{"id":61572,"date":"2018-05-09T12:00:20","date_gmt":"2018-05-09T16:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/?p=61572"},"modified":"2022-02-06T13:46:25","modified_gmt":"2022-02-06T18:46:25","slug":"little-man-of-disneyland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/little-man-of-disneyland\/","title":{"rendered":"Walt Disney’s Little Man of Disneyland: A Little Golden Book of Disneyland’s History"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Little<\/a><\/p>\n

Walt Disney was a great businessman; there\u2019s no denying that. When he undertook the concept of Disneyland, he needed partnerships. He needed businesses that could help fund the construction, supply goods, and get the message out. This was the beginning of synergy. One of these little partnership nuggets was a Little Golden Book, Walt Disney\u2019s Little Man of Disneyland. <\/em>By the 1950s, Disney Corporation was heavily involved in the Little Golden Book franchise. It seemed only appropriate to publish a book encouraging children to come to Disneyland. And so was born the Little Man of Disneyland<\/em>.<\/p>\n

With its mint green cover and eye-catching Donald Duck talking with a happy leprechaun, Little Man of Disneyland<\/em> was instantly friendly to children and their parents back in 1955. The Disneyland television show had been airing on ABC television for just over a year, the Mouseketeers were encouraging everyone to join the club, and the entertainment media of the US seemed to be roundly focused on Walt and his \u2018folly\u2019 \u2013 Disneyland. So, the publication of this little book encouraged parents to pick up a copy for their children.<\/p>\n

\"Little<\/p>\n

Little tykes would go to sleep hearing the story of Patrick Begorra and how his orange tree grove was transformed into Disneyland, \u201ca wonderful place\u2026with all sorts of marvelous things for fun.\u201d Like most \u2018old people\u2019 Patrick didn\u2019t take kindly to the change in his grove but through the magic of Imagineering, Patrick comes around and grants permission for Mickey and his friends to build Disneyland.<\/p>\n

There was one stipulation: one condition that Patrick Begorra required. He wanted his own house in Disneyland. On the last day of construction, when Patrick\u2019s house was being taken down, he moved. He did not let anyone know where he moved to. The end of the little book suggests that the child reading it should try to find Patrick\u2019s house.<\/p>\n

Fast forward a few decades and yours truly is sitting at home in the library of the old Ohioan farmhouse. I was perhaps five at the time and was investigating the closet of old children\u2019s books for something to while away the afternoon. After passing over the books of horses \u2013 Misty, Black Beauty, and Stormy would have to wait \u2013 the corner of the green Little Golden Book caught my eye.<\/p>\n

I ran to my Grandpa and asked him to read the Disneyland book to me. We sat on the rocking swing on our front porch and he read the simple story to me. \u201cShall we go back to Disneyland and see if we can find Mr Begorra in the winter?\u201d I nodded.<\/p>\n

\"Little<\/p>\n

So, that year, mint green book in hand, I began my hunt for Mr Begorra and his home. Searching for Patrick became a passion. \u00a0This was long before the internet and I didn\u2019t find him the first several visits. I did my leg work. Each visit, I would scour a new land. I would look in hidden corners.<\/p>\n

Perhaps he had a hole in the wall of Fantasyland, like one of Cinderella\u2019s mice. Or maybe, he could be found in one of the rockets on top of the tower in Tomorrowland. I knew that New Orleans Square<\/a> and Critter Country had once been part of Frontierland, so I didn\u2019t look too hard there. My next stop was Frontierland. But the more I searched and the more I thought about it, the more that I knew his house wouldn\u2019t be there. Perhaps he was out on Tom Sawyer Island, but I had no luck. I looked high and low.<\/p>\n

I asked Cast Members in each land. This was very difficult because I was a shy child. Each would shake their head. \u201cNo, I am afraid that I don\u2019t know where his house is.\u201d Now, we have all been told that Cast Members aren\u2019t allowed to say that they don\u2019t know. That they should go and look for the answer. But this quest(ion) seems to be the one exception. Today, some of the Cast Members will tell you quietly where the house is. Some will wink and say that they aren\u2019t allowed to tell you where he lives. Others will look it up for you.<\/p>\n

\"Little<\/p>\n

But back when I was six, I felt a great relief when I finally located the little house exactly as pictured in the illustrations. From that visit on, I would stop by Patrick\u2019s house and say, \u2018hi\u2019. Well, until I became a teen and let such frivolity fall away.<\/p>\n

Then I had my daughter and we were going to take her to Disneyland for her second<\/em> birthday and the opening of Disney\u2019s California Adventure (as it was called back then). My copy of the Little Man of Disneyland was lost in the years between and though I was unable to get a copy, I still told her the story of the Little Man. Then we went to look for him. It seemed that he had moved again! But with enough hunting, we found his new address.<\/p>\n\n

And now, it is your turn. The book was republished in 2015. Look up a copy and read it to your children (be they one or one hundred) and go on your own Disneyland hunt. You never know what you will find.<\/p>\n

Walt Disney\u2019s Little Man from Disneylan<\/em>d is not the only Little Golden Book to feature Disneyland. In a future blog I may look in to this \u2018night time\u2019 reading for young ones if there is interest.<\/p>\n

\"Little<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Have you stopped to search for The Little Man of Disneyland? Share your experience with the hunt in the comments or on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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    Walt Disney was a great businessman; there\u2019s no denying that. When he undertook the concept of Disneyland, he needed partnerships. He needed businesses that could help fund the construction, supply goods, and get the message out. This was the beginning of synergy. One of these little partnership nuggets was a Little Golden Book, Walt Disney\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":61575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4422],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-disney-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61572"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62657,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61572\/revisions\/62657"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}