I WAS NOT IGNORING YOU

Dear all: I just realized that many of you had commented on previous posts but that I never saw your comments. It turns out that all of them were sent by Blogger to the spam folder. I figured that readers were not longer commenting on blogs, just on Facebook. I just realized that I was wrong.

I am starting to catch up on all your comments, but it will take me weeks to publish all of them, and of course many are now obsolete.

Sincere apologies to all of you.

ITALIAN CHALLENGE

This screenshot comes from an Italian newsreel about the February 1933 carnival of Viareggio in Italy.

Can anyone (especially one of our Italian readers) help me locate a good, high resolution photo of this float in an Italian photo archive or in an Italian magazine? (I am not even sure that one exists, of course.)

If so, please email me at didier.ghez@gmail.com

Do any of you have access to a large amount of 1930s issues of the rare magazine Playthings? 

If so, could you send me a note at didier.ghez@gmail.com? I need your help with some research. Many thanks in advance.

This just in from Leonard Maltin:

[I’ve been sorting and filing movie stills and came upon this shot which I thought I’d send along in case you haven’t seen it: it’s Jack Benny and his wife Mary Livingstone with their friends George Burns and Gracie Allen on the red carpet at the Carthay Circle Theatre for the premiere of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It was published in a fan magazine at the time.]

Do not miss today: A Tale of Two Gerties by John Canemaker.

Exciting news:

- Stay at Home!: Explore inside the Walt Disney archives virtually

Worth watching this morning. Thanks to Michael Goldberg for the heads up.

Not a book about Disney, of course, but one that animation historians are looking forward to.

I am looking forward to this new series coming up in May on Disney+.

The Broadway show As Thousands Cheer (music and lyrics by Irving Berlin) opened on September 30, 1933 and closed on September 8, 1934 after 400 performances. It included a scene called "The Funnies" which featured Mickey Mouse and the Three Little Pigs. Hence this drawing by Al Hirschfeld.

I have seen one photo of that scene in the past and am currently looking for a high resolution version of it.

And here is some good news for a change: the 6th and last volume of my They Drew as They Pleased - The Hidden Art of Disney book series is now available for pre-order on Amazon.

A friend of mine from New York just reminded me that Edith Piaf had worked for Disney, singing the song of Johnnie Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet in the French version of Make Mine Music.

Would anyone of you know how to get a hold of a high resolution version of one of the French posters of Make Mine Music? If so, could you please email me at didier.ghez@gmail.com?

And here is a link to Edith Piaf singing Johnnie Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet.