Disney's timeless celebration of the boy who never grows up, "Peter Pan," will be showcased in a special exhibition at The Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco from April 7 to June 27, 2010. It will also be celebrated as the Museum's film of the month in May.

The exhibition will be positively magical and will include 16 original concept drawings by renowned Disney artist Mary Blair, which were loaned to the Museum by the Walt Disney Animation Studios Research Library. Also on display are 1930s Character sketches, storyboard outlines, original concept art, model sheets, and vintage posters from the collection of the Walt Disney Family Foundation.

A first edition copy of the play by J.M. Barrie's "Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up," is displayed alongside a "final treatment" of the Disney film dated from March 1946 – they are opened to the same moment in the story, when Wendy learns that Peter can fly.

But perhaps the highlight of the month for many Disney fans will be an in-person appearance by Kathryn Beaumont, the voice of Wendy in "Peter Pan" and also Alice of Walt Disney's "Alice in Wonderland," at The Walt Disney Family Museum to share her memories as a voice-over artist on Saturday, May 22, 2010, at 3:00 p.m. Tickets are available online at the Museum's official Web site.

Can't make it to the Bay Area? Fortunately, Kathryn graciously agreed to sit down with the Disney Fans Insider and give us her recollections of recording for "Peter Pan" and working with Walt Disney.

"It was a wonderful experience. There were so many plusses with working with Walt Disney and the Studio," she recalls. "They were already in production for 'Peter Pan' while they were working on 'Alice,' and I was about adolescent age, just as Wendy was. It was another British project, and with my British accent it just seemed a given! They were very pleased with what I had done for the reference work as well as the voice of Alice, so they wanted me to continue and play the part of Wendy."

Working at Disney, Kathryn says, was unlike any other studio – and the biggest reason was Walt Disney himself. "You saw Walt – he was visible. I noticed that he'd come down to the cafeteria and go through the line with everybody. He would find a place at a table, and sit and visit. His sense was that he was one of the creative team and not really the head of the Studio. His demeanor, his casualness – and yet I sensed this real creativity in him. He would sometimes come to the recording sessions – I remember once that the director wasn't quite sure about an interpretation of something and said 'Well, let's call in Walt.' Within about five minutes, Walt was down there. They played two interpretations of the line for him and he said 'Why, I don't know what you're worrying about, boys – the first one's just fine!' And yet he wasn't interfering, he didn't come in and want to change anything just because it was his idea."

In addition to working closely with Walt, one of the great pleasures of "Peter Pan" for Kathryn was interacting with the rest of the voice cast. Today, voice actors for animated films are usually recorded alone in a sound booth – but when "Peter Pan" was made, everyone in a scene would gather and work together.

Kathryn remembers two of her fellow actors especially fondly. "The character Michael was about five or six years old and they cast one of the animators' sons, and he didn't know how to read yet. They'd feed him lines and he was a very cooperative, sweet little boy, and he'd mimic what it was and say the line after it was given to him, then we would go on with ours. It was an interesting experience!" she laughs.

"And at the other end of the scale, there was Hans Conried, who played the father role, and also Captain Hook. He had absolutely been my hero since coming to America because I had started listening to the radio a lot. I began to recognize this voice that played very different characters in radio stories. And then I started paying attention to who it was, so I knew his name. When I found out I was going to work with this Hans Conried, it was really exciting! He was great to work with – he had this amazing voice."

As she prepares to visit The Walt Disney Family Museum for this special event, Kathryn is pleased to find "Peter Pan" still so beloved – but she's not at all surprised. "I think it's a wonderful fantasy, but it's also this great adventure. There's so much for children to identify with. There's something going on all the time, and the music is fabulous!" she says.







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