My good friend Michael Goldberg just spotted a wonderful article that you should not miss:

Elie Wiesel Visits Disneyland by Menachem Butler

Happy 4th of July.

Do not miss this great article today:

Disney's Lost and Found: James Lewis by Vincent Randle

This just in thanks to Garry Apgar and Robert Neuman:

[Canteen Muralized

New York’s successful Stage Door Canteen has set off echoes in cities from coast to coast. The latest is the Hollywood Canteen, in which glittering motion picture stars administer to the recreational needs of servicemen stationed in the vicinity.

To brighten the Canteen, the sponsors called in the Screen Cartoonist’s Guild, which in turn assigned Elmer Plummer and Mary Blair, shown above, to design and supervise the painting of a mural. The Guildmen worked nights and in five working periods turned out a bright, gay pictorialization of a cowboy’s dream of heaven. Beer, blondes, cards, gold dust, horses (some starry-eyed from inhalations of schnapps), and blowzy red-nosed semi-angels lend gaiety and sparkle to the walls.

Calcimine color, Plummer reports, “was used to get the most brilliant effect. For instance, the skin tones varied from magentas to greens on the characters; cloud colors ran true to fantasy, etc. Plenty wild, eh?” In a postscript to the DIGEST Plummer added, “Oh yes – and we also had to add clothes to our plump nudes (old stuff).”

The artists, besides their work as screen cartoonists with the Disney studios, are serious painters, their work appearing in major museum exhibitions throughout the country. Assisting in the execution of the four-paneled, 336-square-foot mural, were Lee Blair, Marc Davis, Earl Murphy, Retta Scott and Virginia Plummer.

The Art Digest, June 1, 1942, p. 18. ]

Two excellent articles to read this morning:

- Paying Income Taxes: The Disney Way by David Bossert
- Walt and Zermatt by Michael Barrier

This link just in through Are Myklebust:

Former administrator visiting campus for book signing

Excellent article released by Jerry Beck a few days ago on Cartoon Research:

Louella Parsons on the Great Disney Films

I am working on the chapter about Tom Oreb for the 4th volume of They Drew As They Pleased. Some of the great drawings I stumbled upon while researching his career at the Animation Research Library were some wonderful designs for characters of Paul Bunyan. Unfortunately, what I cannot tell is whether Oreb created those in 1946 when Paul Bunyan was viewed as one of the sequences of the planned American Folklore package feature (which was later abandoned) or whether he drew them ten years later when the project was revived as a short.

In any case, I thought you would enjoy this article from July 25, 1946 (not linked to Oreb) which discusses the "research" process.

Thanks to my good friend and fellow Disney historian, Mindy Johnson, I have recently discovered the only known photo of Bela Lugosi posing as Chernabog to guide the animators of Fantasia (especially Bill Tytla). If all goes well that photo will be released in the third volume of They Drew As They Pleased.

The filming session with Bela Lugosi took place at the Disney Studio on November 12, 1939. Now, thanks to Aaron Goldberg, author of The Disney Story, here is a clipping from the February 1940 issue of the magazine Modern Screen about that session.

Not to be missed:

- The Story of Walt Disney’s Final Official Visit to Disneyland by Dave Mason.

I just picked up on ebay a copy of the British magazine Illustrated from July 30, 1949, which contains this marvelous  article about the Disneys' visit to the United Kingdom from around June 15 to August 15, 1949. I have a feeling that many of you will enjoy it. You can click on each of the pages to enlarge them.

While researching the life of Bianca Majolie a few years back, I stumbled upon the following article that some of you might enjoy:

On July 28, 1938, this article appeared in the Lewiston Evening Journal:

“Last month we received a letter from Miss Bianca Majolie, Research Department, Walt Disney Productions, Hollywood, California, reading as follows:

‘We are at work on our third feature, Bambi, which deals with the life of a deer. As a setting for this subject, we are contemplating using New England states—specifically Maine—countryside.

‘Could you inform us where we can obtain photographs and colored slides of scenic backgrounds around that part of the country? Perhaps the travel bureaus, or the schools and colleges might have some material of that sort.

‘We will greatly appreciate your cooperation in this matter and feel that the publicity given your beautiful section of the country might help to compensate you for the trouble taken on our behalf.’

Recalling that Archer Grover, Deputy Commissioner of the State Department of Inland Fisheries and Game had recently shown us some beautiful color photographs (stills, not movies), we referred the letter to him and perhaps you may read in the papers that the Fish and Game Department not only sent photographs for backgrounds but also shipped two live deer. ‘Bambi,’ a ten-weeks-old fawn, accompanied by another fawn of the same age as a companion, to the Walt Disney Studio.

‘Bambi’ will be used as a model for the leading character in Walt Disney’s next full-length picture.

Both fawns are orphans, having been rescued by game wardens after their mothers had died. It is expected they will be returned to Maine after they have finished their movie ‘contract.’”

In Garry Apgar's great article about Walt Disney's connections with Connecticut in the April issue of Connecticut Magazine there is a rich array of illustrations (about 20 in all), including this never-before-published group photo of Walt's Red Cross training unit in Connecticut, generously supplied by the Walt Disney Family Foundation.

Anyone interested in ordering a copy may contact Dave Martin, the publication's circulation manager, at: dmartin@connecticutmag.com 

Walt Disney (top row, center, dwarfed by two men standing to his immediate right) in a photograph of his unit at Camp King, Sound Beach, Connecticut, circa early to mid-November 1918. Courtesy, The Walt Disney Family Foundation, San Francisco, Calif.

Here's a detail, highlighting Walt's position in the picture:

Two great articles by Todd James Pierce that should not be missed on the Disney History Institute:

- The Frontierland That Never Was and
- The Original Plans for the “Sailing Ship Columbia”

This just in from Garry Apgar:

[We all know about two kinsmen named “R. Disney” who played a vital role in Walt Disney’s life – big brother Roy and Uncle Robert, "the real dandy of the family," as Walt once called him. Turns out, per this report from the London tabloid The Mirror, another “R. Disney” left his mark in history, in Nottinghamshire, England, almost three hundred years before Walt was born:

Kirstie McCrum, “Graffiti Scrawled by Walt Disney’s Ancestor Discovered at Civil War Centre 400 Years Later”

The Mirror, September 1, 2015

It’s a small world after all, as the graffiti left on a Nottinghamshire wall by schoolchildren 400 years ago shows that Walt Disney’s ancestor was adding his mark.

The writing can be seen on walls at the Old Magnus Building in Newark ahead of work to create the National Civil War Centre on the site.

Originally a grammar school, the markings were found in the attic, formerly a dormitory.

The list of names include R Disney 1608 – believed to be an ancestor of animation legend Walt.

Disney’s family came from Norton Disney, in between Lincoln and Newark, he even visited the village in 1949.

Manager Michael Constantine told the BBC the graffiti was daubed on the walls by pupils at the school which was built in 1529.

He said: “We think school discipline would have been a bit more fierce back in the 1600s, so it was probably the thing the children did the day before they were due to leave.

“Probably like a tradition - just before they set sail.”

“We know some of the children were at this free grammar school because their fathers lent King Charles £1,000-plus and never got it repaid.

“Which is why, instead of being educated at home as members of the gentry, they attended a grammar school in Newark.”

The public are now able to see the graffiti in the £5.4m National Civil War Centre.]

Fun article posted by Michael Barrier on his blog a few days ago.

A few years ago, CartoonBrew posted the first part of an article about the Disney Studio and its artists by Studio publicist Janet Martin. I love Janet Martin's articles since they often contain real stories, not just PR stuff. Thanks to Joseph Smith we now have access to both parts of the article. A really fun read. The article was released in the magazine Your Charm dated August 1941. Enjoy!

Great article by John Canemaker on CartoonBrew. Not to be missed.

I have been spending time over the last few weeks researching Disney's musical projects from the late '30s and mid-'40s and while doing so, stumbled upon the following article released in the Disney Studio's newsletter, The Bulletin dated February 14, 1941. The article establishes clearly one important date when it comes to the "production" of the projected Future Fantasias. I thought you would enjoy it:

[Stokowski Mounts Studio Podium to Record new Fantasia Numbers

Nimbus-haired Leopold Stokowski, behind locked doors on the live-action stage this Sunday night [February 16, 1941], will conduct a preselected symphony orchestra while studio recorders hum.

Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, Sibelius’ Swan of Tuonela and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumble Bee will be recorded. These selections are tentatively listed as future alternates or encores for Fantasia.

During the week, studio carpenters sawed and hammered, erected in three days a plywood orchestra shell which RCA technicians declared to be acoustically perfect.

Fifteen orchestra stands of varying height were also built to facilitate placement of instrument choirs.]

This just in from Garry Apgar:

[Mickey Jumps the Shark?

English artist and self-promoting entrepreneur Damien Hirst is best known for his 17-foot-long shark floating in formaldehyde — exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2007-2010 — a work that will long live in esthetic infamy. The chi-chi Paris-based créateur de mode Marc Jacobs is currently marketing a "limited edition" Mickey Mouse tee-shirt designed by Hirst.

The image emblazoned on the shirt was created originally at the behest of the Disney Company in the form of a six-foot-high painting on canvas using ordinary household gloss out of a can. The picture was sold at auction in February by Christie's for more than $1.5 million. A portion of that sum was donated to the British inner-city charity Kids Company.

Hirst's Mouse is an abstract, geometric distillation of a silkscreen design by Andy Warhol from 1981, itself a re-working of a 1933 United Artists poster presenting Mickey in one of his early iconic poses. Though surely not to everyone's taste, the pricey Hirst/Jacobs threads might make a nice holiday gift or stocking stuffer for that special Disney fan in your life who won't mind seeing Walt Disney's graphic alter ego deconstructed and dumbed down into a dozen circular daubs of color.

The shirts are sold in kids' sizes at $58 a pop, on white fabric only. The adult model comes in black only ($98), which is strange — if not an outright gaffe — since Mickey's ebony ears against the black background are virtually illegible. (Did Disney Brand Management actually sign off on that?) Also: unlike its two prototypes, Hirst's Mickey has no tail. Ouch.

"100% of the proceeds" from all sales are earmarked for the Kids Company charity, according to the Marc Jacobs website. That may cushion the pain in your purse if you shell out $98 (plus tax and shipping) for one of the tees.

Anyway ... here, for the stout of heart, is a link to the kids' model.]

This just in from Garry Apgar:

[“Record Disney Songs”

Motion Picture Daily, August 17, 1937, p. 8

HOLLYWOOD, Aug. 16.—Numbers from seven of the latest Walt Disney Silly Symphony cartoons have been recorded in Spanish at the RCA-Victor studios on discs for the foreign market. The Disney Spanish recordings hit a high volume in Latin-American sales.]