The Wonderful World of Disney and Their Partnership with Lackluster Coffee

Unfortunately, today's coffee was an uneventful cup of Starbucks.  I can explain!!
As cast members for Disney, we get discounts on all kinds of things: movie tickets, our park tickets, other theme park tickets, musical and event tickets.  The catch is, you have to pick these kinds of things up at a Team Center.  The closest one to us is located at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank.  The Little One wanted to go to an event so we had to head to the studio to get the tickets and figured we could get lunch while there.  We brought along the husband and the Boss.
The Boss, being a cast member as well, noticed someone familiar walking around at the entrance gate.  It was the CEO of the Disney Stores, Jonathan Storey.  This is a person I admire very much.  He single-handily brought back the fun to our Disney Stores for the cast members.  During the early 2000's, the stores belonged to a different company, not Disney.  After just a short while of owning them, that company was going to go bankrupt but rather then lose the stores, Disney bought them back and brought aboard Jonathan.  He realized that the fun company that Disney is, was not extended to the stores.  He immediately brought back trivia and raffles, Voluntears opportunities, and a genuine care to treat the stores as if they were part of the whole Disney family.  He also showed off his extensive Star Wars collection, including his first item, a white pencil case with Princess Leia on it.  Being shown his stockroom-style prized collection of Star Wars paraphernalia brought my inner nerd collector to tears.  He is all around a great guy.  Seeing him today, as he apologized for holding our car up at the gate, should have been a sign that this wasn't going to be just another ticket pick up day.
We headed to the Team Center and got what we needed and since the Disney Store was right there, we poked in to see if they had any product that we might be sold out of.  We ran into a cast member who the Boss and I have worked with at different stores and he told us about the book signing that was happening today and also the 75th anniversary of the Walt Disney Studios.
Wait, what?!
Yes, that's right.  Walt had been drawing since early in the century and in 1940, he started construction on his Burbank studio.  We took a self guided tour around the studio, seeing pictures of what it was like when it was first build.  Most of the architecture was built so it had actual functions and not just the decades decor.  Windows that are set up to get the most light and access from one department to other departments in a snap made up some of the design decisions.  It has stayed pretty much the same since 1940.
In honor of this special day, the studio was celebrating with not just the tour, but people around the studio were dressed to the era, music of the bygone age filled the lot, and over at the commissary, they were serving meals replicated from restaurants that were big back when the studio first opened.  My meal, for example, was a turkey and potatoes meal that was served at the Brown Derby in the 40's.  Along with this theme, small Cokes in glass bottles were sold at .10 each, the price they were in 1940.  There was also free cupcakes.
With my meal, I decided to have coffee.  I forgot that Disney proudly serves Starbucks.  I wanted coffee pretty bad so I said ok.  The options were a decaf regular coffee or the Latin bold blend that I picked.  I added hazelnut creamer and sugar but it was still just a bitter cup of coffee.  I don't understand how they don't know how to make their coffee taste less burnt.  I drank it also knowing I probably wouldn't get another cup today.
We ended our trip by visiting the archives.  In a tiny section of the Frank G. Wells building, they had a display of some neat memorabilia from over the last 75 years.  Props, menus, signs, concept models, it was just a sliver of the icons that were part of the studio history.  On display as well was a replica of Walt Disney's office.  Even down to his ashtray.  (Shhhh.. no one was supposed to know he was a huge smoker and died from a collapsed lung due to disease).  I didn't take a picture of the office, but if you are curious to see what it looks like, watch the movie, Saving Mr. Banks.  That movie shows an excellent depiction of Walt, the studio and the details are so accurate.  However, they managed to Disneyfy that movie and make P.L. Travers look like a tolerable person.  At Travers request, the company recorded all their meetings and behind the scenes, she had quite a set of lungs on her. You won't see that in this film.
After a wonderful afternoon with good company and fun, we had to leave so I could go to my other job.  As we were in the parking structure, the Boss says, "You guys missed it, Jonathan was right behind me just now!".   *nerd moment*
Take the tour with us by checking out the pictures below.  Zoom in and read the interesting details that helped develop one of the world's largest and most innovative companies.

I shared a Coke with my soul mate.. for 10 cents.

One of two cupcake displays.

Clocks at the Team Center.

The commissary today.

The same fire plug. The same painted curb.  75 years later.

Under construction.

Inside the Animation building.

The floor in the middle of the Animation building.

When facing this building, to your left is the lot's own Starbucks.  I got mine in the commissary.

Most important piece in the archives that I saw today. 

My favorite movie was filmed in this location 52 years ago.

These were not the prices or options available today.  Well, the Coke was.

If you look up from the location of this sign, you can see the buildings that so many movies were made in.  Stage 1 saw Fantasia as it's first movie and it only grew from there.