Duckburg

Presumably, Barks visited the park a few times on a private basis. It is more than plausible that he took a trip there in 1988, when the park had built some sort of replica of Duckburg - with special emphasis on Barks' primary characters - as part of a new attraction called Mickey's Birthday Land (the Mouse was 60 years old at the time). The area was later renamed Mickey's Starland (1990-1996) and then Mickey's Toontown Fair. The attraction was only meant to exist for a short time, but it actually survived for a few years in its original shape.
The Duckburg section - which is long gone by now - consisted of both signs, statues and buildings:

SIGNS

A welcome sign greeted the visitors and a street sign gave the names of two walkways; Hyperion Blvd. referred to the address of Disney's first studios, and Barks & Nash referred to Carl Barks(!) and Clarence Nash, who for decades was the voice behind Donald Duck on the silver screen.

STATUES

Coot

Scrooge

A statue of Duckburg's founder, Cornelius Coot, was situated along with a sign listing McDuck as President of the Billionaire's Club, and Scrooge was placed on top of a fountain. Later, the Coot statue was replaced by another one, where Coot was standing on two erect, huge cobs of corn(!) and it was erected at the entrance to Toontown (see above). The three statues were all superbly done and reinforced the graphic images we all carry with us from Barks' stories.

BUILDINGS

Donald's house			HD&L Toys
Gyro's workshop			Money Bin entrance

A few Barks-related buildings were strewn around the area; Donald Duck's house, the nephews' shop called HD&L Toys, and Gyro's workshop. Also, the supposed entrance to the Money Bin was present, but none of the buildings bore the slightest graphical likeness to Barks' stories, and there can be little doubt that he must have been bitterly disappointed when he toured the buildings in 'his' Duckburg...

Part of the photos in this section is courtesy of Herb Moskovitz.

The Birthday Celebrations

In 1997 Scrooge was able to celebrate his 50th birthday, and Disney World saw a chance to promote this occasion along with his 'father', who was invited to also celebrate his 96th birthday in the special event called A Birthday Celebration!

INVITATION

The celebration was to be held at the finest restaurant in the park, the California Grill, on top of Disney's Contemporary Resort Hotel, and invitation cards were sent out well in advance. The fold-out cards had a brand new pastel by Barks on the front followed by a personal invitation and the itinerary for the festive evening. (For a closer look at the evening's programme click HERE).

APRIL 12, 1997

The welcome committee			The lottery commences
One of the pastels			The art book

Barks' 96th birthday was celebrated with a huge buffet banquet at the California Grill. Costumed actors of some Disney Ducks and DuckTales characters attended, and there was a special Scrooge cake, which made Barks beam from ear to ear. Tears streamed down his face when Uncle Scrooge and Donald presented the cake, talking in specially prepared, recorded proper duck voices, wishing him a happy birthday.

The evening included an exclusive gallery featuring a selection of works by Barks: A collection of 75 newly finished pastel (colour pencil) drawings on which Barks had been working secretly for 6 months (see more HERE), a limited edition serigraph honouring 50 years of Scrooge McDuck titled I May Have To Spend Some of This Stuff, and a variety of other pieces including figurines. The art was sold by Disney at fixed price ranges of 1500, 3000, 5000, and 7000 dollars. For that purpose every guest had received a numbered coin to be put in a box besides the pictures he or she wished to buy. If more than one coin was found, chance decided who got it. Later, 40 of the new pastels were selected for a high-class reproduction in a hardback book called Barks Treasury (see more HERE).

APRIL 13, 1997

The next day a selection of fans, old friends and foreign visitors had brunch with Barks in his suite in the top floor of the hotel. In the afternoon Barks and Scrooge were driven in an open cabriolet, escorted by a marching band, to the copy of Grauman's Chinese Theater at the Disney/MGM-Studios. A banner on the side of the car announced Carl Barks - Disney Legend, an official title that was bestowed upon him in 1991.
In front of the theater Barks placed his signature in a tile of wet cement and made an imprint of his hands. A number of journalists attended and tourists cheered. The cement tile was later placed on the theater's Walk of Fame.

On and off during his retirement Barks created three-dimensional duck-related objects in porcelain or bronze (see more HERE). This bronze sculpture titled Tantrum on the Way was made in connection with his birthday and presented in Disney World.