The Mouse Castle Lounge 12-20-2015 - Jim Korkis's 'Vault of Walt' and the Spirit of Christmas at the Winchester Mystery House

By Tim Callaway

When you know as much stuff about Disney history as Jim Korkis does, you get asked a lot of questions. Sometimes it’s pretty basic like “When did Disneyland open?” Other times it’s more obscure like “When did Mickey Mouse start wearing gloves?” Then there’s the question that’s totally off the wall like “How much does Walt Disney World weigh?”

No really, someone asked him that once.

By the way, the answers are July 17, 1955, in the 1929 cartoon The Opry House, and haven’t got a clue. But, I digress.

Jim is back in the Lounge once again, finishing up a conversation we started last week. We heard all about his latest book, Secret Stories of Walt Disney World. Today, we take a look at his other recent publication, The Vault of Walt: Volume 4. Jim always has terrific stories to tell about Disney. Today is no different.

***

The Spirit of Christmas at the Winchester Mystery House.

Earlier this month, I took a trip up to the San Francisco Bay Area and paid a visit to my friends at the Walt Disney Family Museum. I finally got to see their special exhibition Disney and Dali: Architects of the Imagination. By all means, go see it. It runs through January 3. While I was there, I was also invited to drive an hour down the road to San Jose to visit the Winchester Mystery House. Now, unless you’ve lived in the Bay Area, like I once did, you may not be familiar with the Winchester Mystery House. It’s a sprawling Victorian mansion in San Jose once owned by the widow Sarah Winchester. Sarah’s late husband, William Winchester was heir to the Winchester firearms fortune. Sarah was quite well off financially.

In 1884, Sarah purchased an unfinished farmhouse in the Santa Clara Valley and commenced adding onto it--for the next 38 years. At the time of Sarah’s death in 1922 the house spread over six acres and contained 160 rooms, 2,000 doors, 10,000 windows, 47 stairways, 47 fireplaces, 13 bathrooms, and 6 kitchens. Why Sarah kept building all those years remains a mystery. Was she distraught over the deaths of her husband and infant daughter? Did she believe that continually building would somehow appease evil spirits? Was she just a kindly woman who chose to spend her money supporting local builders, carpenters, landscapers and artisans? Whatever the reason, the continuous construction resulted in a labyrinth of rooms and hallways, staircases running into ceilings, doorways leading to nowhere and all manner of building oddities.

You can still tour the house today and marvel at its mind-boggling construction and design. Visit during the holidays and you can see the house decorated in Christmas finery with over 20 custom designed Christmas trees. On select nights you can enjoy like I did the Spirit of Christmas with carolers, festive beverages and holiday treats. Don’t be surprised if you see some snow fall too.

Here to tell us more about the Winchester Mystery House is tour director Janan Boehme, my second guest today in The Mouse Castle Lounge.

Enjoy!

Secret Stories of Walt Disney World and The Vault of Walt: Volume 4 are published by Theme Park Press.

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Inside The Mouse Castle 09-21-2015 - Halloween and Christmas at Disneyland, 'Star Wars' on Netflix and a New 'Mary Poppins'

By Tim Callaway

GOAT TRICK!

Anthony is back from a week at Disneyland, where he checked out all the Halloween Time activities. There was fall finery everywhere and pumpkin spice-flavored everything, but, we're mostly excited by this perfect pic Anthony took of the goat on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. 

Of course, Halloween festivities are barely underway and we're already talking about Christmas. We've got a preview of all the stuff to expect--and what will be missing--from this year's holiday events at Disneyland. 

Here's what else we have slated for this episode of Inside The Mouse Castle. It's enough to make your head spin. 

• Rob Marshall (Into the Woods, POTC 4) will direct a new Mary Poppins movie for Disney. Before you lose your minds for them daring to touch this untouchable classic, keep in mind this will not be a remake of the original. It won't exactly be a sequel either. P.L. Travers wrote eight Mary Poppins books. The new movie will likely be adapted from stories we haven't seen on the screen before. If you really want something to be excited about, Emily Blunt (Into the Woods) is the rumored front-runner for the role of the practically perfect nanny. We can't think of a better choice.
• Bryan Singer (X-Men, The Usual Suspects) has confirmed he'll direct a remake of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. We aren't certain if it's going to be for Disney or not, but we're intrigued nevertheless.
• There's a new trailer for next year's live-action remake of The Jungle Book. Despite some interesting casting choices (Bill Murray as Baloo, Christopher Walken as King Louie), we're not terribly excited yet for this CG-heavy adventure.

• Star Wars is coming to Netflix. Maybe. Kind of. Probably not where you are. Whatever.
• Here's some travel advice for your next Walt Disney World visit: don't joke about building a meth lab in your hotel room. Kthanksbye.

Enjoy!

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Christmas at Disneyland

If you listened to Monday's Inside The Mouse Castle, you know that until this past weekend, it had been a long time since I enjoyed the holiday season at Disneyland. You also know that it was the first Christmastime trip Anthony ever took to the Happiest Place on Earth. Yeah, we're slackers. We know.

Christmas is an especially crowded and hectic time at Disneyland, but it's also a beautiful and unique experience unlike any other yuletide celebration on Earth. Most importantly, it's an experience that needs to be shared. Please enjoy these holiday photos from Disneyland and Disney California Adventure. Click each photo to enlarge the image.

Disneyland

Sleeping Beauty Castle.

Sleeping Beauty Castle at night.

Sleeping Beauty Castle getting a magical holiday makeover.

Main Street, USA at night.

The Town Square Christmas tree.

Baymax balloons.

Disneyland Fire Department with Walt's apartment above.

Haunted Mansion Holiday.

Disney California Adventure

Paradise Pier at sunset.

Paradise Pier Christmas tree.

Cars Land.

Flo's V8 Cafe.

The Cozy Cone Motel.

Sarge's Surplus Hut.

Luigi's Flying Tires will go flat in January.

Carthay Circle

Carthay Circle and the Buena Vista Street Christmas tree.

Mickey Mouse on the Red Car Trolley.

Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa

The gingerbread house in the Grand Cal's lobby is over 7 feet tall and is made
from 500 pounds of gingerbread.

Christmas tree in the Grand Californian Hotel lobby.

'Frozen Fun' and 'Freeze the Night'

Frozen Fun is everywhere at Disney California Adventure.

Wandering Oaken's Trading Post in Hollywood Land.

The entrance to DCA's nighttime entertainment venue, Freeze the Night,
opened for the first time on Saturday night.

Freeze the Night.

Marshmallow gets some screen time during Freeze the Night.

DJ Cool mixes the tunes at Freeze the Night.

Ice sculptures created live on stage with a chain saw.
What could possibly go wrong?

Marshmallow and me.

From Freeze the Night's icebox: the Blue Snowberry
Margarita (in a martini glass, go figure) is a dud. The
Rum Flurry is delicious.

The Summertime Pina Colada also disappointed, but
props to DCA for not skimping on the booze.

Meanwhile, back at Disneyland, Arendelle became the latest addition
to the Storybook Land Canal Boats.

Hoo hoo! Big summer blowout!

it's a small world holiday

Merry Christmas from The Mouse Castle!

Inside The Mouse Castle 12-22-2014 - Christmas at Disneyland

Merry Christmas from Inside The Mouse Castle!

It was a busy, fun-filled weekend at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure as Anthony and I both enjoyed the resort's Christmas finery. In today's episode, we share our festive experiences, which means a lot of talk about Frozen Fun, which has pretty much taken over the resort. Arendelle is now a permanent part of the Storybook Land Canal Boats while Freeze the Night is a cool replacement (see what I did there?) for the Mad T Party in Hollywood Land at DCA. Meanwhile, Anna and Elsa are now holding court at their Royal Welcome meet-and-greet inside the Animation Academy. It's by appointment only, so be sure to grab a Fastpass early. 

Anthony and I also offer our takes on it's a small world holiday, the Jingle Cruise, snoap, Haunted Mansion Holiday, Freeze the Night beverages and a lot of other seasonal Disney stuff. Considering it's Anthony's first holiday trip to Disneyland ever and my first Christmas trip in 15 years (how is this even possible?), we've both got a lot to cover.

We've also riff on a few other non-holiday items:

• Pixar's groundbreaking 1986 animated short Luxo Jr. was added to the Library of Congress's prestigious National Film Registry. Directed by John Lasseter, it's a sweet, silly vignette about two Luxo lamps interacting with an inflatable ball. Luxo Jr. was the first fully computer animated film to be nominated for an Academy Award. The film's characters have gone on to become iconic symbols of Pixar Animation Studios.
• The Marvel Experience debuted in Phoenix over the weekend, the first stop on a nationwide tour. It's an interactive, multimedia attraction where guests join forces with the world's greatest superheroes to battle Hydra and their evil army of Adaptoids.
• Orlando Bloom has let it be known that he's in talks with Disney to return to the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise as Will Turner. The fifth Pirates installment, Dead Men Tell No Tales is slated for release in Summer 2017.

Anthony and I wish you both a very happy and safe holiday season!

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