** updated story
SURREY — A small Disney-focused exhibit will be showcased at Surrey Museum starting on Tuesday, Feb. 7.
Until June, artifacts connected to “The happiest place on earth” will be displayed in the Community Treasures exhibit area of the museum, located in Cloverdale.
The showcase will offer “unique historic insight into the beginnings of the multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate, as well as the modest man who co-founded the company as a simple cartoonist with a big dream,” according to event planners.
The display is curated by David Lesjak, a member of the Southwestern British Columbia Chapter of the Disneyana Fan Club, from which the artifacts have been borrowed.
Included are artifacts from Disneyland’s early years, press photos, Disney-designed First World War combat insignia, the beginnings of the Mickey Mouse Club in the 1930s, and more.
Lesjak, a Langley resident, began collecting Disney memorabilia in his teens and now has more than 550 pre-1945 items. He was hired in 2007 by Walt Disney’s daughter, the late Dianne Disney Miller, as a consultant for the Walt Disney Family Museum, located in San Francisco.
“I respect Disney’s perseverance, ingenuity, curiosity, imagination, philanthropy and leadership,” Lesjak stated. “He was not interested in acquiring wealth. Money was important to him but only because money enabled him to push the boundaries of the mediums he worked in.”
An exhibit launch event on Sunday, Feb. 12, from 1 to 4 p.m., will include activities for children, such as Disney button making, do-it-yourself autograph books and guest Disney princesses.
CLICK HERE for event details.
tom.zillich@thenownewspaper.com