In Garry Apgar's great article about Walt Disney's connections with Connecticut in the April issue of Connecticut Magazine there is a rich array of illustrations (about 20 in all), including this never-before-published group photo of Walt's Red Cross training unit in Connecticut, generously supplied by the Walt Disney Family Foundation.

Anyone interested in ordering a copy may contact Dave Martin, the publication's circulation manager, at: dmartin@connecticutmag.com 

Walt Disney (top row, center, dwarfed by two men standing to his immediate right) in a photograph of his unit at Camp King, Sound Beach, Connecticut, circa early to mid-November 1918. Courtesy, The Walt Disney Family Foundation, San Francisco, Calif.

Here's a detail, highlighting Walt's position in the picture:

As some of you may have noticed, the Disney Books Network is currently offline. It should be back up by tomorrow morning. Apologies for the trouble.

This just in from Ken Kebow:

[Hello Didier -

I hope this finds you well.  Several years ago we connected about an audio tour I produced with Rolly Crump entitled "A Walk in the Park with Rolly Crump".  You were kind enough to mention the program in your blogs and let Disney fans  worldwide know it was available.  Thank you!

I am happy to report the "second half" of that endeavor is complete and the World Premiere of "Rolly Crump: The Whimsical Imagineer" documentary will take place on April 26th at the
Newport Beach Film Festival.  I have included a link below that covers the premiere as will
as includes a link to the trailer for the documentary:

I am hoping you will be willing to let your on-line fan base know about the completion and premiere of the program and hopefully some of the folks based in Southern California can attend the premiere. I believe Rolly himself will be attending the premiere and will participate in a Q&A after the screening.]

This just in from Mary Costa (click on the image to enlarge).

This delightful web site is definitely worth a visit.

Finalizing the editing of Mel Shaw's long awaited autobiography. Expected release in a few months... Really exciting after all this years trying to get the project off the ground. More soon.

For those of you who read Italian and who love Disney comics: you will want to know that this book was released a few months ago. I am still trying to find out how to buy a copy.

This is a Kickstarter project that I am likely to support next month. The target seems a little high, though!

And here is the last one.

This just in from Julie Svendsen.

James Bodrero by Campbell Grant.

James Bodrero by Jack Miller.

One more from the February 1940 issue of Town and Country.

While researching They Drew As They Pleased - Volume 3, I stumbled upon a series of caricatures of James Bodrero by his Disney Character Model Department colleagues, in the style of some of the most famous masters. All of those caricatures were released in the magazine Town and Country from February 1940. Since those drawings will not appear in They Drew As They Pleased and since I know most of you will enjoy seeing them, I will post them here over the next few days, starting with this version of Bodrero by Martin Provensen.

My good friend Alain Littaye is trying to sell this extremely realistic painting of Walt. He can be contacted at neverlandeditions@gmail.com.

They Drew As They Pleased - The Hidden Art of Disney's Musical Years is now listed on Amazon.

This new book is not one I will pick up, but I know that some of you like to be aware of every single Disney-related publication out there.

More exciting material released today by Michael Barrier about Jack Kinney. Not to be missed.

I have now read the Disneyland-related chapter in the newly released biography of Ruth Shelllhorn by Kelly Comras. It is fairly short but meticulously researched and full of great new information.

This book will be released by Theme Park Press at the end of the month and should become the "bible" of theme park designers.

The blurb reads in part:

[Want to design a theme park?
Over the past century, theme parks have created worlds where pirates still loot Caribbean towns, where daring adventurers explore booby-trapped temples, and where superheroes swing from New York skyscrapers - and allowed us to step into them too. This is a book about how to design those fantastic places, and the ingenuity that goes into their creation.
This is a handbook for the practicing designer, a textbook for the aspiring student, and a behind the scenes guidebook for the theme park fan, drawing on hundreds of interviews with accomplished designers from Walt Disney Imagineering, Universal Creative, Merlin Entertainments, and more. Theme Park Design & The Art of Themed Entertainment explores everything from the stories, themes, and characters that theme parks bring to life, to the business models, processes, and techniques that allow them to do it.
From rocket ships to roller coasters, fairy tales to fireworks shows, and dinosaurs to dark rides, never before has a book dived so deep into the art form of themed entertainment.]

I had the pleasure of contributing to this newly released book and very, very much looking forward to reading the other entries!

The blog will be updated again on Friday, March 11.

And now for an exclusive look at the cover of the upcoming They Drew As They Pleased - The Hidden Art of Disney's Musical Years!

Quick reminder: Next week will see the release of Three Years in Wonderland by Todd James Pierce, one of the most important books ever released about the early years of Disneyland. The book is revolutionary and a definite "must-have."

Garry Apgar just gave me a heads up about a new series of Mickey comic books which will be released this year in France and which seems utterly fascinating. One of the entries in the series will be written and drawn by none other than Loisel, a famous French comic book artist who created two classic graphic novels: La Quete de l'Oiseau du Temps and Peter Pan. He also served for a while as a concept artist at the Disney Studio in the 1990s. Can't wait.

I admit that I am totally fascinated by what I have seen to date of the universe of Zootopia. I have a feeling that I will love the movie and the beautiful new art-book released by Chronicle Books reinforces that opinion. This is really a book that should be added to your library if you are interested in Disney's latest productions.

The Disney Books Network was updated this weekend.

The final galleys of They Drew As They Pleased - The Hidden Art of Disney's Musical Years have arrived and they look spectacular. Scheduled release date: September 2016 :-)

Sadly: Jack Lindquist (1927 -2016)

The blog will be updated again on February 28.

Ruth Shellhorn was the first landscaper of Dsneyland and a few of us are really looking forward to reading the exciting biography about her written by Kelly Comras. Can't wait!

The latest issue of The Carl Barks Fan Club Pictorial has just been released.

This just in from Harald Nast:

[I just wanted to sent you a short (well...) note about an interview with Walt Disney I never heard of and did not find any other references other than the magazine article I initially stumbled upon.

 

Check: http://www.dix-project.net/item/2203/hollywood-u-s-a-paula-stone-interviews-walt-disney for a link to the interview and a transcript.

 

Some time ago I found an article from The Radio Life magazine (1945-10-07; http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Radio-Life/40s/45/Radio-Life-1945-10-07.pdf#page=30) which mentions an interview which radio MC Paula Stone had done at some point in time before the article was published. While searching the net for the interview or other information on this matter I discovered an archive entry at the Rocky Mountain Online Archive (RMOA; http://rmoa.unm.edu/docviewer.php?docId=wyu-ah06012.xml#idp56080) which lists an audio tape with an Paula Stone/Walt Disney interview. With the great support of the archive's staff I was able to get a digitized copy of the interview.

Although the archive doesn't have any other information about the audio file, its content suggest some clues about it's origins - and it's not the 1945 interview but another interview which was conducted some years later.

From the interview:
- Cinderella and Alice and Wonderland in production: 1948-1950
- The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad released/to be released: 1949
- Walt Disney to travel to England for the production of Treasure Planet: 1949
    => boarded "Queen Elizabeth" in New York in June 1949
- Motion Picture Daily 1949-06-09 (p.2) https://archive.org/stream/motionpicturedai65unse#page/n733/mode/1up
    "Walt Disney will sail from here next Wednesday for Europe"
    => 1949-06-16
- Motion Picture Daily 1949-06-17 (p.2) https://archive.org/stream/motionpicturedai65unse#page/n777/mode/1up
    "[...], Walt Disney and Mrs. Disney [...] are en route to Europe on the S.S. Queen Elizabeth"

So the interview was probably recorded in May or June of 1949 just before Walt traveled to New York.

Another hint gives the audio snipped "USA" at the very beginning of the recording. Paula Stone hosted a radio show name "Hollywood U.S.A." for Mutual Broadcasting System which aired starting from fall 1949.

So I'm still searching for the 1945's interview but this one is also quite interesting. The 'Cinderella Work Song' reference for instance is great.]

Some drawings by Ferdinand Horvath which I had never seen before were auctioned off yesterday on ebay. I could not pick them up but I thought you would enjoy seeing the photos that were posted online.

Michael Barrier has just published his second interview with Jack Kinney, which is an even more fascinating read than the first one. This made my day!!

A few upcoming books that blog reader David Peake just noticed:

- The Art of Zootopia by Jessica Julius

-  The Art of Finding Dory

- Windows on Disney's Main Street, U.S.A.: Stories of the Talented People Honored at the Disney Parks by Chuck Snyder

- The Disney Park Maps by Kevin Neary

Quite a few wonderful pieces of concept art by Andreas Deja from The Black Cauldron released earlier this week by Van Eaton Galleries. Definitely worth checking out!

The blog will be updated again on February 11.

This great photo just in from Julie Svendsen:

[Sharing an old photo with you. On the back of the photo my mom wrote, "Detroit Group, 1957".  Pictured are from left: Mrs. Clemmons, Betty Kimball, Ward Kimball, Carol Svendsen, Julius Svendsen, Larry Clemmons.]

UPDATE: Todd James Pierce believes that this might be the "magic highway" research group.

Russell Schroeder has done it again: he has just self-published a great selection of Disney sheet music from some of the Silly Symphonies and other Disney cartoons. You will find all of the ordering information in the bottom image (click on it to enlarge it).

I am really looking forward to those two upcoming books whose cover were released last week on Amazon: Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies: A Companion to the Classic Cartoon Series and The Walt Disney Studios: A Lot to Remember.