Are you ready for a Disney Mystery?
Wait, couldn’t hear you answer. I know it is a post, but come on let’s put a little excitement into the answer. Let’s try again
Are you ready for a Disney Mystery?
This is part mystery and part tribute, which is part of the mystery and fun.
To unravel this you have to travel to Walt Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Go to Sunset Blvd and take a look in the ticket booth at The Legends of Hollywood.
Inside you will gaze on an easily missed and ignored antique paperweight. It contains a date of 1958 and it commemorates the 50th anniversary of New York’s Singer Building. For a brief period of history it was the tallest building in the world.
The paperweight is approximately 4.5 inches long, 2.5 inches wide, made of bronze and the handle is a replica of the bronze anchors which window cleaners would have used to anchor themselves to the exterior of building when cleaning the windows.
Now before you default and think the Imagineers just rammed in a tribute Merritt Singer, inventor of the Singer Sewing Machine. It is important to note that Walt did not have any contact with Singer. He was alive before Walt’s time. There is nothing notable about the Singer Building itself in Disney history. No deals were negotiated, no contracts signed, no models of the building used for a project.
So what is up with this thing?
Why is it there?
And what does it mean?
The paperweight is a very clever tribute to Walt and Roy Disney’s mom – Flora.
Flora was an accomplished seamstress, enjoyed sewing, was a part of a club that made quilts and was given a gift of a Singer Sewing machine from her husband Elias when he moved the family to the now famous town of Marceline, Missouri.
Now you see the connection – almost!
Why a movie theater box office?
Because Issac Singer at one time a theater manager in New York before designing the sewing machine that would make him famous. So what a better place to tuck away a reminder of where Singer began with a tribute to Walt’s mom, tucked away in front of a theater called – Legends of Hollywood, which of course, Walt Disney certainly was.
Nothing is by accident, the details matter, and they make the story more fun!
- Image in post from DisneyFoodBlog