Q : My partner and I are nearing completion of a book on Pixar and will be creating a chapter with a condensed history of Disney as background for the relationship between the two. There are a number of areas of Disney history where we have questions, or lack materials. I’m currently looking for a copy of The E-Ticket magazine interview with Marc Davis. I think this is E-Ticket edition number 26. Would this be something that exists in the Disney Archives and if so, how would we obtain a copy of the article?
James, Lincoln, Rhode Island
A: Rights to The E-Ticket magazine are now owned by The Walt Disney Family Museum, and they sell various issues. See: http://www.waltdisney.org/content/e-ticket-magazine
Q : I was wondering how you got your start working at the Walt Disney Archives. I majored in history in college and will be starting the Disney College Program soon and would love nothing more than to eventually work at the archives. Any advice? Thanks, and have a magical day!
Kaitlyn, Blue Bell, Pennsylvania
A: I just happened to be in the right place at the right time, and had the qualifications and experience that Disney needed, when I was selected to start the Walt Disney Archives. While the Archives rarely has openings, since you will be on the Disney College Program, you might network with people in the Archives during the time you are working for the company. Your College Program advisors should be able to help facilitate this.
Q : The Neiman Marcus Christmas Catalog of 1985 identified the front cover as “…a reproduction of his (Walt Disney’s) 1933 Christmas card to his employees—a happy congregation of characters making a dash through the snow, passing a milestone, and headed for better times.” Being a fan of Disney since I was four—I am now 73—I framed this cover. Might it be available in any other form?
Floyd, Bella Vista, Arkansas
A: That was actually the cover of the 1981 Neiman Marcus Christmas catalog, and it pictured the 1932 Disney Christmas card. The original card shows the characters riding in their sleigh toward a milestone, which reads 1933; that causes many people to assume it is a 1933 card, but actually it is 1932, and they are heading toward the New Year, 1933. The 1932 card is quite rare, and originals rarely turn up for sale. I am not aware that the artwork is available elsewhere.
Q : In the Spring 2010 issue of Disney twenty-three magazine on page 58 is a photo of the famous Mickey Avenue/Dopey Drive intersection. In the same issue on page 23 is a plot plan of The Walt Disney Studio. On this plot plan, where is this famous intersection located? My guess would be the corner of “B” Street and Second Avenue.
Jeff, Ogden, Utah
A: Per that 1975 map, the iconic Mickey Avenue/Dopey Drive sign is located on the NE corner of “A” Street and Second Avenue. “A” Street equates to Mickey Avenue and Second Avenue to Dopey Drive.
Q : I was at the D23 Expo this summer, and I saw a record that I have, The Scarecrow of Oz, in the archives. What can you tell me about this album? How many were made, and was it associated with any other Disney project?
Marie, Brooklyn, New York
A: The Scarecrow of Oz long-playing record album, narrated by Ray Bolger who was the Scarecrow in the MGM film, was released by Walt Disney Records in 1965, but we do not know how many were made. It was a Storyteller Album, ST-3930. Years earlier, Disney had purchased the rights to most of the Oz books that were written by L. Frank Baum (but not later ones written by others). Walt had considered making a motion picture entitled The Rainbow Road to Oz in the 1950s, but it was never made. The film would have starred some of the Mouseketeers.
Q : Hi Dave, being a big Doctor Who fan I have always looked for a connection between it and Disney and until recently had been unsuccessful. Then I read in an article in Doctor Who Magazine that the creator of Doctor Who Sydney Newman had once said in an interview that in 1938 he was offered an animators job at the studio but that he had to turn it down due to visa complications (he was Canadian). Any chance of anything relating to this being held in the Archives?
Olly, Bristol, United Kingdom
A: No, I am afraid not. The company did not save job applications or offers.
Q : It was great meeting you at the D23 event at the Disney Archives. Your knowledge of Disney history is amazing! Do you have any insights on Mary Blair? My daughter’s Masters thesis is about this talented lady, and we would like to know what resources are available. Do you have any inside information that may highlight her work for Disney?
Jeanne, Placentia, California
A: If your daughter has not seen the 2003 book The Art and Flair of Mary Blair, by John Canemaker, she should certainly obtain it because it is a fairly comprehensive look at Mary’s life and career.
Q : I’m with the Getty Research Institute and trying to find some information in the Disney Archives—I was hoping you might be able to help me. I am researching the involvement of Disney, among other movie studios, in the early 1940s with the war effort—in lending assistance to concealing and camouflaging airbases, factories and plants, etc. in California, so the locations wouldn’t be detectable by enemy forces. Disney, like other studios, helped in providing set designers, painters, art directors, landscape artists, carpenters, etc.; and I’m trying to find any records that Disney may have kept on these activities. If you could kindly let me know if you’re able to source anything in the Archives’ holdings relating to this, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you in advance for your help.
Annie, Los Angeles, California
A: Disney artists helped paint the camouflage netting that was installed over the Lockheed Aircraft plant in Burbank, California. The Walt Disney Archives does not have any detailed information on this, just a photograph. You can contact them directly. Lockheed might have materials.