Collector is giving the public access to a private Disneyland
LOS ANGELES — In what used to be a Sports Authority store, wedged between a Petsmart and a Ross Dress for Less in this city’s busy-by-day Sherman Oaks neighborhood, now stands a 48-foot-long sea serpent, a talking macaw with a Mexican accent and a temporarily grounded 800-pound flying fiberglass elephant.
These colorful curiosities and hundreds more are part of a temporary exhibition called “That’s From Disneyland!” All of them (even the Country Bear Jamboree postcard machine and the triangular Tinker Bell parking-lot sign) belong to one man, Richard Kraft, who has been amassing big-ticket Disneyland-related objects for 25 years.
With the help of his grown son and a local gallery owner, Kraft has turned what was once a big-box store into a fairyland. It may not be the Happiest Place on Earth, the actual theme park some 40 miles away in Anaheim, but it may well be the second happiest. Which is saying a lot for a place that used to be 40,000 square feet of run-of-the-treadmill sneakers and logo sweatshirts.
Instead now there is a refurbished 16-foot red neon “D” that used to hang on the Disneyland Hotel, the Davy Crockett Explorer canoe that once navigated the tourist mecca’s Rivers of America, four large macabre portrait paintings from the Haunted Mansion’s “stretching room” and so much more.
If it’s from Disneyland and it was ever for sale, Kraft probably bought it. He even found, on ebay, a Global Van Lines truck, fashioned to look like an early Ford, that had been parked on Main Street U.S.A. in the 1970s.
“I have met other very dedicated Disneyland collectors, but Richard has out-collected them all, times a hundred,” said Charles Phoenix, a self-described “retro pop-culture humorist” who wrote the book “Addicted to Americana.” “Nothing even comes close to the volume and completeness of his collection.”
Although the actor John Stamos is perhaps the most famous Disney collector, with a very large “D” of his own that can be glimpsed on the internet, Kraft, a talent agent who represents such Disney composers as Richard Sherman, Alan Menken and Danny Elfman, is generally considered the king. “I made it very clear to John that my ‘D’ is bigger than his ‘D,’” Kraft said.
On Saturday, however, he is abdicating.
Starting then, he is putting his happy holdings on the auc- tion block, with estimated prices ranging from $50 for a set of Haunted Mansion “hitchhiking ghost” souvenir beanbags to $150,000 for a Dumbo the Flying Elephant ride vehicle.
“I’m getting rid of every- thing,” Kraft said, “because I’m of the philosophy that if I kept one thing, I’d keep two and then we’d be selling just one Mickey Mouse piece of plastic, and we don’t want that.”
A portion of the proceeds from the two-day auction, and related events like a concert Friday by Menken, will go to help children with special needs. Kraft’s 4-year-old daughter was born with the genetic disorder Coffin-siris syndrome, which can cause learning disabilities.
Kraft, who is in his late 50s, began collecting Disneyana, as this genus of collectibles is called, out of nostalgia. Shortly after his older brother died, he visited Disneyland. Memories came rushing back of the fun that his family had on annual vacations to the park from their home in Bakersfield, about three hours away.
Soon after, he bought a vintage attraction poster for the Autopia ride. From there it was a quick swerve into the fast lane of collecting.
“I’m a very obsessive person, so one poster became every poster,” Kraft said. “Every poster became ride vehicles. Ride vehicles became conceptual art.”
This explains how a car from Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride in Fantasyland became seating in his home library, how that nearly 50-foot sea serpent from the Submarine Voyage in Tomorrowland began living alongside his swimming pool. A half dozen animated It’s a Small World dolls found themselves dancing over the front door of his former residence: a large Tudor home in Encino whose staid exterior belied the wonderment to be found inside.
“That house was exactly as you’d expect, big and very beautifully appointed with collectibles,” Phoenix said. “It was an enchanted place.”
Most particularly was the former bedroom of Kraft’s son Nicholas, 28, which was decorated to look like Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room, as the attraction is officially called, with bamboo walls and a thatched ceiling.
“I think my dad used me as an excuse for collecting,” Nicholas said. He had a childhood roommate: José the audio-animatronic parrot, whom no one knew could still speak until the bird was refurbished for the coming auction.
“Now all I can think of is what a different childhood I would have had if every morning, José had woken me up,” Nicholas said.
Given Kraft’s innate showmanship, he was bound not to simply get rid of his treasure trove, but, as he said, “give it a grand bon voyage party.” Thus this large-scale exhibit overseen by Mike Van Eaton, owner of a gallery also in Sherman Oaks, and a series of special events such as a retro-disneyland slideshow by Phoenix, a signing by midcentury modern artist Josh Agle (known as Shag), a presentation by film critic Leonard Maltin and various concerts.
“Richard is almost manic in his quest that people have a good time,” Agle said. At the exhibit, he added, “Richard walks up to strangers and tells them about a piece they’re looking at, and many times they don’t even know it’s his collection. He’s like Willy Wonka giving a tour of his factory.”
Kraft is treating the exhibit as a chance to walk in the shoes of his idol, Walt Disney. “This is the closest I’m ever going to get to the Walt experience, and I’m really enjoying it,” he said.
As he toured “That’s From Disneyland!” earlier this month, he encountered awed families, fellow collectors scoping potential purchases, and one former schoolmate from Bakersfield who didn’t know him back in the day, but who began sobbing when she realized their connection. “Over an Autopia poster,” Nicholas Kraft said.
“This isn’t the first time I’ve seen people cry at this exhibit,” Van Eaton said. “It brings back so many memories.”
That day, Richard Kraft walked over to a large wooden keyboard from the former Swiss Family Treehouse, a musical prop that used to blare Buddy Baker’s bouncy song “Swisskapolka” throughout Adventureland, and joked with the crowd gathered around him.
“I found an old vintage newsreel of Walt Disney on opening day of this attraction and there he was leaning on it,” he said. “I got goose bumps to think that Walt touched my organ!”
Nicholas Kraft shook his head and smiled at his father.
“I’ve never seen him happier,” he said.