As last-minute Christmas shopping still looms over many people’s heads, I would like to make a few recommendations of some recent Disney-related books that would make a great gift or in some cases, a great stocking stuffer.
Of course, there are the “usual suspects” out there that have been getting some publicity recently including Dave Smith’s third edition of Disney A to Z, which amazingly includes all the material from the previous editions thanks to the fact that the Japanese were willing to pay for the translation for the last edition and so picked up the cost for the translation of all the additional material Dave has been putting up for the last several years on the Disney Insider Web site (click for the supplement’s PDF). Dave has several pages of additions to the newest edition already posted. However, he left off one correction that both he and I laughed at recently. What is the very first mistake in the new edition? (The spoiler is at the end of the column.) Needless to say, this book gets my highest recommendation.
One of the most frequent questions I have been getting lately is whether Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination, the new Neal Gabler biography of Walt, is worth purchasing. The short answer is “yes.” The long answer is that with dozens of Walt biographies in my personal library (some of them are foreign editions, some are meant for children, some are even done in comic book format) my favorite Walt biography still remains Walt Disney: An American Original by Bob Thomas.
Thomas knew Walt personally for many years, interviewed him several times over the years in his role as a newspaper reporter, wrote a juvenile biography of Walt as well as the original Art of Animation book for the Disney Studio under Walt’s personal direction.
In short, Thomas is a good writer and was the first author to have unlimited access to material at the Disney Archives and from the Disney family. His book is still a readable and very balanced look at Walt Disney and his life, and the book that I constantly recommend to people wanting to know more about Walt himself or a history of the early years.
I am much less impressed with his follow-up book, Building A Company, about Roy O. Disney. I feel that many of Roy’s important contributions to the philosophy and culture of Disney are still unrecorded decades after his death. It is still a fine book and currently the only one to focus on Roy but it is much, much less satisfying than Walt Disney: An American Original.
Gabler also had access to the Disney Archives, which is unusual since Disney has closed the resources of the Archives to “outside” writers for many years now. In fact, Gabler had the support of the Disney family as well. He spent nearly eight years researching the book and more importantly, reading Walt’s papers in chronological order to try to recapture the feelings and thought processes as they were happening.
It is an excellent book that reveals many previously unknown facts, and to the best of my knowledge, is incredibly accurate and well documented. Just a glance at the reviews out there will reinforce that this is a well-written book and that the factual content hasn’t been challenged.
Those accolades are more than enough to encourage you to purchase and treasure this book. However, I don’t feel the book for all its details truly captures Walt. It reminds me of the Steven Watts book, The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life. I like the book but it seems almost too academic, and like Gabler, I don’t think Watts saw the forest for all the trees in the way.
There are at least two more Walt biographies that I am looking forward to in the new year. Walt Disney: The American Dreamer will be coming from Tomart Publications, the company that produces Disneyana magazine as well as those constantly updated Disney Pin guides.
The other is from animation historian Michael Barrier, who is well known for his extensive, accurate research. The Animated Man: A Life of Walt Disney is due in April. Over the years, I certainly have had my disagreements with some of Barrier’s perspectives, but never on his dedication and research. Since Barrier had access to interviews with Disney staff who died decades before Gabler started writing his book, and because Barrier has a particular expertise in animation history, I am sure that Barrier’s biography will present a much different look at some of the same events that Gabler recounts.
One of the hidden treasures out there is Mouse Tracks: The Story of Walt Disney Records by Tim Hollis and Greg Ehrbar. You might think there aren’t many areas of Disney history that have been left unrecorded but this book proves that assumption to be false. The book in extremely readable text and layout presents the half-century history of Disney related records.
More importantly there are profiles and biographies of people who contributed to the success of these recordings. You won’t find this information anywhere else. It is my personal belief that it was this book that finally spotlighted the many accomplishments of Jimmy Johnson and as a result, he was inducted as a Disney Legend this year.
There are many good reasons why Roy E. Disney strongly recommends this book that you might have overlooked adding to your Disney collection.
Ehrbar’s knowledge and love of Disney fills the book. He’s authored comic book adaptations of Disney animated movies, been responsible for all those “fun facts” that pop up in past Disney Christmas parades narration as well as writing Disney history-related articles for countless Disney Company publications. His knowledge of cartoon music has been in evidence for many years through his work on compilations for Rhino Records. That’s just the smallest tip of his extensive resume. I’m anxiously awaiting the next book from this underappreciated talent.
Tim Hollis is also the author of many interesting books including one I think you should add to your collection, Dixie Before Disney: 100 Years of Roadside Fun. It details the many of the home-grown amusement enterprises that entertained vacationers before Walt Disney World was built.
If you love Disney artwork, you may also want to include in your shopping bag a copy of Cartoon Modern by Amid Amidi. This is an amazing book concentrating on the style and design in 1950s animation filled with rare and previously unpublished artwork as well as previously undocumented information about animation studios in the ’50s.
While the book covers all the animation studios and their work on cartoons as well as commercials, there are many hefty sections devoted to the Disney Studios and Disney artists like Ward Kimball, Walt Peregoy, and Tom Oreb. In fact, the full-page model sheet by Tom Oreb of Mickey Mouse for an American Motors commercial is not only fascinating from a design standpoint but also horrifying for those of us who love Walt’s traditional mouse. There is stuff here you won’t find anywhere else.
Of course, as stocking stuffers that might actually fit into a good size stocking, there are three volumes of Walt’s People by Didier Ghez currently available and featuring interviews with people who worked with Walt. A fourth volume is completed and was due before the holiday season but will appear in just a few weeks. Didier already has everything except for two interviews for the fifth volume to appear later in Spring 2007. Reading the uncensored and always amusing and enlightening thoughts of people who worked at Disney during the Golden Age is an amazing first-hand oral history that would have been lost if not for the efforts of Didier, who runs a terrific Disney History Blog as well as a listing of Disney books both in and out of print at Pizarro.net.
Also for stocking stuffers that would actually fit comfortably into an actual holiday stocking, you might want to include the works of Kevin Yee, Kendra Trahan, Louis Mongello and David Koenig, who have produced several books of “fun facts” about Disney theme parks. Type in their names at Amazon.com to discover these hidden treasures. These authors are all currently working on new books that I am excited about adding to my collection.
Also, by now you should have picked up a copy of perhaps my favorite Disney book released this year that continues to surprise and delight me: Mickey and the Gang by David Gerstein. Every other page is loaded with never-before-recorded stories and artwork. David is also one of the consultants on that Oswald the Lucky Rabbit DVD that the Disney Legacy collection will release. He’s also involved with Gemstone Publishing. Don’t forget that Gemstone still publishes Disney comic books and there are several holiday themed issues out there that you can get at your local comic book shop or by contacting the Gemstone Web site.
I was disappointed with the recent release of The Gremlins by Roald Dahl from Dark Horse Publishing. only because the original editor of the project promised me it was going to be loaded with extras and the resulting publication simply reprinted the book with another nice introduction by Leonard Maltin. I am delighted the book is back in print after so many decades but saddened that Dark Horse decided against the extras that were out there and offered to them and the fact that the color is very poor compared to the original publication. I guess I needed one Scrooge-Grinch moment in this wonderful plethora of great Disney releases.
So I hope this will be the happiest of holiday seasons for all of you and I promise to answer my e-mail soon! I will try not to be like Santa and only respond to mail once a year!
[SPOILER: The very first mistake in the newest edition of Dave Smith’s Disney A to Z? Turn to the title page and look very, very closely. Dave swore to me that it was okay in the galley proofs he approved. Notice that on the line that says The Official Encyclopedia Third Edition? Did you notice the word “the” is missing the letter “e”?]
