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Armchair Archivists

As promised, D23 has debuted their new online video feature “Armchair Archivists.” This new series will give us a regular look at the rarely-seen treasures of the Disney Archives, and hopefully some audio and video goodies as well.

Judging from this premiere episode, the new series will be of far greater value than the current D23 “Disney Geek” segments. Hosts Josh Turchetta and Steve Czarnecki manage to be appropriately geeky but also suitably restrained, and do a good job without veering into fanboy caricature. Most importantly, the content is worthwhile.

This big draw for this first episode is recently-found footage of Walt Disney that premiered at the recent Destination D event in California. Discovered by Ed Hobelman, archivist at the Walt Disney Studios, the footage shows one of Walt’s last filmed appearances. In the film, Walt promotes the upcoming The Happiest Millionaire while welcoming viewers to an early screening of Follow Me, Boys! The story of the footage’s discovery is interesting, and the film itself tugs at the clocksprings for Walt fans like myself.

There’s also a visit with Becky Cline, the new director of the Archives, and a look at some of Walt’s personal effects taken from his office. Check it out:

How cool is that Laugh-O-Gram megaphone?

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