Disney News

Disney Legends and Luminaries Celebrate 100th Anniversary of The Walt Disney Company at Walt Disney’s Historic Mansion

Hi everyone!

Disney Legends, celebrities and other guests gathered on October 16th, 2023 to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Walt Disney Company at Walt Disney’s historic mansion. Guests included Disney Legends Tony Baxter, Bob Gurr and Floyd Norman as well as Bret Iwan and members of the Disney family.

We were sent photos and information to share about this very special celebration.

Disney Legends Bill Farmer (voice of Goofy and Pluto), Bob Gurr (Imagineer), Floyd Norman (animation), and Tony Baxter (Imagineer) at the October 16, 2023 celebration for the 100th anniversary of The Walt Disney Company at Walt Disney’s Mansion. @AdamKentPhotography

Monday night, October 16, 2023, Friends of Woking Way hosted an intimate celebration at Walt Disney’s Mansion in honor of the 100th anniversary of The Walt Disney Company. Guests brought together by event organizer Dusty Sage and publicist Jeffrey R. Epstein included Disney Legends Tony Baxter, Bill Farmer, Bob Gurr, and Floyd Norman; Bret Iwan; Michael-Leon Wooley, John Stamos and Caitlin McHugh Stamos; and members of the Disney family.

Disney Legend Bill Farmer (voice of Goofy and Pluto), Bret Iwan (voice of Mickey Mouse), and John Stamos at the October 16, 2023 celebration for the 100th anniversary of The Walt Disney Company at Walt Disney’s Mansion. @AdamKentPhotography

A character cavalcade… Bret Iwan (voice of Mickey Mouse), Bill Farmer (voice of Goofy and Pluto), and Michael-Leon Wooley (voice of Louis the alligator from The Princess and the Frog) at the October 16, 2023 celebration for the 100th anniversary of The Walt Disney Company at Walt Disney’s Mansion. Credit @AdamKentPhotography

Guests enjoyed sumptuous hors d’oeuvres from Well Done! Catering as they mingled in the storybook mansion Walt built for his family in 1932. The family lived in the home until 1950, during which time Disney’s made the first full-length animated feature film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and produced legendary pictures such as Dumbo, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Bambi, and Cinderella.

Guests enjoy the October 16, 2023 celebration for the 100th anniversary of The Walt Disney Company at Walt Disney’s Mansion. Credit @AdamKentPhotography

The evening included a special toast to Disney, a preview of the new season of the “Wonderful World of Walt” shorts dazzlingly crafted by Creative Capers, a chorus of “Happy Birthday” for Gurr who turns 92 next week (“Only eight years younger than the company!” he quipped), tours of the mansion, a rendition of Walt’s favorite song “Feed the Birds” performed by Wooley, and a special print of Walt drawn by Norman and signed by Norman and Gurr. 

Walt Disney’s mansion on Woking Way in Los Angeles which he lived in with his family during the 1930s and 1940s, taken at the October 16, 2023 celebration for the 100th anniversary of The Walt Disney Company at Walt Disney’s Mansion. @AdamKentPhotography

“We put together this little soiree so we could do a proper celebration of the gentlemen who made the Disney company something we all love so much,” said event organizer and house historian Dusty Sage. “Here’s to Walt and Roy Disney—and all the people with us here today that are themselves a piece of Disney’s magical century.”

Disney Legend Bill Farmer (voice of Goofy and Pluto) poses with his alter ego during the October 16, 2023 celebration for the 100th anniversary of The Walt Disney Company at Walt Disney’s Mansion. Credit @AdamKentPhotography

“[We’re celebrating] the fact that Roy talked his brother Walt into coming to California, and that [their] Uncle Robert welcomed them into his home… and gave them the garage of his house when he saw that grandpa needed some place to do his art,” said Walt’s granddaughter Joanna Miller. “Thank you so much for having this party, so we can be in this special place to thank Roy and Walt.”

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What an amazing gathering to celebrate such a monumental occasion!