I mentioned a few weeks ago an auidio tour called A Walt in the Park with Rolly Crump that might be worth getting. I have now listened to that program.

If you are interested in the making of Disney theme parks, do yourself a favor and get that recording right away. It is absolutely full of stories I had never heard or read before. About 20% of the stories can be found in issues 9 and 38 of The E-Ticket, all the rest is new to me.

Way to go to Ken Kenbow for having produced that truly great show!

Thanks to Greg Heberlein, here is the obituary of Lloyd Beebe and his wife released in the Sequim Gazette.

Do not miss today:

- Disney Pipes and Pops by Jerry Beck
- Glen Keane on Tangled by Michael Barrier
- Progress City Library – Theme Park Design: Behind The Scenes With An Engineer by Michael Crawford
- Windows to the Past: The PT-9 Mosquito Boat by Jeff Pepper
- Vintage Headlines: Mosquito Master by Jeff Pepper

I approved yesterday the galleys of Walt's People - Volume 10. I have good hope now that the book will be available before the end of the month, potentially as early as in about 10 days.

This just in from Jeff Kutti:

[Jim Korkis may be referring to the film Roy O. Disney mentions in this quote from an interview of 1968 with Richard Hubler:

"As I have said before, Walt was a natural publicist, public relations type fellow. He was from the start… For example, real early in the game down here, you wanted to get your pictures into a good theater. We used to have a theater down here on Figueroa near Seventh street that was quite popular. The best pictures ran there then. So we happened to know the manager – got acquainted with him. Walt made a deal with him. We had a picture –Mickey Mouse. So we made a reel of Mickey coming out on the screen and leading the live orchestra down beneath him there. And then they took exception to him and they started quarrelling back and forth and then the live orchestra makes a gesture like they’re throwing things at Mickey. On the screen come all these things that drive Mickey off the screen. It was just a novel little introduction for him with his orchestra, and for that he booked our cartoon in the theater and he put it up on the marquee for one afternoon to give us time enough to get out there and photograph it. So with those pictures we could get it in the trade papers and so on, just to start making other exhibitors think they were worthy of booking."]

We visited this weekend an exhibition of photos by John Gutmann and I thought you would enjoy seeing this one titled Broke But Selling Popeye and Mickey Mouse (1936).

Do not miss today:

- Catching Up by Michael Barrier
- Mobil Ads by Ward Kimball by Amid Amidi
- Bob Rogers: Theme Park Storytelling by Jim Korkis
- Jack Lindquist's "In Service to the Mouse" is an unvarnished view of Disneyland history by Jim Hill
- Walt Disney and Live-action Films by Jeff Kurtti

Speaking of Barks, Carl Barks expert Joseph Cowles launched his blog over the week. Enjoy.

This just in from John Garvin through the Disney Comics Mailing List:

[I thought I'd stop by and plug my book. I normally try to avoid such crass commercialism, but I thought someone here might be interested in the material, andsince it's not going to get much (i.e. any) advertising, I felt that this sort of stumping was the only way folks would hear about it.

It's called After Carl Barks: Painting Fine-Art Cartoons in Oils. I spent about four years writing it, and 33 years researching it.

The book basically is a record of everything I know about Barks's paintings, from craft to criticism, and it's about how Barks heavily influenced my own work. There's a free preview on the website, so check it out.

I don't reproduce any of Barks's paintings in the book - for copyright reasons - so I assume readers have access to the Barks painting books (of course, everyone has access to images of the paintings from various websites online).

Obviously the book is intended for anyone who knows Barks's painting work well, or who is interested in fine-art cartoons as a genre. The book does reproduce much of my own work as I show examples of what I learned from Barks and how I've done what Barks himself asked me to do: build on his techniques and paint things that no one hasever seen before.

So much work has been published about Barks's comic-book career, and so little about his painting career, I thought a book like this was needed... but as you can imagine, it's more a labor of love than anything, since I've been painting as a hobby for more than three decades.]

Do not miss today:

- MATTERHORN MANIA~Walt and Charities: United Way by Paul F. Anderson
- Newsweek - July 12, 1965 on Vintage Disneyland Tickets
- Disney Historian Jim Korkis recalls Disney anecdotes, including the 1952 presidential campaign by Michael Freeman

Here is a document I just found online and that I think some of you will enjoy.

Film Music and Its Use in Beaver Valley

As remembered by James Algar in 1950.

This article was first released in Film and TV Music (November-December 1950).

When I went back in retrospect to our discussion of the music before Paul Smith began the Beaver Valley score, and when I began to consider the task of explaining some of our problems to an audience, I remembered an article by Robert U. Nelson published several years ago in The Pacific Spectator. Its title was The Craft of the Film Score. Mr. Nelson
pointed out that music for films and concert music are two different mediums:

“The distinction is important. In writing concert music, the composer is all-powerful; he may write anything he chooses. In the films, all this is changed. The composer is no longer a free agent; he must follow the split-second timings of the cue sheet and he must carefully subordinate his music to the dialogue... Film music cannot possibly follow, excepting in spots where there is no dialogue, an independent, abstract development. Its form is necessarily less tip-lit than that of concert music, its themes and motifs less rigorously worked out. The difference in structure between a film score and a symphony is so apparent as to cause some people to conclude that film music has no form. This is not true, yet the presentation of ideas in a film score is undeniably loose and fragmentary.”

Suppose we see how these observations apply to Beaver Valley.

If the composer must play "second fiddle" to the screen, then his music must follow the tempo, the pantomime and the other accidentals of screen story-telling.
And if he must give way constantly to narration and dialogue, how can he be expected to accomplish anything? Well, the composer can and does make important contributions to a film. Certainly Paul Smith's score was tremendously effective in Beaver Valley.
Film music gives a continuity and a cohesion to screen material; this was particularly true in Beaver Valley. It contributes mood, a feeling of warmth, an emotional tone. It "points up" action, and as you have seen, it definitely adds humor.

The music for Beaver Valley was written after the continuity of scenes had been worked out, after the editing was done and after the narration was written. And so one of the first problems the composer had to cope with was the amount of narration. The audience must hear the narrator, or there is no story, thus the music must be subdued when he is talking. This problem is partially solved by the right kind of orchestration during such passages. But of course the real solution lies in having a plan ahead of time so that the narrator is not talking in those sections where the music is to be most effective. It's a compromise situation of give and take. Indeed, in many spate throughout Beaver Valley the music became the story-telling voice, acting .for the moment, as a second narrator.

In terms of the story he had to help tell, the composer was faced with many other problems when he first sat down to score the picture. These included a hero in the beaver who was so busy and plodding he was unspectacular; a villain in the coyote who threatened but never quite caught up with his intended victims; a miscellaneous cast of characters in terms of the number and variety of animals; a quality in the humor that was sometimes gentle, sometimes playful but rarely ever slapstick. Finally, it had to be remembered that these were real animals, not the usual Disney animals of fantasy. Thus the music couldn't be too weird, or too fantastic or too extreme in direction.

In the beginning, certain musical themes were discussed in terms of the personalities of the animals involved or of the character of the material the music would accompany. It was decided that four main themes would recur throughout the picture.

First the setting of Beaver Valley itself seemed to call for a descriptive theme. We came to refer to this as the "Nature Theme." It was to have simplicity, a certain pastoral quality, dignity, and in general a feeling of the bigness of the outdoors. At the same time it had to be flexible enough that it could stand a bit of musical "embroidery" later when the various animals were introduced. The chipmunk, the moose, the marmot, the raccoon all were brought into the story during this part of the musical development.

Next came the problem of a "Beaver Theme", an important motif that would be heard several times in the picture. It seemed to call for a certain plodding, even tempoed progression to fit the busy animal's personality. And it had to lend itself to development and new coloration as we followed the beaver's fortunes through the seasons.

When the coyote entered the story, we knew we needed a warning note of menace, still the motif had to be short and immediately recognizable in a few notes, for the coyote's entrances and exits were to be sudden and brief.

And lastly the playful otters, whose personality was the exact opposite of that of the busy beaver, demanded a theme of their own. They were everything the beaver wasn't. Where he was serious, they were gay; where he moved cautiously, they went at things with abandon. Otters have as much nervous energy as any animals alive, and apparently never sit still. And so their music was made riotous and lively. The tempo was a lively march tempo, full of spirit and movement; the otter theme was purposely patterned after circus music. In fact, an arrangement was written for the U.C.L.A. band of 110 pieces and the number has become their entrance march at football games. The otter theme also has been adapted in a popular version. Lyrics were written and it now is heard under the title of Jing-a-ling Jing-a-ling. The original theme was such a catchy tune it seemed to lend itself naturally to such exploitation.

There were other somewhat incidental themes in Beaver Valley. They were incidental only in that they solved the problem of a particular episode but were not used again in the score; they proved to be highlights musically. One of these situations was that of the young ducks learning to fly. The music for this bit of action was definitely tongue-in-cheek and written to heighten an already humorous situation. Even the quacking of the baby ducks was made “musical,”… that is, was made to follow the tempo of the theme.

Then there was the Frog Symphony. In this instance humor was derived from the very seriousness of the music. The orchestra played the Sextet from Lucia absolutely straight, and the frogs carried their parts as soberly as opera singers. The effect of course was quite the opposite.

Here then were two instances in Beaver Valley wherein the music definitely heightened the humor. In contrast the episode of the spawning salmon found music called upon for something quite different. Here it had to capture the excitement of the magnificent leaps as the salmon fought their way through the rapids; at the same time it had to suggest some of the menace of the bear; and above all it had to underscore the poignant quality of the salmon's valiant fight.

There is one thing perhaps which sets the Beaver Valley score apart from others of its kind. I believe one of the reasons the music is effective is the fact that we used an animated cartoon technique in a live-action film. Musically speaking, I mean by this that we synchronized our music to our screen pantomime more often and more closely than is generally done in live-action movies. This was attempted not only in the major sequences where the ducks quacked to a tempo and the frogs croaked in unison with the orchestra, but all the way through the picture in little individual situations. The composer once told me he had written his score with a "loving touch". He meant, I'm sure, the musical effects in such scenes as the one where the marmot on the rook yawns and stretches... where the raccoon caught the crayfish, and where the otter poked his head up through the thin ice.

To get this close synchronization requires patience, time and careful planning. It involves a thorough study of the picture by the composer. It means running the picture back and forth on a Moviola while the action is observed scene by scene; it means timing these actions with a stop-watch; it means coping with the mathematics of the problem of so many feet passing through the projector in so many seconds accompanied by so many bars of music to such and such a tempo.

Paul Smith once told me that he definitely tried to write a score that was not pretentious. He said, "I tried to write music that was in keeping at all tines with the picture. I simply tried to do an honest job of scoring." In this, I believe he succeeded.

Do not miss today:

- IMAGINEERING A NEW SPLASH MOUNTAIN IN WDW by Paul F. Anderson
- THE ART OF KEN ANDERSON IN THE GALLERY by Paul F. Anderson
- PHOTO PROOF THAT WALT DID EVERYTHING... by Paul F. Anderson
- Comic Book Legends Revealed #294 by Brian Cronin (Thanks to Jim Korkis for the link)

Walt's People Update

Walt's People - Volume 10 has finally been sent to the publisher today and should therefore be available within about 6 weeks.

One of the most fascinating books I have read in recent years is the three-part biography of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris. It reads like a novel, while being meticulously researched (I am in the middle of the last volume, Colonel Roosevelt, which has just been released and that I had been expecting for years).

The reason I mention all this is that I discovered how interesting the life of Roosevelt could be thanks to a $crooge Mc Duck comic book by Don Rosa, but also because I just spotted on Amazon an upcoming book that seems to discuss the influences of both Theodore and Walt when it comes to preserving Nature in America: Film and the American Moral Vision of Nature: Theodore Roosevelt to Walt Disney. Not sure what that book will be worth but there is a strong chance that I will pick it up when the time comes.

I learned today with sadness that Lloyd Beebe, one of the key cinematographers on Disney's True-Life Adventures, had passed away yesterday. I mentioned Lloyd often on this blog over the last few months and his life and career will be celebrated through several interviews in Walt's People - Volume 12.

Another True-Life Adventures cinematographer, Disney Legend Paul Kenworthy, died two months ago.

Do not miss today:

- A DAPPER THIRTIES WALT by Paul F. Anderson
- GIMBEL'S THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE ... AND MICKEY by Paul F. Anderson
- The second video in the "Little Timmy" series on which our friend Greg Ehrbar worked recently.

Help Needed!

Once again, I need your help to locate some rare articles and documents.

1. The Bulletin

Do any of you have copies of the 1939-1940 Disney newsletter The Bulletin? Would you then be willing to share copies of some of them?

2. True-Life Adventures

I am trying to put my hands on more material about the making of the True-Life Adentures. I recently stumbled online on the excellent article by Tom McHugh from Popular Mechanics (September 1954) titled Animals are like other People (which I would love to get as a pdf), but I am also trying to locate the following documents:

- The Lurking Camera by Walt Disney in The Atlantic (August 1954)
- Walt Disney's Naturalist-Cinematographers by Frederick Foster in American Cinematographer (February 1954)
- The very rare 20-page booklet titled New Explorations in True-Life Adventures and People and Places (1953)
- The elusive booklet or article titled The Story of Walt Disney's True-Life Adventure Series (1952)

Could some of you help?

I missed this book when it was released in 2009, but just discovered it through Amazon.it. This catalog of the 37th Mostra of Rapallo with text in Italian and English is titled From Paperinik to PK - A Journey Among the Disney Superheroes. Its authors, are two of the best Italian Disney script writers: Carlo Chendi and Sergio Badino. If you are fan of Disney's Italian comic books, this should definitely be worth picking up.

Do not miss today:

- HAPPY NEW YEAR From DHI & Disneyland's Horse! by Paul F. Anderson
- Flogging the Funnybooks by Michael Barrier
- Walt and the Rose Parade! by Joseph Titizian

FYI: This book has now been released but is only available aboard the ship itself. It seems to be very short but apparently does contain a few renderings. Nothing to get too excited about though from what I heard.

I just discovered that Lois Crisler, one of the photographers on White Wilderness had written a book at the time about her experience in the Arctic, called Arctic Wild. I doubt she discusses directly the actual production of that True-Life Adventure but the content of the book is probably directly related to the movie anyway.

The Denver Library contains Lois Crisler's papers. If one of you lives in Denver, it would be great if you could have a look at those papers (especially the correspondence and the journals) to find out if they contain anything about her work for Disney.

The same is true if you live in Washington, since the papers of her husband Herb can be found at the University of Washington. They worked as a team.

Do not miss today:

- The Forgotten Story of the Wilderness Lodge by Jim Korkis
- Prod. 2262 - Canine Caddy by Hans Perk

This just in from Jim Korkis:

[I think your Christmas listing of what you want Santa to bring should be a regular feature on your blog: Lost Treasures (that need to be found).

Here's my first contribution:

In 1929, the Disney Studios made two speciality films with Mickey Mouse. One of them is well known and copies exist: Mickey Mouse singing "Minnie's Yoo Hoo" with some reworked animation from "Mickey's Follies" as a sing a long for the Mickey Mouse Clubs that were in theaters at the time. The second may be one of the most rare Mickey sound cartoons and while there is documentation that it existed, no copy has turned up so far. Again, this was made for the Mickey Mouse Clubs. The film combines animation of Mickey and Minnie with live action of vaudeville star "Noodles" Fagan. I am not sure what the content is but judging by the fact that it was for the Mickey Mouse Clubs it may have involved some type of audience participation, perhaps another sing along.]

Do not miss today:

- What Do YOU Do, Jessica Blake? by the Walt Disney Family Museum
- Exclusive: Fantagraphics to publish the complete Carl Barks by Chris Mautner (thanks to John Rozum for the link)

Happy New Year to you all.

As always, let's start 2011 with the best of the previous year. Here is my selection of the best Disney history books of 2010. I have to admit that I had difficulty ranking the first three. I believe they could each be at the top of the list. Once again 2010 proved to be an excellent year in terms of Disney publications, be they serious studies about a specific subject, memoirs or art books.

Thankfully 2011 looks very promising too in that respect.

1. Canemaker, John: Two Guys Named Joe: Master Animation Storytellers Joe Grant and Joe Ranft published by Disney Editions; 2010.

2. Lindquist, Jack; Combs, Melissa J.: In Service to the Mouse published by Neverland Media; 2010.

3. Korkis, Jim: The Vault of Walt published by Ayfour; 2010.

4, Malmberg, Melody: Walt Disney Imagineering: A Behind the Dreams Look at Making More Magic Real published by Disney Editions; 2010.

5. Smith, Lella (editor): Walt Disney Animation Studios The Archive Series: Design published by Disney Editions; 2010.

6. Peri, Don; Burns-Clair, Pam: Walt Disney's First Lady of Imagineering, Harriet Burns published by Donning Publishers; 2010.

7. Armstrong, Jennifer: Why? Because We Still Like You: An Oral History of the Mickey Mouse Club published by Grand Central Publishing; 2010.

This just in.

Do not miss today:

- Wild Things 1983 by Hans Perk
- "Memories of Christmas Past" by Diane Disney Miller
- Disney Rose Parade Memories by Jim Korkis
- "Flyin' Chunks" looks back at Dorse Lanpher's 48 years at Disney & Don Bluth's animation studios by Jim Hill

A Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year to all of you.

I will be on holiday next week. See you all again in 2011. On January 3rd.

Disneyland Mickey Mouse Club Circus / 1955 - 1956

This just in from Todd James Pierce:

[I've seen home movies of the 1955/6 Disneyland Circus before. (I have some, but they aren't particularly great.) But I've never seen the Disney characters in the circus in a home movie.

This looks like a combination of a few things:

The Mickey/Minnie look like the ice show costumes again. Or at least they have the same zigzag cutouts on the mouth.Some--maybe all--of the other characters may have been from the ice show as well.It doesn't look like these dwarfs are from the Carthay Circle premiere in 1938.

Now the interesting part: About five years ago, I was talking to someone who swore she remembered character costumes being made at the studio for Disneyland during the summer of 1955. I filed that away in the "probably mis-remembered" category. But maybe she was right. Maybe there were some costumes made up at the studio that year???]

The same person who posted that clip on YouTube, also posted a rare video of C.V. Wood. See below:

Rare Clip of C.V. Wood / Disneyland General Manager

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irrNDs_Z0ZE

Here is one of the best and cheapest Disney-history-related gift that one can get this year. Don't miss this Walt in the Park with Rolly Crump.

This just in drom Dylan Otto:

[Saw your blog, and thought you might want to know I have David Hand's son doing a screening of his father's Animaland cartoons in Broomfield, CO Jan. 15. Some of your readers might be interested. Hand, Jr. has a studio in Broomfield.]

Do not miss today:

- Jerry Rees website by Jerry Beck
- A Walk In The Park With Rolly by Michael Crawford

What would I love to receive as a Christmas gift this year? If Santa Claus were all-powerful, here are some of the Disney-history-related items that would make it to my wish list.

What would YOU add to this list?

- Bob Thomas' lost interviews (especially those conducted in the mid-'50s for The Art of Animation and in the '60s for Walt Disney - Magician of the Movies)

- The lost interviews conducted by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston for The Illusion of Life

- Eric Larson’s autobiography manuscript (40 Years at the Mouse House)

- Manuscript of Jack Speirs' autobiography

- The rumored (but unconfirmed) autobiography of Roy Williams

- All of Dave Smith's not-yet-transcribed interviews

- All the letters to Dave Smith by people who knew Walt or worked for Walt

- All of Michael Barrier's and JB Kaufman's not-yet-released interviews

- A full-run of the DeMolay Disney comics

- A complete list of the Disney TV ads produced in the ‘50s

- Production information about the Disney TV ads produced in the ‘50s

- Production information / correspondence / other documents related to the Disney section created for Douglas Fairbanks’ Around the World in 80 Minutes

- Visual elements linked to Mary Pickford's Alice in Wonderland project

- The 1933 Technicolor test for Disney's / Pickford's Alice in Wonderland project

- All the lost Alice Comedies and Disney Oswald cartoons

Do not miss today:

- Exclusive Geek Out: 'Tron: Legacy' Screenwriters Discuss the Mythology; Address Key Story Decisions by Todd Gilchrist

Two interesting photos of Clarence Nash (Donald's voice) found on ebay today. I wonder who the gentlemen in the photo are.

Do not miss today:

- Phew! What a year. by Ed Gombert
- This is what I mean! by Ed Gombert
- Dan Haskett Interview (and more) by Mark Mayerson (and Steve Hulett)
- 73rd Anniversary: Snow White Premiere at The Carthay Circle Theater by Dave De Caro
- The Best Walt Christmas Story by Jim Korkis
- British Disney Christmas tree lights by David Lesjak
- Snow White at the Carthay - 73 years tonight by David Lesjak
- From Jiminy Cricket to Phineas and Ferb by Greg Ehrbar
- MEET THE FILMMAKERS OF "THE BOYS: THE SHERMAN BROTHERS' STORY" by Greg Ehrbar

This weekend I learned about the recent launch of Amazon.it. Having had a look around I discovered at least two books about Disney that I found interesting: the graphic novel La Vera Storia Di Novecento by Baricco, Faraci and Cavazzano and the upcoming book Il destino di un incontro. Salvador Dalì e Walt Disney (February 2011) by Francesca Adamo and Caterina Pennestri.

I stumbled upon this Music Sheet from Spain last week and I thought you might enjoy it.

Considering the large number of years Steve Alcorn worked for WDI, this book could be a good read. What worries me by reading the first few pages is that it looks too surfacy. I will let you know after reading it.

Do not miss today:

- Tangled : An Interview with Disney Designer Laurent Ben-Mimoun by Jérémie Noyer
- In memoriam - Walt Disney - December 15, 1966 by David Lesjak
- David Hand Book of Keys – look inside by Mitch Manuel
- David Hand Book of Keys – reference pages by Mitch Manuel

Looking for Ardis Sturdy

This just in:

[I’m researching a Colorado artist in the museum collection named Ardis Sturdy. I have found a couple of references to her being an artist for Disney in either “the 1940s” or “the early years.” I think her dates are 1918-2003.

Does that name ring a bell? Or, could you recommend a resource to try to track her down from the Disney angle?

The artist may have been in the ink and paint department as one of the jobs her nephew remembers his aunt telling him is that she painted the tail on pluto drawings.

She moved to Colorado in the 1950s and was an active artist until her death. Her later style is abstract.]

I have never heard of Ardis. Would anyone have any information about her?

D23's Armchair Archivists

Each day I like more and more what D23 is doing. I already mentioned a while back the first episode of the YouTube series Armchair Archivists. Since then D23 has launched 4 more episodes and the first of those at least is a must see for all of us.

Episode 2



Episode 3



Episode 4



Episode 5

Do not miss today:

- Former Disney CEO Ron Miller recalls his own "TRON" legacy by Leo Holzer
- Walt Talks Art by Jim Korkis
- Snow's in the forecast - shovel, or snowball fight? by David Lesjak

Disney artists and former Disney artists Frank Thomas, X. Atencio, Jules Engel, Willis Pyle, Berny Wolf, Rudy Ising, ... all worked during the war in the 1st Motion Picture Unit at "Fort Roach".

While this part of animation history is not as such "Disney history" the links with Disney history are so strong that I would love to see an animation historian write an in-depth article about the subject.

Charles Solomon, maybe, since his book The History of Animation, Enchanted Drawings contains a few great pages on the subject... or maybe one of the readers of this blog?

It looks as if a whole book is being written about the 1st Motion Picture Unit itself (but not its animation division as such). I really hope that an animation historian will decide to tackle the subject in the near future.

Do not miss today:

- The Art Of Disney’s Tangled: an interview with author Jeff Kurtti by Jérémie Noyer
- 1930s Donald Duck gift tags by David Lesjak
- "Meet Me At Merkel's Toyland" - Mickey Mouse pin by David Lesjak
- Disney corporate Christmas card - unused art by David Lesjak

I usually enjoy Kevin Yee's books, but his latest one, Walt Disney World Hidden History: Remnants of Former Attractions and Other Tributes, seems to be a "must have" (from its description on Amazon) in the category of reference books about the parks.

Do not miss today:

- Remembering a Dream(finder) by Jim Korkis
- The Casablanca Plane Myth:Not a Myth After All? by Werner Weiss and Jim Korkis
- "A SECOND RATE LAS VEGAS" ~Walt Disney by Paul F. Anderson

Jérémie Noyer's two new books are now available on Amazon.fr. Here are the tables of content:

[Volume 1 : de Blanche Neige à Tarzan

Ashman, Howard (La Petite Sirène)
Baker, Norman « Buddy » (Les Aventures de Winnie l’Ourson)
Bancroft, Tony (Mulan)
Beaumont, Kathryn (Alice au Pays des Merveilles ; Peter Pan)
Benson, Jodi (La Petite Sirène)
Broughton, Bruce (Bernard et Bianca au Pays des Kangourous)
Carel, Roger (Pinocchio)
Champion, Marge (Blanche-Neige et les Sept Nains)
Costa, Mary (La Belle au Bois Dormant)
Darbois, Richard (Aladdin)
Davis, Alice (Les 101 Dalmatiens)
Davis, Lisa (Les 101 Dalmatiens)
Deja, Andreas (Les 101 Dalmatiens)
Foster-Wells, Holly (La Belle et le Clochard)
Gillespie, Sarah (La Petite Sirène)
Hale, Joe (Taram et le Chaudron Magique)
Hulett, Steve (Rox et Rouky)
Keane, Glen (La Belle et la Bête)
Lauch, William (La Petite Sirène)
Lee, Peggy (La Belle et le Clochard)
Leven, Mel (Les 101 Dalmatiens)
Leven, William (Les 101 Dalmatiens)
Lima, Kevin (Tarzan)
Mancina, Mark (Tarzan)
Mattinson, Burny (La Belle au Bois Dormant)
Menken, Alan (La Petite Sirène ; La Belle et la Bête ; Aladdin ; Pocahontas)
Norman, Floyd (Le Livre de la Jungle)
Redford, JAC (Cendrillon) 27
Scribner, George (Oliver & Compagnie) 131
Sherman, Richard M. (Merlin l’Enchanteur ; Mary Poppins ; Le Livre de la Jungle ; Les Aristochats) 69 ; 75 ; 95 ; 111
Smith, Lella (Blanche-Neige et les Sept Nains) 18
Starobin, Michael (Le Bossu de Notre-Dame) 211
Troob, Danny (La Belle et la Bête ; Aladdin, Pocahontas) 164 ; 183 ; 201
Zimmer, Hans (Le Roi Lion) 199

Volume 2 : De Dinosaure à Toy Story 3

Anderson, Stephen J. (Bienvenue chez les Robinson)
Casarosa, Enrico (Ratatouille ; Là-Haut)
Clements, Ron (La Princesse et la Grenouille)
DeBlois, Dean (Lilo & Stitch)
Debney, John (Kuzco, l’Empereur Mégalo ; Chicken Little)
Deja, Andreas (Lilo & Stitch)
Docter, Pete (Là-Haut)
Giacchino, Michael (Les Indestructibles ; Ratatouille)
Hahn, Don (Atlantide, l’Empire Perdu)
Henn, Mark (La Princesse et la Grenouille)
Howard, James Newton (Dinosaure ; Atlantide)
Keali‟I Ho‟omalu, Mark (Lilo & Stitch)
Keane, Glen (La Planète au Trésor)
Mancina,Mark (Frère des Ours)
Menken, Alan La Ferme se Rebelle)
Moshier, Joe (Volt, Star Malgré Lui)
Musker, John (La Princesse et la Grenouille)
Navone, Victor (Wall-E ; Toy Story 3)
Newman, Randy (Monstres & Cie ; Cars)
Newman, Thomas (Le Monde de Némo)
Pinkava, Jan (Ratatouille)
Ruppel, Robh (Bienvenue chez les Robinson)
Sanders, Chris (Lilo & Stitch)
Slater, Glenn (La Ferme se Rebelle)
Spencer, Clark (Lilo & Stitch)
Williams, Steve “Spaz” (The Wild) ]

Astonishing photo being sold on ebay at the moment. I have the feeling that those were the masks used during the Snow White premiere but I am not totally sure.

This just in from Joakim Gunnarson:

[Thought you'd might like to know (if you don't already) that a set of photos from Disney model builder Bob Jones are for sale on eBay at the moment.]



Too expensive for me but great to see.

I will be travelling to London on Tuesday and Wednesday. The site will be updated again on Thursday.

Is this really Disney "history"? Not sure. This being said as I mentioned a few weeks ago I feel a certain sense of nostalgy when it come to Tron. Not a great movie but definitely a fascinating one.

Which I why I have really been looking forward to Tron:Legacy and why I hope that movie will have a great script. In the meantime I like the way Disney is promoting it at the moment and really appreciate the books they have released to do so. The idea of writting a "middle-quel" in comic book form is a good one and while I find the art of that comic-book way too childish the concept is appealling enough to mention on this blog (I also like the idea of the Digicomics created around Epic Mickey - those are all ideas that sound very Disney to me instead of re-hash of things we have seen done a million times in the past).

When it comes to the "making of" book, since I am first and foremost a "reader" I was disapointed by the amount of text it contains (way too little), but I liked the artwork and the way it was presented overall.

Those two books are not must-have for any of us I believe but I feel they deserved to be mentioned here.

Speaking of Jim Korkis here is some more news:

[This Saturday he will be a guest speaker at Pixelmania which is a group of amateur Disney theme park photographers:

http://www.themagicinpixels.com/pixelmania/149-walt-disney-amateur-photographer-pixelmania-meet

Last night (Wed.Dec. 1) he also was on Shokus Internet Radio http://shokusradio.com/ along with Jerry Beck and they reviewed the three recently released Disney documentaries and Jerry talked about upcoming Looney Tunes projects. The show was live but reruns three times a day 4:00 pm, 8:00 pm and 10:00 am Pacific Standard Time (three hours later on the East Coast) if anyone wants to listen. ]

This just in:

[Disney Historian Jim Korkis is an avid reader with many interests outside of Disney and as a result he sometimes stumbles on Disney information in magazines and books that other Disney fans might miss.

Jim writes: "I recently found two gems of Disney information in the latest issue of the cult film magazine, FILMFAX #125 relating to two former Disney employees who worked at the Disney Studio while Walt was alive. On one page, Ron Lizorty writes: "Chris Mueller came from a long line of sculptors. He and his dad sculpted a magnificent building in Balboa Park (when Chris was 17). Chris sculpted the temple in Korda's Thief of Bagdad and the snake in Korda's Jungle Book. Chris sculpted a lot for Disney--just about everything at Disneyland including the Jungle Cruise wild animals with Marcel (King Kong) Delgado, including the Peter Pan pirate ship. He even sculpted the ornate doors and air vents in the New Orleans Square sector."

Later in the same issue Ross Plesset has an article about Joe Alves who helped art direct H.R. Pufnstuf and directed Jaws 3-D. However he got his start at Disney as Plesset writes: "Alves found himself assisting Josh Meador animated the Id Monster for MGM's Forbidden Planet. During his time at Disney, Alves also had a personal encounter with Walt Disney, himself. While drawing an object for Sleeping Beauty (which Alves vaguely recalls as being a cookie), a hand came down over his desk and a voice said, "It should be drawn this way." The young artist looked up to see Walt Disney and replied, "Okay, Walt." He also saw firsthand Disney's well known tendency tobe very hands on, and his concerns about budget."

NOTE TO DIDIER: Mueller passed away but Alves is apparently still very much alive and still working as an artist/designer in the business. Maybe someone can track him down for an interview of his time at Disney and working with Meador. Forbidden Planet was 1956 and obviously Alves who was at MGM at the time went to Disney from there to work on Sleeping Beauty in 1959 and may have been one of the victims of the lay off after that film's release and then went into live action.

ANOTHER NOTE TO DIDIER: A new site came on the internet on December 1st and will be there through December and then disappear in January. www.mousevent.com is an Advent Calendar for Disney fans with each day a 5-7 minute story from a different Disney fan. On December 1st, Jim Hill talks about how character breakfasts started at Walt Disney World from a "Breakfast With Santa" in the Seventies. Jim Korkis tells a Disney Christmas story on December 15.]

This just in from Danny Handke:

[Just wanted to let you know that your listing for Chris Merritt: Disney Park Posters is incorrect. It will be written by myself (Danny Handke) and Vanessa Hunt, and tentatively titled "The Art of Disney Attraction Posters." Disney Editions is the publisher and the release date is still TBD 2011.

It's going to be an amazing book...full of great stories and poster art - most rare or never before seen! ]

Walt's People - Volume 10 update

As some of you have noticed Walt's People - Volume 10 is late (I was hoping to release it in November). The good news is that I have now received all the corrections I needed to get from all the contributors. I should be able to integrate them in the manuscript by the end of the year, so Volume 10 should be ready by February next year.

I am of course already hard at work on volumes 11 and 12.

Do not miss today:

- Kim Irvine honors WED's pioneers with her work at the Disneyland Design Studio by Jim Hill (I have conducted an in-depth interview with Kim that will be released in Walt's People - Volume 11).
- The gang's all here - Hank Porter Christmas art by David Lesjak
- Vintage Headlines: Ardent Youth Barred by Jeff Pepper

Jérémie Noyer has decided to release in the near future all his interviews with Disney artists in a series of two books in French. This is excellent news. I will let you know when this happens.

A few interesting items in this upcoming auction that will take place in Paris on December 4.

Very interesting post titled Disney animator David Hand’s influence on New Zealand animation by Mitchell Manuel.

Do not miss today:

- The Wonderful World of Disney Books by Jim Korkis
- Once You've Grown Up You Can Never Come Back by Jeff Pepper
- Revisiting the Fantasias, Experiencing Destino by Jeff Pepper
- Disney History at Its Documented Best by Jeff Pepper