University Press of Mississippi will release the new book, MOUSE TRACKS: THE STORY OF WALT DISNEY RECORDS, written by Tim Hollis and Greg Ehrbar with a foreword from Leonard Maltin.
The tome chronicles for the first time the 50-year history of the Disney recording companies launched by Walt Disney and Roy Disney in the mid-1950s, when Disneyland Park, Davy Crockett and the MICKEY MOUSE CLUB were taking the world by storm. The book provides a perspective on all-time Disney favorites and features anecdotes, reminiscences and biographies of the artists who brought Disney magic to audio.
Authors Hollis and Ehrbar go behind the scenes at the Walt Disney Studios and discover that in the early days Walt and Roy Disney resisted going into the record business before the success of "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" ignited the in-house label. Along the way, the book traces the recording adventures of such Disney favorites as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Cinderella, Bambi, Jiminy Cricket, Winnie the Pooh and even Walt Disney himself. Mouse Tracks reveals the struggles, major successes and occasional misfires. Included are impressions and details of teen-pop princesses Annette Funicello and Hayley Mills, the Mary Poppins phenomenon, a Disney-style "British Invasion" and a low period when sagging sales forced Walt Disney to suggest closing the division down.
Complementing each chapter are brief performer biographies, reproductions of album covers and art and facsimiles of related promotional material.
Hollis lives in Birmingham, Alabama. Three of his previous books histories of tourism and children's television were published by University Press of Mississippi. Two-time Grammy nominee Ehrbar, a 20-year Disney company veteran, is a writer of advertising, books, television specials, radio shows, compact discs and Walt Disney Records Read-Alongs.
The 240-page, 8x10 book features105 black & white illustrations and will sell for $25. For more information, visit www.upress.state.ms.us.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
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