I am currently working on an in-depth essay about the life and work of Disney's first merchandising representative in the Nordics and in Mexico and Central America, Robert Hartman. Hartman spoke at least three languages fluently (including German and Danish) and his correspondence and diaries used to be tricky to decipher.

Tricky, that is, until the advent of AI. Google's Gemini has become a close collaborator over the past few days and I am really blown away by what it can do. 

This is a example of a page in German, written in cursive, that Gemini was able to transcribe and translate in the blink of an eye. 

We are light years away from the very basic OCR tools that we had at our disposal until only recently, not to mention from the old version of Google Translate.

Truly stunning stuff.

I just bought this new book which contains two chapters about Eisenmann's Disney career. I will let you know in a few days what I think about it.

Here are the two marvelous Italian books that I received for my birthday yesterday.

One is about Disney's comic book script writer Tito Faraci and contains a long, in-depth interview with Faraci.

The second one focuses on historic covers from the magazine Topolino [Mickey Mouse], complete with details about the artists who drew them and other editorial content.

While looking for these two books, I noticed a few more that I need to get but that appear to be extremely hard to find. More about this in a few days.

 

I just received two new great books about two great Disney Italian comic artists. I have a feeling that some of you (especially Italian readers) will want to know about them.

 

 I really enjoyed getting interviewed last week by my friend Ed Mazzilli from the Disney Nerds podcast.

I just received my copy of Don Ballard's new book about the Disneyland Hotel ("1960 - 1964 The Little Motel Grows Up"). His first two books about the Disneyland Hotel are absolutely wonderful. 

This one is a masterpiece: The sheer amount of material, the quality of the writing, the marvelous layout, all of it makes it a "must have" if you are interested in the subject matter. And even you are not, the new photos of Walt, Roy and others that Don uncovered are in themselves worth getting this book.

Way to go Don. Can't wait for the next volume! 

 Coming to a bookstore near you in September. More about this in a few weeks.