I received today the galleys of Walt's People - Volume 9. There were a few small corrections. We still seem to be on track for a release that will happen either around May 20th or June 8th.

By the way, I really went overboard this time around. The book is 541-long. Oooops.

- Main Street 1920's concept early draft and construction panoramic pictures by Alain Littaye (outstanding article)
- Why Walt wound up giving Maleficent the bird by Jim Hill

Here are three great Christmas cards from the Kimballs that Carlene Sunblad was kind enough to share with me.

Do not miss today:

- Disney and Macy's: A Christmas Tradition by Wade Sampson

Here are some more art coming from Leslie Brooks (wabbithole@comcast.net).

Any idea of who the artists are and who drew them?

I released two of those seven strips 4 years ago, but it makes a lot more sense to show all the ones I have in a single post.

On April 25, 1935 and until September 30, 1936, Mickey travelled to Zagreb, capital of Croatia. The magazine Crtani Film that would last little more than a year, had been created by Ivan Zrnic, distributed in both Serbia and Croatia and carried Mickey Mouse Sunday pages on its cover – recreated by little known Serbian artists.

This story is called "Mickey's Wedding" (Mikijeva zenidba) and I am showing here the strips that were released in issues 20 to 26.

I have to admit that I would love to be able to complete someday my collection of locally produced pre-WWII Disney stories from ex-Yugoslavia, especially those from:

- Crtani film
- Oko
- Mali Roman u Stripu
- Zabavnik
- Mika Mis

- Veseli Cetvrtak

This just in from Van Eaton Galleries:

[The Andreas Deja Discussion and Book Signing was a great success!

On the day of the event we released an exclusive signed limited edition print, "What A Croc", taken from an image in the book. Only 50 of these pieces were made, and we have a handful left. It is only $40 unframed, and I thought it might be something you would want to add to your collection.]

This just in from Jim Korkis:

[In 1965, NBC television hired famed cartoonist Jack Davis to draw caricatures of all of its stars to promote the new television season. Walt Disney was doing his weekly Sunday night show for NBC in living color and so Davis caricatured Walt both in a beautiful color mural and in the black and white ad for Sunday night.]

Do not miss today:
- An Urban Legend about Disney’s Contemporary by Jim Korkis

Howard Lowery is currently selling this drawing by Nancy Beiman (more about her upcming book soon) of Frank and Ollie that I thought you would all enjoy.

This just in from Jim Korkis:

[A link to four different Disney letterheads from days gone by.]

Do not miss today:

- CELabrating Disney Ink and Painters by Wade Sampson
- Dream DVD Release! by George Taylor (thanks to Jim Korkis for the link)

This just in from Gunnar Andreassen:

[The magazine with this article was sold on eBay recently, but unfortunately it was too expensive for me. Could this have had the first Mickey Mouse(s) in color - except for the posters ? Can this article have been forgotten ? – I have never seen any mentioning or copy of it. It seems like it has the prosess of making a cartoon right – see for ex. the emphasis it puts on a written scenario.

From: World Magazine Color Gravure Feature Section, Sept. 28, 1930

Any of your readers who got the mising page(s) - and can share these with us? ]

This just in from Jim Korkis:

[Here are some out of the ordinary Disneyland shots with Walt including one with Walt, Lillian, Sharon and Diane.]

This new book will be released exclusively at Disneyland at the end of April.

Written by Jeff Kurtti, it's a beautiful volume but it is definitely aimed at your friends or relatives that do not know much about Disneyland history and want to start somewhere. The book is filled with excerpts of the old Disney News magazine, and of the books Disneyland Inside Story, Walt Disney's America and a few others. Most of the documents have also already been seen elsewhere, but overall the layout is excellent and the writting very enjoyable.


Bottom line: you won't learn or discover anything, but it's the perfect gift for all your friends if you want them to share your passion. That was Jeff Kurtti's and Marty Sklar's goal and they succeeded beautifully.

Do not miss today:

- EPCOT: Origins - Master Plan 5, 1977 by Michael Crawford (outstanding article - thanks to Alain Littaye for the link)
- Exploding on Lift Off by Floyd Norman

This just in from Paula Sigman-Lowery:

[Mary Blair's nieces Maggie Richardson and Jeanne Chamberlain have just launched a new website about Mary.

Once again, giclees of her art are available, along with a few items from the Japan exhibit (including the great catalogue). There are also nice promos for the Walt Disney Family Museum, JB Kaufman's South of the Border book, and El Grupo.]

This just in:

[I thought you and your audience at Disney History may be interested to learn about the latest addition to Suspended Animation Gallery, the online art collection produced by Disney animation artists, reflecting their own personal inspirations and created in their own choice of medium.

It’s Walt Peregoy, best known for his work on 101 Dalmatians, but also notable for his contributions to Peter Pan, Lady and the Tramp and Sleeping Beauty. Check out Peregoy’s personal paintings that are available for viewing (and purchase) in the gallery at this link.

Below is a press release with additional details:

THE PAINTINGS OF PEREGOY

Famous Disney Artist Walt Peregoy’s Personal Works Now Available Through Suspended Animation Gallery

LOS ANGELES, CA – Tenny Chonin, founder and owner of Suspended Animation Gallery, is pleased to announce the addition of paintings by Disney Legend Walt Peregoy to her collection of art available for purchase. “His paintings are exciting, colorful, and nonformulaic— a truly inspired addition to the work already on display at Suspended Animation Gallery,” remarks Chonin.

Walt Peregoy began his career at The Walt Disney Studios in 1942 at the age of seventeen, working in the animation department as an in-betweener. After serving a tour of duty in the Coast Guard and then studying art in Mexico and Paris, Peregoy returned to Disney Animation in 1951. He worked as a designer and animator on Peter Pan and Lady and the Tramp. Peregoy then served as the lead background painter on Sleeping Beauty, and he is probably best known for his outstanding color and background artistry on the 1961 animated feature, 101 Dalmatians.
His work is also featured in architectural facades at Epcot Center, and in recognition of his important role in the history of The Walt Disney Company, Peregoy was recently named a “Disney Legend.”

Peregoy is the twelfth artist currently represented in the Suspended Animation Gallery, which exclusively carries personal art pieces created by the renowned artists of Walt Disney Animation Studios. The gallery exhibits and sells original works including paintings, drawings and sculptures created by the artists who the world knows through the famous movies and characters they have helped bring to life, such as Mike Gabriel (eight films, including Oliver & Company and Pocahontas) and Lisa Keene (twelve films, including The Lion King and The Little Mermaid).

Suspended Animation Gallery presents a revolving series of works and artists, posting photos of the available pieces to its website at SuspendedAnimationGallery.com.

Original pieces can be viewed in-person by appointment. For more information on
Suspended Animation Gallery, or to view the collection of artwork available for sale, please
visit SuspendedAnimationGallery.com]

Do not miss today:

- Disney Legend Floyd Norman writes (and talks) about his Animated Life by Jeremie Noyer
- “Waking Sleeping Beauty” continues to wow crowds around the country by Jim Hill
- SUNDAY FUNNIES-Ziggy by Paul F. Anderson

Amazon has just released the cover of the upcoming book Walt Disney Animation Studios The Archive Series: Design. Can't wait...

This just in from Leslie Brooks:

[I have hundreds of animators gag drawings in my collection. There are many of them in which I can identify both the artist and the subjects of the drawings. However there are also a fairly substantial number for which I can identify only the artist or the subject or neither. I am looking for some help in this area.

For instance, in the first attached drawing, it’s pretty obvious that the subjects are Walt & Ub Iwerks. The question is WHO drew it? It might have been Ub himself or it may have been someone else. Considering how few artists were working at the time, in this case, the artist could only be one of a very small handful of people.

For later gags the “pool” of people is MUCH larger & it becomes tougher to identify both the artist & subjects. For instance, I can not figure anything for the “Pugsley Pout” drawing but the “Pulling Stockings” drawing looks like it could be by Freddy Moore. This may be an art class drawing so the subject would not be someone who could be identified.

In the case of “I Just Seen”. The people are Walt & Fred Kopietz and I think it was drawn by Kopietz.]

Can anyone help?

Leslie can be contacted at wabbithole@comcast.net

He was kind enough to send me many other gag drawings that I will post on the blog within the next few days and weeks.

Great news! Walt's People - Volume 9 was finally sent to the printer today, which means that it should be released between the end of May and early June.

This spectacular news just in from Lars Emanuelsson:

[Just wanted to forward a link to you on a great piece of art, just recently discovered and soon being sold at Bonham & Butterfield's in Los Angeles. The auction catalog isn't published yet.

I've written about it on my Gustaf Tenggren-blog.]

This just in from Are Myklebust

[A recent sequence from Swedish Television about the Swedish artist, actor and collector Lasse Åberg’s great Disneyana collection, mostly Mickey Mouse items from the 1930s.

“Samlaren” = “The Collector” and “Musse Pigg” is the Swedish name on Mickey Mouse.]

Do not miss today:

- Dear Mr. Barks, Tell Me How... by Michael Barrier
- SUNDAY FUNNIES-Ward Kimball Disneyana Expert by Paul F. Anderson
- Frank and Ollie: The Best of Friends by Wade Sampson
- Andreas Deja takes a “Different” approach to the art of character design by Jim Hill
- D23 offers its members new benefits, additional discounts by Jim Hill

I will be in Cannes next week for work. The blog will be updated again next Friday.

This link just in from Mark Mayerson. If you love Oswald, don't miss this article.

Alice in Wonderland expert and collector extraordinaire Matt Crandall managed to find photos of all of Disney's Goebel figurines save 32 and posted them on his blog.

Do not miss today:

- Would Disneyland’s Dixieland really have made a difference? by Jim Hill

As you probably know by now, one of my big passions is Disney concept drawings and my two favorite concept artists are Ferdinand Horvath and Ken Anderson.

Here are two Horvath drawings that were sold recently on ebay.

Bob Cowan was kind enough to send me this picture of a very unusual German item from his collection. The original seller wrote the following explaination (I have tried to correct the broken English):

[In 1929 comes in your country (Germany) the movie "Steamboat Willie" in black and white. It was a big success. In September of the same year the Mouse was produced by 3 different factories in Germany WITHOUT license. The 3 factories were SCHNEIDER, Leube, and WKC. All these 3 factories were in the middle of the Thuringian Forest, the area where I live. Nobody had seen Mickey in color, so the 3 factory made the mouse in black and white and in lilac and green clothes. This was the early mouse.

Around 1931 the Disney license was given in your country to Borgfeldt. Now it was forbidden to produce the mouse WITHOUT license.

The story goes on: In the Schneider factory a lot of art deco figurines were produced: bathing beauties and half dolls. Now a worker made a JOKE. He has given this naked "Snow White" the Mickey in her hand. He only made a total of 5 of this figurines, but the other are now missing after such a long time. This figurine was NEVER, NEVER in official production. OH GOD, Disney would have had heartbreak, if he had seen his cute mouse in the hand of a naked girl.

I have purchased the last 2 figurines around 1-1/2 years ago from nephew of this worker that made this joke. ]

Do not miss today:

- Disney Goes Commercial Part Two by Wade Sampson
- Fantasia and the Fundamentalists by Michael Barrier

I was working this weekend on an interview of special effect animator Dan MacManus by John Culhane from 1972 that was recently transcribed for Walt's People by Robert Kolakowski.

The interview contains quite a few jewels, including the fact that MacManus was actually Mexican, but the two pieces of information that particularly caught my attention were the fact that MacManus mentions that he directed a movie called The Imperfect Crime (a 45-minute mystery) and that he stared in a Western parody, called Grizzly Gulch, directed by Carl Fallberg and Lars Calonius. That movie featured many Disney artists and was partly filmed at Ward Kimball's Grizzly Flats. Since we know that the Grizzly Flats railroad started operations in 1938 and that the movie was filmed before WWII (see CartoonBrew), we can deduct that it was shot around 1939. It lasted 1 hour and fifteen minutes.

Apparently only one copy of the movie survived and for reasons linked to rights we are unlikely to see it anytime soon.

Do not miss today:

- THE DHI FESS-TIVAL-Opening Day at Disneyland by Paul F. Anderson
- Happy Easter #1 by David Lesjak
- Happy Easter - #2 by David Lesjak

I have been working during the last few days on an in-depth article about the pre-WWII Disney ceramics items created by the German company Rosenthal, thanks to the help of Hake's and Galerie Laqua (Carsten Laqua has a few of the rarest Rosenthal items for sale at the moment). The article will be released in Tomart's Disneyana Update number 76.

I released my very first article in Tomart's Disneyana Update in 1995. Here is the complete list of the articles I wrote or edited for Tomart's, including three that are yet to be released.

7: Vintage European Disneyana – An Introduction by Didier Ghez
11: Faïencerie d’Onnaing by Didier Ghez
14: Pre-War German Ceramics by Didier Ghez
16: Pre-War European Postcards by Didier Ghez
19: Jouets Vera (France) by Didier Ghez
22: Zaccagnini Ceramics (Italy) by Alberto Becattini
24: Lenci Ceramics (Italy) by Federico Fiecconi
27: W. Hagelberg A.G. (Germany) by Didier Ghez
29: European Magazine Covers by Didier Ghez
39: Ensign Magic Lanterns by Didier Ghez and Douglas R. Hausknecht
40: Les Jouets Création by Didier Ghez
41: Jouets Vera: A Sequel (France) by Didier Ghez
42: A History of International Disney Magazines Before World War II Part I by Didier Ghez
43: A History of International Disney Magazines Before World War II Part II by Didier Ghez
44: A History of International Disney Magazines Before World War II Part III by Didier Ghez
45: A History of International Disney Magazines Before World War II Part IV by Didier Ghez
46: A History of International Disney Magazines Before World War II Part V by Didier Ghez
47: Vintage Disneyana in Eastern Europe Part 1 by Didier Ghez
48: Vintage Disneyana in Eastern Europe Part 2 by Didier Ghez
49: Editorial Tor (Argentina) by Didier Ghez
50: Disney Comics in Brazil in the 1930s & 1940s by Roberto Elísio dos Santos
51: Brazil’s Editora Melhoramentos in the 1940s
53: Vintage Disneyana in Eastern Europe Part 3 by Didier Ghez
54: Disney Publications in Finland before 1950 by Didier Ghez
55: Disneyana in Argentina before 1950 by Didier Ghez
56: Disney Publications in Argentina before 1945 by Didier Ghez
57: Ceramics of Cuernavaca (Mexico) by Didier Ghez
58: Editorial Saturnino Callejas by Didier Ghez
59: The French Merry-Go-Rounds of Henri De Vos by Didier Ghez
60: Editorial Molino (Spain) by Didier Ghez
61: Hachette Part 1 (France) by Didier Ghez
62: Hachette Part 2 (France) by Didier Ghez
63: Lello & Irmão (Portugal) by Didier Ghez
64: Pre-War Disney Comics in Turkey Part 1 by Kaya Özkaracalar
65: Pre-War Disney Comics in Turkey Part 2 by Kaya Özkaracalar
66: Pre-War Disney Comics in Turkey Part 3 by Kaya Özkaracalar
67: Nel Regno di Topolino (Italy) by Alberto Becattini and Didier Ghez
68: Pre-War Disney Books in Turkey by Kaya Özkaracalar
70: Chad Valley (UK) by Didier Ghez
72: Mickey Mouse Annual: Wilfred Haughton in the British Goleen Age Part I by David Gerstein
73: Mickey Mouse Annual: Wilfred Haughton in the British Goleen Age Part II by David Gerstein
74: Mickey Mouse Annual: Wilfred Haughton in the British Goleen Age Part III by David Gerstein
75: Lars of Italy by Didier Ghez
76: Rosenthal (Germany) by Didier Ghez
77: Ediciones Modernas (Mexico) by Didier Ghez

Do not miss today:

- Catching Up by Michael Barrier
- Charles Burchfield's Animated Spirit by John Canemaker