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When most fans think of Mickey Mouse in a chef’s hat, their minds jump to Chef Mickey’s at Walt Disney World’s Contemporary Resort. But long before Mickey was greeting families at breakfast buffets, he was already donning his apron and serving as a culinary mascot at Walt Disney’s own studio in Burbank.  The Studio Restaurant — Mickey Flips an Egg In the 1940s and 1950s, the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank had its very own cafeteria, often referred to as the Studio Restaurant or Commissary. It wasn’t just a place for animators and Imagineers to grab a sandwich — it was a hub of conversation, collaboration, and creativity. Menus even featured whimsical illustrations of Mickey Mouse as a chef, joyfully flipping eggs or stirring a bowl, as if he were feeding the very artists who brought him to life. For Walt, food was more than fuel — it was community. The commissary gave animators and writers a chance to take a break, swap ideas, and return to their desks with new inspiration. It’s no surprise that Mickey, the studio’s brightest star, became the face of this culinary corner.       My Visit to the Walt Disney Studios
I never ate at the historic commissary itself, but I did enjoy a meal at the Buena Vista Café on the lot. Sitting there, surrounded by the Animation Building and the water tower, I felt the pulse of history. You can almost imagine Walt walking past the café, ideas in his head, building the dream that became Disneyland. Why It Matters For me, Disney dining history isn’t about Florida vs. California, or comparing parks. It’s about remembering that everything started in Burbank and Anaheim — the studio and the original Disneyland, where Walt’s hand shaped every detail. That’s the story I tell, because that’s the story I lived. Whether it’s Mickey serving animators in the commissary or welcoming families at the Disneyland Hotel, food has always been a way to gather, laugh, and belong. And that spirit — Walt’s spirit — will always live in California first.  In 1954, the Disney studio decided to undertake a huge and inevitably expensive project - “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.” Jules Verne’s classic tale of adventure seemed just the kind of project for the Disney studio to put on the silver screen. During the filming, Walt called up an old friend of his, Art Linkletter, asking if he wanted to visit the studio to watch them film. “Walt called me,” Linkletter said, “and he said, ‘How would you like to see a fight between a submarine and a monster squid?’ So I went over to the studio with Walt and saw the awesome battle!”  The scene was expensive but would be one of the must pulse pounding moments in the film. In it, the giant squid has got its tentacles around the surfaced Nautilus, which is bobbing upon the stormy waters like a cork. Meanwhile, Captain Nemo (played by James Mason), Ned Land (played by Kirk Douglas), and the rest of the crew, climb onto the deck armed with harpoons and hatchets in a scene that would put audiences on the edges of their seats. The entire scene was filmed in an incredibly large water tank on the studio’s sound stage. It took 60 technicians to operate the numerous pullies and cables required to control the movements of the raging latex squid. Meanwhile wind machines and wave makers conspired to create a tempest in the middle of the Disney studio. That single scene alone cost a quarter of a million between construction and shooting.  “The scene took some time to film,” Linkletter continued. “There were closeups and retakes and finally the director came and said, ‘I think we got it.’ But Walt said, ‘The action on those tentacles wasn’t right. I could see the wires.’ So they had to rebuild the set and shoot the entire sequence again another day at enormous additional expense. Walt wouldn’t hesitate to spend the money to get it right. He was a fanatic about quality.”
In the end, it took $4,000,000 dollars to make the entire film. They had to delay the Broadway premiere because Walt wanted that single scene re-shot. But in the end, no one could see a hint of the cords and the movie, after premiering on December 23rd, 1954, amazingly quickly recovered its cost. All because Walt wanted quality.   On the outskirts of Walt Disney Studios is the original location for Disneyland, home of the Mickey Mouse park. There's a neighborhood that's been built around it, industry and highway 5 but somehow this land has stayed open. It's amazing because everything else has grown up here but this idea represents the beginning of Disneyland.   Up and over there is Griffith Park where Disney fans know the story of Walt watching his daughters on the carousel thinking there's got to be a better way. A way where we can do this for everyone in the family to have a good time. This land was that idea. An original, smaller, more charming intimate park meets amusement park setting. Some of the early principles of this park would carry over to our beloved Disneyland because it wasn't the idea that was bad, it was a problem with this land. Walt like every other creative understands that sometimes the fun and creativity is the challenge. After mastering animation and making full length featured films, Walt kind of got bored. Walt was an entertainer and in his entertainer's mind he was envisioning a new form of family entertainment.   When the Disney Company started to take off they purchased over 50 acres in Burbank which is now the home to the animation studio, Walt Disney Studios, ABC, and Hollywood Records. But it was this land where Walt loved his customers. His two greatest skill sets was storytelling and connection to his audience. Often people asked about a movie studio tour on the studio lot, where people could come to the studio, see where the magic is made and meet Mickey Mouse.  Just outside this cafeteria door is the view of the plot of land we're discussing today. My tour guide Louis took me through this part of the Animation building and told me about the dream Walt had for building Mickey Mouse park. But the city of Burbank did not want this to happen.        You would come into the park from this direction and go through a carnival area, it had a hub, an attraction that looked like Rivers of America with a steam ship from Missouri going around it, a native American village and a lot of the things that we got at Disneyland. (Please refer to the maps above) What they could have done here would have been pretty impressive, there was going to be a train on the outskirts, a boat ride, a Main Street USA, and a doll hospital. Walt had so many ideas on how he was going to make a park different than everyone else's. So he researched and brought talent in to do the parts he couldn't.   The L.A. River was one of the excuses why the city of Burbank said no. They were worried that people at the park would want to jump into the L.A. River. Would the park have been the same if it was in Burbank on the back side of the Hollywood Hills? Imagine the traffic congestion trying to get in and out of the area! Especially in the middle of Burbank's July weather!  Walt would comb every amusement park that he could find both around the country and in parts of Europe to see what other people were doing. To see how he could improve the experience. He wanted his park to be clean and not a carnival carny type atmosphere. He was so focused on a clean family-friendly environment. Something that felt like reality and could play into his nostalgia for his childhood and for America, which it was built upon. A place where everyone could feel young at heart regardless of their age. A perfect place where everybody is a bit more on their best behavior. The efficiency of Disneyland, the charm of how it really feels like a living breathing city, is possibly the most magical of all of the parks. It was the one that Walt built. It was the only one that Walt would ever live out his vision and dream. I'd like to think he would be happy to know that Disneyland did evolve not only into an amusement park but into a real perfect little town.    The Team Disney structure is sometimes called the "Seven Dwarfs Building". It has large sculpted caryatids of the Seven Dwarfs holding up the roof of the eastern façade, an homage to the animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which provided Walt Disney with the revenue to purchase the Burbank lot. Each statue is 19 feet tall, with the exception of the 2/3-sized Dopey at top. On January 23, 2006, in honor of Michael Eisner's 21-year leadership of the company, the Team Disney building was rededicated as Team Disney – The Michael D. Eisner Building. Office to Bob Iger.   Close-up of the Disney Legends Statue.   |
Welcome to a place where Disney nostalgia meets storytelling magic. I create uplifting, history-rich content celebrating Walt Disney’s original vision and the golden age of Disneyland. From forgotten dining spots to untold stories of Walt’s creative team, this blog is a tribute to imagination, innocence, and timeless joy.
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