Disney Books

[UKDisneyJoe]

Hi all. I just wondered if anyone had any Disney books they could recommend. Not looking for any books on the stories or on Walt himself necessarily. But just some fact based or biographical books. So far I have found but not read the following:
Disney War - James B Stewart
Walt Disney An American original - Bob Thomas
The Disney Story - Aaron H Goldberg
Remembering the Magic - R.J Ogren & Suzanne Ogren
Walt Disney World That Never Was - Christopher Smith

Any other recommendations would be appreciated as really want to read more about whats behind Disney.
Thanks for any replies
Joe

 

[useakiss]

I just came to this section because I was considering starting a threat on this very idea. I'm curious to learn more about all of it--Walt, the history of Disney, the parks, the post-Walt years, the successes and failures, the non-starters, all of it. When I looked on Amazon, there are tons of books but my local libraries carry none of them and I'm hesitate to just buy without paging through first, particularly in these days of self-publishing when quality and fact-checking are almost non-existent.

I already had "Disney War" on my reading list, and I own a used copy of "Walt Disney: An American Original" but haven't read it yet. I am curious about the ones you've listed above and am also adding them to my reading list.

Here are some from Amazon that intrigued me, too:
The Unauthorized Story of Walt Disney's Haunted Mansion - Jeff Baham
Since the World Began: Walt Disney World--The First 25 Years - Jeff Kurtti
Realityland: True-Life Adventures at Walt Disney World - David Koenig

Has anyone read these and would be willing to give a little review on whether they're worth tracking down or purchasing?

 

[UKDisneyJoe]

Hi useakiss
Those 3 sound pretty good too. Im in the same boat as dont want to shell out too much on the books but want to read them
Libraries arent what they used to be

 

[useakiss]

Yeah, a bit frustrated sometimes with library selections these days. But it also makes me wonder how mainstream or legit some of the books on Amazon are. Like I said, a lot of them are self-published which often means they're little more than pamphlets containing materials you'd get from a basic Google search, or unedited and poorly written books with no quality control or fact-checking. It's becoming a crap shoot unless you do your research on the title. I read the reviews both there and on Goodreads to make sure it's legit.

While searching my library records, I actually found another book that's pretty cool. It's mostly a picture book showing examples of all the sorts of insignia Disney created for the War effort for every branch of the military, including individual boats, regiments, and even some foreign groups. For this WWI buff, it's doubly fascinating because I recognize many of them. Even one of submarines my Dad has on from the Cold War era had a patch with insignia that I suspect was created by Disney, or certainly a direct knock-off.
"Disney dons dogtags : the best of Disney military insignia from World War II"
Here's an example: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/a5/58/14/a55814413a0318ebfe942d7c8bee117c.jpg

This weekend I started reading "Walt Disney: An American Original." So far it's pretty informative. The author was well established already for doing thorough biographies on other well-know Hollywood directors/producers when he was hired by the Disney family and company to write this. He was given access to family and corporate records, plus many of the people still alive who'd known and worked with him. I'd consider it the definitive biography for those reasons.

 

[tesmusic]

There's a fabulous podcast episode on Connecting with Walt, Episode 25 where they discuss this topic. Lots of good info.

The Bob Thomas book is great, the Vault of Walt series is great.

On the podcast they criticize the Neal Gabler book, as did Diane Disney Miller due to some of the angles they take on Walt and Lilians relationship, etc., but Gabler does an exhaustive amount of research and does give some information that I had not seen in other places.

 

[useakiss]

I'm about halfway through the Bob Thomas book right now and am really surprised and impressed by how undaunted Walt was in his vision--he truly broke ground on a regular basis, despite naysayers and financial setbacks.

On the opposite end, I'm also currently listening to the CD version of Disney War, and again, it's very eye-opening. I had no idea about all the infighting and shenanigans that went on as the Disney company struggled to avoid complete collapse after Walt's death, and things finally turned around. I still remember being in college when The Little Mermaid and then Beauty and the Beast came out--I was so blown away by each that I'd rush home to rave to my roommates and then dragged them to the theater so I could see them again! I'm loving learning about how they came to be. Very fascinating!

 

[PrueFever]

Encyclopedia of Walt Disney's Animated Characters: From Mickey Mouse to Hercules by John Grant, 480 pages.

https://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia...89272393&sr=1-13&keywords=Disney+Encyclopedia <<--- It's a Disney Bible, if you like the Disney Characters

 

[Rigby]

Great thread! Dream It, Do It! By Martin Sklar is a good read. I also loved An American Original. I'll definitely check out some of these mentioned above.

Edit: Reading The Disney Story now. It's great! Thanks for the heads up.

 

[HiTechHobo]

I got into collecting Disney books about a year ago, mostly focused on the "coffee table" books about the Disney World parks, but I've read a few others. The list of books I started seeking came from these sources:

The Connecting with Walt episode 25 listed above.

Lou Mongello's List
http://www.wdwradio.com/2015/05/wdw...o-be-in-every-walt-disney-world-fans-library/

George Taylor's List - His site has other book reviews beyond this list, he also has a youtube channel and used to co-host the communicore weekly podcast
http://www.imaginerding.com/2015/08/07/disney-world-books-history/

Finding old books is a bit frustrating but you can find some real gems if you are persistent and patient by checking places like ebay or amazon for that one item that gets posted cheap