Monday, April 02, 2007

Oh boy, did I feel stupid and did I want to kick myself! Of all photos this one. Of all people to make the mistake on the caption, a Frenchman: myself.

I am talking about the photo of Walt that I posted last Friday of course. When I received that photo from Mark Sonntag, I knew immediatly what it showed: Walt receiving the French Legion of Honnor in 1935. After all I had seen other photos from this series: one at Disneyland Paris, within City Hall, the other in the exhibition Once Upon a Time Walt Disney that took place last Xmas in Paris. Then I looked at what I thought was the caption and just wrote Joseph Schenck meeting Walt Disney, without doing my homework and forgetting what I had known all along.

When Mark Mayerson's comment came mentioning that the man on the photo was not Schenck...

OK, now you know how I made that stupid mistake, which of course does not excuse it :-) And I can't even redeem myself, as I was unable to identify who the Frenchman is. It is neither the Président du Conseil (rough equivalent of a Prime Minister) or the Président de la République. Maybe the Minister of Culture? Would anyone visiting Disneyland Paris or the Once Upon a Time exhibition in Montreal be able to check the caption. please?

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hi Didier!

The french man is the "consul de France" ("french ambassador" I think) but I don't find his name.

Here is the photo - the quality isn't perfect but it's already that :
http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/5994/waltlw2.jpg

If I remember, you can find the photo in Disney the first 100 years by Dave Smith and Steven Clark.