Fun photo being sold at the moment by Howard Lowery:

[This is an original Walt Disney Productions black-and-white glossy photograph of an afternoon baseball (or softball) game played by men of the Disney Studio on a nearby lot in 1935. The picture was taken at the studio located on Hyperion Avenue in Hollywood before the move to Burbank in 1940, likely from the roof of a building; one of the men seated at lower right has turned to look up toward the camera, and his features are discernible.

Pasted to the back is a typed carbon WDP publicity caption that reads: "95-38: The national game of America, baseball, comes in for its full share of attention every day on the Disney lot, as its male artists exchange their pencils and drawing boards for bats and gloves." The pitcher has thrown the ball under-handed (indicating softball?), and the batter has swung and missed. This is an original Disney photograph; it is not a reprint or computer-generated print.]

This just in from Gunnar Andreassen:

[Enclosed is a photo taken from Lyric Avenue, overlooking the intersection of Griffith Park Boulevard and Hyperion Avenue in 1925.

My arrow points towards the building(s) in 2719 Hyperion Avenue. What we can see is probably the organ factory and maybe the Disney Studio just behind it - while being built ? They moved in early 1926.]

This just in from Gunnar Andreassen:

[Enclosed you'll find an aerial photo of the Franklin Hills - Los Feliz area in LA from 1932.

I have numbered some places in this photo that are of interest:

1. The Walt Disney Studio. Unfortunately most of the buildings are just outside the photo

2. Appartment houses used by the studio: Often called annexes

3. The Griffith Park Boulevard

4. The Snow White/Dwarfs cottages

5. The Rowena Reservoir

6. Football field. This was used in the ending sequence of "Grease". For a funny story: see page 78 in Jack Kinney's book: Walt Disney and Assorted Other Characters

7. John Marshall High School, built in 1931. Can be seen in the background of several studio photos. It has been used in a lot of movies and TV-series.

8. Walt's and Roy's houses in Lyric Avenue

9. Shakespeare Bridge, built in 1926

10. Walt's house in 4053 Woking Way - built in spring/summer of 1932. I'm not sure of the exact place of this - or if it was built when this photo was taken. There are still a large number of lots that have no buildings.

A better version of the photo can be found here.]

This just in from Gunnar Andreassen:

[Hi Didier,

I found this photo for sale on ebay some time ago. I had never seen it before. It doesn't have a very high resolution, but it is possible to identify a lot of people. It is probably taken in the summer of 1931. Rudy Zamora, the man in dark clothes in the first row, was employed only one year, from early 1931 till early 1932. There's a total of 108 people.]

Looking for Hyperion - Please read

Someone I will call for now "a powerful friend" is looking to acquire high resolution scans of rare photos of the Hyperion Studio (especially of life and work at the Studio). That same friend is also trying to locate recordings of artists discussing their work on Snow White.

If I have not yet contacted you yesterday by email about this very subject, could you drop me a line. For those of you that I already contacted yesterday about this, I should have some updates in about 10 days.

That said: Merry Xmas and Happy Hanukkah to you all.

Hyperion days

This just in from Gunnar:

[I recently found this short press item from the Los Angeles Times, May 11, 1941. They didn't get much for the old studio compared to what they had to pay for the new one in Burbank.

Here's a link to an aerial photo of the vitamin plant in 1956. Observe the very high palm outside Walt's old office in the 1931-animation building.]

This question just in from Gunnar:

[I have a question for you: Do you know of any color photos of the Hyperion Studio ? I have never seen any of the studio buildings, except one of the neon sign.

Enclosed you will find my amateurish attempt of coloring a photo of the Studio by night (Maybe it was the night that Walt told the story about Snow White ?)]