywood, people!) didn't even register as I soaked up all of this information and the tour like a little geeky sponge. Did you know that Walt Disney had TWO offices, one for formal meetings and one for actually working? (Shout-out to my friend David at DadAllDay.net with that little factoid, wink wink! He'll know what I mean.) I'm so happy I finally get to share it with everyone! Disclosure: I received a trip to Los Angeles in exchange for coverage of Saving Mr. Banks being released on Blu-ray. Please see my Disclosure tab for more information.