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Kimball Family Collection

Only known footage of Union Station Opening (1939, Preserved by the Academy Film Archive)

Known as one of Disney’s “Nine Old Men,” Ward Kimball was an animator who contributed classic characters and sequences to films like “Dumbo” (1941) and “The Three Caballeros” (1944). Like his employer, Walt Disney, Kimball was a railroad enthusiast. He created the narrow gauge Grizzly Flats Railroad in San Gabriel, California, and was also an accomplished jazz trombonist and member of the performing and recording group the Firehouse Five Plus Two. The Kimball Family’s collection includes over 60 home movie reels, as well as short films, TV spots, and jazz band performances, serving to document Ward’s personal interests and moments in his extraordinary career, as well as home movies and shorts by his son, filmmaker and animator John Kimball.

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