My friend Kevin Bash is trying to get the toon community up to help the effort to preserve the GRAND HOTEL NORCONIAN. This 1920's Art Deco resort was built out in the desert North of Los Angeles as a vacation gettaway on Lake Norco.

Animation People recall the Norconian as the scene of the infamous Disney Crew Party.

Walt Disney had thrown a Xmas Office party for his crew in 1937, and everyone got so drunk they wrecked the studio. One artist fell out of a window ( unharmed, it was a first floor).

After the success of the film Snow White, Walt & Roy decided to throw a crew party, and picked a resort north of LA to save the studio further damage.

Most of the 800 artists were under terrific pressure to finish Snow White, and it's great success was a relief. So when they arrived at the Norconian, with all the food and booze paid for, the party quickly became a drunken orgy. Remember, these artists were mostly unmarried, in their mid twenties in age, and suddenly with more money than they ever knew, being raised during the Great Depression. So can you blame them for having a bit too much fun?

Here is participant's account of that weekend, from animator Bill Justice, in a 2006 interview with Jim Korkis. http://www.cartoonbrew.com/old-brew/bill-justice-on-the-snow-white-wrap-party.html

Walt and Roy and their wives quickly fled the scene, to avoid any publicity. Maurice Noble told me, because their were no screen credits then, if Walt wasn't there, the press wouldn't be interested in a bunch of anonymous office workers having fun.

Today after being a military hospital and a prison,the old hotel is in need of restoration, and your online vote can aid in it's participation. Please go to this link below and vote for the Grand Hotel Norconian. It doesn't cost anything. And it will preserve an important piece of animation history.

http://my.preservationnation.org/site/PageServer?pagename=TPM_CC_Map