Celebrate the History of Magic Kingdom’s Partners Statue With These Rare Photos
As hard as it is to believe, 29 years ago yesterday, the Partners Statue was unveiled at Walt Disney World.
For almost three decades, the statue of Walt and Mickey holding hands has welcomed guests to the Magic Kingdom and been a part of millions of vacations.
To celebrate the anniversary of the Partner’s Statue’s arrival, Disney has dug up rare images of the iconic figure through the years. Let’s take a closer look!
The Statue Arrives
The first photo commemorates the day that the Partners Statue arrived. As you can see, the event was quite exciting!
The original Partners Statue was actually a bronze statue installed in Disneyland on November 18, 1993, to commemorate MIckey’s 65th birthday.
Here is a cool shot of the statute on a foggy morning.
Blaine Gibson Scupled the Iconic Partners Statue
The statue was sculpted by Disney Legend Blaine Gibson, who based it on a bust of Walt, which he had originally created in the 1960s. Here is an image of the statue during the holidays.
Blaine Gibson wanted the expression on Walt’s face to express his goal of spreading joy and making people happy.
If you look closely at his tie, you can see the initials “STR.” This is a reference to Smoke Tree Ranch, an area in Palm Springs where Walt once owned a vacation home.
When creating the Mickey figure used in the statue, Blaine studied Fantasia, specifically the scene that shows Mickey and Leopold Stokowski shaking hands.
An early design of the statue even featured Mickey holding an ice cream.
The Castle Cake Arrives
Shortly after the Partners Statue arrived, Cinderella Castle was transformed into a giant birthday cake.
Here is a memorable image from the resort’s 25th anniversary. Did you know? The transformation of Cinderella Castle into a cke required “55,000 tablespoons of pink paint in three different shades – along with 50 gumballs, 30 lollipops, 4 Life Savers, 12 gum drops, 16 red candy hearts, and 16 green candy stars?”
So, there you have it! I hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane!
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