Since its opening in 1955, Disneyland has been a destination for my family. We have home movies of my smartly dressed family taking the boat ride through Monstro's mouth into Story Book Land. As a Southern California teenager, my mom spent many evenings and weekends in the park with friends, including at Grad Night. Later, as a working mom with two small kids, Disneyland was a fun, safe, affordable place to spend a few hours (if you're under 3, you get in for free).
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| Fond memories of the PeopleMover (I even got to pose in one!). |
Growing up, Disneyland was a treat. Once a year, we'd do a full day in the park, from morning open to midnight close. After a lifetime of going to the park, I got my first annual pass about 10 years ago, enabling me to take my then-toddler niece to Disneyland and California Adventure at least once a month. Now I get to take my niece and her younger brother for the rides, the parades, the fireworks, the characters, the entertainment, the fun whenever we want.
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| A neon D from the Disneyland Hotel, now on auction. |
I've had more than a few people ask how I could go to Disneyland so often. "Aren't you sick of it?" Not at all. Each trip to the parks has a special moment — a first time on a ride for me or the kids, meeting a certain character, attending a special screening, taking part in an unofficial theme day. There's also the sentimental side, how unbelievably lucky I feel to have been able to spend so much time in the parks with my niece and nephew, for all the firsts we've had together, for having Disney milestones as they're growing up. So many people have a similar connection to the parks, the place couples get engaged, families hold reunions, people celebrate good news from their doctors.
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| An old Tinkerbell parking lot sign. |
Whatever our memories and connections to Disneyland and California Adventure, we all show our affection toward the parks in our own ways, through clothing, accessories, tattoos, personalized license plates, and on and on. One family took that passion for the parks to an extreme, amassing an astounding collection of props, décor, accessories and more from Disneyland that once filled their home and now fills a former Sports Authority in the San Fernando Valley as the
That's From Disneyland pop-up exhibit. Very soon, it will be all be auctioned.
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| A Fantasyland trash can is also part of the auction. |
For nearly three decades, Richard Kraft built his incredible collection of Disneyland effects and memorabilia. Like me, Kraft first started visiting the park as a kid. Unlike me, he had the means to not just visit the park, but to bring large and small pieces of the park back home with him. As updates were made to rides and lands, Kraft was able to acquire vehicles, props, signage and more from every land, enough to outgrow one home and send part of his collection to storage. He had a Dumbo, a PeopleMover, a Matterhorn bobsled, the sea serpent from the original submarine ride, maps from a variety of eras in the park's history, stretching portraits from The Haunted Mansion, signage from the old parking lot, trash cans from various lands …
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| The Tomorrowland Coke machine I'm hoping to win. |
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Kraft's collection is packed into the former sporting goods store, smartly curated by Kraft, his son, Nick, and the team from
Van Eaton Galleries into the lands immediately recognizable to all Disneyland fans. Each section tells the story of these lands and their evolution over Disneyland's 63-year-plus history, with pieces from rides that are no longer there (like the People Mover) or rides that have changed over time (like the Matterhorn). There are signs with old admission prices, old menu offerings. There are giveaways from celebrations of the past. There are sketches and contracts from the park's infancy.
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| Taking it back to 2000 with this list of admission prices. |
Accompanying the collected items is the story of the collection. Kraft's brother dealt with health issues his whole life and Disneyland offered a bit of a refuge for the family. After his brother died, Kraft visited Disneyland to feel that sense of connection to his lost sibling. He was soon inspired to build a collection that he shared with his now-grown son. Today, Kraft has a young daughter with a serious illness. The auction will benefit organizations that help kids like her. Before the items hit the auction block, though, Kraft wanted to share his collection with as many people as possible and collaborated with Van Eaton Galleries to create the free pop-up exhibit.
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| Cinderella figures once found in a window on Main Street. |
This weekend's visit to That's From Disneyland will add to my stockpile of parks memories — riding the People Movers, parking in Thumper or Tinkerbell, standing in line for the ill-fated Rocket Rods, how uncomfortable the Matterhorn bobsleds used to be, the great cowboy lunches at Big Thunder Ranch, the whimsical animated windows on Main Street. I don't have the means to take any of it home (though did enter the raffle for a Tomorrowland Coke machine) but will always have my time in the parks and the people I've been lucky to enjoy those visits with. Even though they won't have the stuff anymore, I know the Kraft family will keep the passion they feel for Disneyland and the joy it's brought them over the years, now multiplied by passion and joy of the tens of thousands of people they've shard all that with through That's From Disneyland.
