With thousands of exchange options at Members’ fingertips, Disney Files Magazine is here to help spark your imagination by highlighting vacation destinations with Disney connections – from settings that inspired Disney stories to retreats rooted in Disney history. We begin with a place deeply connected to Walt Disney himself: Kansas City, Mo., where you’ll find traditional hotel stays through Interval International using the hotel exchange online booking tool. And, as long as you’re in the area, we recommend a side trip to Walt’s nearby boyhood hometown of Marceline (a 2-hour drive through the countryside from Kansas City).
While The Walt Disney Company we know today was famously founded in Hollywood in 1923 (as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio), Walt’s first commercial work as an animator began in 1921 in Kansas City, where his short-lived Laugh-O-Gram Studio turned fairy tales like Little Red Riding Hood, Puss in Boots and Cinderella into cartoon shorts. Making strides creatively but struggling financially, Walt found himself sleeping in the office on the second floor of the McConahay Building and bathing in public facilities at the nearby Union Station before following his golden dreams to California.
Walt’s earlier connections to the area began in 1906, when he moved as a young boy to a 45-acre farm in Marceline from Chicago (where Walt was born in 1901). The Disney family would only remain in Marceline for four years, but those years would leave an indelible mark on the imagination of one of the world’s biggest dreamers.
“To tell the truth, more things of importance happened to me in Marceline than have happened to me since – or are likely to in the future,” Walt wrote in 1938 for a “Golden Jubilee” edition of the Marceline News.
To put that sentiment in context, consider that, by 1938, Walt had already introduced the world to Mickey Mouse (and animation with synchronized sound) in “Steamboat Willie,” and he’d defied skeptics with the success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (the world’s first full-length animated feature). And yet the events of those four formative years in Marceline were, to Walt, of greater importance. It’s where he attended his first parade. Where he first saw a movie and first experienced a stage production. It’s where he sold his first drawing (a sketch of a neighbor’s horse named Rupert). And where daydreams beneath a “dreaming tree” would become ideas that revolutionized family entertainment.
Kansas City's Union Station
With renowned museums, botanical gardens, a presidential library, amusement parks, a 200-acre zoo, live- music venues and a seemingly endless array of award-winning barbecue joints, Kansas City has something for everyone. While you explore the city, here are a couple of Disney-connected sites that Disney Files staffers think you should see:
The McConahay Building: While you can’t enter the former home of Walt Disney’s Laugh-O-Gram Studio (though that may change, with restoration plans in the works), it’s certainly worth a stop outside for a selfie. Designed by noted Kansas City architect Nelle E. Peters and listed since 1978 on the National Register of Historic Places, the “tapestry brick”-styled building is located at 1147 E. 31st Street in Kansas City. Some of the most influential creative forces in the history of animation started working in this building before heading to Hollywood.
Union Station: Located at 30 W. Pershing Road in Kansas City, Union Station opened in 1914 to serve the city’s growing transportation needs. After giving Walt Disney a place to bathe in the early 1920s, the station would become increasingly busy through the 1930s and into the 1940s, reaching its peak annual train traffic at the end of World War II. Today, Union Station is one of Kansas City’s most-visited sites, housing year-round attractions for all ages. Inside, you’ll find a popular science center and planetarium, a giant-screen cinema, a stage-production theatre, numerous shops and restaurants, and sprawling space for touring events and exhibitions. To learn more about what Union Station has in store during your vacation, visit UnionStation.org.
Sitting inside the barn on the Disney Family Farm in Marceline, Disney Files Magazine Editor Ryan March looks out across the farmland on which countless Disney dreams were born.
The Disney connections are everywhere in this charming small town, with seemingly every step along the original Main Street, U.S.A. leading to a spark of inspiration behind Walt Disney’s films, television series, theme park projects and more. As Marceline’s favorite son, Walt’s name appears on everything from Walt Disney Elementary School to the Walt Disney Post Office to Walt Disney Municipal Park.
There’s a lot of Walt Disney history to take in, so to pack it all into the perfect day, we recommend starting at the Walt Disney Hometown Museum. Established in 2001 to help celebrate what would’ve been Walt’s 100th birthday, the museum – located at 120 E. Santa Fe Ave., in Marceline – cares for and displays more than 4,000 artifacts inside an iconic brick building that once served as the town’s train depot.
On the left, Disney Files Magazine Editor Ryan March (foreground) and Member Cruise veteran Michael Young (head of Disney Fine Art) take a moment during their visit to Marceline to read an issue of Disney Files Magazine in front of the former train depot that now houses the Walt Disney Hometown Museum – mimicking the pose in the archival photo of Walt and Roy Disney, right, during one of the brothers’ return visits to their beloved boyhood hometown.
After you’ve explored the 10,000 square feet of insightful exhibits, pick up one of the numerous guidebooks (and other cool souvenirs) available for sale in the museum’s gift shop. The books will lead you on a self- guided tour through the myriad Marceline locations that played a key role in Walt’s life and legacy. And don’t be surprised if the local proprietors along Main Street, U.S.A. pop out to say hello. If Disneyland Park is “The Happiest Place on Earth,” Marceline just may be the friendliest.
If you’re traveling as a group, note that the museum staff offers custom, guided tours that can include, not only their exhibits, but also the Disney Family Farm, E.P. Ripley Park and other points of interest. To inquire about group tours, visit WaltDisneyMuseum.org, click “Tours” and complete the online request form.
Note that the museum closes for the winter, so be sure to check the operating schedule on the aforementioned website before planning your visit.
Available through The World Collection, Interval International exchanges* give eligible** Disney Vacation Club Members access to thousands of properties featuring a wide range of accommodations and optio
ns, from condo- like lodging to traditional hotel rooms, and from weeklong stays to shorter getaways. You can learn more about – and book – vacations through Interval International online at disneyvacationclub.com (click “Destinations” and then explore the “The World Collection”).
*External exchanges and destinations are not part of the ownership interest and are subject to change or termination without notice.
**See important eligibility information at the bottom of page 1.
