Wdfm Podcast

In celebration of Disneyland’s 60th anniversary, we’re taking you through the definitive history of Walt’s Magic Kingdom—from its inception and creation to its opening on July 17, 1955. As Walt as our co-narrator, join us and special guest Bill Rogers—celebrated voice actor and Disneyland announcer—for our final episode this year on the WDFM Podcast.

On view now at The Walt Disney Family Museum, All Aboard: A Celebration of Walt’s Trains explores the influence that railroading had on Walt Disney's life and work. It also tells the story of how his railroading legacy lives on to this day in Disney films and theme parks around the world. On this episode, we’ll get a chance to hear from exhibition curator, and president of the Carolwood Historical Society, Michael Campbell, as well as chat with the President of Lionel LLC Howard Hitchcock.

This summer, we celebrated a couple landmark dates that were important in Disney history, including the 59th anniversary of Walt's Magic Kingdom: Disneyland! In honor of this occasion, we invited Jack Lindquist—Disney Legend and the first President of Disneyland—to the WDFM Podcast to chat about the happiest place on earth and what it was like to work for its creator: Walt Disney.

This past April 22, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the 1964/65 New York World's Fair with a legendary podcast episode featuring a friendly phone call between Disney Legends Bob Gurr and Rolly Crump. Join us as the two former Imagineers chat about what it was like working on the Disney attractions—it's a small world, The Carouself of Progress, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, and the Ford Magic Skyway—for the fair. 

This month of March, which is also Women's History Month, the much anticipated exhibition MAGIC COLOR FLAIR, THE WORLD OF MARY BLAIR finally opened here at The Walt Disney Family Museum. While preparing for this, we are reminded of all the other important women who played influential roles in Disney history who not only created and influenced so many projects at The Walt Disney Studios and really, the history of animation, but also really paved the way for the current females in animation that we see today. In this episode, we had the pleasure of speaking with Ginnie Mack, and Disney Legends Kathryn Beaumont and Alice Davis about their experiences as women in the industry. 

In the third episode of the WDFM podcast, The Walt Disney Family Museum welcomes Disney Legends Floyd Norman, Ruthie Tompson, and Richard Sherman to share their unique and memorable experiences working with and for Walt Disney. Join us to find out what kind of a boss, leader, friend, and man Walt was—as told by the people who actually knew him. 

In episode two of the WDFM Podcast, Academy Award-winning actor Tom Hanks joins us to talk about his role as Walt Disney in the feature film Saving Mr. Banks. He also talks about how he prepared for the role—which entailed multiple trips to The Walt Disney Family Museum—his thoughts on Walt, Disneyland, and the museum's galleries and exhibits.

On the 112th anniversary of Walt Disney's birthday, we are excited to launch The WDFM Podcast: the official, monthly podcast of The Walt Disney Family Museum. In our premiere episode, it is with both a heavy heart, and an honor, that we present the final interview from the museum's founder—and Walt Disney's daughter—Diane Disney Miller.  We also chat with Disney Legend and acclaimed producer Don Hahn (Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King) about the holiday film he produced and directed exclusively for The Walt Disney Family Museum: Christmas with Walt.