Pop Culture Series: Peter Pan

History of Peter Pan

The Story Behind the 72-Year-Old Disney Classic

All of this has happened before,
and it will all happen again.

So begins my favorite Walt Disney animated movie, Peter Pan, which debuted 72 years ago on February 5, 1953. The original movie poster said:

“It will live in your heart forever”

…and indeed it has.

Why was this turn-of-the-century tale one of Disney’s favorite stories?

Walt Disney’s Peter Pan

It’s because Walt Disney was Peter Pan. Am I suggesting that because he was “the boy who wouldn’t grow up?” Perhaps, but I really mean that Walt Disney performed Peter Pan as a child. How did that happen?

Inspiration for The Play: Peter Pan

Peter Pan came to notice in the 1904 stage play by James Matthew Barrie, a Scottish author and playwright. It was first performed in London, where he’d previously met the Llewelyn Davies boys, whom he later adopted.

George Bernard Shaw said that Peter Pan was

“ostensibly a holiday entertainment for children but really a play for grown-up people.”

The Llewelyn Davies boys were the inspiration for the boy who has adventures in nearby Kensington Gardens in London and the magical Neverland. Barrie…