Many people have asked where the books I’ve reviewed are
available. Disney marketing works in mysterious ways. While some books
like The Disney Keepsakes are available on Amazon.com and in your
local bookshop, others, like Disneyland: Then, Now, and Forever
(reviewed last week) and this week’s The Art of Disneyland, are
only available at the theme parks and through Disney DelivEars (800-362-4533—and
a very jolly bunch of operators they are, too). Around the World with
Disney, reviewed two weeks ago, is available from Walt Disney World
Merchandise Guest Services (407-363-6200). And while we’re doling out
handy phone numbers, here’s a hot one: Fantasmic Balcony Reservations
(714-781-4400).
Now back to the subject at hand: None of the books are available online
from DisneyShopping.com (which was DisneyDirect.com until it changed without
notice a few weeks ago). MouseShoppe also sells these theme-park exclusive
books, albeit at a slight markup to pay for their time and trouble. I
highly recommend their service—they’ve gotten too much of my money
already! Click here
to purchase Disneyland: Then, Now, and Forever and/or The Art
of Disneyland.
Before we get to the review, and while I’m dealing with some reader comments,
a little birdie whispered in my ear that I really didn’t give Tim O’Day
enough credit for Disneyland: Then, Now, and Forever, reviewed
last week. Looking back on my review, I can see that Bruce Gordon’s name
is given more emphasis—perhaps it’s because of my enthusiasm for
his earlier books. I’ve had the pleasure of watching Tim O’Day moderate
numerous panels at Disneyland merchandise events—he sure knows his
Disney history. Just to clarify, then, Bruce and Tim worked equally as
partners on the book, with Tim writing all the text, Bruce doing the design,
and both choosing the photographs and deciding on the overall format.
Now, to The Art of Disneyland. Author Jeff Kurtti and designer
Bruce Gordon have put together a dream book for fans of the concept art
produced over the last 50 years by what is now known as Walt Disney Imagineering.
The book is a big 10.5 x 13.25 inches, enabling the reproduction of the
artwork to be large enough so that you can see the details.
They get it perfect right out of the gate: The dustjacket is the hand-colored
version of Herb Ryman’s 1953 “weekend” concept art of Disneyland
that Walt took to the bankers for financing. When you open the cover,
Sam McKim’s 1957 park map (the first to be sold) covers both endsheets—and
the rear endsheets bookend everything with Nina Rae Vaughan’s 2000 park
map.
The first 13 pages are printed in the normal vertical (or “portrait”)
format. They include an introduction from Marty Sklar, “The Artist
as Storyteller,” in which he explains the vision of the book, “The
collection in this one-of-a-kind book celebrates the art that led to the
creation of magic realms of fantasy and adventure, yesterday and tomorrow.
And for the first time in one joyous expression, it celebrates the great
talents inspired by Walt Disney during his lifetime and beyond, to imagine
worlds and wonders and dreams that would become reality one day in 1955.”
Author Jeff Kurtti details the evolution of Disneyland in “A Magical
Little Park” and neatly encapsulates a remarkable amount of detail
into a page and a quarter of text. He continues his concise insights through
the book in the captions for the artwork.
Next we get three two-page spreads, each featuring an iconic view of
the park: the first is, again, the Ryman drawing from 1953 (hand-colored
version), the second is the Peter Ellenshaw painting with which Walt introduced
Disneyland to America on the Disneyland TV show on ABC, and the
third is the Ellenshaw painting again, this time in its “night time”
version.
Then, very oddly, the book switches orientations and the next 124 pages
are printed in a horizontal (“landscape”) format, which requires
you to turn the book and lift the cover like you’re opening the hood of
your car. It is also at this point that the dustjacket pops off because
the flaps are too short.
That inconvenience aside, it’s time for the trove of treasures. The remainder
of the book consists of wonderfully large reproductions of concept art,
starting with Main Street and proceeding clockwise around the park until
you end up in Tomorrowland.
The “Principal Artists” (as they are identified in a brief
section of biographies at the rear) are, in alphabetical order: Ken Anderson,
Mary Blair, Marc Davis, Harper Goff, John Hench, Sam McKim, Dorothea Redmond,
and Herb Ryman (whose name is missing from the subhead above his section).
With the exception of Redmond, all are now deceased. It’s odd to see that
neither Claude Coats nor Collin Campbell are listed, considering that
the number of pieces of their concept art which appear in the book outnumber
those by Mary Blair, for example.
The other artists whose work is represented are (in the order they appear
in the book): Christopher Smith, Marvin Davis, Dale Hennesy, Bob Gurr,
Chuck Ballew, Linda “Sparkle” Parker, Neil Boyle, Eddie Sotto,
Collin Campbell, Paul Hartley, Al Dempster, Steve Abernathy, Eric Robison,
Bryan Jowers, Dan Gluck, Kim Irvine, Stan Parkhouse, Art Riley, Tony Baxter,
Clem Hall, Duane Alt, Claude Coats, Joe Lanzisero, Eddie Martinez, Richard
Kline, Dan Goozee, X. Atencio, Scott Baker, John Stone, Eyvind Earle,
Bruce Bushman, David Naylor, Jaques Charvet, Paul Wolski, Marcelo Vignali,
Maggie Parr, Don Carson, Suzanne Lewis, Jim Shull, Ray Aragon, Gil Keppler,
Chris Runco, and Eric Heschong.
The story of how Walt Disney used artists plucked from his film studio
to conceptualize his theme park, rather than architects, has been told
many times (and is retold at the beginning of this book, too). Looking
at this marvelous concept art, you can really see where the film-making
sensibilities of Walt Disney’s chosen artists played such a huge part
in the mise-en-scene of the modern theme park. Every single one
of the principal artists worked in film design before Walt brought them
the challenge of translating the alternate realities that people saw on
film into actual “lands” and buildings that could be entered—as
if walking into a film. The conceptual art is vivid and evocative. It
makes the unreal real and draws you in, inviting you to participate in
the fantasy world it creates.
Chief among these are Herb Ryman, Sam McKim, Dorothea Redmond, Bruce
Bushman, and Harper Goff. Ryman’s almost 20 paintings, often rendered
with impressionistic bold brushstrokes, immortalize him as one of the
chief architects of the park. Sam McKim’s 16 pieces reveal a versatility
far greater than is usually recognized (he is more often thought of as
the artist behind the Disneyland wall maps), and his character pieces
for the Carousel of Progress continue to enchant. Both Goff and Redmond
are represented by only a half-dozen pieces in the book, but the feeling
in them is instantly recognizable to anyone who’s been to some of the
quieter areas of Disneyland. Bruce Bushman’s five pieces invoke the feeling
of Fantasyland in an instant.
Among the other artists represented, the 1957 pieces for the Rivers of
America by Art Riley are enchanting, as are X. Atencio’s Brear Frog for
Splash Mountain and his mind-bending phantasma for Adventure Thru Inner
Space. Claude Coats’s Grand Ballroom master scene for the Haunted Mansion
gets to the soul of the place in an instant, while Dan Gouzee’s evocation
of the exterior of Splash Mountain conveys the kinetic excitement of the
ride. There are wonderful pieces, both serene and exciting, by Collin
Campbell for Splash Mountain, and his Tiki Birds are full of life. And
could anything be more magical than Eyvind Earle’s scene for the Sleeping
Beauty Walk-Through in the castle? Or more sinister than Ken Anderson’s
drawing of the Old Hag about to nudge a rock off a cliff in Snow White’s
Scary Adventures?
In the area of character, Marc Davis has always been the master storyteller,
and the dozens of drawings for Nature’s Wonderland, the Jungle Cruise,
the Enchanted Tiki Room, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, America
Sings, Country Bear Jamboree—well, it’s obvious how much he contributed
to the attractions because we simply can’t imagine any of them without
his work.
The more recent work by Bryan Jowers (on the Indiana Jones Adventure),
Tony Baxter and Clem Hall (on Big Thunder Mountain Railway), Scott Baker
(for Splash Mountain), a whole crew—Paul Wolski, Marcelo Vignali,
Joe Lanzisero, Chuck Ballew, Maggie Parr, Don Carson, Suzanne Lewis, Jim
Shull—for Toontown, and Eric Heschong for Tomorrowland continues
in the grand tradition of their predecessors.
Just like almost everyone’s favorite book about the park, Disneyland:
The Nickel Tour, Jeff Kurtti and Bruce Gordon’s The Art of Disneyland
takes you on a trip through the happiest place on earth through a medium
other than a simple guidebook. And it’s an exciting and educational journey.
Everyone’s first reaction upon seeing The Art of Disneyland is
how nice it is to finally have a book with large reproductions of so much
original Disneyland art ? then they look at the price and most folks put
it down. It certainly wouldn’t be unreasonable for Disney Editions to
publish a lavish coffee-table-sized art book of Imagineering concept art,
but when I compare it to the coffee-table art books at my local bookstore,
where $75 buys you an enormous book of about 300 pages, The Art of
Disneyland at 130 pages seems skimpy by comparison.
While the book is oversized, enabling the reproductions to be nice and
big, it’s cheaply put together. I can’t recall the last time I saw a book
for this price that didn’t have cloth covering its binders boards—The
Art of Disneyland has inexpensive paper. The book is cheaply bound
by a process called Notch-Adhesive Binding, rather than sewn as most quality
art books at this price are. There are no headbands. The flaps on the
dustjacket are too short, and they keep curling away so the jacket falls
off the book. Regarding the way in which you must view the bulk of the
book, by turning it sideways ? it’s simply awkward. This problem was solved
more than 100 years ago: you can print a book as a “short-side bind”
(as we publishers like to call it). In other words, you turn the book
sideways and bind the short end. It costs more to do this, and the book
doesn’t fit as easily on many shelves, but when you print all the images
in a book sideways, you really do need to bind the book to match.
Putting aside those issues, the interior reproductions are big, bright,
and well printed on good paper. And of course there’s no questioning the
content: it’s a thrill to see all of these great paintings and drawings
by the masters of imagination. The Art of Disneyland is a triumph.
