Disneyland Records History Now Turned In

[Tim Hollis]

Some of you may be wondering if the book MOUSE TRACKS: THE STORY OF WALT DISNEY RECORDS, by Greg Ehrbar and Yours Truly, got finished in time for its projected October 2005 release. The answer is no, we ran six months over deadline, but the entire 367-page, 76,181-word, 139-illustration manuscript has now been turned over to the publisher, the University Press of Mississippi. They have it scheduled for an April 2006 release, which will tie in with the 50th anniversary of the beginning of Disneyland Records.

Why did it go so far past its deadline? You would not believe how many people we contacted and interviewed and how much material is contained in the book. We actually had to shorten or eliminate some of our synopses and discussions of the individual records, simply because there were so many participants' stories to be documented and told. The manuscript could easily have been twice as long, which would have set our editor screaming.

Some questions for all of you to be pondering while you're waiting for the book to come out... Who was Jim Tadevic, and why does he have a gold record for one of his Disney performances? What were the real names of the Vonnair Sisters? What rejected Sherman brothers song from THE ARISTOCATS ended up being used in the 1971 ORANGE BIRD LP? Answers to these and hundreds of other questions await us all.

 

[Michael Zielski]

Tim, with the way time has been moving for me lately, it doesn't even seem like that long ago, when we first heard that your book was in the works--I'll blink a few more times and April '06 will be here! Thanks for the update, I should be able to hang on a few more months! Are we able to get a table of contents yet, or how the book has finally been organized? Is there an actually listing of some of the individual records, and the artists involved?

Looks like it may qualify as a genuine Disney tome; I'll be reserving a place for it next to "Disneyland, The Nickel Tour," and "Walt's Time."

Mike

 

[Tim Hollis]

As Uncle Scrooge said in the 1960 DONALD DUCK & HIS FRIENDS LP: "I never thought o' that!" Here is the table of contents as it has been turned in (years are approximate, as some chapters waver back & forth according to subject matter):
CHAPTER ONE: Davy Crockett Blazes the Trail (1928-54)
CHAPTER TWO: The Mickey Mouse Club Opens the Door (1955-57)
CHAPTER THREE: The Stars Shine (1957-58)
CHAPTER FOUR: Annette to the Rescue (1958-60)
CHAPTER FIVE: The Buoyant Days (1960-63)
CHAPTER SIX: Mary Poppins Blows Off the Roof (1964)
CHAPTER SEVEN: In Which Pooh and Friends Come to Disney Records (1965-66)
CHAPTER EIGHT: The Jungle Book Goes for the Gold (1967-68)
CHAPTER NINE: The Road to Oz and the End of an Era (1969-71)
CHAPTER TEN: Scrooge McDuck Strikes Again (1972-76)
CHAPTER ELEVEN: Mickey Mouse Goes Double Platinum (1976-79)
CHAPTER TWELVE: Mickey Makes a Big Splash (1980-83)
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: It?s a Gold Record, Charlie Brown! (1983-88)
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: You Can Always Be Number One (1988 - On)
APPENDIX: Grammy Awards & Nominees/Gold Records

We decided against doing a discography because of the space it would have taken up, and people can consult the Michael Murray book for that. We wanted to concentrate on the stories behind the records as much as possible.

 

[micca]

Looking forward to buying your book. Thanks for your effort.

 

[Michael Zielski]

Thanks Tim--looks like we'll be able to drop into a specific time period(chapter) and hopefully find the recordings and artists involved in that era--should be very interesting!

Mike