Do not miss this outstanding article by Todd James Pierce on the Disney History Insitute. Pure gold:

- Walt's Field Day - 1938 by Todd James Pierce

I have received a copy of Water to Paper, Paint to Sky - The Art of Tyrus Wong, the catalog of the exhibition about the art of Ty Wong which is currently taking place at the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco until February next year. This is a gorgeous book which you should not miss. It contains about 20 pages about Wong's work on Bambi, and not a lot of text, but the text is very interesting and Tyrus Wong's art by its quality, subtelty and sheer variety is a true feast for the eyes. I wish I were in San Francisco right now.

- More Chanticleer by Andreas Deja
- Edward Prizer: Inside EPCOT Center 1981 by Jim Korkis
- A Brief History of Disney Character Costumes by Jim Korkis
- Portrait of the 'perfect American family': Walt Disney's secret apartment is frozen in time above Disneyland's fire station by Jennifer Madison (Thanks to Jim Korkis for the link)
- Walt Disney Is Still Not Frozen by Chris Nichols (Thanks to Jim Korkis for the link)

This just in from Julie Thomas:

[We had such a good response to Floyd's appearance at Walt's Barn last month that we sold out of his books.  Floyd has graciously agreed to return this Sunday, September 15.  Please mention this appearance on your blog.

BTW, our upcoming appearances will be on October 6 - Marty Sklar, October 20 - Dave Bossert and November 17 - Sam Gennawey returns.]

Since I mentioned this series of English recordings a few weeks ago, I thought you would like to see what Meet Mickey Mouse looks like (I just picked it up on ebay). I am still trying to find out the title of Number 3 in this series.

I don't think I had ever seen this photo of Walt with the King of Morocco.

Simply put: I loved this book. It does contain a few typos and the format should have been way bigger, but the simple fact that it exists is a small miracle. It is well written, honest, and full of great stories about Roy. A "must-have" without a doubt and a truly delightful surprise. Way to go to the author David Bossert!

The cover of Charles Solomon's upcoming book has just been released. Can't wait!

I had no idea that a 156-page long catalog had been released to commemorate the opening of the Tyrus Wong exhibition at the Walt Disney Family Museum. I will review it as soon as I get a copy, but this definitely sounds like a "must have".

Would anyone of you happen to live in Germany? I would like to get a copy of this book, but the store apparently only ships to German addresses. Could you email me at didier.ghez@gmail.com if you can help?

 

The manuscript is now virtually complete. This small coffee table book should be released at the end of this year or early next year thanks to Theme Park Press. More about this project soon... (Please note that the cover shown here is still a draft.)

The blog will be updated again Thursday, September 5.

I had the tremendous pleasure on Friday to receive a review copy of Mindy Johnson's new book Tinker Bell - An Evolution and spent part of my weekend devouring it.

The short review: Run to get this book.  It is full of stunning concept art and contains a large amount of brand new information about Tinker Bell and Disney's version of Peter Pan.

The longer story: Tinker Bell - An Evolution is clearly one of the best Disney History books of 2013. I will have a really hard time this year chosing between the two Floyd Gottfredson books that David Gerstein edited, Sam Gennaway's The Disneyland Story and Mindy's book, to select the best Disney History book of 2013. What I can assure you is that Mindy's book is an extremely strong contender. As you know, I love pre-production art and half of the book is full of never-seen-before storyboard drawings and gorgeous concept art (some that we already knew but a lot that we did not). And the text provides many new facts, including information about abandoned plots and characters. Finally, Mindy has identified all of Tink's real life inspirations, including Ink and Paint artist Ginni Mack and has found, for the first time, a photo of concept artist David Hall.

The book is easy to read and a feast for the eyes. It does contain a few small typos, which I suspect are the responsibility of some over-eager editor, but overall it is perfect in every way.

One would have thought that a book with such a title released by Disney would have been a "puff piece". Not so! Mindy has achieved a rare feat: writing and producing a wonderful history book and art book which will satisfy both Disney historians and the general audience alike.

Hats off.

Do not miss today:

- Cruella as Medusa? by Andreas Deja
- Babbitt Sues Over $1.29 by Jake Friedman
- A Day with Ward Kimball in 1957 by Jim Korkis

Help Needed

Would anyone of you know how to find out what the original French and Italian names of the Oswald cartoons were? This is a very touch question and realize it is a long shot, but I need to at least try.

Not sure what this newly released book is worth and how much it contains about Fishinger's work for Disney but I know that most of you will want to know that it exists.

Fun and very unusual postcard just found on ebay. Unfortunately the price went too high for me to pick it up.

This just in from Jim Korkis:

[From Ain't It Cool News: I have never seen this color SOTS behind the scenes shot before....you might want to post it on your site.]

This upcoming book intrigued me and I decided to send its author a few questions.

Didier Ghez: When and why did you decide to write this book?

Mark Arnold: I had the idea for quite awhile because of my frustrations with Leonard Maltin's "The Disney Films" and where it concluded. He kept updating his book, but gave little coverage to anything post-Walt, only going into late 1967. I discovered that there were many other projects that Walt was involved with that were released in 1968 and many even later than that. Also, many projects that Walt had nothing to do with were and are still worthy of the name Disney.
I was born in 1966 on the exact same day and year that Walt Disney died. The Disney of the 1970s and 1980s are what I grew up with. Walt Disney was just a founder, and I didn't identify with what he was doing, except when they reissued older films. I identified with what was currently going on, and I enjoyed most of it, but today this period is dismissed as being bad and unwatchable. Not true.
It was after my two-volume book "If You're Cracked, You're Happy: The History of Cracked Mazagine" that I was searching for another book to write and started writing "Frozen in Ice" even before I had a publishing agreement figuring I would get one in time, and I did.

DG: Could you describe the kind of research you conducted in order to write it?

MA: Of course, the Maltin book, plus many other books released over the years as well as viewing all 75+ films that were released during the period covered in the book. I also read my back issues of "Disney News" and read other books and saw videos containing interviews with the stars of the films as well as obtaining facts from various online sources such as IMDB. I also visited the Walt Disney Family Museum to see if they had any more information.

DG: Did you spend time interviewing some of the people who worked at the Studio and at WED at the time?

MA: I was initially going to do formal interviews like I did with my other books, but found that there were so many interviews and commentaries in existence, most of that work was already done for me. I have met many Disney stars over the years and many times they repeated the same stories I read or heard in other interviews. I didn't think that the living stars would shed any new light on what they've already said elsewhere by me interviewing them again. To most Disney stars, it was a job and as such they have limited memories about working there. Also, many of the stars of the period have now passed away as Disney tended to hire aging actors who couldn't get work elsewhere. It wasn't considered glamorous to be working on a Disney movie to many stars at that time.
The stars that I have met and talked about Disney with include Dick Van Patten, Tim Conway, Don Pedro Colley, Cloris Leachman, Harvey Korman, Ernest Borgnine and Jon Provost.
The only interview I really wanted to get was with Ron Miller. I did contact him through the Museum and through his winery, but my requests fell on deaf ears. I get the impression that he didn't want to relive the years that he was in charge very much, since the general opinion is that he helped ruin the studio, which isn't true.

DG: What are the main chapters of the book?

MA: Mainly it is set up like the Maltin book, but with one difference. I have a chapter covering each year. For instance, I'll cover 1968 and talk about everything that happened to Disney in that year including TV, comic books, records, theme parks, etc. and even include what didn't get released. Then I cover in detail as Maltin did, each film that came out that year. So, still using 1968 as an example, that includes "Blackbeard's Ghost", "The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band", "Never a Dull Moment", "The Horse in the Grey Flannel Suit" and "The Love Bug". For each film I write a detailed synopsis and then write a short review and include comments by the stars or interesting details about the production. Then, I start over again with 1969, going all the way up to 1985.
The reason I stopped at 1985 is that Disney as a company really changed from what it was once Michael Eisner took over in 1984. It was already in flux, but Eisner really dramatically changed it to the direction it is today and laid off the majority of any connections to the past. At this point, there's no going back. Disney is just too big. It is hard to believe there was a time where Disney wasn't doing too well and almost got bought out. I discuss all of this in detail.

DG: What are the key discoveries Disney historians and scholars can expect if they pick up this book?

MA: That the years 1966-1985 weren't as bad as people remember for Disney. They did some memorable stuff like "The Love Bug", "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" and "Freaky Friday" and even "Tron".  Sure, they had some doggy films, but they did also when Walt was alive and certainly after Eisner took over. In fact, there's probably more of them since Disney releases so much more stuff nowadays.
The book is 550 pages and has photo images of movie posters, and is designed to be a thorough description of the history of the period from 1966-1985.
After I'm done, I will resume work on my book about DePatie-Freleng (Pink Panther).

This just in from Ed Ovalle from the Walt Disney Archives:

[The picture you recently purchased of Walt and the man who was a member of the Mickey Mouse all-cartoonist band does not appear to be Errol Gray as Mark Sonntag thought.
I believe that it could be James (Jamie) Escalante. We have a picture of the band and Errol Gray is wearing an entirely different uniform and the person sitting next to him wearing the grenadier hat and looks like James (Jamie) Escalante.
I have even seen a website that is maintained by Errol Gray's son who has the same picture and identifies the person as his father, Errol Gray.

The only problem is our personnel card lists James Escalante start date as 1/1939. In any case, I feel confident that the person next to Walt is not Errol Gray.]