An incredibly rare, obviously non-authorized, Mickey Mouse record from fascist Italia.

The new S/R Labs auction catalog is now online and contains a few beautiful pieces like this concept art painting by Ken Anderson created for The Rescuers and, later, Catfish Bend.

If you read German, are a Barks fan and want to get a huge 416-page book which collects all his oil paintings, you may want to pick up this newly released volume.

I simply can not wait to pick up the book I Disney Italiani when it gets released early November. If you speak Italian, this will definitely be a must-have.

Do not miss today:

- Before the Magic Opened - 1971 by Todd James Pierce
- The 1939 World's Fair and Disneyland by Todd James Pierce
- HAPPY BIRTHDAY WDW ~ DHI's Daily Construction Shot by Paul F. Anderson
- Don 'Ducky' Williams: An Underappreciated Disney Treasure by Jim Korkis
- Some oddball Disney photos and postings (thanks to Jim Korkis for the link)

I will be in Cannes and London most of next week. The blog will be updated again on Monday 15th.

Here is a fantastic shot of Walt, Diane and Sharon which I had never seen before. Here is the story behind this discovery.

Do not miss today:

- David Hall Story Art Stills by Matt Crandall
- Thirty Things You Never Knew About EPCOT Center by Jim Korkis

I had never seen this photo of Walt, which I found recently in a 1935 magazine from Italy. It was obviously taken on November 22, 1933 when Walt received a diploma of commendation from the National Academy of Fine Arts of Buenos Aires. The presentation was made at the Disney studio by Dr. H.C. Niese, the Argentine Consul in Los Angeles.

This is a photo of Walt I had never seen before. Apparently the woman on the photo is a rich heiress from Argentina.

Do not miss today:

- In Memory of Jeanette Thomas by Diane Disney Miller
- Danny Kaye and the Opening of EPCOT Center by Jim Korkis
- HAPPY BIRTHDAY WDW ~ All Month at DHI by Paul F. Anderson
- HAPPY BIRTHDAY EPCOT ... TOO ~ African Style by Paul F. Anderson
- HAPPY BIRTHDAY WDW ~ DHI's Daily Construction Shot by Paul F. Anderson

Walt's People - Volume 13

Now that Walt's People - Volume 12 is out, do you wonder what I have in store for Volume 13 (to be released around May next year). Wonder no more. Here is the table of contents:

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
Didier Ghez: Eddie Sotto

Let me start my stating the obvious: if you are reading this blog today and if there is only one Disney history book you will buy this year it should be this one. The Fairest One of All is a "must have" more than any other books I have discussed in recent years. It is full of never-seen-before visual documents, as expected, but more importantly, it is the most in-depth and the most accurate historical analysis of the making of a Disney movie, ever. This is the closest to perfection that a book about the making of a Disney movie will ever get.

Does this mean that after reading this book you will know absolutely everything about the making of the movie and about the artists who worked on it? Of course not, since this is as impossible in practical terms as the creation of Borges's imaginary 1:1 scale map of the world.

In other words, when we discuss Disney history, there is always more to research and to learn. This book is for the most serious Disney historians among us a stepping stone. A very tall one.

For some it will serve as inspiration to research the life and career of Dorothy Ann Blank, others will want to understand better the role Natalie Kalmus and Technicolor played when it comes to the history of Disney (this subject alone would deserve an in-depth monograph), while at least one of the readers will someday decide to write the long-awaited biographies of Ham Luske, Norm Ferguson, Freddie Moore, or Art Babbitt (that one is currently in progress thanks to Jack Friedman).

What is certain is that all of us will be indebted to J.B. Kaufman for all the dots he connected, all the documents he gave us access to and all the stories he unearthed through his new book. As always, along with Michael Barrier, John Canemaker, Paul F. Anderson and a few others, he raises the standards of Disney history to levels which are difficult to reach and is preparing the field in a spectacular way for those in the future who will have the discipline and dedication it takes to contribute in a meaningful way to the understanding of Disney history.

Hats off. It is now more difficult than ever to have the patience to wait for the release of J.B.'s upcoming book about Pinocchio. When  it comes to Snow White, the wait was worth it. Get that book today.

I have just received the review copies of JB Kaufman's two long-awaited books about Snow White and they are as outstanding as expected. I will write a few lines today about the catalog of the Walt Disney Family Foundation exhibition, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: The Art and Creation of Walt Disney's Classic Animated Film and will then review the "main book" on Monday.

The most surprising thing about the catalog, is that if it had been handed to me without any hint that the "main book" (The Fairest One of All: The Making of Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) existed, I would have be convinced that it was the best art-book ever about the movie. That "catalog" is 256-page long and must contain about 600 illustrations, at least 30% of which I believe I had never seen before.

The concept drawings by Ferdinand Horvath for the Dwarfs or the Witch are priceless, as are the live-action reference photos showing Marjorie Belcher (the series with Perce Pearce in itself would be worth the price of the book from my point of view). The sections about "The Snow White that Never Was" are also full of jewels which will satisfy even the most serious Disney historians.

The text in this catalog is fairly short (much more detailed than in any other "catalogs" however and as long as in some books released by Disney Editions in recent years) and is aimed at a rather broad audience in this specific instance.

If you can afford to buy the two books, you really should do it. There is clearly some overlap, but I believe you will not regret it.

To say that A Disney Sketchbook is a disappointment is an understatment. We have been awaiting this book for years, which might be part of the issue. During all those years we have come to imagine that the delay was due to an effort to improve the content to make it unbeatable. Not so, unfortunately. "The concept for this publishing project", according to the authors, "was to build a sketchbook that may have been passed around The Walt Disney Lot, one in which artists have studied each other's work over very different period of times." OK, I buy this. It could definitely work.

A sketchbook concept opens the door to many ideas: collecting astounding drawing by Horvath, Hurter, Hall and other concept artists; showing weird gag drawings, letting us discover never seen before concept art, getting access to very rough animation studies by the best Disney artists of the Studio throughout the years and on we go.

Instead of all of this, we get a selection of drawings which we have seen a million times before, with no artists credited anywhere. Weird. And the worst part is that this book could at least collect hundreds of drawings, but instead limits itself to very few, blown up to fill up large pages.

Enough complaints for today. Disney Editions has brought us many beautiful books in the past and a mistake can happen from time to time. I have a feeling that the new volume of The Archives Series will be way more exciting and will make us forget this strange sketchbook.

Help Needed!

Once again, I need the help of a volunteer. Is anyone of you based in Wyoming?

I just discovered by Pete Martin, the journalist who wrote the book The Story of Walt Disney by Diane Disney Miller, donated his papers to the American Heritage Center in Laramie. Among those papers are some interviews with several of the artists involved in the creation of the movie Swiss Family Robinson. I would love to get access to those documents.

Could you contact me by email (didier.ghez@gmail.com) if you can help?

We are hearing some persistent rumors about the release in a few months of an updated and expanded version of the book I Disney Italiani, in two volumes. While released only in Italian, this would still be very exciting news.

Did anyone pick up this new book? Is it worth buying?

Do not miss today:

- A SECOND RATE LAS VEGAS ~ 1980s Style by Paul F. Anderson
- Building Epcot Center 1982 by Jim Korkis
- Mr. Mouse to the Mike by Steven Thompson (Thanks to Jim Korkis for the link)

 

These are the other two books in Japanese I was alluding to yesterday. They are books of photos by a famous and controversial Japanese photographer named Kishin Shinoyama. Definitely not "must haves", but I was happy to know that they exist.