Disneyland Apartment Here Is The Designer Behind It
ID:
TMS-5975
Source:
elledecor.com
Author:
Dorothy Scarborough
Dateline:
Posted:
Status:
Current
Over the years, certain filmmakers have developed cults of personality stemming from their taste in interiors (just take Nancy Meyers and Sofia Coppola). But Walt Disney stands alone in the sheer number of movie interiors he created for his fans to actually enter. Starting with Disneyland in Anaheim, park-goers have been able to step inside Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, Alice’s Wonderland, and Monsters Inc.’s offices for decades. But what about the rooms Disney himself lived in with his own family who, exactly, was Walt Disney’s interior designer?
In one instance at least, the answer is Emile Kuri. One of Kuri’s most prestigious projects was also one of his best-kept secrets: Walt Disney’s Fire Station apartment. Kuri was a Lebanese-Mexican set decorator who won two Academy Awards, first for William Wyler’s film The Heiress (1949), and second for Disney’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954). A decade later, he was nominated again for his work on Mary Poppins. By 1952, Kuri had become chief decorator for Walt Disney Studios and was then tapped to work on Disney’s biggest project to date: a cinema-inspired theme park. When Disneyland opened in Anaheim, California, it featured numerous designs by Kuri, including Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln and the notoriously hard-to-access Club 33. But it also included a private space for Mr. Disney himself.
The apartment, located in the Fire Station near the park entrance on Main Street U.S.A., is not accessible to most park goers, which has helped to give it mythological status for any Disney fan. From the outside, it looks like a charming, albeit relatively classic Fire Station, but inside, it resembles an idealized version of the midwestern homes Walt grew up in and around in Marceline, Missouri. It’s the same style that permeates each of the Main Street USAs in every Disney park around the world.
If you haven’t visited, think of the house in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), starring Judy Garland. The interior of the Fire Station glows with turn-of-the-century lamps, red curtains, and gilt frames, all of which lend the space its emphatically Victorian flavor. Its nostalgic warmth is unlike the story-book style that filled the Disney family’s Holmby Hills home.
When Diane Disney Miller, the Disneys’ elder daughter, was interviewed for a 2001 biographical documentary about her father, Walt: The Man Behind The Myth, she remembered the apartment as a “microcosm of the Victorian world in cranberry red.” Per the Walt Disney Family Museum’s website, the space also included antiques that Walt himself sourced.
While the Disney home in Los Angeles was sprawling, used often for entertaining, the Fire Station apartment was notably small. Across 500 feet, Kuri squeezed in a combined living/bedroom and a small kitchenette. While that might sound uncomfortably small for most modern families (let alone one as glamorous as the Disneys), the apartment was meant to be used primarily by Walt, who went there to sleep and relax while working. It was not designed to host or entertain there was an entire park outside for that.
If you’re hoping to visit (or stay the night like Walt and Lillian) you’re out of luck. No current tours bring guests inside the apartment though fans might remember that once upon a time, the “Walt’s Main Street Story” tour made a stop there. Don’t lose hope: the tour could come back at any moment. In the meantime, park-goers can book dinner at the other even more secret on-site apartment: 21 Royal.
While the Fire Station was family-only, Walt had another apartment designed for VIP guests in the 1960s. Situated right above the Pirates of the Caribbean ride in New Orleans Square, the space was designed by set designer Dorothea Redmond who worked on Gone With the Wind, Rear Window, and a number of Disney parks.
In 2017, it reopened as a restaurant, seating just one party a night. It’s full of much of the same turn-of-the-century charm as the Fire Station, complete with a model train that zips around the room. Sounds like a fantasy, no?
Attractions Referenced In This Article:
Restaurants Referenced In This Article:
Lands Referenced In This Article: