Do not miss today:

- Where Walt Was: July 4, 1957 by Michael Barrier
- The Forgotten Brother Who Built a Magic Kingdom by Jim Korkis

Fresh-up Freddie - Bullfight



The 7-Up commercials created by the Disney Studio in the '50s are all catalogued under production number 5956.

This is "sequence" (translate "commercial") number 002. It started production on June 11, 1957.

Here is the information from the animation draft (date July 5, 1957):

Director: Jack Hannah
Layout: Yale Gracey
Secretary: Mary Satterwhite
Animation: Mike Lah

So Mike Lah (of MGM fame) was back at Disney (or rather freelancing for Disney, I suspect) in the late '50s. This was complete news to me. Mike had worked at Disney in the '30s. An in-depth interview will him will appear in Walt's People - Volume 11.

The book by Joe Potter I mentionned yesterday is an Oral History from 1983 and can be accessed online at this link.

Do not miss today:

- What a Character! - Bucky Beaver by Jeff Pepper
- Ward Kimball Treasures by Amid Amidi

I have to admit that I jumped on my chair this morning when I discovered this book. Apparently the Memoirs of General William Potter (known to all of us as Joe Potter and famous for having led the engineering efforts of Walt Disney World) were released in 2005 and I don't believe any of us knew it! I have just ordered a copy and will review it as soon as I receive it.

From my perspective this is definitely major news (in the realm of Disney history that is).

Alice Jello Commercial with Gryphon and Mock Turtle



I just found this commercial on YouTube.

Unfortunately I could not find any information about this Jello commercial during my recent visit to the Disney Archives. I thought you would enjoy it in any case.

[UPDATE from Matt Crandall: This video originally comes from his blog and you can see some great comments about it at this link.]

I will be focused on Disney commercials from the '50s during most of the next few days.

Amazon has just revealed the cover of the upcoming book Walt Disney Animation Studios The Archive Series: Backgrounds and Layouts.

Do not miss today:

- Interviews by Michael Sporn (I can't tell you how much I agree with Michael Sporn's view about the importance of getting access to Michael Barrier's interview transcripts - I am a unashamed addict to those).

Amid Amidi was kind enough to send me recently this great article from American Cinematographer by Carl Fallberg and Lars Calonius about Grizzly Gulch. Apologies for the bad quality of the scans.

Do not miss today:

- John Hubley, an interview by Michael Barrier (I can not tell you how glad I am to see Michael release 2 of his interviews in less than a month. I really hope we will be lucky enough to soon get access to more of his treasures. Although not really Disney-related, this interview and the Robert McKimson one just made my day.)

Exceptional German timetable from the '30s being sold on ebay at the moment.

Those caricatures are from the estate of Al Stetter. Any idea who the artists might be?

Do not miss today:

- A Press Conference With Roy O. Disney by Jim Korkis
- Bambi Diamond Edition: an interview with Donnie Dunagan, the original “Young Prince of the Forest” by Jeremie Noyer
- Camundongo Mickey em entrevista - 1934 by Celbi Pegoraro (Interview of "Mickey" from 1934 in Portuguese)

In April last year I mentioned a live-action project produced by Carl Fallberg and Lars Calonius and featuring several Disney artists, called Grizzly Gulch. I just realized that more info could be found abou that project in Robert Tieman's book The Disney Keepsakes.

In the issue of the Studio’s internal newsletter, The Bulletin, from April 4, 1941, repdoduced in the book, we find the following article by John Hubley:

“Grizzly Gulch. Produced by Carl Fallberg and Lars Calonius. Directed by Lars Calonius. Ass’st. direct: Andy Engman. Photography: Lars Calonius. Cast of players: Carl Fallberg, Homer Amos, Andy Engman, Dan Noonan, Tee Hee, Lou MacManus, Dan MacManus, Cornett Wood, Ted Baker, Mel Shaw, Jack Atwood, Bill Keil, Thelma Futch, Joe Gayek, George Roether, Bob Youngquist, Cecil Beard, Bob Vogel, Larry Lansburgh, Andy Engman Sr., Paul Fitzpatrick, horses, trains, Ward Kimball, etc. Production shot on 16mm film. Shooting commenced May 1939; shooting completed December 1940. Locations used: Idlewild, Kernville, Hyperion. Entire cast composed of Disney personnel. Running time: 1 hour, 15 minutes. General release: next week.
The long awaited premiere of “Grizzly Gulch” rewarded its audience with a thoroughly entertaining, well-produced western melodrama. Picture is materially rich, tales a simple direct tale of murder and crime detection in the 1870s.Careful attention was paid to correct historical settings and costumes, achieving a remarkably professional result. Few flaws are apparent. Humor is somewhat hampered by slow telling, allowing audience anticipation to get ahead of the story; the musical score (via phonograph recordings) lacks dramatic build-up. But largely, this reviewer has never witnessed a more successful and less amateur production.”

Lowry Tague (known at the time as Lorey Tague) was one of Disney's artists during the Laugh-O-Grams years.

I was therefore very excited when Michael Barrier located his memoirs (released in 1962). Unfortunately the book contains only a few lines about his Disney career. I am still happy that it exists, though, and that Michael located it.

Do not miss today:

- “Lt. Norakuro and Mickey Mouse” ? by Jerry Beck
- Walt Disney at the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth by Cory Gross (Thanks to Jim Korkis for the link)
- Diary of a Disneyland Mermaid by Matt Crandall

Julie Svendsen just emailed me to let me know that an exhibition of Walt Peregoy's art is happening until the end of March at the John Aaroe Group located at 14242 Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks, CA. Some of you in the region should definitely consider visiting it.

As a reminder:

[After joining Walt Disney Productions in 1943, Walt Peregoy contributed his unique talents to a number of classic animated features and shorts including "101 Dalmatians", "The Sword in the Stone", "Sleeping Beauty" and "Paul Bunyan" to name a few.

In 1958, along with Marc Davis, Eyvind Earle and Josh Meador, Walt participated in “4 Artists Paint 1 Tree”, a short documentary directed by Josh Meador that illustrated the diversity of the artistic talent of The Walt Disney Company.

In 1974, Walt joined Walt Disney Imagineering where his creative skills and unique visual style helped shape the EPCOT Pavilions, The Land, Journey Into Imagination and Wonders of Life.

Ever since he could hold a pencil, Walt's prolific creativity has yielded paintings, drawings and sculpture. To this day, he still creates his art in his home studio.]

This new book in French about Pixar is probably devoid of interest but some of you might want to know that it exists (thanks to Sébastien Durand for the info).

You may remember that the very first post of this blog a few years ago dealt with a 1963 Three Little Pigs sequence specially created by Disney for the Mexican movie Cri-Cri, El Grillito Cantor.

During my visit to the Disney Archives two weeks ago, I had the pleasure of finding a little more information about this project.

The sequence was originally supposed to feature the 3 Caballeros in addition to the 3 Little Pigs.

On June 11, 1963, a memo said: “The Studio has agreed to produce for the Instituto Nacional de Proteccion de la Infancia – Mexico, an animated sequence of approximately 470ft., featuring the 3 Little Pigs, Donald Duck, Panchito and Jose Carioca.”

That sequence would get the production number 5954-039.

The animation draft dated July 9, 1963 contains the following information:

Director: Bill Justice
Layout: Ernie Nordli and Dale Barnhart
Secretary: Mary Satterwhite
Animation:
John Lounsbery
Hal King
Cliff Nordberg
Eric Larson
Jack Boyd
Hal Ambro
Dick Lucas

We also know that the story development was done by X. Atencio.

Two long-awaited books have now been announced on Amazon:

- Walt Disney Animation Studios Animation archive series: Layout & Background
- Art of Epic Mickey

(Thanks to David Peake for the links)