Do not miss today:

- The Disneyland that You Almost Got: Big City USA by Jim Hill
- THE DHI FESS-TIVAL-The Crockett Craze by Paul F. Anderson
- THE DHI FESS-TIVAL-Worldwide for Davy by Paul F. Anderson
- SUNDAY FUNNIES-My Childhood Dream by Paul F. Anderson

Here is a real treat to start the week.

This story featuring Mickey, Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy, Charlie Chaplin, Greta Garbo, Felix the Cat, Popeye, Betty Boop and many Disney characters from the '30s was released in Serbia in 1937 in the magazine Zabavnik #7 and was drawn by a local artist.

Enjoy!

Harry Tytle's autobiography, One of Walt's Boys, is by far one of the most difficult to find Disney history books. The rare copies that are in the market are usually priced at $800 and above. Some of you might be interested to know that Paul F. Anderson has a few copies for sale at $450 in the Disney History Institute's bookshop.

Why did Bank of America become the sponsor of the "it's a small world" attraction when it moved to Disneyland after its successful run at the New York World's Fair? Disney historian Jim Korkis recently heard from the daughter of Lawrence Pritchard who was the Corporate Secretary and head of advertising for Bank of America at the time, and she shared with him that "my father told us that not only did BofA have a longstanding relationship as a sponsor of Disneyland but that the bank took an interest in sponsoring this particular ride because the theme suited the bank's foray into "World Banking" a term coined by BofA when regulations changed to allow the bank to operate outside of the USA. (At the time US banks were still restricted to operating within one state only.)"

Do not miss today:

- THE DHI FESS-TIVAL-Celebrating the Life of Fess Parker by Paul F. Abderson
- THE DHI FESS-TIVAL-Fess Parker on Indians by Paul F. Anderson
- Yesterland Presents an Urban Legend: Swan and Dolphin Reversed? by Jim Korkis

- Waking Sleeping Beauty opens Friday by Jerry Beck
- DHI BOOK SHOP HAS OPENED FOR BUSINESS by Paul F. Anderson

I will be in meetings all day tomorrow. The blog will be updated again on Friday.

This just in from Jim Korkis:

[The "Lost" Compilation Disney Animated Feature: MUSIC LAND

The little known final compilation film, Music Land, was released October 5, 1955. Disney had created its own company to release its films to theaters but still owed its current distributor, RKO, one more film under the existing contract. In order to fulfill that final film commitment, Disney took a combination of four sequences from Make Mine Music and five from Melody Time to create a new compilation film entitled Music Land. The poster boldly declared it was “The Big Parade of Mirth and Melody!” The film was never shown again except once at a retrospective “Tribute to Walt Disney” at the National Film Theater in 1970. The film contatined the following sequences: Trees, All The Cats Join In, After You’ve Gone, Once Upon a Wintertime, Pecos Bill, Johnny Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet, Bumble Boogie, Casey At the Bat, Blame It On the Samba.]

Do not miss today:
- JOURNAL OF A DISNEY HISTORIAN #2 by Paul F. Anderson
- WALT DISNEY & THE E.P. RIPLEY Part Two by Paul F. Anderson
- THE INNER WORKINGS-The Backside of...Rocks by Paul F. Anderson
- Fess Parker by Michael Barrier
- More Forgotten Tales of Disney History by Wade Sampson
- Tune Tuesday: Looking back on the creation of "Captain EO" by Jim Hill
- Don Hahn & Peter Schneider to host Q & A sessions this coming weekend during NY and LA screenings of “Waking Sleeping Beauty” by Jim Hill

Tomart's Disneyana Update number 74 has just been released. It contains the third part of David Gerstein's outstanding series about the English Mickey Mouse Annuals, including a lot of new information about Wilfred Haughton. A "must-read".

Do not miss today:
- WALT'S PEOPLE-Joyce C. Hall by Paul F. Anderson
- A Gold Mine For Film Research by Leonard Maltin

The book Project Future, The Inside Story Behind the Creation of Disney World by Chad D. Emerson will definitely be included in my top-3 list of 2010-released Disney history books.

I have just finished reading it. If you are interested in the origins of Walt Disney World you have to read this excellent book. It is clearly written and perfectly researched. It also brings quite a few new elements to the table. A definite success.

John (Ren and Stimpy) Kricfalusi draws Mickey Mouse

This just in from Jim Korkis.

I love this new blog in Italian. Some great stuff in there.

Do not miss today:

- Walt's Adventures in the Ivy League by Michael Barrier (a must-read!)
- Remembering Fess Parker and Frontier World by Todd James Pierce

Mark Mayerson just posted an exciting animated sequence on his blog. Do not miss it. I believe some of you had been waiting to see this for quite a while. Way to go Mark!

As you probably all know by now, the sad news of the day is the death of Fess Parker. You can read the about it here, here and here (Bob Iger's statement).

Wade Sampson had written about Fess for MousePlanet just last March.

Do not miss today:

- Walt's Adventures in the Ivy League by Michael Barrier
- Waking Sleeping Beauty by Michael Sporn
- Goodness of All Kinds by Thomas Haller Buchanan
- A Tribute to Joe Ranft by Mark Kennedy (and especially John Musker)
- Been Busy by Ed Gombert (and especially Vance Gerry)

This just in from Jim Korkis:


[Mickey Mouse passed away January 23, 2010...or actually Paul Castle who performed as the mouse at Disneyland for many years. His daughter has set up a blog.]

This just in from Jim Korkis (full disclosure: Jim Korkis is a member of Friends of Figment and the organization is contacting Imagineers to rally support for the return of the character of Dreamfinder to Epcot.)

[When Epcot Center opened in 1982 the characters of Dreamfinder and his little purple dragon Figment were iconic to the park. Not only did they appear on merchandise and in an attraction but there was a walk around character Dreamfinder who manipulated a puppet Figment to the delight of many guests. However almost a decade later, the character of Dreamfinder disappeared suddenly from the park without warning.

On Wednesday March 10th, at The Walt Disney Company annual meeting in San Antonio, Mike from the Friends of Figment organization made a long and impassioned plea to CEO Bob Iger to restore the character of Dreamfinder.Here is Mr. Iger's response:"I do not in any way want to get your hopes up, but the one thing that I will promise you is: I’ll have a discussion with the Imagineers, and see whether there is any real interest there. ... And, I don’t think that our entertainment offering suffers all that much by not supporting Dreamfinder, but given the fact that you are so interested in it; I feel obligated to at least ask the question, which I’ll do when we get back to Burbank."]

Do not miss today:

- FUN FOTO(s)-E.P. Ripley and Walt by Paul F. Anderson
- HIDDEN TREASURE-Pirates of the Caribbean Maquettes by Paul F. Anderson
- A Tribute to Joe Ranft by Jerry Beck
- Jack Cutting Speaks by Wade Sampson
- Dumbo's Premiere by Michael Barrier
- Dumbo in Print by Michael Barrier
- Mickey Mouse cachets by David Lesjak
- John Lasseter on The Princess and The Frog by John Frost (Thanks to Jim Korkis for the link)
- John Canemaker pays tribute to a guy named Joe by Jim Hill
- The Disneyland Paris that never was - Part one by Alain Littaye
- Sherman Brothers window ceremony on Main Street USA by Alain Littaye