Upcoming book just announced.

After close to 40 years researching Disney history and Disneyana, few things in that realm still really surprise me. When that happens, though, it is pure joy.

Getting this Danish book by Lars Jakobsen was not easy. It was sold out and it had to be shipped to the US (no small matter these days).

To say that it was worth the wait is the understatement of the century. The illustrations it contains are mind-blowing: so many Danish Disney items from the 1930s and 1940s that I had never seen before; so many amazing Disney store windows from the 1930s to the 1950s that were totally new to me; and so many great photos of Walt visiting Denmark which had never appeared in book form.

I am afraid that you will have to visit me in Coral Gables to look at this book. For those of you interested in these subject matters, you will not be disappointed. 

I am still on cloud nine after getting it and still making discoveries by looking at its gorgeous pages.

I just received a copy of Ron Clements' new book. It is massive, and there is no doubt in my mind: this is, hands-down, the best Disney history book of 2026. Go get it, now, if you have not done so already. 

 At long last the Disney Books Network has been updated. 45 released books added!!

 

I just learned that this book is about to be released thanks to a post by my friend Sebastien Durand and I am very much looking forward to reading it.

Around 1935, the British chocolate company George Payne & Co. issued a series of 25 cards titled Mickey Mouse Pleasure Cruise.

I would love to get high-resolution scans of as many of them as possible for a book I am currently working on.

If you happen to own some of them (or know collectors who do), could you please email me at Didier.ghez@gmail.com ?

To give you a sense of the exciting Disney history discoveries that can be made when one digs really deep and why I am so eager to find volunteers in London...

A few days ago, one of my many volunteers in New York stumbled upon the first issue of Mickey's News, a newsletter that Disney's European representative, George Kamen, began sending to British licensees in November 1937. I only have one full issue for now and -- among other things -- I am trying to locate the others which are likely to really "move the needle" from a historical standpoint.

This is fun!

VOLUNTEERS STILL NEEDED IN LONDON

I am still looking for a few committed volunteers in London as a few who had reached out were eventually unable to work on the project for personal reasons.

Research for my future book about Disney's international expansion in the world in the 1930s and 1940s has really been progressing by leaps and bounds over the past few weeks thanks to volunteers all around the world.

The project at the British Library is larger than I originally thought, though, and I would welcome a second volunteer to help me with the research.

If you are in London and are able and willing to conduct two days of research at the British Library over the next few days / weeks, could you please email me at didier.ghez@gmail.com ?

Of course I immediately picked up Disney historian David Lesjak's massive new book and should get it today.
 

What a joy this morning to read that all of historian JB Kaufman's essays are now available in two physical books. If you know JB"s work (and who does not) you also know that all that he writes about classic movies and about Disney history is worth reading.

The Disney-related essays are gathered in Volume 1; the others are in Volume 2.

 

 Heads up... Imagineer Eric Robinson's book is now available on Amazon!

 

I am very much looking forward to the release of this upcoming book by Bob Weis!

As you know, my new book, The Wonderful Worlds of Disney will be released in a few weeks.

Some of you will enjoy the podcast Notably Disney in which I discuss its making as well as several other Disney-history-related matters.

I am delighted to share that Walt's People -- Volume 32 has been released today by Skyway Press.

It contains material about John Basmajian, Eric Cleworth, Anne Del Valle, Roy E. Disney, Eyvind Earle, Robert Foster, Andy Gaskill, Floyd Gottfredson, Michael Graves, Earl Hurd, David Inglish, Un Iwerks, Evelyn Kennedy, Gordon Legg, Ron Miller, Leslie Nielsen, Bill Peet, Parry Ray, Herb Ryman, Steve Segal, Lucy Wheaton Taliaferro and Al Taliaferro, Don Taylor, Larry Tryon, and Linda Woolverton.

I think you will all really enjoy it.

Needles to say, I just bought this book!

VOLUNTEER NEEDED IN JAPAN

I recently bought the newly released book by historian Nozomi Naoi, The Land of Happiness, about Japanese department stores in the 1930s.

In it, I found this fantastic photo of Mickey Mouse in a Japanese store window in the 1930s.

It comes from the National Diet Library. 

I would like to explore the collections of that famous library to try and find more Disney-related photos. However, without speaking Japanese, it appears to be incredibly difficult to achieve.

Anyone willing to help? If so, could you please email me at didier.ghez@gmail.com ?

 

Another book that looks like a must-read this year.

Looking forward to getting Dave Bossert's upcoming book, which is now available for pre-order.
 

New edition of Pierre Lambert's masterpiece coming up in November. 70% of the artwork will be different than what was included in the first version. 

I can't wait!!!!

VOLUNTEER NEEDED IN LONDON

Research for my future book about Disney's international expansion in the world in the 1930s and 1940s has really been progressing by leaps and bounds over the past few weeks thanks to volunteers all around the world.

The project at the British Library is larger than I originally thought, though, and I would welcome a second volunteer to help me with the research.

If you are in London and are able and willing to conduct two days of research at the British Library over the next few days / weeks, could you please email me at didier.ghez@gmail.com ?

 I just ordered this new book today.

This book coming up in September. No comment.

 Wonderful auction from Heritage Auctions coming up August 21-23.

Would anyone of you have a good collection of the Swedish "Musse Pigg Tidningen" or a copy of this special issue of the British "Mickey Mouse Weekly"?

If so could you email me at didier.ghez@gmail.com? I am trying to get high resolution scans of these two covers and a lot more information about the contents of "Musse Pigg Tidningen."

 

This book only contains a few pages about Disney but for anyone who cares about classic animation, this is a must-have and an absolute treasure trove.

It will be available via Stuart NG Books starting on Saturday.

I just discovered this exhibition that is taking place right now in Germany at the Kreissparkasse Heilbronn. and that a catalog has been released.

I will tell you more about it when I get it.

Over the past few weeks, while resuming my research about Disney's international expansion in the 1930s and 1940s, I was reminded of how fun it is to dig up new documents that have been sitting for years in untapped physical archives or in the collections of the families of the persons who worked for Disney.

At times, I am able to visit those archives and collections in person. But more often than not, I need to rely on a huge network of volunteers all around the world.

For this current project, my wife and I counted yesterday more than 15 volunteers based in France, the UK, Serbia, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Knoxville and New York (and I am certain I am forgetting a few locations).

One of the subject matters that I a researching right now is the Swedish Children Day, which saw Disney's official participation in 1937. In this context, I just dug up these two documents online. One (non-authorized) from 1934 (Three Little Pigs and Mickey Mouse) and one from 1937.

In the Swedish National Archives there is a lot more and I am hoping to get access to that material in a few weeks thanks to a local volunteer.

 

 An excellent book coming up early next year.

CHALLENGE FOR RUSSIAN SPEAKER / RESEARCHER

In 1936 a version of the Blue Ribbon book "Three Little Pigs" was released in Russia.

What makes this version very special is the fact that the story was translated and adapted by the famous Russian poet Sergei Mikhalkov (based on the French version of the book, by the way).

Here is the challenge for a Russian speaker / researcher who also enjoys Disney history...

Mikhalkov wrote a memoir about his life, "От и до..." ("From Start to Finish...") It would be great to locate a library that carries a physical copy of it (using worldcat.org for example) and to find out if it contains any relevant information about Mikhalkov work on the book.

Any volunteer??

VOLUNTEER NEEDED IN FRANCE IN OR NEAR CAEN

The historical discoveries keep pouring in!! I just located some rare documents linked to the early days of the immediate post-World War II Journal de Mickey (the French Mickey Mouse Magazine). 

Unfortunately the library in Caen (France) where those important documents are stored does not offer remote reproduction / remote access.

Would one of you be located nearby and willing to help? If so, could you please email me at didier.ghez@gmail.com ?

VOLUNTEER NEEDED IN STOCKHOLM

As I keep on researching the early days of Disney around the world in the 1930s and 1940s, I need some local help in Stockholm, Sweden.

Would one of you be willing to help me conduct in-person research in two local archives over the next few days or weeks?

If so, could you please email ne at Didier.ghez@gmail.com? 

It is with immense sadness that I wake up this morning to the news of the passing of Don Iwerks, an exceptional human being and an outstanding Imagineer and historian.

I had the chance of meeting Don a few times and I greatly cherish those memories. 

My thoughts go to his family and especially to his daughter, Leslie.

Fifteen years ago I began to work on a book about Disney's expansion outside of the US in the 1930s and 1940s. This was really the subtext of Disney's Grand Tour. It was also almost virgin territory at the time.

Having faced some serious setbacks in many other directions at the beginning of the year, I decided to re-focus on this project over the past few months.

While I still have no idea of when the book will be written and published, I am glad to share that the research is progressing by leaps and bounds.

This is especially thanks to two wonderful volunteers in New York.

I finally know exactly when Kay Kamen met Walt Disney for the very first time, who put him in touch again with Walt later on and how the July 1, 1932 agreement between Kamen-Blair and Disney was negotiated. I also now know who the second person from the left on this photo is (it is not the publicist Harry Hammond Beall as we believed), and when Kamen travelled around Europe for the first time with his nephew George (and what they did and what they saw).

It took me 20 years to find those answers, but over the past two weeks of intense research they have started pouring in, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.

When it is ready, that book will be really, really fun and full of delightful surprises!

VOLUNTEER(S) NEEDED IN NEW YORK CITY

I just discovered a massive cache of untapped information about Disney's international expansion in the 1930s in four fascinating trade magazines (One from the UK, one from Australia, on from the US and one from the Netherlands).

All these magazines are preserved at the New York Public Library and I need some volunteers to go on site to shoot pictures of all the relevant pages.

If you are willing to help (this will probably require a few days of research at the NYPL), could you please email me at didier.ghez@gmail.com?

You will help uncover some really, really important new material.

I am very much looking forward to reading this book which I just ordered from the Chenango County Historical Society and Museum when I saw it announced today on the Vintage Disney Collectibles group on Facebook.

This is a peculiar poem by Disney story writer Dorothy Ann Blank that I found yesterday in an old issue of the international United Artists newsletter. I think that some of you will enjoy it.

I am particularly thinking of you Mindy Johnson and JB Kaufman!

 

VOLUNTEER NEEDED IN PRAGUE

I carry on my historical exploration of the early days of Disney in Europe and, in that context, I am looking for a volunteer in Prague, who would be willing to conduct some simple research at the National Library of the Czech Republic. 

If you are willing to help, could you please email me at didier.ghez@gmail.com ?

Back in 2011, when I began to research the book Disney's Grand Tour I realized that I was not just writing a book about Walt and his family's trip but also one about the early expansion of Disney around the world (Europe specifically).

I am now trying to dig much deeper into the matter in order to write an in-depth a story about the international expansion as possible for a future volume of Walt's People.

Which led me (among other places) to Australia and New Zealand. I finally understand the exact dates, the names of the people involved, etc.

And here are two letterheads that I had never seen before and that I have a feeling that you will enjoy :-)

 

 Interesting book to be released in July which I had not spotted yet.

How I managed to miss the release of this book last year is totally beyond me. I can't wait for it to arrive later this week!

Receiving the latest "art of" book from Chronicle Books is always a real joy. The Art of Toy Story 5 is no exception.

I am particularly delighted by the concept art pieces by Carlos Felipe Leon, Maria Lee and Deanna Marsigliese. Pure bliss!

 I can now confirm that this book is an excellent read with several in-depth chapters about Ike's Disney career.

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.