Disney Legend Dave Smith Receives Window on Main Street, U.S.A. at Disneyland

This morning, the late Disney Legend and The Walt Disney Company Archives Founder Dave Smith’s window was dedicated on Main Street, U.S.A. at Disneyland.

Vice President President of Disneyland Park Kris Theiler and Director of The Walt Disney Company Archives were in attendance to dedicate the new window, which can be located above the Fortuosity Shop as you enter the park. Disney’s D23 Instagram account shared some videos in their story. You can visit their Instagram and view their stories below:

Read: Long-Awaited Doc ‘The Adventures Thru The Walt Disney Archives’ Will Hit Disney+ Next Month

In the late 1960s, Dave Smith was working on a bibliography on Walt Disney when he first heard of a possible archive being created by The Walt Disney Company. Smith, still working at UCLA at the time, wrote to the Disney Company with an offer of his services, which was accepted. Dave Smith joined The Walt Disney Company on June 22, 1970, as its first-ever archivist. His first task was to document all the items in Walt Disney’s office that had been stored there since his death four years earlier.

He would remain with the company for forty years. Smith has written many books, including Disney A to Z, an official encyclopedia of Disney knowledge, as well as the Walt Disney Trivia Books, and also coauthored Disney – The First 100 Years. He also had a column in Disney Magazine, titled “Ask Dave”, in which he answered fan letters asking questions about Disney media, and also provided a trivia quiz for readers to answer themselves. In 2007, he was honored with the Disney Legends Award, an honor given to people who have made significant contributions to the Walt Disney Company. During his acceptance speech, he stated that he has at one time worked with nearly all the other Disney Legends.

Smith sadly passed away in early 2019 at the age of 78. According to Disney fans and historians, he was regarded as the final authority on the topic of Disney history and as an owner of all his books, I say they are all correct.