Walt Disney inked a deal with ABC
A piece of Disneyland heritage is on the auction block.
New Hampshire-based RR Auction has opened bidding on a March 1954 contract between Walt Disney and the American Broadcasting Co. that would provide the funding to start work on his planned amusement park.
Disney agreed to produce a regular one-hour series, “Disneyland,” for initial payments of $50,000 an episode. The show, which premiered in October 1954, was an immediate hit for ABC. Under terms of the contract, the network agreed to invest in Disneyland and guarantee bank loans up to $4.5 million.
Signatures of the entertainment empire founder are sought after among collectors, who as of Wednesday had bid up the price for the four-page onionskin document to $5,453. One pencil sketch of Mickey Mouse drawn and signed by Disney fetched $18,898.
“Walt Disney is probably one of the top five Hollywood autographs we sell,” said Bobby Livingston of RR Auction, which sells autographs and manuscripts.
Livingston said RR verified the document using handwriting analysis. He said experts looked for telltale signs of authenticity. For example, Disney’s signature, as it appears in the Walt Disney Co.’s logo, features an uppercase “A” in his first name. But Disney himself conformed to more traditional rules of capitalization, using a lowercase “a” when signing his name.
“We’ve seen hundreds of forgeries,” Livingston said. “We do our due diligence. We take responsibility for authenticity.”