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ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE - ISSUE 4.7 - OCTOBER 1999
The Glad Family Trust
Collection
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Mike Glad.
Photo by Jerome Muller. Courtesy of Mike Glad.
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Imagine a museum with
an animation art collection big enough to create large exhibits
on almost any topic: Disney, World War II propaganda cartoons, Russian
animation art, or...the list continues. Probably the only collection
of this kind in existence is not in a museum. It is a remarkable
private archive in northern California known as the Glad Family
Trust Collection.
A Wonderful Collection
Mike Glad, the owner of an auto muffler chain, has spent the
last 20 years assembling an exceptional collection that covers the
entire history of animation. He has been loaning major animation
art exhibits to the Cartoon
Art Museum in Boca Raton, Florida (formerly in Rye Brook, New
York), the Cartoon
Art Museum in San Francisco, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts
and Sciences in Los Angeles and other institutions. These have been
large shows on a variety of topics including: Disney villains; the
Gems of Disney; art from Fantasia; art from Snow White;
art from the Fleischer Studio; watercolor studies for Bambi;
a Bugs Bunny show; animation art from WW II; and a selection of
rare cartoon posters for animated shorts and features. A Dumbo
show in Florida featured storyboard art from each scene in the feature.
"The Best of Soviet Animation" at the Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences featured rare items from the 1920s to
present. "The Gems of Disney" was a pre-War selection
that ranged from 1920s Alice shorts to Dumbo.
He is presently working with a museum curator on a show of material
from stop-motion productions. The exhibit will contain material
from several countries and some will date back to pioneers including
George Pal and Lou Bunin. The show will also feature modern masters
like Henry Selick.
Mike Glad got the collecting bug when he was a kid. He collected
stamps, Lincoln head pennies and "a few works by obscure artists."
He bought his first cels on a trip from Florida to Disneyland in
1956. He purchased three from the Disney Art Corner that were priced
between $2 and $5. He tried to find more of these bargains on his
next trip to Disneyland, but they were gone.
Glad thought about collecting animation art again around 1980 when
he saw several Sleeping Beauty cels in a gallery window in
San Diego. He didn't buy any because he couldn't see himself spending
$300-400 for a cel, but he did ask his sister-in-law if there were
places to buy animation art in Los Angeles. Eventually she introduced
him to Collectors Bookstore and an employee named Howard Lowery.
Glad's first purchase from their catalog was a cel of Sleepy from
Snow White. More importantly, Howard Lowery recommended that
Glad read Leonard Maltin's Of Mice and Magic (1980). Glad
says he has read the book several times and it and Frank and Ollie's
Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life (1981) should be basic
reading for anybody thinking about collecting animation art.
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Note: Readers may contact any Animation World Magazine contributor by sending an e-mail to editor@awn.com.