Small Town Man

 This just in from Gunnar Andreassen.

La Belle au Bois Dormant

Just a short post to let you know that I have now received a copy of Pierre Lambert's lavish book about Sleeping Beauty and this is once again a masterpiece when it comes to artwork and the way it is reproduced.

I especially loved some of the surprises that Pierre includes, like the character studies by Tom Oreb and all of the Kay Nielsen concept art reproduced as it deserves to be for the very first time.

Roy Williams

 This article from American History Illustrated, April 1979 thanks to Robert Spezzano.

Help Needed

Help Needed

A good friend is trying to locate a scan of the article about Disney by Janet Flanner released in Harper's Bazaar from November 1, 1936. Can anyone help?

Jack Campbell

These two great shots just in from Steven Hartley!

[Disney animator Jack Campbell worked at Douglas Aircraft during WW2 as a art designer. There, he designed propaganda posters, and one of his creations was Tokyo Kid, who was a well-known WW2 propaganda character during the war. Here is an example of a poster he designed.

Of course, we may vaguely know his work at Disney, but its great to know what he looks like!

(Photo courtesy of Earl Pickett)]

Quite a few interesting new visual documents released in this recently published Italian catalog (written in Italian by the usual suspects: Luca Boschi, Federico Fiecconi, erc.). If you are interested in Italian Disney comics, you might want to pick up a copy by emailing: info@cart-gallery.com

Antonio Sotomayor

This just in from Garry Apgar:

[In October 2011, Gunnar Andreassen posted this wonderful pastel sketch of Walt by the Bolivian painter, muralist, illustrator and caricaturist, Antonio Sotomayor (1904-1985). The drawing is in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D. C., on whose website it’s dated “ca. 1935.”

That approximate dating is confirmed by the fact that a caricature of Walt, presumably the same one posted by Gunnar, was among thirty-nine caricatures of famous people exhibited by The Renaissance Society in the Goodspeed Galleries of the University of Chicago from July 1 to July 31, 1941 (http://www.renaissancesociety.org/site/Exhibitions/Works.611.htmlhttp://www.renaissancesociety.org/site/Exhibitions/Works.611.html).

The subjects in the show ranged from Franklin D. Roosevelt and Clark Gable to Salvador Dalí and Disney to Hitler and Mussolini.

In 1942, the Illinois Art Gallery, on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, exhibited a similar number of caricatures by Sotomayor. A reviewer for the Chicago Tribune remarked, “His show is one of the most brilliant, intelligent and witty we’ve come across in ages.” Many of the subjects included in the Goodspeed Galleries event appear to have been included in this exhibit as well, among them, presumably, the caricature of Disney now at the National Portrait Gallery.

Though born in Bolivia, Sotomayor arrived in San Francisco as a very young man, not yet twenty years old, in 1924. He spent the rest of his life there, contributing drawings to the San Francisco Chronicle among other publications. In 1988, his widow, Grace Sotomayor, donated his Papers to the Smithsonian Institution.]

Reading List

Do not miss today:

- Disneyland Voce 1955 by Todd James Pierce
- The Lone Ranger at Disneyland by Todd James Pierce
- The Rescuers Story Meeting by Andreas Deja
- Happy Anniversary, The Disney Channel by Jim Korkis

And remember that the D23 site is really posting some GREAT stuff in the D'Scovered section. Really wonderful documents.

Marionnettes

This just in from Garry Apgar.

Mickey's Tour of the Walt Disney Animation Department

This just in from Jeffrey Jones:

[Back in January I asked if you had any information on or a copy of  "Mickey's Tour of the Walt Disney Animation Department".  And although you did not have it, you were kind enough to post my inquiry on your Disney History blog.  Unfortunately, no one responded.  Fortunately, on a recent visit to my Mother's, I found the book in which it was featured.  Thinking you may want to read it or share it with your readers, it is attached to this email.]

Who's that guy?

This just in from Jim Korkis:

[An acquaintance of mine recently purchased a box that included the three dimensional stereoscopic picture below and asked me if I knew who was standing next to Walt.  I don't but he looks familiar.]

Can anyone help?

Open Library

One of the most important research tool I have discovered recently is "Open Library". It is thanks to that tool that I was finally able to locate not just one buth three photos of the elusive William Banks Levy (in low resolution unfortunately), and that I was finally able to confirm the exact date at which Kay Kamen's nephew, George, was sent to Europe to take over from Bill Levy, etc.

The search engine is a pain in the neck, but regardless, it remains a very powerful tool once you get the hang of it.

William Banks Levy

I was delighted to stumble recently upon a pretty good photo of Disney merchandizing pioneer, William Banks Levy (the person who preceded Kay Kamen and his nephew George when it comes to handling Disney merchandizing in Europe in the '30s).

This is, I believe, the first time a photo of Levy, identified as Levy, has been released in a Disney history venue.

The issue: I only have this photo in low resolution and would need to find it (or a similar one) in high resolution.

Have you ever seen this man in a Disney photograph?

If so, could you send me a high resolution scan?

Or is there a way to "create" a high resolution image based on this low-res photo?

Reading List

Do not miss today:

- The Disneyland Comic Art of Carl Barks & Q&A with Joseph Cowles, Author of Recalling Carl by Dan Cunningham
- Olympic Mascot Sam the Eagle by Jim Korkis

You are probably all wondering what is going on with Walt's People - Volume 13. This new volume is practically ready (you can see above the caricatures that John Musker created for the cover) and I am expecting it to be released around September this year. You will find the table of contents below. Like its recent predecessors, it is huge and its content is very exciting.

Foreword by Dave Smith
Jim Korkis: Virginia Davis
John Culhane: Reg Massie
John Canemaker: George Bakes
Paul F. Anderson: Milt Neil
John Culhane: Al Dempster
John Culhane: Joe Grant
John Culhane: Woolie Reitherman
Michael Broggie: Becky and Carla Fallberg
Dave Smith: Jean Erwin
John Canemaker: John P. Miller
Milton Zolotow and Lawrence Weschler: Jules Engel
Michael Barrier: Fred Kopietz
Dave Smith: Don Duckwall
Pete Docter: John Sibley
Malcolm Willits: George Sherman
Malcolm Willits: Floyd Gottfredson
Robin Allan: Richard Todd
Les Perkins: Roy E. Disney
Les Perkins: Stormy Palmer
Les Perkins: Paul Kenworthy
Les Perkins: Hunt and Chris Hibler
Didier Ghez: Boyd Shaffer
Paul F. Anderson: Fess Parker
Didier Ghez: Dave Spafford
Alberto Becattini: Bob Moore
Didier Ghez: Blaine Gibson
Jay Horan: X. Atencio
Michael Broggie: Don Iwerks
Didier Ghez: Tony Baxter

Joakim Gunnarson posted last week a fantastic article from 1963 by Disney artist Bill Wright. This article was released in a small publication edited by Wright called
 The Dissonant Shoehorn. As you can see, this is number 2. Would anyone happen to own any other issues of this publication? I am wondering what other wonders we could find in them!

Not sure yet how good this book is, but apparently it contains a few stories about working for Disney. I will let you know my thoughts when I get it.

I just learned of the existence of this new e-book and can't wait to pick it up. I wish there were a physical copy, though.

Interesting French poster found on ebay this week.

Do not miss today:

- Character Designs from Long Ago by Andreas Deja
- Mel Shaw's Beauty & the Beast by Andreas Deja
- The Imp Press - Part I by Joakim Gunnarson (Do not niss this!)
- Who Disappeared Roger Rabbit From the Disney Parks? by Jim Korkis

I have been extremely busy during the past 2 years, reconstructing the history of Disney in Europe before WWII and have to admit that I am starting to be very happy about the result.

But that made me think that someone should focus at some point on doing the same thing when it comes to Asia. Probably even more difficult, though.

In the meantime, here are a few interesting pre-WWII Disneyana items which I recently found online.

This just in from Garry Apgar: [New York Herald Tribune, Jan. 16, 1938, section 7, p. 4]

Do not miss this upcoming auction. It contains some truly outstanding Disney documents. (Thanks to Gunnar Andreassen for the heads up.)

 This just in from Gunnar Andreassen: [From Photoplay June 1936.]

I will let you know as soon as I manage to pick up the catalog of this upcoming Italian exhibition. I will also review it when I get it. In any case, I thought that European readers of the blog needed to be aware of this event.

I just got from Disney's Press Department those two photos which appear in the members-only section of the D23 site. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

Captions:

[Top: This never-before-released photo, taken with Walt’s personal camera, show Walt and his family visited Denmark in June 1951, where this photograph was taken. From the “D’scovered” feature exclusively on D23.com.

Bottom: This never-before-released photo, taken with Walt’s personal camera, show Walt sleeping in the shade on the lawn of his Woking Way home on a state-of-the-art '40-s cushion—a book at his side. From the “D’scovered” feature exclusively on D23.com.]

Ah, the joy of seeing a really GREAT Disney book being released! From my point of view, the upcoming Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse: Color Sundays Vol. 1 "Call Of The Wild", edited by David Gerstein, is not just a "must have", it is also one of the very best "Disney History" books released in Fantagraphics outstanding series and almost certainly the best Disney History book of the year.

To start with, there is the sheer pleasure of seeing Gottfredson's Sunday pages collected in English for the first time. Then there is the tremendous amount of bonus material, including a reprint of the five DeMolay comic strips, long a frustrating mystery for Disney scholars.

My advice: pre-order this volume and the next one right away. I am not often this enthusiastic, but in this specific case, I am certain that, if you read this blog, you will not regret it.

You may have heard this already: D23 relaunched their website yesterday. I have just checked out the members-only section and lto say that I was excited by what I saw would be a complete understatement.

If you are reading this blog, you have to become a member right away.

Here is an email I just received from Becky Cline, Director of the Archives:

[We found photos of Diane, Sharon and even Roy on the Griffith Park Merry-Go-Round recently … some of them were posted on our re-launched D23 website today!  We found an amazing cache of photos recently and we will be rolling out the best of them in the next few weeks on our site and in the magazine! We posted them today in a column we are calling "D'scovered" where we will be constantly sharing new finds as we come across them.  :)]

As soon as you become a member, jump to the following three sections:

- D'scovered
- Lost Adventures
- Weird Disney

There is some truly spectacular new photos and documents in these sections.

And also check out the new episode of Armchair Archivists which contains especially one great surprise connected to Disneyland.

I never thought I would get this excited about D23 but they are really moving in the right direction now as far as I am concerned and are definitely worth supporting.

Who could help me buy a copy of this Danish book, which I heard about through a comment on the blog yesterday?

[UPDATE: I just found a copy.]

Do not miss today:

- Joe Grant Sketch by Andreas Deja
- Anti-War Short “Mickey Mouse in Vietnam” Resurfaces Online by Amid Amidi
- It's a Duck Blur! by Jim Korkis

These great caricatures just in from John Orin Basmajian:

[Top: L-R,  Gus Jekel, Les Elton, John Basmajian;  Bottom:  L-R,  Dick Lucas, Milt Banta, Bruce Mc Intyre.]

This just in from David Peake:

["The Art of Frozen" is finally up on Amazon for pre-order.
 
Pierre Lambert's "Sleeping Beauty" is available for pre-order in the USA here:

http://stuartngbooks.com/new-arrivals/la-belle-au-bois-dormant-sleeping-beauty.html

Also, I found this title on Amazon UK:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nine-Old-Men-Techniques-Inspiration/dp/0415843359/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1370617099&sr=1-1&keywords=disney

The only sad thing is that it is not released until 2015.]

Let's admit it: I have mixed feelings about Monsters University. Monsters, Inc. was my favorite Pixar movie and the theme of this prequel does not excite me much.

But I have just received the "art of" released by Chronicle Books and it is once again a great one, full of fascinating development art. I never seem to get enough of this. Keep them coming!

Here is another interesting Italian book about Italian Disney comics which should be released soon.

While in Los Angeles two weeks ago, I discovered that there were actually two catalogs on the Japanese Mary Blair exhibition. The one above contains more of Mary's non-Disney art and is unfortunately almost impossible to find.

I was really excited to receive a few days ago this book by Are Myklebust and Jan Ståle Engaas. Granted it is written in Norwegian and I can't read it, but the amount of new pre-War Disneyana material which it contains and which I had never seen makes it worth having it, in my eyes. I am also extremely happy to see the history of Disney in Norway documented for the first time in a serious manner.

My only wish now is to see other Disney historians tackle the same type of project for the other Nordic countries: Sweden, Denmark and Finland.

By the end of the summer Are will send me some information about how to order the book.