The Dark Room
Return to Hollywood Boulevard Shopping
The Story: Welcome to the Hollywood that never
was and always will be! In the 1930's (the time period we are at
in this portion of Disney's Hollywood Studios) a new craze was
going on that was referred to as California Crazy architecture.
This meant the building was meant to look like a specific
object, and as you can see from the picture above, a portion of
The Dark Room is meant to represent an old time camera!
The Merchandise: Camera, film,
DVD's, books, video games, etc.
The History: While designing
Disney-MGM Studios in the late 80s one idea
arose among Imagineers: to bring as many
historic landmarks or buildings to their new
park. One of the ideas was to duplicate a shop
called The Darkroom. The actual Darkroom shop,
located at 5370 Wilshire Boulevard in L.A.
opened up in the late 1930s as a film shop.
Disney's version is nearly an exact double of
the L.A. shop with one small change: the Kodak
sign (the sponsor for the shop) above the
entrance. The Darkroom in L.A. is now a Tex Mex
(as Google Maps has shown me), but the camera
still sits out front. The Disney-MGM Studios
version of the shop opened with the park on May
1, 1989.
Vinylmation Trading Spot? No
Fun Finds: While inside the shop
you can find pictures of Walt Disney scattered
throughout the shop. It's a nice way for Disney
to keep up the theme of famous buildings and
people of the 1930s throughout the shop!
Location: Hollywood Boulevard
Reader Review: If you'd like to share your
review of this shop, please write below!
Return to Hollywood Boulevard Shopping