If you've ever strolled through the turnstile at Disneyland Park, you might have quickly grabbed a map from the available stack, or been handed one by a cast member, the better to facilitate your knowledge of where everything is located at the sizable Anaheim theme park.
You might still have this very map, crinkly and covered with churro sugar and dill pickle juice, in a drawer somewhere, or even on a wall, a reminder of a memorable day with the family.
A new map will soon go on a wall somewhere, but it is rather different from the fold-out brochure maps visitors get at the Disneyland gate. It's the famous Disneyland presentation map, the one created over an imagination-fueled weekend back in 1953 by Walt Disney and artist Herb Ryman.
Yes, this was the one created to sell the idea of the not-yet-built theme park to investors. Yes, it just went up for pricey grabs, on Sunday, June 25 at the Walt Disney's Disneyland auction, with an early, heading-into-the-action bid of $500,000.
That bid? It went up, up, up by just over $200,000, after "some pretty competitive bidding," at the Van Eaton Galleries artifacts-laden event. The gavel fell on the map when $708,000 was reached. As for the bidder? This person, or people, remain a mystery, though we do know they now own a treasure of a map.
It's "...the most expensive Disney map ever sold," said Mike Van Eaton, co-owner of the galleries.
Other notable items from the event, with their final bids, include a Disneyland "Tomb Sweet Tomb" prop from the Haunted Mansion, which went for $26,550, and an original Fantasyland bench, which moved off the block for $10,030.
The Scene
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Van Eaton Galleries has become a premier go-to source for rare Disneyland memorabilia. Hope to own your very own vintage E ticket or Pirates of the Caribbean costume one day? Stay tuned, and keep your eye on the Sherman Oaks HQ for Disneylandia.
