Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Signed Books




Soon after I started working for Disney, Frank & Ollie published their first book The Illusion of Life.
I purchased a copy of it during a trip to San Francisco on my way to see Milt Kahl. We met up in Sauselito at the Spinnaker restaurant. The photo shows Milt's wife Julie discovering her husband's drawings of Pinocchio on page 221.
Back at the studio I had the book signed by other Disney legends, many of them were still working there. Quite the lineup of signatures. Of course Woolie Reitherman's comment has been very meanimgfulto me. 




This page is from Christopher Finch's epic book The Art of Walt Disney from 1973.
I purchased this copy from a previous Disney background painter. She had it signed by many Disney artists who were around at that time.
I want to share with you page 332 because the comments by Frank Thomas and Milt Kahl are pretty funny. But they also show how under appreciated these two animation superstars felt.


13 comments:

  1. amazing! Thanks so much for sharing these pages.

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  2. senti inveja agora!!!
    abraços do Brazil

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  3. That's like the best yearbook ever....

    I bought my copy of the Illusion of Life second hand, and noticed a mysterious signing on the inside cover (scanned here: http://thisisawhat.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/illusion_of_life508-e1344627839626.jpg) signed at the end "Walt & the boys of Disney". of course dated long after THE Walt's death, but I've always wondered if it could be one of the other Walts at the studio... maybe wishful thinking but fun to think about.

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    1. Sounds like Walt Stanchfield! Would I be wrong in assuming this, Andreas?

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    2. I was wondering the same thing based on his signature in this post.

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  4. Oh Mr. Deja, I have to ask you! Frollo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the scene during the first song when frollo looks up at the statues and gulps when he fears for his soul, do you know who animated that? It's beautifully animated!

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    1. I don't know for sure, since I didn't work on the film.
      But I imagine the scene was animated by Kathy Zielinski, who supervised the animation of Frollo.

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    2. Thank you, I appriciate it!
      Love your blog!

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  5. Wow what a treasure! , all of them must be so proud of you Andreas. Thanks for sharing

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  6. That had to be so cool to have meet all those great people. What a thing to have that book.

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