DONALD ICE SKATING

In this 1940's comic, Donald tries hard to impress Daisy with disastrous results.

vintage Disneyland travel posters Frontierland

vintage Greyhound Disneyland travel poster

vintage travel posters Disneyland fantasyland

vintage Disneyland travel posters Tommorowland

MINNIE MOUSE VALENTINES

These children's valentine cards are from about the 1960's.

FREE DISNEY MODEL DOWNLOADS

Years ago, Disney used to publish a magazine in Germany that had a model or game that could be constructed in each issue. They were many different models from castles to steamboats and they are available at the site Page 42. This site is partially in German but you don't really need to speak the language to download and construct these wonderful models. The site is definitely worth a look and the models are all available for free download.

1960's DISNEYLAND TRAVEL POSTER

DISNEY CROSS STITCH PATTERNS

I have made several cross stitch patterns from classic Disney images and they are available at my blogs at download free cross stitch and cross stitch fan. Just click on the tag Disney in the sidebars of the blogs.

LATE 1950'S CHRISTMAS COMIC BOOKS

EARLY 1950s DISNEY CHRISTMAS COMIC BOOKS

DISNEY COMIC BOOK TIE-INS

Disney started cross promoting their creations early. Books, comic books and merchandise were common for Disney movies and TV shows.

MORE ZORRO COMIC BOOKS

ZORRO COMIC BOOKS

Along with the popularity of Zorro on television, the comics were widely distributed also. Disney usually released comic books based on their movies and TV shows and these are some of the Zorro titles. The comic books continued even after the series was cancelled.

ZORRO TV SERIES

Zorro was created by Johnston McCulley in 1919. The pulp fiction hero, Don Diego de la Vega, lived in the Spanish colonies in California. Don Diego was a nobleman with the secret identity of Zorro, which means Fox in Spanish. Don Diego disguises himself with a mask and dressing all in black and goes out into the night to defend the downtrodden from various villains. During the day, Don Diego presented himself as a Dandy and a coward so he would not be associated with Zorro.

In all there were more than 60 stories published by McCulley, which were very popular. The first Zorro film was made in 1920, starring Douglas Fairbanks as Zorro. Zorro is very athletic and skilled with a blade, knife and whip, so he was a good part for the athletic Fairbanks. There were several Zorro films before the character got the Disney treatment in 1957.

The series premiered in October, 1957 and ran until July, 1959. There were 78 ½ hour episodes. In the 1960-1961 season there were also 4 hour long episodes on Walt Disney Presents. Guy Williams, who is perhaps better known for his role on Lost In Space, performed the dual role of Don Diego de la Vega and Zorro. Gene Sheldon played Diego’s servant Bernardo. Bernardo is sometimes just comic relief but he is also an able spy. Bernardo is mute but can communicate very well with gestures.

Also in the cast is Don Diego’s father, played by George J. Lewis, who only learns later in the show that his son is Zorro. Rounding out the cast was Henry Calvin who played Sergeant Garcia, the local law enforcement. He tries to catch Zorro but is pretty ineffectual and doesn’t come close to catching him.

The show was quite popular but there was a dispute between Disney and ABC about ownership of the series. The actors went onto other projects and Disney retained ownership of the series, which is still broadcast once in awhile.

1952 CHRISTMAS COMIC BOOKS

Disney started producing comic strips for newspapers in the early 1930's and by 1940 the strips were made into comic books. Stories were also written exclusively for the comic books and the titles were published into the 21st century. Christmas editions of the comic books were issued for many years.

GOOFY AND THE HOW TO SHORTS

Goofy was created in 1932, he is a dog that walks on 2 legs and dresses like a human. He is a friend of Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse. The character is sort of clumsy and not too bright. He proved very popular as a sidekick and eventually went on to star in a series of shorts. In the 1941 film, The Reluctant Dragon, Goofy demonstrated how to ride a horse with disastrous results. That bit of comedy was so funny that the hapless Goofy was soon given his own series of shorts of training films, where nothing ever worked out. He tried to demonstrate skiing, golf and other tasks and mayhem ensued. In the cartoon series Goofy did not talk, a narrator would explain the situation and what Goofy was going to try to do. We then saw what actually happened.

LIST OF HOW TO SHORTS

1941

HOW TO RIDE A HORSE....THE ART OF SKIING....THE ART OF SELF DENSE

1942

HOW TO PLAY BASEBALL....HOW TO SWIM....HOW TO FISH

1944

HOW TO BE A SAILOR....HOW TO PLAY GOLF

1945

HOCKEY HOMICIDE

1950

MOTOR MANIA

1952

HOW TO BE A DETECTIVE

1953

HOW TO SLEEP....HOW TO DANCE

1999

HOW TO HAUNT A HOUSE

2007

HOW TO HOOK UP YOUR HOME THEATER

Humphrey The Bear animated shorts

Some of my favorite Disney cartoons star Humphrey the Bear. He was first a supporting character in a Goofy cartoon “Hold That Pose.” Goofy was visiting a national park and wanted to take a picture of the bear. This was in 1950.

In the following years he appeared in 4 Donald Duck Cartoons: Rugged Bear in 1953, Grin and Bear It in 1954, and Bearly Asleep and Beezy Bear in 1955. The cartoons were so popular that Humphrey was given his own series in 1955. 2 films were made for this series, Hooked Bear and In The Bag. The only reason more films weren’t made was because Disney discontinued all of its theatrical short film series.

Humphrey lived in Brownstone National Park, he is a little like Yogi Bear in that he is always after food, but he doesn’t have a sidekick and he doesn’t really speak. He is also more panicky than Yogi and not as bright. But the series is very funny, too bad more films weren’t made.

In later years, when Disney was mining old material, Humphrey appeared in some episodes of various series on the Disney Channel and also starred in 3 shorts alongside Donald Duck or the Ranger. The titles were Donald’s Grizzly Guest, Donald’s Fish Fry and Hot Tub Humphrey.

Out of the Frying Pan into the Firing Line (1942)

During WWII the United States was cut off from supplies of cooking oil, much of which came from the South Pacific. This oil also had military and industrial uses and there was soon a great shortage. Butter and other fats were being rationed by 1943. This did not completely ease the shortage. There was also a shortage of glycerin which is a byproduct of the use of fat in soap making. Glycerin use was restricted in civilian products to make it available for pharmaceuticals, explosives and other vital wartime uses.

To add to the supply of glycerin the government turned to civilians and asked them to save their fat. Civilians were told that a pound of fat makes enough dynamite to blow up a bridge. Housewives were to store the oil and turn it in for additional ration points.

The government turned to Disney Studios to get the point across to the housewives of America in this entertaining short shown in theaters nationwide.

THE SPIRIT OF '43 (1943)

In 1941 the Disney studios branched out from entertainment films to instructional movies. The first film was for the Lockheed Aircraft Company and explained methods of flush riveting. For the rest of the war, Disney made several training and morale building films. Dozens of films were produced for both civilians and military personnel. Donald Duck was the star of a popular film for the home audience.

Federal Income tax had been collected before WWII but it was only a minor amount and taxpayers were expected to mail in the payment 4 times a year. It was only at the start of WWII that taxes were levied on wages of the average worker. They were still expected to mail it in 4 times a year, but the government was having trouble getting the payments. So they turned to Walt Disney to make a film laying out exactly why it was important to the war effort for everyone to send in their taxes. The Donald Duck film was shown in theaters nationwide and was a great success, although at first the government balked at the price tag.

Aunt Jemima at Disneyland

From the early days of Disneyland corporations were involved in the park. They paid for some exhibits and competed to have their products on sale or used at the park. Aunt Jemima was no exception. This ad is from the early 1960's and celebrates the pancakes connection with the theme park.

SCROOGE MCDUCK 1977 COMIC BOOK COVERS

SCROOGE MCDUCK

Scrooge McDuck was created in the early 1950’s by Carl Barks, while working for Disney Studios. The first appearance was in the comic book Uncle Scrooge number 1 and there was a long series of comics starring the character.

Scrooge is uncle to Donald Duck and he is extremely wealthy, regularly swimming in his money. Scrooge travels the world in search of even more money, gold and treasure. Scrooge is particularly drawn to diamonds and has spent much time in pursuit of spectacular gems.

Scrooge is sometimes accompanied on his adventures by Donald and the 3 younger ducks. His greatest enemies are The Beasty Boys, who are a family of thieves continually trying to steal Scrooge’s wealth and foil his adventures.