Once again the idle thought to stop at a yard sale has yielded yet another great addition to my growing Disney book collection. This time I’ve found a beautiful set of four hardcover volumes from 1965. Complete and with the original cover sleeve no less! This is especially precious to me as that is the year I was born and I love finding things from my birth date.
From Golden Press
As mentioned, there are four volumes to this set. And they are:
This volume starts out with Disney animated and live-action movies that are set in other lands. It then segways into chapters adapted from the motion pictures series ‘People and Places’ and then goes back to Disney’s library of fictitious characters from around the world.
This volume mostly focuses on Disney animated and live-action films depicting historical characters.
Fun Fact: This volume has a picture of Br’er Rabbit on the cover who is from Disney’s ‘banned’ Song of the South movie. What is even more interesting is that it contains the Tar Baby story which is one of the main reasons the movie will never be released. There are so many examples of bits and pieces of the Song of the South being released in video compilations and in print, so why not just release the movie?
This volume focuses on creatures from the ‘True-Life Adventures’ series and also contains chapters containing pictures of many strange and unusual animals.
This volume contains mostly stories from Disney’s animated fables. Here is the title page:
Each volume has a similar title page as well as a contents page with a forward like this one:
Each of the four volumes have the same inner sleeve design:
All in all this is a very nice set which must have delighted children back in 1965!
Fun Fact: This set of books contain stories that have been published before and after its production date. One such duplication is the stories of Mother Goose done over with a Disney twist. You can also read these stories in the book entitled Walt Disney’s Mother Goose. I guess if a story works, why not keep publishing it?
Once again a flea market has offered up another vintage Disney book for the blog:
9 1/2″ x 12 1/2 ” with 30 pages
Mother Goose nursery rhymes have been told and retold too many times to count, but this retelling gives the familiar tales a Disney twist. Each verse is accompanied by images of beloved Disney characters, both well-known and obscure.
Title Pages
The artwork is attributed to the Walt Disney Studio, with no single artist being credited.
Now let’s take a look at some of the rhymes with accompanying artwork:
The whole cast…
It’s always cool to see so many Disney characters together! Above we have a collection of favorites like Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Pinocchio alongside vintage characters like the Three Little Pigs/Big Bad Wolf and Clara Cluck, and then obscure characters like Bongo and Pablo (the penguin).
The Old Woman needs to add a boot annex to her shoe!
The Seven Dwarfs
I thought this page was neat because it used each of the seven dwarfs for a different rhyme that basically fit their personalities.
Song of the South
The book has many references to the Song of the South. The rhyme One to Ten depicts the only time Br’er Fox would ever consider letting Br’er Rabbit go!
Bongo and Lulubelle
Not many Disney fans remember little Bongo and his girlfriend, the couple from the package film Fun and Fancy Free. This was a character that didn’t quite make it but did show up from time to time in books like this.
This page caught my eye. Not only are characters from Song of the South featured again (Yea!) but Snow White makes an appearance in a color-variant of her signature dress.
Lastly, the little black lamb from So Dear to My Heart makes an appropriate cameo in Baa, Baa, Black Sheep!
————————————-
The rhymes are basic and well-known, but for very young children, everything is new again! The artwork alone, with the Disney touch, is worth adding this book to your child’s collection.
I would give this book a 4 out of 5 Stars. Again, story wise, there is nothing new here. But for the Disney fan, seeing beloved characters portraying favorite Mother Goose characters should be worth a look. You can find a reprinting of this book on Amazon as of the date of this post.
Back Cover
This particular copy is the eighth printing by the Western Publishing Company from 1973. It is part of the Golden Book series.
Perhaps even more than the story or the characters it’s the music we remember the most from our favorite Disney movies. From the iconic Some Day My Prince Will Come from Snow White to fun tunes like Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah from Song of the South, we love to sing along. Even our favorite theme park attractions have signature songs, like It’s a Small World, which we just can’t get out of our heads!
Well, now you can not only sing along, but actually play the tunes yourself, thanks to this Golden Book:
This was published by the Western Publishing Company as a fourth printing in 1976. My goal is to have only mint condition first editions in my Disney book collection, but with the extensive title library available, I’ll have to settle for some later editions in questionable conditions, like this one.
I picked this copy up at a local flea market for $6.00 CAN which was still too much to pay, even though it was on for half price. The condition makes it all-but worthless monetarily, but I thought it still had some value for interest sake.
Let’s have a look at the inside:
Nice collage from the inside leaf, front and back
Title Page
Contents Page
Each movie or Disney property featured starts with a brief introductory blurb. This gives you some basic information about what the songs were meant to achieve in the story.
Let’s begin our review of the songs in this book by visiting the animated film that started it all, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs:
As you can see, the artwork, although well done, is not ‘on model’. That is, the characters are more stylized than what we may normally see in promotional artwork for the same characters.
Here are some more pages and songs I picked out:
From Dumbo
Casey Junior is one of my favorite Disney characters! It is amazing how many trains made it into Disney films, although not surprising when one considers Walt obsession with steam locomotives!
From Song of the South
One of my all-time favorite Disney live-action/animated blends! And although the song above may not be the signature song from the film, it has definitely been an inspiration for me. Because I don’t want you to miss any of the fun lyrics, here is the concluding page:
Everyone finished laughing? Then let’s move on:
From Rascal
OK, when I came across this song from a movie I had never heard of. I’ve never seen this song on any Disney compilation CD either, so why it was included in this volume is beyond me. The live-action film was released in 1969 and was a based on the book Rascal by Sterling North about a young man and his pet raccoon set in Wisconsin.
The movie is a dramatization of Sterling North’s 1963 “memoir of a better era.” The movie relates a year in the life of young Sterling North which featured, of all things, a raccoon.
The film features the forgotten song “Summer Sweet” and starred Bill Mumy of Lost in Space fame.
From Bedknobs and Broomsticks
Not one of Disney’s best live-action/animation blends, it was made to capitalize on the popularity of Mary Poppins. It starred Angela Lansbury (who later became Mrs. Potts) and featured the return of Mr. Banks actor David Tomlinson. Although not a singer per se, he is featured prominently in this song along with Ms. Lansbury.
I had heard and enjoyed this song long before I knew where it came from. I think most Disney fans may have been in the same predicament, as the 1971 film doesn’t rate very high on most people’s ‘Best of Disney’ lists. Although the film received mostly positive reviews from critics and has scored 63% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Now let’s branch away from movies to a theme park entry:
It’s a Small World
Written by the Sherman Brothers for the UNICEF attraction at the 1964 New York World’s Fair, this song just. Will. Not. Die. It’s been playing continuously, or at least it feels that way, since 1966 at Disneyland. And I guess we wouldn’t have it any other way!
From TV’s Davy Crockett series
With only five television episodes Disney managed to whip the world into a frenzy with this ballad turned anthem. The episodes were released as two feature-length motion pictures to even greater reception. If only I had a penny for every coonskin cap sold!
From TV’s TheMickey Mouse Club show
Fittingly, the song book ends with this merry march, singing the virtues of everyone’s favorite ‘leader of the club’, Mickey Mouse.
Back Cover
I would give this book a 5 out of 5 Stars as it is useful to those who wish to play their favorite songs on the piano while singing along. The inclusion of complete lyrics is a plus. The artwork, although stylized, is very good.
If you would like a copy, Amazon has several available. Used copies start from $19.99 US with new hardcover copies starting at a much higher $135.88 US as of April 2, 2016.
