While browsing through the Eisenhower Library digital collections yesterday, I stumbled upon these two photos of the first lady of Pakistan, Begum Liaquat Ali Khan, visiting the Disney Studio in May 1950. She met both Walt and director Wilfred Jackson. I had never seen those photos before.

I believe that some of you will enjoy this new podcast in which I discuss the making of the 5th volume of They Drew as They Pleased.

 Interesting photo of Walt just spotted on eBay.

Between the fact that the cover is (to say the least) unremarkable and that the title is almost the same as that of Pat Williams's previous book (How to Be like Walt) I totally missed Lead Like Walt when it was released last year.

Pat Williams's first book is excellent and I am therefore grateful to my friend and fellow Disney historian Jim Korkis for bringing this latest volume to my attention. I just ordered a copy.

I am taking a deep dive into the history of Walt's trips to Ireland in 1946, 1949, and 1959, and in the process I stumbled upon this photo that I had never seen before. It was taken in Cork, on November 30, 1946.

Some wonderful footage of Walt visiting Ireland. (Thanks to Tim O'Day for the heads up.)

I have to admit that I am very much looking forward to receiving the new issue of the Disney Twenty-Three magazine!

An updated version of The Art of Pixar? Count me in. (Thanks to David Peake for the heads up).

John Musker just created this wonderful cover drawing for Walt's People - Volume 24, and I have finally integrated all the edits in the manuscript of this new volume. Which means that it should be released in just a few weeks. Some fascinating content in there! More soon.

David Peake just attracted my attention to the fact that Charles Solomon's upcoming book The Disney Princess: A Celebration of Art and Creativity is now available for pre-order on Amazon.

This great piece of news just in from Stuart Ng:

[Good news! Our distributor in France received the shipment last week and has added The Making of Walt Disney's Fun & Fancy Free to his website.

He can ship orders anywhere in Europe or the UK for a fraction of shipping from the US.]

If you are interested in getting this fascinating monograph, order now: this is a limited edition.

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.

This just in from Jérémie Noyer:

[I'm pleased to share with you the digital version of the book I wrote with the teams of Disneyland Paris for the French "patrimony" days last September. It's both in French and English.

DLP was kind enough to share it with a larger audience, via internet, to help keep the dream alive.

Here's the link :

https://contact.disneylandparis.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Booklet-Patrimoine-Disneyland-Paris.pdf

Hope you'll enjoy it !]

I gave a long interview to The Book of the Mouse Club yesterday about the fifth volume of They Drew as They Pleased (the volume that was released last year).

The Podcast is now available at this link. Enjoy!

I could not find the photos from that lunch with Andreas Deja and Albert Uderzo. Thankfully Andreas just posted them on his blog!

Oh no! Albert Uderzo, creator of Asterix and Obelix, just passed away.

I still remember a delightful lunch in Paris with Uderzo, his daughter and son-in-law, and Disney artist Andreas Deja, who, like me, is a huge Asterix's fan (who isn't?) and who jumped at the chance of meeting Asterix's creator, who happened to be a huge Disney enthusiast.

Roman Arambula, R.I.P.

This is not directly Disney-history related, but the game Cuphead was so inspired by Disney's Silly Symphonies, that mentioning this new book is not out of place here.

The Art of Cuphead is, by far, the best "art of" book I have seen in a long while. This is an absolute gem and a must have if you were blown away by the game's look and characters as I was.

Has anyone of you picked up this new book yet? Any idea what it is worth?

I have not watched Onward yet, and based on the trailer I am not certain whether or not I will enjoy the movie (I can already tell that, if all goes well, I will love Soul).

The being said, I was delighted by The Art of Onward, mainly because the book allowed me to discover the concept paintings from several very talented Pixar concept artists. In fact, was especially seduced by the art of Carlos Felipe Leon, which, for some reason, I find particularly striking.

Those three marvelous concept drawings of Clarabelle Cow and Horace Horsecollar are being sold by Wonderful World of Animation.

I wonder what short they were created for, but I just fell in love with them.

Amazon is finally announcing for pre-order a book I have been looking forward to for a while: Women of Imagineering: 12 Careers, 12 Theme Parks, Countless Stories.

Julie Svendsen is one of the twelve authors, hence the marvelous piece of artwork by her that illustrates this post.

Can't wait.

Do not miss Leonard Maltin's reviews of Disney books at this link.

Has anyone of you bought and read Syd Mead's autobiography (only available on his website)? If so, what are your thoughts? Is it worth buying? How much does it contain about his work for Disney?

A few good Disney-related posts found on this site today.

A dealer who is interested in selling this animation-training manual by Disney artists Charles Philippi, Ken O'Connor and Sam Slyfield contacted me this week. I promised to forward emails from anyone interested. I am not sure what price the dealer has in mind. If you are interested, please email me at didier.ghez@gmail.com and I will forward your email.