Disney and Reagan, United at Presidential Library SIMI VALLEY, Calif. - The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library sits on top of the world here, a majestic tribute to a former president filled with testimonials to his life: the Air Force One that flew him around the globe, the gowns that Nancy Reagan wore to inaugural balls, a video re-enactment of his near assassination, movie clips from his Hollywood days and memorabilia from his campaigns for California governor. But the other afternoon, hundreds of people lined up outside the door waiting to view a most unlikely addition to this presidential library: Mickey Mouse. In an unusual collaboration of presidential scholarship and mass-market entertainment - featuring two men who, truth be told, were never particularly close - the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and the Walt Disney Company have joined together to open a sprawling, nine-month exhibition drawn from the Disney archives. There are 12,000 square feet of cartoon sketches, costumes, storyboards and all manners of props. There is even a precise reproduction of Walt Disney's office, which holds its own with the precise reproduction of the Reagan Oval Office up another hall. Johnny Depp's bright orange wig from "Alice in Wonderland" across the lawn from where Reagan, the 40th president of the United States, is buried? Mickey and Minnie Mouse singing "Happy Birthday" to Nancy Reagan, 91, when she showed up for the opening ceremony this month and presenting her with a jar of jelly beans? For museum officials, the affiliation with Disney will mean, they hope, an influx of visitors to this fairly remote spot, including younger people who might not otherwise be stopping by a tribute to a president who was in office before they were born. Museum officials are anticipating a burst of revenue from admissions ($21 for adults) and from the gift shop, where tables of Disney memorabilia are for sale next to shelves crammed with Reagan sweatshirts. On July 7, the first Saturday the new exhibition was open, gift shop revenues were five times as high as usual; attendance was close to 5,300, compared with 3,200 on a typical summer weekend. "We are always looking for creative ways to bring new and younger audiences to the library," John D. Heubusch, the executive director of the Reagan Foundation, said the day the exhibit opened. There were huge lines out the doors. Yet the benefits for Disney might be even greater. At the opening of the exhibition, "Treasures of the Walt Disney Archives," Mrs. Reagan and Disney and Reagan dignitaries sat in front of a huge banner reading D23 - the name of the official Disney fan club. It dwarfed a smaller Reagan Library banner off to the side. The cost of the exhibition was picked up by the Reagan Foundation. Foundation officials declined to say how much it would cost, but said it would be covered by admission fees. There are more genuine archival artifacts in the Disney wing, including letters and early drawings, than in the permanent Reagan installation, which is heavier on videos and photographs. Still, for all its indisputable historical value, it seems at times that there are more well-placed reminders of Disney characters and movies here than on Main Street, U.S.A. at Disneyland Park. This is not the first time a presidential library has lent space to an outside exhibitor. Yet this collaboration is striking: whatever the biographical parallels of the two Midwesterners who found fame in California, their personal relationship was marked more by occasional encounters than deep friendship. Reagan was one of three M.C."s for the televised opening of Disneyland in 1955; a grainy video in the exhibit captures the event. As governor, Reagan petitioned the United States postmaster to issue a Walt Disney stamp, and he was on hand in 1990 for Disneyland's 35th anniversary. "He and Walt Disney did know each other," said Robert A. Iger, the chief executive and chairman of the Walt Disney Company. They became Californians. And they clearly had mutual respect for one another. The collaboration started last November, when members of the library staff approached Disney archivists with the idea of an exhibition. The library offered to blast a hole through a gallery wall and build an 8,000-square-foot, air-conditioned tent to accommodate more Disney memorabilia. The library also said it would fully finance any exhibit and sell Disney merchandise in its shop. Disney controlled every part of the exhibit, handling things like how it was configured, what items were included and what the wall-mounted descriptions said. There are 500 items on display, half of which had never been removed from Disney's archives, according to Steven Clark, a Disney executive who oversaw the exhibit. "Sometimes people think they know everything about Disney history, that everything has been seen," Mr. Clark said. But that's not remotely the case. Among items most likely to be of interest to Disney fans is the storybook used in 1937 to film the opening sequence for "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," recently restored by the Huntington Library in San Marino, Calif. There is also a bodice connected to "Snow White," still ripped in the front to accommodate an actress who was more full-figured than expected. The animation studio shot footage of costumed actors pantomiming action so artists could study their movements. Walt Disney's formal office has been fully reconstructed, complete with miniature figurines and a few upside-down books on the cases - just as he left them. There are extensive items from the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies and items from the latest blockbuster, "Marvel's The Avengers." Disney also culled items from its collection related to general presidential history, like a handwritten letter to the studio from Amy Carter in 1977 expressing her fondness for Evinrude, the dragonfly from "The Rescuers." She drew her interpretation of the character - in crayon - on the envelope. Exhibitions of memorabilia have long been one of Disney's tools for furthering its corporate interests. A few years ago, the company teamed with the Pompidou Center for a display of animation art as part of a campaign to persuade the French to embrace Disneyland Paris. Mr. Iger has spoken about opening an entire Disney archives museum, drawing upon memorabilia stored in 75,000 square feet of warehouse space. While the Reagan connection to most of those items might not be immediately apparent, there seems little doubt that the library exhibit will draw a new audience - always a priority for presidential museums, which live daily with the encroachment of time and the danger of irrelevancy. "These presidential museums belong to everybody and should have a wide appeal," said Timothy Naftali, a former director of the Nixon presidential museum in Yorba Linda, Calif. It shouldn't just be for the presidential historians.