Windows With A View (Part 2): Walt's Lamp, Charles Boyer, & Harriet Burns




On our first episode about the windows of Main Street U.S.A., we talked about the first three dedication windows found as you enter the park through the tunnel under the train tracks on your left.   The windows for J.B. Lindquist, Marty Sklar, and Harrison "Buzz" Price are located on or near the City Hall building.

Walt's Apartment & The Fire Station

In this episode, we continue our journey down the left side of Main Street. Right after City Hall, you'll find a set of restrooms, followed by the Disneyland Fire Department. Although it doesn't have any dedication windows, there's something special behind the center window above the fire station: Walt Disney's apartment, which he used during his lifetime. Through that window, you can see a lamp that is always lit, symbolizing Walt Disney's enduring presence. The story goes that when Walt was in the park, the lamp would be turned on, and when he was out, it would be turned off. Since his passing in December 1966, the light has been kept on every day to signify that Walt is always in his original Disneyland. Of course, the lamp has changed over the years and has been replaced with a tree during the Christmas season. So, while the light does occasionally have to be turned off, it is always on during park hours.


The fire station itself was designed by Imagineer Harper Goff, loosely based on a fire station in his hometown of Fort Collins, Colorado. Harper doesn't have a window on Main Street, but the next time you're in Adventureland, you can find a dedication window for him there instead. The fire station in Fort Collins is still standing, and as of this recording, it is home to Happy Lucky's Teahouse and Old Firehouse Books.


Inside the fire station at Disneyland, you'll find a lot of interesting items. There's a potbelly stove, which Walt enjoyed creating miniature versions of, and a pole that used to connect to a closet in the apartment above. Additionally, there's a large horse-drawn fire wagon parked inside. From 1955 to 1960, this wagon would take guests down Main Street, pulled by two horses named Bess and Jess. The stalls with their names are still inside the Fire House today. Although more than just these two horses pulled the fire wagon, when any horse was on stage (meaning, in the park), they were always playing the characters of Bess and Jess.

Main Street Overflow Gates


After the Fire Station, you’ll find a double door gate leading to a backstage area between the rear of the Emporium and other shops on the left side of Main Street, and the Jungle Cruise.  On busier nights, they sometimes will open that area as an overflow walkway for guests.  Painted on those doors are scenes of turn-of-the-century vehicles, with text that reads

Discover the joy of motoring

in comfort

in style

Main St. Horseless Carriages for Hire

The current version of the mural was repainted by hand between April and May of 2019, and is based on an "old piece of original artwork," according to the artists mentioned on a Daps Magic YouTube video from that year. The video shows Donald Duck holding a print of the art, which has the word "National" on it.  However, the version in the park when they were done repainting had the words "Main St." instead, like it does today.  The word National had been on the sign since at least 2014, because back then, the Main Street vehicles were presented by National Rent-A-Car.


We found a YouTube video posted in 2014 with a thumbnail showing the back of an Omnibus with art that looks like the center of the mural, but with the word "National" on it, while another video from 2018 shows that art on the Omnibus with the words "Main St."
There is a similar-looking, though not identical, set of gates in Disneyland Paris that used to advertise Hertz rental cars, but from more recent photos we found online, it no longer has a sponsorship name on it either.

In the U.S., National Rent-a-car and its parent company, Enterprise, have been long-time sponsors of the original Disneyland in Anaheim and Walt Disney World. We couldn't find anything about when the original design was created, or who designed it, so if you know, please share with us by joining our completely free private Facebook group, Where In The Park Explorers.

The Left Side of the Emporium

Continuing past those gates, you'll reach the back corner of the Emporium. From this side, it appears as multiple buildings: one with a porthole-style window on the first floor and a window with a striped awning above, and then a brick building with two rounded awnings below and three arched windows on the second floor. Two of those three windows have dedications on them, which is what I’m here to talk about.

Charles Boyer - Master Illustrator


The first window on the left shows an illustration of an artist painting a portrait of a man in a suit and top hat. It has text that reads

Partners Portrait Gallery

Charles Boyer

Master Illustrator

Charles Boyer attended classes at Chouinard Art Institute, where he received a "working scholarship," because when he wasn't attending classes, he was also working as a janitor at the school. He was hired at Disneyland in the fall of 1960 for a "temporary" job as a portrait sketch artist. After six months of creating pastel portraits of park guests in Fantasyland, he was transferred to the marketing and advertising art department, where he became the Park’s first full-time illustrator and later became the Park’s only Master Illustrator. Over his 39-year career with Disney, he created almost 50 collectible lithographs, as well as artwork for magazine covers, brochures, and flyers.   

One of the more famous works by Boyer is his 1981 "Partners" lithograph, which depicts Mickey and Walt Disney standing and holding hands, which was arguably the inspiration for the "Partners" statue from 1993 by Blaine Gibson found in four Disney parks around the world, as well as at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank.

There is also a kind of parody of Norman Rockwell's "Triple Self Portrait" with Boyer's 1978 art showing Mickey Mouse painting a canvas with Walt Disney on it, while he's looking in a mirror at himself as Mickey. A few online sources state that the original of that painting is on display at Walt Disney Hall at the exclusive Smoke Tree Ranch, where Walt's Palm Springs vacation home was located. 

Side note: if you have never heard of Smoke Tree Ranch, the next time you find yourself in front of that Partners statue, take a look at Walt's necktie and you'll notice a block logo made up of overlapping letters of S, T, and R, that's the logo for Smoke Tree Ranch. It's also on the tie of the Walt animatronic in the Opera House, but we're not really covering those sides of Main Street in this episode, so back to Charles Boyer...

Another famous lithograph is of Mickey Mouse with a firefighter, which he created in 1993 to honor firefighters during the California Southland Fires that year. 

The last painting he created for the company before he retired was named "Walt's Dream," which depicts a young Walt Disney holding Mickey Mouse's hand, with the rest of the Fab Five also present, as Walt gestures toward an orange grove in front of them. You can see Sleeping Beauty's castle in the clouds above.

That painting went on sale the same day this window was dedicated, on Disneyland's 44th anniversary, July 17th, 1999, just after his official retirement. I say official because Charles created at least one more work after his retirement.

There is a painting that was made for Disney's California Adventure, which was sold as a limited edition lithograph in 2001.

Now, this may or may not have been painted before his retirement, but he definitely did come out of retirement to create a few works for Disney with the help of his son Bruce. In 2005, to celebrate the park's 50th anniversary, Disney released Disney Dollars with a face value of $50. Charles designed the bill, which showed a modern, 2005 Mickey Mouse standing in front of a centerpiece of a Mickey Mouse from the 1930s. This was Charles's first time designing a Disney Dollar, and it was Bruce's first time creating art for the Disney company.

Perhaps the easiest way to view art by Charles Boyer online is to just go to eBay and search his name, followed by the word Disney.   We will have photos of this artwork included in our blog and some links in the show notes.  Charles was inducted as a Disney Legend in 2005 and passed away in 2021.   

Harriet Burns - The First Lady of Imagineering


As mentioned earlier, this building section has three windows on the second floor. The next window after Charles's is still empty, but the third has an illustration of a rocking horse on it, and it has text that reads

The Artisans Loft

Handmade Miniatures

by Harriet Burns 

This dedicated window was added in 1992 to honor Imagineer Harriet Burns.

Born "Harriet Tapp" in San Antonio, Texas, in 1928, she earned a bachelor's degree in art from Southern Methodist University in Dallas.  Afterward, she spent a year in graduate school at the University of New Mexico, where she studied art and philosophy.   She married her college sweetheart, Bill Burns, in 1951, and had a daughter in 1952.
In 1953, the family relocated to Hollywood, California, after Bill returned from the Korean War.   

There is an unfinished interview published in the book Walt Disney's First Lady of Imagineering, where Harriet tells the story about how she would go to pick up her husband after work, but would often stop by a prop store named DICE, which was an acronym for Display Industries Cooperative Exchange. She would stop and just look in the window, and then one day, a Vice President came out and asked her if she wanted to come in. He asked if she had done any work in prop building, and she answered that she had worked on a display for a Neiman Marcus store in Texas. The man told her they were looking to hire someone part-time to help out, and after discussing it with her husband, she started working there soon after. She worked on props for a television show named Colgate Comedy Hour, she did interiors and sets for Las Vegas Hotels, and spearheaded displays that were going to be installed at Santa's Village, a Christmas-themed amusement park that was in Lake Arrowhead, California, from 1955 to 1998. It later reopened as SkyPark at Santa's Village in 2016.

The company had also done all the props for shows at the Dunes Hotel in Las Vegas, but the hotel owners refused to pay, causing DICE to go out of business in 1955. An assistant who had been hired to help her, a man named Jim, let her know that some of his friends, whom he had kept in touch with at Disney, had told him that they were hiring for a TV show for children, and they both applied and were hired.

She started work painting sets for the Mickey Mouse Club television show. She was soon coordinating the show's color styling and designing, and building the "Mouse Clubhouse." While working on the Mickey Mouse Club, she shared a workspace with future Disney Imagineering Legend, Fred Joerger. 

At the time, Fred was working on models for Disneyland, and after seeing how good she was at the job, he urged Walt Disney to transfer her to WED Enterprises to design attractions.  After Wathel Rogers and Fred Joerger, Harriet Burns is often considered the third employee hired at WED, and was the first female Imagineer, and the first woman hired in a creative role rather than an office job.

The official Disney Legend bio describes her as working "padded-shoulder to shoulder with men in the model shop, wielding saws, lathes, and sanders, she was still the best-dressed employee in the department." Quoting her saying, “It was the 1950s, I wore color-coordinated dresses, high heels, and gloves to work. Girls didn't wear slacks back then, although I carried a pair in a little sack, just in case I had to climb into high places."

The way she tells the story in that unfinished interview, it isn't clear how formal things were back then, because she makes it seem like her actual job was to paint for the Mouseketeers, but Walt told her when the show wasn't shooting, she could work on the new park he was building. This effectively made it where she was doing both jobs at the same time, but according to everyone around her looking back on it, she, Wathel, and Fred were the model shop, the "heartbeat of Walt's design engine for Disneyland and beyond."
For the park, she helped create models of Sleeping Beauty Castle as well as other opening day projects like the miniature scenes in the Storybook Land Canal Boats attraction.

Other attractions she created models and/or set design for include Alice in Wonderland, The Matterhorn, Submarine Voyage, and Enchanted Tiki Room.   I found Harriet's work on the Enchanted Tiki Room to be incredibly fascinating.   She collaborated with Blaine Gibson on the parrots, where Blaine handled the mechanics, but Harriet took it a step further by applying the fur cloth. She even managed to fulfill challenging requests, such as creating a fabric over the stomach to make the birds appear as if they were breathing. While Blaine's parrot body design was reused for the Macaws and Cockatoos, Harriet meticulously finished each bird individually, crafting unique feather effects for each performer.

She also worked on figure finishing and stage design for all four Disney attractions at the 1964-65 New York World's Fair: Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, The Carousel of Progress, Ford's Magic Skyway, and it's a small world.

After the World's Fair, she worked on New Orleans Square, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Haunted Mansion (she created concept models of the house, and presented Walt with two spooky versions, and one nice-looking house... He chose the nice-looking house, famously saying: "We'll take care of the outside and let the ghosts take care of the inside."  

Chelsea Clair, Harriet’s granddaughter, shared one of her favorite stories about her grandmother.  She revealed that her grandmother modeled the pirate sitting on the bridge in Pirates of the Caribbean after the family's Milk Man!"    

She retired in 1986, but continued to be active in art in Santa Barbara. Her husband, Bill, sadly died of a heart attack six weeks after they moved to the Santa Barbara area, only months after Harriet retired.

She became a Disney Legend in 2000 and passed away in July 2008.

At the Magic Kingdom in Florida, there is a tribute to her at the Haunted Mansion, in which a tombstone reads:

First Lady of the opera

Our haunting Harriet

Searched for a tune

But never could carry it


So next time you're walking down Main Street at Disneyland, be sure to tip your hat to Walt’s Apartment and say a little “Thank You” for the magic that is Disneyland.  Take time to admire the details around you that are brought to life by these creative individuals.   
That’s going to do it for the second set of windows along Main Street and some history about the Fire Department.  Be sure to stay tuned for the next set of windows in our series.    
Just a reminder: head over to our Facebook Group: Where In The Park Explorers to join the conversation with fellow parkgoers and even share your own pictures and stories! 

 

✨Articles referenced in this blog:✨

Disneyland Mural

Charles Boyer

Harriet Burns

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