1,200 Drawn to Anaheim by Disney Memorabilia

Steve and Kathleen Mutrynowski’s friends suggested the couple have a Lake Tahoe wedding.

On Tuesday, the Mutrynowskis had a lakeside wedding, all right, but not at Tahoe. At Disneyland. Next to the moat at Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, when park employees apparently weren’t looking.

The Mutrynowskis, from Castro Valley, Calif., are Disneyholics who collect rare Disney memorabilia. They timed their wedding, done on the sly and without the park’s permission, to coincide with this week’s convention in Anaheim of The Mouse Club, a national organization of Disneyana collectors.

It was the only place to honeymoon, Steve Mutrynowski said.

“It’s like you’re in heaven,” he said of the convention and its displays, sales and auctions of Disney memorabilia.

The convention at the Emerald Hotel has attracted about 750 collectors from a dozen states and England. The highlight of the week was Thursday, when more than 1,200 club members and non-members jammed the hotel’s ballroom for what was believed to be the world’s largest show and sale of rare and not-so-rare Disney memorabilia--a swap meet of sorts for Disneyholics.

There was everything from a 40-year-old Mickey Mouse watch selling for $500 to rare stills (called celluloids, or cels) from Disney’s animated films, some worth thousands. There was even a case of empty Donald Duck Cola bottles from the 1950s, worth about $60.

“You don’t know where to go first,” said Yvonne Anderson, an enthusiast from Wheat Ridge, Colo. “There’s that one treasure, and you want to get it before anyone else does.”

Julie McEuen, a collector who runs the club with her husband, Kim, out of their home in San Jose, said the couple don’t “want the convention to become a toy show. We want to bring in people who enjoy what Walt did and who enjoy the magic behind Disneyland.”

Indeed, that was why Ed Levin in 1979 founded the Mouse Club, which is not affiliated with the Disney corporation. Levin, a Sherman Oaks antique dealer, said the club began with about 30 members. But steady growth made it too much for him to handle, and in 1984 he passed leadership of the 220-member club on to the McEuens.

The couple has encouraged family membership in the organization, which now claims more than 1,300 families, Julie McEuen said. She began collecting Disney memorabilia in the late 1970s after painting murals of Disney characters on the walls of her two daughters’ bedrooms.

The ranks of Disneyana collectors, she said, “cut across all levels of society” and include singer Michael Jackson and film director Steven Speilberg, both of whom are said to collect rare animation cels.

But most of those at this week’s convention, which ends today, are a bit more like Anderson and her husband, John, a general contractor, who began collecting about 15 years ago after their first trip to Disneyland.

The Andersons now go nuts over ceramic Disney figurines from the ‘30s and ‘40s, and their living room in Colorado is filled with about 1,500 Disney items. “It’s part of our life,” John said. “All of our main friends are collectors.”

“Once you get started,” his wife said, “you get hooked on it.”

You also can spend--and make--lots of money. Julie McEuen said animation cels that five years ago sold for $50 bring $600 now, and 1940s Fantasia figurines that once sold for $350 command $900 now.

The most valuable known piece of Disneyana is a cel from the 1933 cartoon “The Mad Doctor.” Christie’s, the New York art auction house, had appraised the cel at about $8,000. At an auction in June, though, it sold for $63,800.

“The market for Disney art is very strong right now,” said Joshua Arfer, an animation specialist at Christie’s. “It has jumped leaps and bounds in the last year.” The art has long been admired, he said, but people just now are learning how and where to acquire it.

Many collectors at the convention, the Andersons and Mutrynowskis included, said they came prepared to spend several thousand dollars if the price and the item is right. But John Anderson said the fact that most collectors specialize in a certain type of Disneyana makes finding what they want sometimes quite difficult.

According to collectors, the two hottest categories now are the early figures and animation cels, with memorabilia from one of the three theme parks becoming increasingly popular.

While the memorabilia can be a lucrative investment, most collectors say they are not in it for the return. They simply are folks who, at one time or another, fell under the Disney spell.

“It’s as close as you can come to owning a piece of your childhood,” Arfer said.

For Kim McEuen, “it has nothing to do with money. It’s the fun people get out of those Disney memories.” McEuen, an insurance broker, said collecting also gives him a “respite from that hectic business.”

The convention also allows collectors a chance to renew friendships, meet former Disney animators and share their passion. “You find out you’re not alone,” John Anderson said. “You collect this stuff and you wonder, ‘Do people think I’m strange because I do this?’ ”

It is, of course, no coincidence that the convention is across the street from Disneyland.

After all, Julie McEuen said, “Do you really think I could get 700 people to come to San Jose?”

MOST VALUABLE DISNEY ANIMATION

Here are what are believed to be the most valuable pieces of Disney animation art, all of which sold at a New York auction in June.

From “The Mad Doctor,” 1933--Mickey peering into a hole on top of skeleton stairs. $63,800.

From “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” 1937--The evil queen seated on the peacock throne. $52,800.

From “Pinocchio,” 1940--Pinocchio with his donkey tail tied to a rock underwater. $39,600.

From “Fantasia,” 1940--The Pegasus family landing on the water. $28,600.

From “Bambi,” 1942--Flower discovering his girlfriend in the daisies. $19,800.

From “Bambi”--Bambi and his mother in a flower patch. $19,800.

Source: Christie’s East, New York City.