It Came From the Fandom: That's From Disneyland!

The Disneyland-related benefits of living in Los Angeles do not stop with proximity to the resort itself. Because the park has remained primarily of interest to locals (as opposed to tourists like its Orlando counterpart), the hardcore fan community is pretty centralized to Southern California. As well, this city being a major hub—maybe the major hub—for the entertainment industry as a whole means that, to put it delicately, there are quite a few stinking rich people in this area. And that all means that, on those rare occasions when Disneyland just up and gets rid of something, it tends to end up in the possession of someone who lives nearby...and in the fullness of time, many of these things come back to the fan community in some way.

One of those ways is by being loaned for display to the Van Eaton Galleries, an art distributor and auction house headquartered in Sherman Oaks, CA, perhaps a 45-minute drive from Disneyland...and about five miles away from the residence of Yours Truly. I manage to drop in whenever they have a Disneyland memorabilia collection on the premises. The subsequent auctions are invariably too rich for my blood, but they let you take as many photos in the meantime as you like.

For the most recent exhibit, still (barely) ongoing, they've ramped things up. This time, the feature is the collection of Disneyland megafan Richard Kraft, including everything from concept art to decommissioned ride vehicles, and there weren't no way that was going to fit into their regular exhibition rooms or even the overflow space next door. So they've leased a two-story retail location* for a full-on, museum-style pop-up exhibit and gift shop, freely open to the public. The name of the exhibit? That's From Disneyland!

That name says it all, doesn't it? They certainly know who their audience is—people who know Disneyland's iconography by sight and need no other reason to love it.

What? Of course I've been there. What kind of question is that? Here are just a few of the nice photos I got...

José is not only fully functional but for the exhibit was actually wired to function—a staff member demonstrated, playing part of the Enchanted Tiki Room soundtrack, and José dutifully acted out his parts.

This thing is huge. (For scale, the thing next to it is, like, an actual stool. For sitting on.) You don't realize just how big a lot of Disneyland props are until you see them out of context.

I want this. I can't have it, but I want it.

I sort of want this too, and...its auction price is estimated at $1,500-$2,500. On the one hand, I'm vicariously outraged that they don't think it's worth any more than that, but on the other hand, that's an amount of money that I technically have. I'm kind of tempted to bid on it. Not enough to actually do it (probably), but wouldn't it be something if part of the Kraft collection wound up leaning against the wall in my dinky little working-class apartment?

Say, do you feel like crying? Well, you will in a second, after flashing back to the turn of the 21^st century:

My bank account is sobbing...

Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaang.

One of many ride vehicles on display. Most of them, you're not allowed to sit in, and they have a pretty clever way of enforcing it.

Here's one of the few you are allowed to hop into for photos. Another in this category was Cabin #1 from the much-missed Skyway to Tomorrowland/Fantasyland, which I unfortunately didn't get my own photos of. I never realized how much I missed the sound of that door shutting until I heard it again, some 24 years after the ride closed.

This mermaid from the old Submarine Voyage hasn't aged well...but what's that behind her?

WOW! The Sea Serpent is definitely the star of the entire show—he's used liberally throughout the promotional materials. This is not the entire serpent on display—there are only three humps and I definitely remember counting six when the ride was open. However, what we see is in such good condition that I wouldn't be surprised if the rest of the critter was in Mr. Kraft's possession and was left out of the exhibit for reasons of space.

They expect him to go for as much as fifty grand.

If you're in the L.A. area and love Disneyland, I urge you to go see all this stuff before they pack it up and sell most of it. The exhibit is open from noon to eight p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. And get there fast, because the auction is this upcoming weekend!

But who am I kidding? If you're in the L.A. area and love Disneyland, you've probably already seen it.

* Formerly a Sports Authority