Engineer Mickey Mouse from the Walt Disney Archives
All Aboard!
Engineer Mickey Mouse was on display at the “Inside the Walt Disney Archives” exhibit at Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee, last year.
Engineer Mickey was originally created for the opening ceremonies of Disneyland, way back in 1955. For the opening day broadcast, Walt Disney served as engineer of the E.P. Ripley locomotive as it pulled into Main Street Station. And with him in the cab was Mickey Mouse.
Here is a screen capture I made showing Walt and Mickey from the “Dateline Disneyland” opening broadcast, as seen on the Walt Disney Treasures: Disneyland USA DVD set from several years ago:
This scene has been seen many times since then, making it somewhat iconic. So it was really cool to see Engineer Mickey in person at the Graceland exhibit.
Another Look
Here is a closer look at Mickey. I am sure he has had a little touch-up work done for restoration purposes here and there, much like many aging film and television stars. But he still looks pretty good for his age!
He was just one of the many fun things that we saw at the Inside the Walt Disney Archives exhibit. I am glad that we had the chance to go.
My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. - James 2:1
About the Photos
I suppose you could get into an argument about which artifacts in the exhibit were more important than others, but I thought Engineer Mickey’s place on a bottom shelf was not quite fitting for his importance. The shelf above him created a shadow on his head, making for some uneven lighting. Fortunately, I could compensate for the lighting a bit in Luminar AI.
And this has nothing to do with the photo, but because I am an electrical engineer, every time I start out typing “engineer”, my fingers just keep on typing, so that I end up with “engineering” and have to backspace to take out the last three letters. I did not realize that I apparently type “engineering” as much as I do.
Photo: Each photo is a single Raw exposure, processed in Luminar AI. Read more about photography tips, photo software, camera gear, and more at Steve’s Photography Tips.
Camera: Sony Alpha A7 II
Lens: Sony FE 28-70mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS Lens
Date: November 13, 2021
Location: Graceland, Memphis, Tennessee
