Hidden Mickey Monday ºoº - Buena Vista Street - Julius Katz & Sons - Window Display Mickeys

Over the past five years, the folks from Imagineering have outdone themselves revamping the Disney California Adventure Park. In addition to creating a new land and new attractions, Imagineers pulled from Walt Disney's past to give DCA's main thoroughfare a distinctively Disney feel.

Carthay Circle Theater Cosntruction - Disney California Adventure Park - April 2011The Carthay Circle Theater - Disney California Adventure Park - March 2012

Using Walt Disney's journey to 1920's Los Angeles as a template, WDI created a California Adventure counterpart to Disneyland's Main Street. Although Disney died in 1966, Buena Vista Street feels magical, as if it were finished with Walt's personal touch. After recreating iconic landmark's from Hollywood's past, Imagineering completed the illusion, by staging Buena Vista Street with dozens of historic Disney Details and a few Hidden Mickeys.

Julis Katz & Sons Storefront - Buena Vista Street - DCA

The only repair shop on Buena Vista Street, Julius Katz & Sons features radios, cameras, watches, televisions and other mechanical items from the 1920's & 30's. The items on display in the Katz & Sons front window, include a vintage television set featuring a Classic Mickey test screen and several Mickey-shaped antique locks.

Test Screen Hidden Mickey on a 1920's-era television - Julius Katz & Sons - Buena Vista Street

Test cards or test patterns were used calibrate early televisions and broadcast cameras. In an era when stations did not have programming to broadcast twety-four hours a day, test patterns also let viewers know that they were receiving signals (but no programming) from a specific broadcast station. In a nod to television's infancy, Imagineer's staged the window with a six-inch wide television screen, state of the art for the late 1920's.

Classic Mickey shaped antique locks in a display window - Julius Katz & Sons - Buena Vista Street

The pair Mickey-shaped antique locks are on display, hanging in a case above the television set. Imagineers understand that Disney is in the Details, so decorating choices are usually conscious ones. Mickey-shaped items are often used as Hidden Mickeys, especially antique locks, cameras with unusually shaped lenses and double alarms with bells as Mickey ears.