 |
| School children
from Walt Disney Elementary School raise the Mickey banner in front
of the school. The flag was a gift from Walt Disney and featured
colors and a design which only flew over the school and Walt's personal
apartment. The school is one of many Disney sites visitors will
see during the Disney 100th birthday celebration. |
Mickey Mouse will be in Marceline
Sept. 21-23 but the most recognizable character in the world will not
be the star. Instead, the small north-central Missouri town will celebrate
the creator of the cartoon mouse and the years he spent in Marceline.
"We're promoting the man
and not the mouse," says Richard Switzer, chairman of the Walt Disney's
Hometown 100th Birthday Celebration.
The events and attractions
scheduled for this three-day event center on the five years Disney spent
in Marceline and his subsequent visits home.
The 50,000 people expected
to attend will tour Disney sites, see performances of a locally-produced
operetta based on Disney's life, view early Disney films and hear presentations
from Disney authors and historians. Also scheduled are a barn raising
and a "Rural Olympics" which will test participant's skills in farm
chores.
There will also be parades,
a crop maze, apple pie baking and eating contests and even a horse sketching
contest based on Disney's first income-producing artwork.
The whole event is steeped
in small town traditions Ð from a fiddle jam session to the Marceline
High School football game on Friday night. It is an event more in the
spirit of Walt Disney the tow-headed farm boy than the creator of one
of the world's largest and most sophisticated entertainment empires.
"We're not glitz and glamour,"
Switzer says. "In fact, some of it is a little bit corny but I think
people will enjoy that."
For more information,
write the Marceline Disney 100th
Birthday office, 207 North Main Street USA Marceline, MO 64658;
phone: (660) 376-WALT or email: 100birthday@shighway.com
