I read the first part of Steve Hulett's Disney memoirs (Mouse in Transition) with immense pleasure and can't wait to put my hands on this second instalment, Mouse in Orbit.

The Life and Times of Ward Kimball: Maverick of Disney Animation by Todd James Pierce is now available for pre-order on Amazon. I have read the manuscript. It is really a great book. Can't wait.

Since They Drew As They Pleased - Volume 5 got the official go-ahead a few weeks ago and is already written (yes, I wrote it way before getting the official greenlight), I am now working on Volume 6, which features Joe Grant, Tim Burton, Hans Bacher, Mike Garbriel and Mike Giaimo.

While researching the abandoned project My Peoples / A Few Good Ghosts on which Mike Gabriel worked for a short time, I discovered this clip, which I believe many of you will enjoy.

It looks as if Carsten Laqua's book will finally be released in English in August of this year. I simply cannot wait to read it. I have had it on my bookshelf in German for years and know it is a very important book. If this is real, this is excellent news!

Many of the drawings by Albert Hurter included in the books He Drew As He Pleased and in the first volume of They Drew As They Pleased remain mysterious even in the eyes of experienced Disney scholars. I am still trying to figure out, for example, why Hurter created a large series of drawings of mechanical jungle animals. I strongly suspect that they were developed for a proposed Silly Symphony that was later abandoned, but I am yet to find any concrete information about that specific project.

Which is why I was glad to finally find out a few days ago, why those scarecrow drawings were created. The answer could be found in an extremely rare list of Disney story ideas, compiled in December 1939, in which we find the following idea, submitted by story man Webb Smith:

[Scarecrows come to life in the twilight of an autumn corn field; they drink from a jug of liquor and go into a dance…with male and female scarecrows. They go to a barn nearby, find trunks of period costumes and some old musical instruments. They put on a barn dance. Next, they go to the old swimming hole, toss their clothes on the bank and jump in. This reveals their bodies as being sacks of straw. When they come out they put on any clothing they find, since it has become mixed up. They go to the deserted darkened village in a truck and break into a bakery. As dawn is breaking they furiously crank the truck which finally starts and go back to their perches.]

Two interesting magazine covers about Disney's corporate acquisitions. One from the US and one from France.

Do not miss today:

Changing Trains in Chicago by Michael Barrier.