CHRISTMAS BOOKS FOR DISNEY LOVERS

From All of Us to All of You: The Disney Christmas Cards

by Jeff Kurtti

Disney Editions; $50.00

This is a book I have wanted to own for about the last 20 years! It’s actually a book that I had once entertained hopes of putting together myself; and it’s only the fact that it has finally reached us via the skilled editorship of my friend and fellow Disneyphile, Jeff Kurtti, that I am able to supress my envy!

Disney and Christmas have always got on rather well together – Christmas-themed movies, TV specials, music, books and comics – and the official Christmas greetings that, from 1931 onwards, the studio sent to its ever-growing number of friends and associates represents an imaginatively documented capsule history over eighty years of Disney history.

The cards in Jeff Kurtti’s seasonal mailbag, being annual bulletins from the Mouse Factory, give a visual chronicle of the studio’s output: from Mickey and the Gang, via Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and the other features of the Golden Age, to the war years, the post-war renaissance, the Disneyland park and TV years to Poppins and the decades from Walt’s death to Walt Disney World, EPCOT and beyond.  

More than that, they provide a fascinating insight into the way in which the Studio saw and publicly presented itself and, as a parallel theme, the changing styles of popular graphic art.

This project could so easily have been simply produced as a book of pictures (and, indeed, some years ago, a book of Disney postcards was published based on many of these very images), but what Kurtti has done that makes this volume both collectable and informative is to place each card within the context of the Studio’s annual development.

The book is further enhanced by profiles of some of the artists responsible for the card designs including Hank Porter, Mary Blair, Bob Moore, John Hench and Paul Wenzel. There are also a number of special features covering such topics as the cards designed by the studio for Nelson Rockefeller as Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs and, a few years later, for the Toys for Tots Christmas charity.

The author has been ably aided by the book’s talented designer, Paul Wolski, whose ‘wide-screen’ format (encased in a holly-green gate-fold binding) allows the cards to be shown to their very best advantage – especially since a number of the originals opened out horizontally and/or vertically. Fronts, backs and interiors are all simultaneously visible and, printed with shadows, appear to be lying on the pages of the open book – as if ready be picked and arranged on your Christmas mantelpiece! And, as a bonus, there are ten special envelopes slipped into the book containing additional cards featuring seasonal Disney artwork from a variety of sources including film posters and comic book covers.

 

The book’s surtitle, ‘From All of Us To All of You’, is a references the famous Disney animated television special of the same name, first presented on ABC in December 1958. The show, comprising clips from Disney classic shorts and features, was hosted by Jiminy Cricket and based around the theme of Christmas cards from the characters featured in the clips.

Just as that TV special enjoyed a number of an annual re-runs, Jeff Kurtti’s beautifully produced, joy-infused and smile-inducing book will become a treasured part of every Disney fan’s holiday season for many Christmases to come!

Practically Perfect in Every Way: A Magical Carpetbag of Countless Wonders by Jeff Kurtti

Disney Editions; $50.00

Unless you have been living in a remote Neolithic cave for the past year, you will know that everybody’s favourite nanny is about to make a comeback! Mary Poppins Returns will open this Christmas and, once again, we will be exposed to the magic that is unique to that mysterious figure who flies in on the east wind and is universally known by her carpetbag and parrot-handled umbrella.

To accompany this long-awaited movie sequel, Jeff Kurtti has conjured up an engaging and enlightening collection of articles and essays in celebration of all things Poppins.

Kurtti traces the history of the Poppins books and their enigmatic author, P. L. Travers; tells the astonishing saga of how Walt Disney managed, against the odds, to acquire the film rights and take Mary Poppins from book to the movie. He also examines the movie’s triumph both as a film and a merchandising phenomenon; and recounts how Mary Poppins’ went on to recreate her unique brand of magic on the West End and Broadway stage before, bringing the story up to date, with background insights into the making of the sequel.

The book is profusely and sumptuously illustrated with original concept art, film stills and archive photographs – although, oddly, you will look in vain for an image of Julie Andrews that isn’t from an animator’s sketch or from posters, record sleeves and book covers.

Jeff Kurtti has cleverly interwoven his telling of Mary Poppins journey from page to screen, to stage and back, again, to screen with contributions from Cameron Mackintosh, Tom Schumacher and the first stage Bert, Gavin Lee, as well as essays from (to quote the jacket blurb) “renowned Disney authorities” Jim Fanning, Paula Sigman Lowry, Craig D. Barton, Greg Ehrbar – and, I am bound with a blush to admit, the present writer!

The 1964 film is generally regarded as Walt Disney’s greatest triumph and it remains, over fifty years on, beloved by several generations; now Mary Poppins Returns to entrance new audiences and Jeff Kurtti’s Practically Perfect in Every Way is the absolutely perfect way to commemorate a literary and cinematic legend.  

The Art of Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse by Jessica Ward

Disney Editions; $40.00

As part of the Mouse’s 90^th birthday celebrations, Jessica Ward has produced this lavish book that begins with a commemoration of Mickey’s extraordinary career through a comprehensive filmography and a milestone-by-milestone examination of his life and times on and off the screen.

All of this is, however, is but a prelude to the remaining 115 pages featuring an exhilarating and imaginative Picture Gallery of artistic interpretations of Mickey by creative working for Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media.

Using pencil, pen and ink, watercolour, acrylic digital and mixed media, the artists present Mickey in may forms and artistic styles – cubist, minimalist, pointillist, abstract and pastiche –– look out for homages to Rockwell, William Stout and Frank Frazetta.

This diverse imagery reinforces a great truth that, if after 90 years we haven’t yet understood, we never will: Mickey Mouse is an enduring icon and his worldwide identifiable silhouette is so much part of our popular culture that it remains instantly recognisable and perennially beloved.

They Drew As They Pleased – The Hidden Art of Disney's Mid-Century Era: The 1950s and 1960s by Didier Ghez

Chronicle Books; $45.00

The indefatigable Didier Ghez has produced the fourth volume of his exceptional They Drew As They Pleased series with a retrospective exploration of a intriguing period in the Disney Studio’s history: the post-war era noted for its optimism of spirit and, in the graphic arts, for the emergence of a new modernism that challenged the old-school style that had been the touchstone for Disney’s success during the so-called Golden Age of Animation.

As with the earlier volumes, Ghez’s aim is to profile the work of those – often unsung – concept artists who, in every era, helped set the mood and frame the style of the Studio’s shorts and features: men and women who, as the title (taken from the 1948 book devoted to the work of Albert Hurter) suggests, were allowed to draw as they pleased. All the books in the series have featured rarely seen or previously unseen artwork and, along with the artists’ stories and the historical contextualising that are Ghez’s forte, this is what makes this series such a joy for the Disney reader – and of incalculable benefit to Disney research.

Among the five artists whose work is explored in this book is one – Mary Blair – who has, in recent years, been probably more chronicled, celebrated and exhibited than any other member of the Disney concept team, but there are newly revealed images from film classics like Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan that merit the inclusion of her memorably stylised work.

The other artists are Mary’s husband, Lee Blair (responsible for superb work on Disney’s South American features); Tom Oreb (brilliant modernist takes on the cut 'Jabberwock' sequence in Alice and examples of his work for Disney-created TV commercials); John Dunn (lively, cartoony ideas for the new, ‘limited animation’ style adopted for TV programmes such as Man in Flight and Mars and Beyond); and Walter Peregoy (bold early designs for The Sword in the Stone and Jungle Book and a balletic approach to the unmade Chanticleer).

 

The highest compliment one can pay Didier Ghez is to say, on closing the cover on his latest volume, “When’s the next one coming?”

And, finally for now, there’s this behemoth...

But I have yet to read it – or, indeed, develop sufficient muscular strength to even lift it out of its box!


 

NEW DISNEY BOOKS

A batch of new books celebrating Disney past and present...

Yesterday's Tomorrow: Disney's Magical Mid-Century
by Don Hahn, Disney Editions, 2018, pp.176

This feels like the book that many of us Disney aficionados (especially those whose childhoods coincided with the 'fifties and 'sixties) have long been waiting to read. Don Hahn chronicles that explosive decade that followed WWII as reflected in the vision of Walt Disney and the work of his studio.

Born at the turn-of-the-century and raised in an age and culture that was just taking its first tentative towards a new tomorrow, Walt had an abiding love for the nostalgia of the past, but he also embraced change and looked to a future of ever-expanding possibilities and opportunities – as can be seen from the fact that Disneyland not only celebrated the lost age depicted in the park's Main Street USA but reached out towards a new dawn in Tomorrowland.

Don Hahn presents a masterly tour of the Disney's futurism as it impacted not just on the creation and development of Disneyland but on film and TV, leisure and hospitality (The Disneyland Hotel, Celebrity Sports Center and the unrealized plans for a Ski resort in the Sierra), education (CalArts, the New York World's Fair and educational films and programmes) and Walt's final bid for a utopian future with the concept of EPCOT.

The book's large format has allowed it to be sumptuously illustrated with a visual feast of photographs (many unfamiliar) and artwork by, among others, Eyvind Earle, Mary Blair, Ward Kimball and Rolly Crump.

There is a tendency in Disney Circles to focus on the achievements of the so-called Golden Age – understandably, since those achievements were truly astonishing – but Yesterday's Tomorrow is a timely reminder that the mid-century was a period in which new technologies and ever-expanding prospects were reflected in new movements in popular art and entertainment along with ambitious hopes of a better world.

Travels with Walt Disney: A photographic Voyage Around the World
by Jeff Kurtti, Disney Editions, 2018, pp.152

From his earliest years Walt's life was peripatetic but was also essentially parochial in scope; so much so, that when he found himself in the big bad city of New York for the first time in the late 1920s struggling to sell his cartoons and add sound to Mickey Mouse it was a time marked by loneliness and homesickness. However, he would, later, discover the joys of travel and those expeditions and explorations impacted not just on the development of his personality, but also on the work of the studio.

Jeff Kurtti traces Walt's excursions (to France during the last days of WWI) his travels by trains (of course!), boats and planes, his great adventure South of the Border, his visits to Europe which fired his imagination, inspired films and had an influence on Disneyland and other projects. The book also shows how Walt's ever-widening perspective on the world helped shape series such as the 'True Life Adventures' and plans for creating better world communities.

The book is literally stuffed with official and family photos charting the itineraries of a busy life and full career.

Disney's The Lion King: Twenty Years on Broadway and Around the World
by Michael Lassell, Disney Editions, 2017, pp.224

This lavishly-conceived volume from the indefatigable Michael Lassell (whose Disney Aladdin: A Whole New World I reviewed last October) celebrates the creation and international longevity of a show that has become a landmark in the history of musical theatre.

In words (including quotations from those involved in the show's creation) and breathtaking pictorial spreads, Lassell takes us from the movie's success, via Julie Taymor's extraordinary vision for a theatrical re-presentation of the animated story and the complex challenges of creating sets, costumes, masks and effects to the show's exhilarating global triumph.

The Lion King has also inspired...

My Pride: Mastering Life's Daily Performance
by Alton Fitzgerald White, Disney Editions, 2017

Broadway's longest running portrayer of King Mufasa, Alton Fitzgerald White, shares his experience of creating daily magic on stage (over 4300 performances) and telling the story of his career – overcoming the difficulties of his early years to become a successful singer and actor – and sharing some of the valuable life lessons he has learned that readers can adapt and adopt to living their own lives. A spirited and inspiring read.

WEDNESDAYS IN WONDERLAND

Just when you thought it was safe to pop down the rabbit-hole...

Here comes another bizarre Disneyfication of Alice from 1976...

WEDNESDAYS IN WONDERLAND

Without doubt, the weirdest, wackiest Disney Alice in Wonderland book EVER!

Lewis Carroll's heroine and 'friends' visits a playground at (I think) Walt Disney World and, among other activities, plays volleyball!!!

Marvel and enjoy...

MICKEY MONDAYS: Manifestations of the Mouse

British Mickey Mouse book, c.1934
Cover art by Wilfred Houghton (?)

SIGNED 'WALT'

"How much is it?" I asked, and held my breath.

"Forty pounds," he replied.

It's almost forty years ago now, but I remember the conversation as if it were yesterday.

It was an awful lot of money.

I was just twenty years old and had not long been seriously bitten by the Disney-bug.

My fascination with Disney movies had been suddenly intensified when I borrowed R D Feild's book, The Art of Walt Disney from my local library. Here was someone who, unlike my Mum, didn't think of 'cartoons' as the kind of kid's stuff you ought to have grown out of by the time your voice breaks.

I wanted a copy of The Art of Walt Disney more than anything else in the world and began scouring the second-hand bookshops, which is how I stumbled on Fred Zentner. He later became The Cinema Bookshop in London’s Great Russell Street, but then he sold film books, stills, posters and other gems - including a copy of The Art of Walt Disney - from the basement of The Atlantis Bookshop, in Museum Street, just round the corner from the British Museum. Once found, I began, bit by bit, buying up Fred's stock of Disneyana.

Then came the day when he placed into my hands a copy of The Story of Walt Disney as told by Walt's daughter, Diane Disney Miller, to Pete Martin.

It was a first edition American hardback, published by Henry Holt & Co (New York) 1956.

It still had its original dust-wrapper with a design by Disney studio artist Al Dempster and, what's more, it was ----- SIGNED!

On the half-title page, in green biro, with that distinctive bold handwriting was the inscription: 'Best Wishes Walt Disney'...

It was his very signature - including the little circle over the 'i' in 'Disney' that I emulated in my own signature. This man - whom I had never met but who exercised an obsessive fascination over me - had held this book, opened it and inscribed his name inside.

I wanted it!

No, I craved it!

But, FORTY POUNDS...

Forty pounds for a book? My mother would go bananas! Besides, I couldn't afford it. I didn't have forty pounds. I didn't know when I ever would have forty pounds. But, right there and then, I desired that book with a passion that, call me eccentric if you will, I have scarcely felt about anything since.

But, FORTY POUNDS...

It was way beyond my meager means. Then Fred Zentner showed himself to be a man who understood the full anguish of desire, because he made me an offer. If I paid him ten pounds a month for the next four months, he would keep the book for me until I had paid the full forty. Month by month, I made my pilgrimage to The Atlantis Bookshop, looked at the swirling green signature and paid another ten pounds. Then, one day, it was finally mine!

Fast-forward thirteen years to 1982 I am standing in the Archive at the Walt Disney Studio in Burbank, California, talking to Archivist, Dave Smith. I am there researching a television documentary about EPCOT and I mention, in conversation, that the prize of my Disney collection is an autographed copy of The Story of Walt Disney.

Dave Smith laughs and asks a question that almost brings the universe crashing down around my ears.

“Are you sure it's actually signed by Walt Disney?”

“Of course! It says so, in green ballpoint: ‘Best Wishes Walt Disney’!”

“That may be,” he replies, “but many people at the Studio - some of them distinguished animators - signed books and pictures on Disney's behalf.”

I look stunned. But, Dave goes on: “The Disney signatures by these other artists are more like the famous logo signature that appears on Disney movies and merchandise. Walt's personal signature, however, is quite distinctive. Would you like to see a GENUINE Disney signature?'

Nothing could be simpler: within seconds I could know whether or not I owned the real thing. Or, I could leave things as they were. Except, of course, that now I couldn't. Dave Smith had sowed the seed of doubt...

I hesitate for no more than a second. “OK, yes, let's see a GENUINE Disney autograph…”

Dave in fact showed me a whole series of genuine Walt Disney signatures in an article he had written in 1981 for Manuscripts, the journal of The Manuscript Society.

One of them looked like this...

Relief! Joy! The signature was just like mine!

You can read the full Dave Smith Manuscript article at the end of this post.

When, a few years later, I got to know Diane Disney Miller, I asked her about the book and she told me that her father used to sign copies for sale in the bookshop at Disneyland, which was very probably where my copy had originally been purchased.

She also explained that whilst The Story of Walt Disney carried her name as author (and, indeed, included several of her own reminiscences) it had been Walt himself who had collaborated directly with Pete Martin on the book. However, her father had decided that it would be better for his life-story to be presented as if told by his daughter partly because he felt that to tell it himself might appear arrogant, and partly because he wanted the recently married Diane to earn some money.

1998, decade and a half on, I found myself in San Francisco working with Diane on a BBC radio series about her father.

On this occasion, I had carried the treasured volume with me and I asked her to add her signature to the book’s title page.

Diane was modestly reluctant - since, as she had already told me, she didn’t consider herself in any sense the book’s ‘author’. However, she eventually relented and graciously inscribed the book: “For Brian Sibley - a very good friend - Respectfully, Diane Disney Miller”...

A few more years down the road, 2001, I attended the Los Angeles premiere of the documentary Walt Disney: The Man Behind the Myth in which I appeared as an interviewee.

By this time, I had acquired a British edition of what was now called Walt Disney - An Intimate Biography published by Odhams Press (London) in 1958...

At the post-screening party, chatting with Diane and her husband Ron, I produced this volume and asked whether the book’s Non-Author would oblige with another inscription!

Appreciating the joke, she unhesitatingly agreed...

Beneath the printed sub-title - ‘An intimate biography by his daughter, DIANE DISNEY MILLER, as told to Pete Martin’ - she wrote: “Actually, Brian - we know better, don’t we? Warmest, warmest regards, Diane.”

Nowadays, the autograph business is big business: copies of the recent reprint of The Story of Walt Disney with Diane's signature sell for several hundred dollars and someone, in a recent American auction, paid over three thousand dollars for a copy of the original edition signed (also in green ballpoint!) by Walt.

So, all in all, I think that original - and seemingly astronomical - forty pounds of mine was money incredibly well spent!

It is not, however, for any financial value that I treasure these volumes, but for the even more valuable memories and associations that they hold…

***

Here is the article, 'The Most Recognizable Signature in the World' by David R Smith in the Manuscript Society journal, Manuscripts, Vol XXXIII No. 2, Spring 1981