A few years ago, I had had the pleasure of picking up Volume 1 of Edward Bergen's publication, The Pictorial Story of Walt Disney's First Superstar: Mickey Mouse and loved it. In it, Edward presents treasures of his collection of Mickey Mouse memorabilia from the 1930s with some good amount of context. And his collection is truly outstanding.

I was excited to discover this weekend that both Volume 2 and Volume 3 had just been released. I got them yesterday and can confirm that they are even better than the first volume.

 

This weekend, I had the pleasure of receiving three Disney-related books by author Mike Fox: "The Hidden Secrets & Stories of Disneyland," "The Hidden Secrets & Stories of Walt Disney World," and "Disneyland In-Depth." 

I was delighted by all three books, which are full of details about the Disney parks that I was not aware of. About half of the information contained in the books was new to me.

Mike shared that he had interviewed several Imagineers for "Disneyland In-Depth." He made very good use of the information he collected. Way to go Mike!

 

I am very sad to report that historian Dana Gabbard, editor and publisher of The Duckburg Times, just passed away. It is a dark day for Disney history.

I just ordered this new book.
 

 Looking forward to Heritage's next Disney auction!

I was interviewed recently on the Ink and Paint podcast about the making of the They Drew as They Pleased -- The Hidden Art of Disney book series. The interview has just been released.

A new edition of the Poster Art of the Disney Parks book is now available for pre-order on Amazon. It contains an additional 100 posters. (Thanks to David Peake for the heads up about this.)

The Art of Turning Red is now available for pre-order on Amazon.

A new Disney artbook has been announced on Amazon: "Disney Princess: Beyond the Tiara: The Stories. The Influence. The Legacy." by Emily Zemler. Could be interesting.

(Note: The above illustration is linked to the lost Disney Aida project and is just here to catch your attention.)  

I just stumbled upon this very rare clip (see 0:27 onwards) which shows a float titled “The Court of Funnies,” which appeared in the Christmas parade sponsored by the Eaton Department store on November 17, 1934 in Toronto, Canada. The same parade also appeared in Montreal on November 24, 1934.

Happy 2022 to all of you! 

And here is one more book I am looking forward to.

 The Disney Books Network has finally been updated today. Apologies for the delay.

I realized a few days ago that, in the 1930s and the 1940s, the magazine Collier's contained a lot of special artwork created for it by the Disney Studios. I still have a lot to explore on this new trail, but here is a first example from an issue dated June 30, 1934. 

 

I had always wanted to watch Steel and America, the 1965 educational film produced by Disney for the American Iron and Steel Institute. I finally found a link to the whole documentary.
 

 The autobiography of Don Bluth is now available for pre-order on Amazon. Can't wait!!

One of the monographs I am working on at the moment (along with my friend and fellow Disney historian Libby Spatz) includes a chapter that deals with Mickey Mouse marionette shows from the 1930s. While tying some loose ends on the chapter, I stumbled upon this upcoming book, which is now available for pre-order on Amazon. 

Bob Baker started working on Disney-related shows when he was just a kid. Later in his life was the man behind some of Disneyland most elaborate display windows. Apparently the book includes quite a few pages (and photos) related to his Disney career. 

Did you enjoy Robin Allan's book, Walt Disney and Europe? Did you love the catalog of the 2007 Grand Palais exhibition, Once Upon a Time Walt Disney? If so, you will love the catalog of the new Met exhibition, Inspiring Walt Disney, written by Wolf Burchard.

Wolf really did his homework and this catalog is a "must-have." There is not much that we have not seen before when it comes to Disney artwork, but the choice of documents is excellent and the contextualization is what makes this book so valuable. The text is also well written and very well researched.

Last week I received a copy of the new book The Art of Aaron Blaise. Blaise directed Brother Bear and served as visual development artist on several Disney and non-Disney animated features, including the unproduced Disney project King of the Elves.

The book contains a large amount of Disney-related artwork (for produced and unproduced projects) which is, surprisingly, not identified as having been created for Disney. I was delighted to see that artwork appear in book form. 

 New Disneyland auction coming up at Van Eaton Galleries.

Women of Walt Disney Imagineering is finally available for pre-order on Amazon! I cannot wait to read it when it is released next year.
 

I just received a copy of Marcy Carriker Smothers' new book, Walt's Disneyland -- A Walk in the Park with Walt Disney.

I love the quality of the research that Marcy conducted for the book. The text is fascinating from start to finish and the amount of original quotes that Marcy gathered is astounding. Reading this book is a pure delight.

My only two disappointments are that this is a soft-cover book and the fact that very few of the illustrations are new. I suspect that most of this is due to the pandemic which made access to new visual documents almost impossible.

All in all this book is a "must have", though. Way to go Marcy.

I just received The Art of Disney Encanto and am very much looking forward to watching the movie when it is released on Disney+ (since Rita and I are yet to venture to a cinema).

As always I loved this book from publisher Chronicle Books. The talent of concept artists Lorelay Bove and Byron Howard never ceases to amaze me, and it is a delight to discover new artists like art director Camille Andre through this new publication.

Can't wait (but will have to) to see the movie!

Jim Korkis just emailed me to let me know that Dick Nunis had announced at Destination D the upcoming release of his autobiography via Disney Editions. Can't wait!

The Disney Revolt by my good friend and fellow Disney historian Jake Friedman is now available for pre-order on Amazon. 

I have had a chance to read an early version of the manuscript and I can confirm that this will be one of the best Disney history books of 2022 and probably of the decade.

This is the first time I understood clearly the day by day chronology of the 1941 Disney strike and who did what and why.

This is a balanced account, a meticulously researched story, and a beautifully written book, which should be at the very top of your wish list!  

 

John Musker just created those marvelous caricatures for the cover of Walt's People - Volume 26, which should be released in a few weeks.

In my book Disney's Grand Tour, I wrote:

"On his last full day in Paris, July 2, 1935, Walt took time to discover the office of the daily newspaper Paris-Soir. There he had lunch with actor Robert Montgomery; Paris-Soir’s General Manager; actress Nicole de Rouves; M. de Kermaingant; and MGM’s representative in Paris, Allan Byre; as well as Curtis Melnitz, Sam Cohen, and Marcel Teyssère from United Artists."

I just stumbled this morning upon a photo of this event and thought many of you would enjoy it as much as I did!

This new book just in from Jim Korkis:

[Are you smarter than a Disney Historian?

Of course you are because nobody can know everything about Walt Disney World.   In this book, author Jim Korkis who is an acknowledged and respected Disney Historian has provided 500 multiple choice questions about fifty years of WDW.

 

The 500 questions are divided into ten different sections. In keeping with the spirit of WDW’s 50th anniversary, they are gathered in groups of 50. Readers can pick and choose which sections they might want to try or skip or even what order to try and answer them.

 

Everything from the individual parks to the resorts to things outside the parks and resorts are included as well as WDW history.  Additional sections feature lists of fifty years of historical highlights, fun facts and more.

 

These are not the typical questions that can be found on the internet but questions and answers that were verified by the Walt Disney Company over the last thirty years.   Jim was responsible for writing many trivia quizzes and fun fact media sheets for WDW so all of that information had to go through scrutiny of several Disney departments including the Disney Archives for final approval.

 

The answer section does not just provide the correct answer but is usually several sentences to explain fully why it was the right answer or why the other choices were wrong.  In that way, even if someone got the question correct, they might still learn a little bit more.

 

Jim hopes this book will encourage readers to go back and re-look at something at Walt Disney World in a different perspective that they might have seen dozens of times or maybe discover a hidden treasure they never knew had always been there like how leaf imprints are created in Disney’s concrete walkways or which Port Orleans ferry boat has a misspelled name.

 

The book is formatted so that even after taking the quiz, it can still be used as a valuable reference and an opportunity to irritate other people by quizzing them.]

I had never seen this clip of Walt arriving in the Netherlands in 1951. 

Thanks to François Monferran for the heads up!

I am looking forward to reading this new issue of Disney Twenty-Three.

This just in from Jim Korkis:

[Vault of Walt Volume 10: Final Edition brings to a close the best-selling decade-long series of books that showcased the rarely told and out-of-the-ordinary stories of Disney history that never appear in any other books.

 

The books are each divided into four distinct sections devoted to Walt Disney, Disney films, Disney theme parks and oddball niche material.   All of these tales are based on decades of research, dozens of exclusive interviews with people who worked at Disney and obscure, long out-of-print magazines and articles. 

 

These stories have helped to fill in many gaps in Disney history as well as being praised by Walt Disney’s oldest daughter, Diane Disney Miller.   Disney historian Jim Korkis has tried to squeeze in even more stories that usual for this final volume.

 

This particular edition highlights how a young Walt Disney survived a virus pandemic that took the lives of millions of Americans, the complete story of every project comedian Robin Williams did at the Walt Disney Company, how Walt Disney World handles the threat of hurricanes, and a detailed look behind the creation of Jessica Rabbit.

 

That’s only the beginning!  Stories about Walt’s personal adventures in Hawaii, the true story behind Disneyland’s Indian Village, a lengthy overview of Disney postage stamps and the behind-the-scenes information on films like Enchanted, Dick Tracy and Condorman as well as much, much more fill these pages to overflowing.

 

With the recent flood of Disney related books and the ever-increasing difficulty in finding and verifying obscure information, it is now an appropriate time to conclude this popular series of ten books that will all remain in print to inform and entertain Disney fans as well as provide valuable and accurate research material for future scholars. 

Walt Stories

First Official Walt Disney Biography

Young Walt Survives the Pandemic

The Walt Disney U.S. Postage Stamp

Walt Disney’s Final Awards

Hawaiian Walt

The Walt and Lilly Love Story

Film Stories

The Making of Enchanted (2007)

Disney’s Dick Tracy (1990)

Robin Williams at Disney

Condorman (1981)

The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh (1964)

Goofy’s Freeway Phobia (1965)

Theme Park Stories

Disneyland’s Indian Village

From Swiss Family to Tarzan Treehouse

Monsanto’s Adventure Thru Inner Space

Story of Toy Story Land

Walt Disney World Versus the Hurricanes

The Opening of Disney MGM Studios

Other Disney Stories

A Brief Glimpse at Disney’s Philatelic History

Lux Radio Theater: The Disney Adaptations

Roy Williams

Disney Family Album

Dumbo’s Mothers

Jessica Rabbit: Drawn to Be Bad]

VOLUNTEER NEEDED IN TORONTO

In the context of my research about Mickey Mouse on Stage and on Radio in the 1930s, I am trying to find a volunteer based in Toronto who would be willing to conduct some research in person at the Archives of Toronto (in the T. Eaton Company Fonds). 

If you would like to help, could you email me at didier.ghez@gmail.com?

Claude Coats -- Walt Disney's Imagineer is definitely one of the great Disney history books of the season. Kuddos to Dave Bossert and Alan Coats!

At 101 Ruthie was still answering my emails from her iPhone. I am saddened at the news of her passing at 111, but what a wonderful life!

Why would I mention this cook book on the Disney History blog? 

Simply put, because, thanks to author Marcy Carriker Smothers, what used to be just a beautiful book about Disney food has now been updated to include several sections about historical facts related to Walt Disney World restaurants and their history, including some wonderful pieces of concept art which I had never seen before. To make matters even better, several of those pieces are by Disney Legend Dorothea Redmond.
 

I just got a heads up from my friend David Peake about these two upcoming books. I will definitely pick up both the one about The Little Mermaid and the one about The Lion King!

 

I just spotted this upcoming book (March 2022) and will order a copy as soon as pre-order of the physical version becomes available on Amazon. 

This book was released a few months ago and I should have mentioned it much earlier. The author, Renée Farrington, is the daughter of Disney artist Ray Patin (one of the talented animators of Disney's Golden Age). Her heavily illustrated and beautifully written memoir takes us from the Golden Age of animation all the way to her most recent adventures in the shadow of the Hollywood sign. This is truly a delightful read.

There are a few chapters about her father's career at Disney and after Disney, with some great, never-seen-before illustrations. However the book is Renée's autobiography and therefore most of its is not about Disney, but about what it was like to grow up in Hollywood, "in the shadow of the sign."

Did one of you happen to buy this lot recently? If so, could you please email me at didier.ghez@gmail.com? Thanks in advance,
 

Yesterday evening I received a review copy of the book A Portrait of Walt Disney World which will be officially released tomorrow. Written by my friends Kevin Kern, Tim O'Day, and Steven Vagnini, this huge volume is definitely a must-have and will probably become one of the very best Disney books of the year, along with Jim Cora's autobiography, the Claude Coats biography and Marcy Smother's Walt's Disneyland.

At first glance, the balance of illustrations and text is excellent and there seems to be a very large amount of photographs and pieces of artwork that we had not seen until now in book form.

Knowing how great Kevin Kern, Tim O'Day, and Steven Vagnini are on the historical angle, I am expecting that the text will be full of fun surprises.

I can't wait to start reading. In the meantime, you all know what one of your gifts should be this holiday season. 

I just picked up the autobiography of Maureen O'Hara, which contains an excellent chapter about the making of The Parent Trap.

One of my good friends just gave me a head up about this upcoming book / exhibition catalog. I am not certain that the exhibition or the book will contain any section about Nielsen's work for Disney but I know that some of you will want to be aware of this upcoming release.

Here is another autobiography I cannot wait to pick up when it is released next month!

I am finishing to read Hayley Mills' wonderful autobiography. I have owned the autobiography of her father, John Mills, for quite a while. It is also excellent.

What I discovered yesterday, though, is that her mother also wrote her memoirs. I just bought a copy on AbeBooks. 

 

I am just back from a delightful trip to Walt Disney World and had the pleasure of discovering and buying this book about the 25 Anniversary of The Disney Conservation Fund. It was released last year. Little text and mostly beautiful pictures.

Sad, sad news: Jack Couffer Dies: Oscar-Nominated Cinematographer Behind ‘Jonathan Livingston Seagull’ Was 96

Fortunately Jack wrote various excellent books of memoirs and I also released an interview with him in Walt's People.

R.I.P.

 Looking forward to this upcoming issue of Disney Twenty-Three.