Disneyana at Geppi’s Entertainment Museum

You have got to be kidding me. Does it include its own spindle?

Baltimore’s an odd little city in some ways. For one thing, who thought it was a good idea to put a large convention center across the street from the baseball stadium? Throughout Otakon, cosplaying anime fans and befuddled Orioles fans competed for space on the sidewalks.

My family flew into town the day before Otakon, knowing that we’d be able to pick up our pre-registered badges that evening. (We didn’t get into the crazy long line that snaked around the convention center all afternoon; we just waited until we saw someone tweet that there was only a 10-minute wait. Shazam, done.)

But maybe it’s not so bad that the stadium is so close to the convention center, because the Sports Legends museum shares a building with a great find for any fan of vintage Disney comics and merchandise: Geppi’s Entertainment Museum, which a friend was kind enough to suggest we visit that afternoon.

The Geppi’s web site explains their mission:

Geppi’s Entertainment Museum is dedicated to presenting the story of popular culture since the nation’s earliest days in an entertaining and educational fashion so that our guests have the unique opportunity to walk through a timeline that parallels and is entwined with history as a whole.

I’m not sure how well they accomplish the entwinement of history; I didn’t notice any references to historical events other than those specifically referenced in the pop culture materials they’ve archived. But they’ve done a great job of collecting and displaying nostalgic ephemera, from comic books to underpants. We spent an hour or so working our way through the collections, constantly tugging at each others’ sleeves and exclaiming, “You’ve got to see this one!”

My only disappointment in the museum is that their Local Heroes collection only has a small John Waters section. Museum staff explained that this is because they’d like to keep the museum family-friendly, which means they really can’t reference most of his films (they did have a couple of pink flamingos, referencing his least family-friendly movie).

Below is a photo gallery of just a few of the Disney items I saw at the Geppi Museum on July 26, 2012. If you’re in Baltimore, with or without tens of thousands of anime fans, I’d encourage you to drop in and visit the collections.

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I’ve also got to include one non-Disney image, because it makes me giggle.

If Foxy Grandpa Hat Party isn’t already a euphemism, it should be.

Creepy Mad Hatter Picture in 1961 Disneyland Fashion Photo

It’s not just me, right? There’s just something kinda creepy about this picture, featured in Kevin Kidney’s blog post on a 1961 Midwest Magazine fashion spread. Maybe it’s the fact that his hands are so much smaller than they should be, compared to his head. Maybe it’s the fact that he doesn’t really have much of a torso. But mostly, it’s the pinned pupils, they make him look evil.

Hat tip to my dear spouse for sending me the link! Somehow I’ve been falling behind in my RSS feeds. Can’t imagine how that could happen.

Vintage Mickey Mouse Japanese Postcard

Super kawaii! My husband spotted this for me on Pink Tentacle. He may not be a fan of the Disney parks, but he sure does like that vintage animation. Thanks sweetie!

Disney Tells “The Story of Menstruation”

Personally,I’m waiting for Disney to release “The Story of Menopause,” even if it is a cheapquel. I’m not getting any younger here, y’know.

Hat tip: BoingBoing.

And in response to a question posited by a BoingBoing reader….no, young men should not head out to recess while we ladies watch the film. Stick around and get learned.

1943 Disney Organizational Chart

Neatorama brings us an org chart apparently distributed with a 1943 booklet, The Ropes at Disney, posted earlier at Cartoon Brew.

It would be even cooler if the chart had names associated with each position, but it’s pretty awesome as-is. It also raises some interesting questions. Like, what exactly is the “Morgue,” over on the Management side? (The answer can be found in the comments, over at Neatorama.