Mouse Tracks: The Story of Walt Disney Records


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davesworld56

Member
Mouse Tracks The Story Off Walt Disney Records

I just got a copy of Mouse Tracks: The Story of Walt Disney Records today in the mail. Can't wait to dive into it. I already see it has some great photos in it. First photo I came to was one of Robie Lester and Gene Merlino singing a song from "The One And Only, Genuine, Origianal Family Band." Great stuff.

Has anyone else read this book?
 
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diegorivera2

Member
Re: Mouse Tracks The Story Off Walt Disney Records

Hmmm. Don't think I've ever heard of it mentioned on this site. :eek:

(Quick clue - look for Greg Erhbar and Tim Hollis as users on this site.) Enjoy the book!
 
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davesworld56

Member
Re: Mouse Tracks The Story Off Walt Disney Records

diegorivera2 said:
Hmmm. Don't think I've ever heard of it mentioned on this site. :)

(Quick clue - look for Greg Erhbar and Tim Hollis as users on this site.) Enjoy the book!
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Not sure if this is a jab at me mentioning it again, :eek: but I looked in search first, and I didn't find any in depth discussions about the book in the forum Search engine. Otherwise I would have used one of them to mention that I had gotten the book. sorry if has been discussed to death before, but I just joined. If it has been discussed before then the search engine should have worked better to help me find the discussions. The couple that I did find were well over two years old, and only seemed to be announcements of the book's upcoming release.

And, yes, I'm sure I will enjoy the book.

BTW - when I was searching for this book I found one website that has the whole book to read online. I thought that was kind of strange.
 
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diegorivera2

Member
Re: Mouse Tracks The Story Off Walt Disney Records

No offense intended, Dave; more of a bit of jest for the rest of us. :eek:

Yes, the search engine for Trent's site is a bit persnickety at times and it doesn't return any hits for Mouse Tracks (except for Bill's post today) but let's just say we've discussed it quite a bit. Thanks for joining us and thank you very much for your Disney Album page. I really enjoyed listening to the Mellomen Album.

Welcome aboard!
 
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davesworld56

Member
Re: Mouse Tracks The Story Off Walt Disney Records

You're welcome. Glad to be here. What, btw, is the rules on music sharing here. I ask because I have no desire to break forum rules. I know I began to share my Disney GE Show 'N Tell Records last night, and thought perhaps I shouldn't.

I've been skimming through Mouse tracks off and on all day today. The rare photos in the book are really priceless. For instance, not being a Disney reocrds expert by any means, this is the first I had learned that the Beach Boys had done a song with Disney. I had to laugh at the photo of that instance taken from the studio. Dennis had a look of total boredom if not disgust on his face. I'm sure that the Disney music was a little tame for him even back then.
 
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diegorivera2

Member
Re: Mouse Tracks The Story Off Walt Disney Records

(Yes I am; an olive branch is always at the ready.)
 
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Greg Ehrbar

Member
Re: Mouse Tracks The Story Off Walt Disney Records

Thanks for the nice comments on the book. It's wonderful that it keeps being rediscovered.

Tim has a new book on the way about Country Comedy. I'm looking forward to it, especially since I've recently rediscovered Green Acres. I never realized what an incredibly sharp and anarchal comedy it is -- much in the style of British comedy -- yet it is cleverly disguised as a typical 60s rural sitcom. Plus it's a smorgasbord of Disney and other voice actors. There's even an episode in which the great June Foray appears ON CAMERA as a Mexican telephone operator!

davesworld56 said:
BTW - when I was searching for this book I found one website that has the whole book to read online. I thought that was kind of strange.
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That does not seem like a nice thing, somehow. What is the site?
 
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Zarpman

Member
Re: Mouse Tracks The Story Off Walt Disney Records

Not the entire thing. Large chunks of the book are removed to entice you to buy. This is simply a "preview."
 
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davesworld56

Member
Re: Mouse Tracks The Story Off Walt Disney Records

Oh. I didn't check the whole thing. It was so long it looked like every page to me. I see what you mean now. Sorry for mis-speaking about it being the whole thing. I like that photo on Page 110. If it didn't have a caption I never would have guessed that was Robbie Lester.
 
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Tim Hollis

Member
Re: Mouse Tracks The Story Off Walt Disney Records

As Greg said, thanks for bringing up the subject of the book once again. Since he saw fit to mention my newest one, I'll go ahead and state the full title... AIN'T THAT A KNEE SLAPPER: RURAL COMEDY IN THE 20TH CENTURY. I'm not sure just what interest it would hold for this crowd, but there it is. At least it's true that most of the 1970s Disney animated films contained a bevy of rural comedians whose other work makes up the bulk of the book. In fact, I made the statement that ROBIN HOOD had so many of them (Pat Buttram, George Lindsey, Ken Curtis, Roger Miller, Andy Devine) that Sherwood Forest sounded more like the Okefenokee Swamp. Anyway, the book is being released around May 1 from the University Press of Mississippi (same company as MOUSE TRACKS), and is available for pre-order from Amazon now.
 
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davesworld56

Member
Re: Mouse Tracks The Story Off Walt Disney Records

New question in relation to the book. Is there any kind of resource as to who did what artwork on the Disney Record Covers? Most of it is really awesome. I had the question come up on my blog about who did the cover for "Little Red Riding Hood" 12 inch LP, and I couldn't find that answer anywhere. I have the "Golden Age of Walt Disney Records" book also. It is good about giving narrator names sometimes, but I don't ever recall seeing any discussion there either about the cover artist's name. Thanks.
 
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Greg Ehrbar

Member
Re: Mouse Tracks The Story Off Walt Disney Records

That's a good question. Actually, the wonderful Stacia Martin is the ultimate authority on Disney album covers, being an Disney artist and historian herself. When the Magic Behind the Music opened at the EMP in Seattle, Stacia did an amazing presentation about them. Seeing one after another was truly overwhelming -- the artistry is tremendous.

Some of the artists were from the Disney studio, like Mary Blair, Paul Wenzel, X Atencio, Collin Campbell, and Art Riley; others were oustanding freelance artists like Harry Wisocki and Neil Boyle. I'm not sure who did the Little Red Riding Hood.

You might want to visit afilmla.blogspot.com, the excellent website of Hans Perk (Stacia's "intended"), and besides enjoying the wealth of information, perhaps you could persuade him to feature some of the album art on his site.
 
BJWanlund

BJWanlund

Member
Re: Mouse Tracks The Story Off Walt Disney Records

New question, kinda sorta related to Mouse Tracks:

Does Bambi Moe still work for Disney? In what capacity?

BJ
 
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Tim Hollis

Member
Re: Mouse Tracks The Story Off Walt Disney Records

No, Bambi Moe is not with Disney these days, but I'm not sure just what she is doing.
 
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davesworld56

Member
Re: Mouse Tracks The Story Off Walt Disney Records

Too bad the artists didn't sign their LP artwork like some of the other non-Disney LP cover artitsts did. Like Jack Davis, and George Peed just to name a couple.
 
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Joseph

Member
Re: Mouse Tracks The Story Off Walt Disney Records

Many of the artists did sign their names. For example, X. Atencio, Paul Wenzel, Art Riley, Peter Ellenshaw, Harry Wysocki, Neil Boyle, Al Dempster. I see their names on the albums all the time. Mary Blair signed her name to the "It's a Small World" Disneyland album. I guess it was the less well known artists who didn't sign them, or like Bill said, maybe sometimes the name was cropped off when the cover was printed. I wonder if the Disney Archives has any info on the album cover artists. That would be interesting.
 
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