This upcoming book seems to contain an excellent section about Virgil Patch's days at Disney. I will definitely pick it up.

One of the key Disney book events of the upcoming weeks will be the release of Sam Gennawey's long awaited book, The Disneyland Story. I had a chance to interview Sam recently. Here are his answers:

Didier Ghez: Why, when and how did you decide to write this book?

Sam Gennawey: I guess like may writers, especially historians, you want to write the book you’ve been wanting to read. You hope that there are enough people out there curious about the same questions to make the thing a commercial success.

Walt and the Promise of Progress City was a way to talk about basic urban planning concepts using Walt Disney’s life experiences and projects to illustrate those concepts. The moment the light bulb went off for The Disneyland Story: The Unofficial Guide was when I had just finished giving a talk at the Walt Disney Family Museum about the proposed Mineral King ski resort and standing with Werner Weiss of Yesterland in front of the wonderful scale model. As you know, the model expresses the aspirations of one man and I find it intriguing that the park survived after Walt passed away.

DG: What was your research methodology?

SG: Going back to the basics. I did not start out with a narrative just a structure. The promise was to let the facts take me where they wanted to go. In February 2012, I had the privilege of interviewing Jack Lindquist, Disneyland’s first president. In a room filled with hard-core Disneyana enthusiasts, he recalled a time when Walt Disney said that he was not as interested in all of the promotional stuff, the parades, and the shows. Walt figured that he hired good people who would do a great job and meet his standards. He was concerned about creating a great place with great rides, and creating a place that was beautiful. The book is not a survey of the wonderful entertainment programs at Disneyland, such as the parades and fireworks, nor a warts-and-all backstage peek at what it was like to work as a Cast Member, nor a testimonial to the amazing things people do at theme parks. This is a biography of a place called Disneyland. Like all biographies, the story starts with the birth of the park, winds its way through the trails of its adolescence, and ends as Disneyland works its way to middle age. 

DG: Did you conduct some new interviews for this book?

SG: I had spoken to Harrison “Buzz” Price before his passing, Marty Sklar, Rolly Crump, Bob Gurr, Alice Davis, and some others. Getting tough. Sadly, not very many of the original Imagineers left. However, during my day job I am always referring to documents and in this case, there is a wealth of information out there. The book has something like 840 footnotes.

DG: Did you discover documents that few historians had seen before?

SG: I spent about a month going through every single folder at the Anaheim archives. Also spent time at the Huntington Library, the Orlando Public Library, and the Buzz Price files at the University of Central Florida. I also have a collection of documents. The Buzz Price stuff was fun. Much of it has been restricted.

DG: What are the main surprises that Disney historians can expect when reading this book?

SG: I don’t think it would come as a complete surprise but the push and pull of projects. Some came together very quickly while others took forever. Documenting the resort expansion plans and Disney’s relationship with the City of Anaheim is something that generally not explored in Disney history books. Some of the details abou unbuilt projects like WESTcot, Port Disney, and California Living might surprise others.

DG: Any discoveries that particularly excited you?

SG: How a political conservative could turn around and want to dictate what others did with their properties and succeed.
I will never look at the ficus trees in New Orleans Square or the Banyan tree at the Hippo Pool in the Jungle Cruise the same way again.
New Orleans Square was really built to hide the Disneyland Hotel tower.
The battle between Anaheim and Long Beach.
The Columbia is actually full size. Did you ever look at the size of the bunks down below?

Here is an upcoming book by Christopher Finch which I am very much looking forward to reading!

This new book from Finland (in Finnish) is an absolute treasure trove for those of us who are fascinated by early Disneyana history. I was glad to get it on time to include it in the bibliography of my upcoming book Disney's Grand Tour!

Do not miss today:

- Walt Disney Makes The Rounds on Daveland
- The Story of Lady and the Tramp, Part One by Jim Korkis
- The LiMOUSEine Story by Jim Korkis
- Trying too Hard by Andreas Deja
- Disney in 1946 by Andreas Deja

This just in from Hans Crezee:

[I see you just posted the poster for a compilation program entitled "La Grande Parade de Walt Disney" that premiered in March 1940 in France. Would you believe it that I have a one sheet poster for a very similar compilation program entitled 'Walt Disney's sprookjes-parade' that premiered in the Netherlands in April 1940? As you can see that program also included 'Ferdinand the bull', 'the Practical pig' and 'the brave little tailor'. You can also see that the local RKO office apparently hired some less competent artist to do the artwork.]

If you have not already done so, do not forget to order Jim Korkis' new book this week!

Did anyone one of you happen to buy this photo of Walt when it was sold on ebay a few years ago? If so, could you please email me ASAP at didier.ghez@gmail.com?

The blog will be updated again on October 14th.

Help needed!

Are you based in London? If so, I need your help with some Disney-related research. I need someone to go to the British Film Institute and dig into the Denis Gifford Collection. I have a feeling we might be able to find a few treasures related to the early history of Disney in the UK (pure speculation at this stage, but some clues tell me that we might have some good luck).

If you are ready to volunteer, could you email me at didier.ghez@gmail.com?

Thanks in advance.

This great photo of the Disney TV unit just in thanks to John Emerson:

Back row: Julius Svendsen, Art Stevens, Jack Boyd, Elmer Plummer, Jim Swain

Front row: Ham Luske, Jimmy Trout, Joe Hale, Mac Stewart, John Emerson

Secretary: Mary Satterwhite

Do not miss today:

- Fateful Encounters: Mary Costa Talks Disney and Stravinsky by Jim Hollifield
- Panchito, Little Gauchito, and Burrito by Jim Korkis
- Former Disney Animator Discovers Image of Lincoln at Gettysburg (Thanks to Michael Goldberg for the link)

This just in from Hans Crezee:

[I see you noticed the unusual Chinese Pinocchio program on eBay. The main reason why I bought it is that I already had a Snow White program from 1938 from the same cinema in Nanking. Imagine, this is one year after the rape of Nanking in 1937! The Pinocchio program has 24 pages with the storyline and also serves as a collector's album as the idea was to paste in (colored?) Pinocchio pictures from some Chinese brand. The color ad on the back is also interesting: this American company of Henningsen apparently had a factory in Shanghai, and I have an ad for their Snow White Eskimo Toffee, but unfortunately very small and in black and white.]

My upcoming book, Disney's Grand Tour, discusses among many, many other things the origins of the compilation of Disney shorts released in France in 1934 and titled L'Heure Joyeuse de Mickey. Another compilation of Disney shorts was released in France on March 13, 1940. I thought you might enjoy the poster, which I saw last week for the first time.

This just in from Lars Emanuelsson:

[Last week I spent some days with the Tenggren holdings at the Kerlan Collection in the University of Minnesota, MN. I was there to do research for my Tenggren biography, which is planned to be released autumn 2014. I had the opportunity to browse through a number of interesting items of Tenggren’s, among these this little folder from the Saturday Evening Post from September 1956, presumably an in-house staff publication. Later that year, in November 1956, the famous Tenggren cover with Walt Disney on the train was published, illustrating Diane Disney Miller’s article “My dad Walt Disney”. The folder describes the process of the cover from idea to finished painting.

It’s great to see Ken Stuart’s sketches for the various cover ideas, compared with Tenggren’s final well-known artwork. Especially the little addition of Jiminy Cricket is fun to learn about.]

Not exactly Disney-related, but I am certain that most of you will want to know that this book will be released tomorrow.

You may remember the fascinating chapter about the Ink and Paint Department from David Johnson's manuscript The Life and Times of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs which I posted on the Disney History blog a few weeks ago.

David now has a blog and he has been posting more extracts from the book. I have a feeling you will enjoy it.

This great picture was taken in Australia at the John Sands packing exhibition at the Sydney Town Hall between August and November 1936.

Among other things, my upcoming book, Disney's Grand Tour, pieces together the early history of the Disney offices throughout Europe, adding a tremendous amount of details to what was known until now.

However, when you look at early Robert Hartman stationary and Kay Kamen catalogs, you realize that, apart from Europe, Disney also had an "official" presence abroad in Australia since at least August 1934.

From what I was able to gather, Disney was first represented in Australasia, through the Australian company John Sands Ltd. Walter Rogan Granger was working for John Sands at the time and seems to have been the Key Account Manager for Disney as early as 1935 (and maybe even earlier).

By the end of October 1939, Walter R. Granger resigned from John Sands and became the General Manager of the newly created Walt Disney - Mickey Mouse A'sia Pty Ltd. He passed away in January 1947 and was followed as GM by his son, Walter Arthur Granger, who remained with the company at least until the 1970s.

Do we have any readers in Australia? Have you researched the early history of Disney in that country? Do you know if the John Sands company, which still exists, preserved its archives? Do you know when Walter Arthur Granger retired? (He passed away in 2008.) Any idea of what were the first products licensed by John Sands and when?

Any additional information which can be added to what I am mentioning above would be tremendously welcome.  

Pinocchio in China

I would have loved to pick up this very unusual item on ebay if the price had not gone through the roof.

If rare vintage Disneyana fascinates you, then you do not want to miss this new site!