What Is a Dumbo Ride Vehicle Doing on the Hill at Forest Lawn?

In 1966, Walt Disney was an honorary pallbearer at Hubert Eaton's funeral. Eaton founded Forest Lawn Memorial-Parks. Disney died a few months later, and he is buried at Forest Lawn-Glendale, as Eaton is.

Sixty years after both men died, a Disneyland Dumbo vehicle and a Matterhorn bobsled sit inside the Forest Lawn Museum at 1712 S. Glendale Ave. Both were once used at the park in Anaheim. They belong to "California Visionaries: The Lives and Legacies of Walt Disney and Hubert Eaton," which runs through February 7, 2027. According to a pre-opening account, it is the first exhibition to look at the personal and creative relationship between the two men. The show argues that one of Glendale's best-known landmarks and the most famous theme park in the country came from two friends who swapped ideas for decades. You can see the strongest evidence for that without leaving the hilltop.

Two Men, One Route From Missouri

The museum gives the outline. Disney and Eaton both moved from Missouri to California. They met in the 1930s and influenced each other for the rest of their careers. Local News Pasadena, writing in August 2026, added more detail. The two men wrote to each other from the 1930s into the 1960s, visited each other's parks and served together on the board of Saint Joseph's Hospital. Both also took inspiration from medieval castles and cathedrals and brought that architecture to Southern California visitors.

That shared interest explains why the exhibition includes maps showing how Forest Lawn and Disneyland developed side by side in the middle of the 20th century. One of the archival photographs on view is a 1954 image the museum titles "Storybook Sign." The photographer is unknown, and the print comes from Forest Lawn's own collection. Disneyland opened the following summer.

Two people curated the show. One is James Fishburne, Ph.D., the museum's director. The other is Harrison Foreman, who worked at Walt Disney World for more than 12 years before joining the museum. According to Fishburne, the research turned up material that had not been seen before:

"During the research and curatorial phases, we discovered new photos and documents linking Disney and Eaton. The parallels and connections between the two men and the organizations they founded are truly remarkable."

What's in the Room

The museum describes the show as being for all ages. Here are the objects that have been reported so far:

• Disneyland ride vehicles. A Dumbo vehicle and a Matterhorn bobsled, both once used at the park.
• Sheet music from the Walt Disney Music Legacy Library. This includes "It's a Small World," "The Skeleton Dance," and the original master score book for "Cinderella," which has handwritten notes from the film's creators.
• Herbert Ryman's "Castle Entrance Fantasyland." A 1989 limited-edition print, 36.5 by 17.5 inches, on loan from Garner Holt Productions.
• Sculptures, illustrations, animatronic figures and newly found archival photographs.

Other reported lenders are The Walt Disney Archives, Bob Baker Marionette Theater and private collectors, along with the museum's own holdings. The Bob Baker loan is a local touch, since the marionette theater has long been a part of Los Angeles childhoods.

The Artist Who Worked on Both Sides

The Ryman print is the piece that ties this gallery to the building next door. Herbert Ryman was the Imagineer who drew the first sketch of Disneyland. He also drew the first concept sketch for Forest Lawn's "The Resurrection," a huge painting.

That painting hangs a short walk away in the Hall of Crucifixion-Resurrection. Robert Clark completed "The Resurrection" in 1965, and it measures 70 by 51 feet. It shares the Hall with Jan Styka's "The Crucifixion," which Styka painted in the 1890s. That canvas is 195 feet long and 45 feet high. Disney's castle print and the painting Ryman helped start are close enough to see in the same hour.

The Styka painting has its own history. The museum says Styka took it to the 1904 exposition in St. Louis but could not show it there and could not pay to ship it home. Eaton and his colleagues tracked it down in 1943. Forest Lawn bought it after World War II and opened the Hall on Good Friday 1951 to house it. According to Local News Pasadena, the Hall's facade is a replica of a hilltop cathedral in Orvieto, Italy. It is the same interest in old-world architecture that the exhibition credits to both men, and here it stands in Glendale.

The Second Show Tells Forest Lawn's Own Story

The Hall opened in 1951, and the museum opened in 1952. This year marks 75 years since the Hall opened, and a second exhibition, "75 Years: Art Finds a Home at Forest Lawn," opened on the same date as the Disney show. It includes archival photographs that have never been shown, newly remastered audio from the Hall's original program, and well-known artworks, some of which have not been on display for almost ten years. It follows Forest Lawn's collecting history from the start of the sculpture collection in the 1920s to the art galleries in the Great Mausoleum in the 1940s, and back to when the museum was a memento shop.

Two photographs from the museum's collection are featured. One shows Mary Hunt, the museum's first director, in 1952. The other shows the inside of the Hall of the Crucifixion while it was being built in 1949. Museum staff put the exhibition together as a group. It has been reported to run through July 18, 2027, five months after the Disney show closes. If the Disney exhibition is about the friendship, this one shows what Eaton was building on the Glendale side of it.

Timing a Visit Around the Hall

Admission and parking are free at the museum, the Hall and the Great Mausoleum, and you don't need tickets or reservations. The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. From the main entrance on S. Glendale Avenue, follow the signs to reach it.

The galleries are open all day, but the Hall runs on a fixed schedule. Its 18-minute presentation of the two paintings runs Tuesday through Sunday:

Every showing has English audio. There is no showing at 1 p.m., and you can't enter once a presentation has started, so arrive a few minutes early. A simple plan is to see the Disney and Eaton galleries first and then walk over for the next showing. After seeing the Ryman print, you'll look at "The Resurrection" differently.

October has a lot of exceptions. The museum's closure list for the Hall currently includes these dates:

1. Sunday, Oct. 4: closed in the afternoon.
2. Tuesday, Oct. 6, and Wednesday, Oct. 7: closed.
3. Thursdays, Oct. 8 and Oct. 15: closed in the morning, with presentations at 2, 3 and 4 p.m.
4. Saturday, Oct. 17: no morning presentation, but "The Crucifixion" is on view, and presentations resume at 2, 3 and 4 p.m.
5. Tuesday, Oct. 20: closed.
6. Wednesday, Oct. 21, and Thursday, Oct. 29: closed in the morning.
7. Friday, Oct. 30, through Sunday, Nov. 1: no presentations, but "The Crucifixion" is on view.

The museum says its hours and closures can change. Check the visit page on the day you plan to go.

The Nov. 1 date also has a seasonal reason to visit. Forest Lawn Glendale is holding a free Día de los Muertos gathering that Sunday from noon to 3 p.m., with folklórico and mariachi performances, crafts, face painting, food and community altars, according to the Glendale News-Press. There will be no Hall presentation that day, but "The Crucifixion" will be on view and the museum's galleries open at 10 a.m. That leaves time to see the Dumbo vehicle and the "Cinderella" score before the music starts outside.

"California Visionaries" closes on Feb. 7, 2027.

At G&C Properties, we care about the stories behind Glendale's buildings, from a 1951 hall built to house a lost painting to the period homes in neighborhoods nearby. If you own a home with a history you want to understand or protect, let's make it personal. Contact us to discuss your character home.