Walt Disney World Convention Badges

These Mickey head badges were used by Guests attending conventions at the Contemporary Resort at Walt Disney World. They were used from park opening, in 1971, up until around 1980.

Happy 55th Anniversary Disneyland!

Too bad Disneyland didn't get a new nametag for the 55th anniversary this year. =(

Disney Cast Member charitable organizations

For many years, Disney cast members have donated their time and resources for charity all around the world. In 1983, the Disneyland Community Action Team was started:

The Disneyland Community Action Team assisted with The Special Olympics, hospitals in Orance County, California, and other local organizations. In 1992, it became part of VoluntEARS, a corporate-wide group within the Disney Company.

Disneyland Paris also has their own volunteer organization, Club Bénévole was started in 1991.

Club Bénévole's mascot is the Fairy Merriweather from the film Sleeping Beauty. 'Bénévole' means "volunteer" in French. Made up of 350 cast members from more than 20 nations, Club Bénévole's primary mission is to help children in need throughout western Europe.

Director's Guild of America

Directors Guild of America (DGA) is the labor union which represents the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry. This badge is from an event that they held at Disneyland. When exactly? I have no clue. The style of the Disneyland logo is from the 1950's, so I would assume it was from that era. Anyone out there know more about this event? One can only imagine which famous film directors of the era attended this event. Perhaps Alfred Hitchcock wore this badge at the event. No way to know of course, but it would be amazing to to attend the event and rub elbows with all the mavens and bosses of the Hollywood studios!

In honor of the MLB All-Star game in Anaheim, here is a piece of forgotten Disneyland history:

"The 1989 Cowboy Boot 'n' Ears Revue"

What exactly was the Cowboy Boot 'n' Ears Revue? The revue was a special event held at Disneyland in 1989, in conjunction with the MLB All Star game held at Angels Stadium. From an LA Times article about the event:

"For tonight's "Boots" bash, hosted by Major League Baseball Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti, the Magic Kingdom's parking lot will be transformed into a rompin', stompin', sawdust-kickin' Western town. Even Giamatti is excited. "This is my first All-Star game as a commissioner," he said from his New York office last week. "So I'm really looking forward to the game and all of the fun attached to it. The gala at Disneyland will be especially exciting because it's a salute to Gene Autry."
For the tribute to Orange County's bat-and-ball-loving cowboy, 2,000 guests will be shuttled by bus from five area hotels to attend the "Boots 'n' Ears Revue," named for the symbols of Autry and Mickey Mouse. First on the agenda: Guests will be seated family-style (that means no reserved seats) at tables for 10 inside canvas walls set up next to buckboards, wagons and bales of hay. Party favors? Cowboy hats sprouting Mickey Mouse ears, of course.
Next, a "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" hoedown will be performed to put guests in a Western mood. After comments from gala emcee Johnny Grant--a.k.a. Mr. Hollywood--the crowd will hear from Giamatti, Autry (if he chooses to speak), Mickey Mouse and Jeffrey Katzenberg, president of Walt Disney Studios.
Then come the vittles--bucket after bucket of finger lickin' beef and pork ribs and crisp 'n' crunchy chicken and old-fashioned baked beans and potato salad--carried by 250 performing singers and dancers and the Disneyland characters. Disneyland promises that the food will be served to all the guests in 10 minutes.
After they've wolfed down the main course, guests will be served up an "Apple Pie Hoedown." High-kicking waiters and waitresses will bring on hundreds of warm pies gussied up with red, white and blue streamers and stuck with large kitchen knives. Guests will be invited to divvy up the pie themselves.
Next, a 25-minute performance by comedian Jay Leno.
And finally, in the "finale finish" as party organizers are calling it, all 40 of the Disneyland characters will join singers, dancers, riders and ropers as they wend their way through the tables and invite guests to enter the Magic Kingdom to enjoy the rides, view the Electrical Parade and get an eyeful of fireworks."

Quite a way to celebrate Orange County's connection to baseball. Of course, ten years later The Walt Disney Company would purchase the Anaheim Angels... but sold the franchise in 2003.

Here we go.. off to Neverland!

Hello to everyone in the Disney universe! This is my first post. Does everybody say that? I guess.
So who am I, and what am I doing here? Well, my name is Ben, and I am the curator of nametagmuseum.com. Blogspot seems to be the place of choice for all the leading Disney bloggers and collectors and preservers of Disney artifacts. So, I thought I could make a pitiful attempt to contribute to the Disney knowledge base.
I specialize in nametags, badges, and similar whatnots that are made for the use of the Walt Disney Company. Since Disneyland opened in 1955, the Company has created many hundreds, perhaps thousands, of nametags and badges for its various departments and events. So on this blog, I will show you a bit of what I have managed to gather in my six years of collecting. So let the magic carpet ride begin!


So what will be the first thing we will learn about today? How about the nametag worn at MAPO?

Founded in 1965, MAPO stands for Manufacturing And Production Organization. It was created as a subsidiary of WED Enterprises using profits from the theatrical Mary Poppins film. MAPO's main mission was to create and develop prototype entertainment and transportation systems. It is most famous for the creation of Audio Animatronics that are the signature feature of many Disney attractions, such as the denizens of the Enchanted Tiki Room, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. MAPO also developed the hardware systems that control many of the attractions at Disney parks.

So there you go. A bit of Disney you might not have known. Hopefully I will have some (!) readers here, of course not as many as the other bigger kids on the blog playground, but hopefully they won't come and beat me up and steal my lunch money.

=)