From April 5th through April 8th, Heritage is offering a unique chance to own pieces from Disney history. The Marc and Alice Davis Archive Signature Auction features pieces from Disney's illustrious history, including art, props, behind-the-scenes items, and more. While everything in this auction is truly fantastic, here are my pics of the most interesting items (as hard as that was!) in this auction.
Assorted Lot of 93 Reference Photos of Helene Stanley for Sleeping Beauty
Before the release of many notable Disney animation films, artists would use live models as references for their characters. Many animated features, such as Snow White, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, and Sleeping Beauty. The live model references for this movie are fairly well known, especially Eleanor Audley's Maleficent reference work. Audley would also provide the voice for Maleficent -- though she also provided the voice work for Lady Tremaine in Cinderella, as well as Madame Leota in The Haunted Mansion rides. Sleeping Beauty's reference model, Helene Stanley, was also the model for Cinderella, and Anita in 101 Dalmatians.
This lot of 93 photographs is of Helene portraying Aurora (Briar Rose), or Sleeping Beauty. These photos aided animator Marc Davis in bringing the classic princess to life. This piece of animation history is amazing and very hard to come by. Heritage notes these photos as being in overall Good condition.
EPCOT Food Rocks "The Excess" Junk Food Animatronic
In 1994 EPCOT introduced the new 12-minute animatronic show Food Rocks in The Land pavilion. Replacing the other food animatronic show, Kitchen Kabaret, this show had updated music parodies of popular songs. Songs included "Every Bite You Take" ("Every Breath You Take"), "High Fiber" ("Sledgehammer"), and "Good Nutrition" ("Good Vibrations"). The set remained structurally the same, with updates done to the animatronics. The show would eventually close in 2004, being replaced with Soarin'. Finding an animatronic from any Disney park is no easy feat! Disney is known to reuse animatronics, or to outright abandon them (here's looking at you, Buzzy). So this piece of Disney history is very special.
Heritage notes this is in overall Good condition but with some pieces missing. If you're an animatronic aficionado, you may be able to fix this piece up and have it working again. This is also a sizeable animatronic, measuring in at 73" tall!
Disneyland Main Street Station Mickey Mouse Flag
When Disneyland opened on July 17, 1955, the Disneyland Railroad opened with it. Created because Walt Disney was fascinated with trains, the Disneyland railroad is still in operation today. The Main Street Station itself welcomes you to Disneyland (as does the counterpart in Walt Disney World) right before you enter the park. Each station in Disneyland features flags flying high above it, such as this Mickey Mouse flag from the 1950s. This flag design would be used well into the 1990s and remains a classic icon of Disneyland's history.
This flag is noted as being in Poor to Fair condition but is being preserved in this display frame. This is a great item for a Disneyland collector!
Snow White and Her Adventures Poison Apple Prop 1968
In 1955 Snow White and Her Adventures opened in Disneyland's Fantasyland. The ride took you through the story of Snow White, as told from her point of view. The only major drawback to that was most people did not grasp that concept, and instead, were treated to 7 different Hag models and none of Snow White. This ride was unintentionally frightening, especially for young children. It was not until the ride was refurbished in 1983 that Disney changed the name to Snow White's Scary Adventure and the physical apple to a hologram. Why the apple change? People kept stealing the apples from the ride. So this UV-painted, black light reactive apple, from the original Snow White and Her Adventures ride, is a great find.
Heritage notes this piece as being in Good condition with wear. This is one of the best things I've seen in a Disney-focused auction, and will likely cause a bidding frenzy.
