His story began as a typical Hollywood tale – Part II

Welcome back! I suppose you came back for some answers, huh?

1) Where was Walt Disney born?
ANSWER: Chicago, IL
2) What year did Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiere in movie theaters?
ANSWER: 1937
3) What actor portrayed the character of Zorro?
ANSWER: Guy Williams
4) Which Disney animated classic inspired the Castle at the Disneyland Paris Theme Park?
ANSWER: Sleeping Beauty
5) Where can you find the world’s largest Hidden Mickey?
ANSWER: The Fortress in Tokyo DisneySea.

So, let’s discuss a little bit more behind these.

Walt Disney was born in Chicago, IL. Marceline, MO is the place Walt most remembers as a child, and talks about the most, which is not surprising considering it is the basis for Main Street U.S.A. However, Walt did not move to Marceline, for Chicago, until April of 1906, when Walt was four and a half.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiered at Carthay Circle Theater, a model of which can be seen on Sunset Blvd. in Disney-MGM Studios and soon inside of California Adventure, on December 21, 1937. This was the Disney’s first venture into feature animation. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs broke attendance records, received a unique Oscar, and earned 8,000,000 dollars in its first release. The eight million may not seem like much in today’s standards, but, consider this, the average price of a movie ticket in 1938 (the year most people got their first look at Snow White) was twenty-three cents.

Guy Williams was the man behind the mask in Zorro, which ran from 1957 until 1959, when it was cancelled due to legal problems between the Disney company and ABC. After the show was cancelled, Guy Williams, as Zorro, made four appearances on the show Disneyland between 1960 and 1961.

Sleeping Beauty has inspired castles at both Disneyland Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland. Sleeping Beauty also served as the inspiration for the castle at Disneyland Park in California, which was originally conceived as Snow White Castle, but this idea was changed because of the release of the Sleeping Beauty film in just a few short years.

While other Hidden Mickeys, such as the original Disney-MGM Studios park map and other, non-Disney created Hidden Mickeys, appear to be larger, Tokyo DisneySea’s Fortress is currently the largest official Hidden Mickey.