LOS ANGELES • In what used to be a store of sports retailer Sports Authority in this city's busy-by-day Sherman Oaks neighbourhood, stands a 14.6m-long sea serpent, a talking macaw with a Mexican accent and a temporarily grounded 362kg flying fibreglass elephant.
These colourful curiosities and hundreds more were part of a temporary exhibition called That's From Disneyland!.
All of them - even the Country Bear Jamboree postcard machine and the triangular Tinker Bell carpark sign - belong to one man, Mr Richard Kraft, who has been amassing big-ticket Disneyland-related objects for 25 years.
With the help of his adult son and a local gallery owner, Mr Kraft has turned what was once a big-box store into a fairyland.
It may not be the Happiest Place on Earth, the actual theme park some 64km away in Anaheim, but it may well be the second happiest. Which is saying a lot for a place that used to be 3,716 sq m of run-of-the-treadmill sneakers and logo sweatshirts.
Instead, there is a refurbished 4.8m red neon "D" that used to hang on the Disneyland Hotel, the Davy Crockett Explorer canoe that once navigated the tourist destination's Rivers of America, four large macabre portrait paintings from the Haunted Mansion's "stretching room" and so much more.
If it is from Disneyland and it was ever for sale, Mr Kraft probably bought it. He even found, on eBay, a Global Van Lines truck, fashioned to look like an early Ford, that had been parked on Main Street USA in the 1970s.
"I have met other very dedicated Disneyland collectors, but Richard has out-collected them all, times a hundred," said Charles Phoenix, a self-described "retro pop-culture humorist" who wrote the book Addicted To Americana. "Nothing even comes close to the volume and completeness of his collection."
Although actor John Stamos is perhaps the most famous Disney collector, with a very large "D" of his own that can be glimpsed on the Internet, Mr Kraft, a talent agent who represents Disney composers such as Richard Sherman, Alan Menken and Danny Elfman, is generally considered the king.
"I made it very clear to John that my D is bigger than his D," Mr Kraft said.
Last Saturday, however, he abdicated.
He put his happy holdings on the auction block, with estimated prices ranging from US$50 (S$68) for a set of Haunted Mansion "hitchhiking ghost" souvenir beanbags to US$150,000 for a Dumbo the Flying Elephant ride vehicle.
"I'm getting rid of everything," Mr Kraft said, "because I'm of the philosophy that if I kept one thing, I'd keep two and then we'd be selling just one Mickey Mouse piece of plastic and we don't want that."
A portion of the proceeds from the two-day auction, and related events like a concert by Menken last Friday, will go to help children with special needs. Mr Kraft's four-year-old daughter was born with the genetic disorder Coffin-Siris syndrome, which can cause learning disabilities.
Mr Kraft, who is in his late 50s, began collecting Disneyana, as this genus of collectables is called, out of nostalgia.
Shortly after his older brother died, he visited Disneyland. Memories came rushing back of the fun that his family had on annual vacations to the park from their home in Bakersfield, about three hours away.
Soon after, he bought a vintage attraction poster for the Autopia ride. From there, it was a quick swerve into the fast lane of collecting.
"I'm a very obsessive person, so one poster became every poster," Mr Kraft said. "Every poster became ride vehicles. Ride vehicles became conceptual art."
This explains how a car from Mr Toad's Wild Ride in Fantasyland became seating in his home library, how that nearly 15m sea serpent from the Submarine Voyage in Tomorrowland began living alongside his swimming pool.
A half-dozen animated It's A Small World dolls found themselves dancing over the front door of his former residence - a large Tudor home in Encino whose staid exterior belied the wonderment to be found inside.
"That house was exactly as you'd expect, big and very beautifully appointed with collectables," Phoenix said. "It was an enchanted place."
Mr Kraft treated the exhibit as a chance to walk in the shoes of his idol, Walt Disney. "This is the closest I'm going to get to the Walt experience, and I'm really enjoying it," he said.
NYTIMES
