The Disney Books Network has been updated.

Monday is a holiday in Spain. The blog will be updated again on Tuesday. Happy Halloween to you all.

If Sebastien Roffat did his homework well, this upcoming book in French about animated propaganda could be very good.

Do not miss today:

- Happy 100th, Tyrus Wong! by Amid Amidi
- Woodland Cafe - 2 by Michael Sporn

Finally! University Press of Mississippi has just released official information on Amazon about the two books of 2011 I am most looking forward to getting:

- Working with Disney: Interviews with Animators, Producers, and Artists by Don Peri

- Walt before Mickey: Disney's Early Years, 1919-1928 by Tim Susanin

If you enjoyed Don Peri's first collection of interviews, Working with Walt, and if you like Walt's People, this book will definitely be a "must-have".

As to Tim Susanin's book, I read the manuscript a few months ago and am able to confirm that it is one of the best Disney history books of the last decade. Not to be missed in any way, shape or form!

I must admit that I am looking forward to Tron:Legacy. A bit of nostalgia on my part even though I never really loved the original movie. So I am excited by the upcoming issue of Twenty-Three (but then again I usually always am). I also look forward to the other elements it will contain, like the announced article which is the result of newly discovered footage that chronicles Walt's last time in front of the camera in Sound Stage 1.

Do not miss today:

- Design & History of the Disneyland Hotel California: 1955 - 1965 by Don Ballard
- The Approved Narrative by Michael Barrier

This just in from Jim Korkis:

[As Didier so often points out, books that may not seem directly related to Disney history sometime reveal an interesting piece of the Disney history puzzle. Darrell Van Citters has written an excellent book entitled "Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol: the Making of the First Animated Christmas Special". The first edition immediately sold out last year and just in time for the holidays is a smaller printing second edition.

Among the Disney revelations is that Walt himself encouraged Producer Lee Orgel's idea to do the animated special and then called him on the night of the premiere in 1962 to rave about the results. How did Walt know Orgel? Another revelation in the book is that when Walt needed silent movies to run in the Main Street Cinema at Disneyland when it opened, he contacted Orgel who was working at Sterling Television and selling cartoons and silent films to independent tv stations to provide them.

Of course, other Disney related personnel worked on the Magoo special from voice artists like Paul Frees (Ludwig von Drake, Ghost Host) and Royal Dano (the voice of Mr. Lincoln at Disneyland) to former Disney artists like Tony Rivera, Dick Ung, Gerry Geronimi (who doesn't receive credit in the film but apparently directed the song "Alone in the World"--another new fact I learned in the book) and more.]

Do not miss today:

- Whatever Happened to Little Sunflower? by Jim Korkis
- Goofy and Babbitt by Michael Sporn

For those of you living in L.A., this just in through Julie Svendsen.

One of the books I discovered (thanks to Michael Barrier once again) while researching my essay about Perce Pearce is the autobiography of actor Richard Todd, which contains quite a few pages about his work for Disney. I thought you might be interested to know that it exists.

I stumbled this weekend upon a treasure trove: UCLA has started posting on their site the whole transcripts of the Oral Histories that they conducted several decades ago. Two interviews are directly linked to Disney: Jules Engel and Dick Huemer (although the sections of the Dick Huemer interview related to Disney were already released in Walt's People - Volume 3). Enjoy.

Do not miss today:

- Oskar Fischinger at Disney by Michael Sporn (and William Moritz)
- Woodland Cafe - 1 by Michael Sporn
- The Disney Halloween special you never got to see, Tim Burton's "Trick or Treat" by Jim Hill

This just in from Jim Korkis:

[I am just finishing an article for my Wednesday MousePlanet column that will cover some of the background of the poltiical animated commercial the Disney Studio made for Dwight Eisenhower in 1952. The "I Like Ike" spot (officially titled "We'll Take Ike (to Washington") is pretty fascinating. It is the only political commercial the Disney Studio made and "Ike" was the first candidate to use television advertising.

As I was finishing up the article I came across the fact that the person who approached the Disney Studios to do the job was Jacqueline Cochran (a cosmetics executive and well known woman aviator who had severa aviationl awards). Even more amazing is that she corresponded with the Disney Studio. I found two letters (through various sources) including one from Producer Bill Anderson and another that was an excerpt from a letter by Roy O. Disney.

In his letter, Roy also included a list of the Disney employees who contributed their time and efforts to the cartoon. That list and other related correspondence is in the Jacqueline Cochran Papers, Eisenhower Campaign Series, Box 2, in the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum in Abilene, Kansas patiently awaiting some other researcher to journey there and reveal its contents.]

I hope someone can help. There are quite a few treasures that can still be uncovered in archives, when one knows where to look. For example, I would love to know that one of you will soon be visiting at some point in the future the library of Bigham Young University in Provo, Utah since its seems to contain important papers by and about Disney artist "Wetzel O. Whitaker" (Judge Witaker). It looks as if Judge Whitaker wrote two books:

Looking Back: An Autobiography (which I suspect is an Oral History more than an autobiography as such) and Pioneering with Film.

I have the feeling that copies of those books only exist in manuscript form at BYU (http://history.cfac.byu.edu/index.php/Wetzel_O._Whitaker).

I would interested in at least getting answers to two questions:

1. Does the manuscript of Looking Back really exist and does it contain anything about Whitaker's career at Disney (if so how I would love to get copies)

2. Does the manuscript of Pioneering with Film contain any reference to a possible involvment on the Disney Studio in the '60s on the making of the movie Man's Search for Happiness for the New York World's Fair (this was discussed on the blog a while back)?

The Otto Englander mysteryAs mentioned, I am working at the moment on an essay about Disney artist Perce Pearce. This is proving to be a fascinating process as it allowed me to stumble upon sources that I had no idea existed (which I mentioned on the blog as soon as I discovered them). I had a similar experience while working on an essay about Joe Fowler and Carl Bongirno for an upcoming book edited by Chad Emerson.

There are many other key Disney artists and executives that would deserve to be much better known than they are.

Since once has to start somewhere, I have decided to try and explore the life of storyman Otto Englander. The issue (and opportunity) is that one finds quite a bit of information about Otto's career during the Golden Age: his role on Snow White, Pinocchio and Dumbo is relatively well know. But he then seems to fade out and reappears in the oddest places: an abandoned animated-feature about Sherlock Holmes in the '40s, a TV special in the '60s, The Aristocats later on.

Could anyone help me piece together this mystery? Where should I start?

I am not a gamer, but I admit that I am excited by the Epic Mickey project. I therefore liked to learn that an Art of Epic Mickey book is currently in the works for release in the Summer of 2011.

Interesting drawing of Destino by Dali currently being sold by Sotheby's. (Thanks to Emmanuel Bourmalo for the link)

This just in from Jim Korkis: [Just because I wrote about Walt Disney's love of miniatures in The Vault of Walt doesn't mean I stopped researching that topic (or any of the other topics I included in the book). Here is something I just ran across. It is an article from the February 1953 issue of Popular Science magazine and yes, that is Kathryn "Alice in Wonderland" Beaumont sticking her head into the Granny Kincaid Cabin that Walt personally built for his Disneylandia project. The cabin was exhibited at the Festival of California Living at the Pan Pacific Auditorium in Los Angeles from November 28 to December 7, 1952. A press release announced that it represented the beginning of Walt’s new miniature Americana exhibit, entitled “Disneylandia.” I suspect since this article appeared roughly two months later that these photos are publicity shots from that exhibition.]

Do not miss today:

- The Frito Kid Rides Again by Jim Korkis
- Ads That Sold Cartoons --- Part One by John McElwee (Thanks to CartoonBrew for the link)

I am still in the process of interviewing True-Life Adventures director Jack Couffer and am stumbling day after day on little gold nuggets of information. Here is Jack Couffer's answer about Lloyd Beebe, that led yesterday to my discovery of a Disney-related book that I did not know existed.

[I valued Lloyd as my friend and right hand and arm on three pictures. “Nikki”, “Lobo”, and “Incredible Journey”, and he helped me with his tame grizzly bear on a non-Disney flick. Lloyd not only shot beside me, he also did a great job (before we had real trainers) at figuring out ways to get our animals to do some of the things that people are frequently asking about. “How do you get them to do those things?” is perhaps the most common question I hear. Lloyd often had the answer.

We shot much of “Incredible Journey” on his property in Sequim, Washington. It’s a varied landscape including a stream, pond, wooded hill, and green fields. It was an altogether wonderful time and place with a great team—one of the best production experiences of my career.

He wrote a book: “Wilderness Trails and a Dream”.]