Illustration: Mary Blair Song Book

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 3 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about 50s children's book illustrators.



Mary Blair is one of the most popular illustrators/color stylists among today's animation designers. This book was published in 1955, and it's a great example of Blair at the height of her powers. The full color illustrations are great, but check out the duotones and the page layouts... It's as if she can do no wrong! Her taste is impeccable. Check out the links at the bottom of this post for more beautiful images by Mary Blair.




































For more beautiful illustrations by Mary Blair, see... Little Verses and Baby's House.

If you would like to see more from this book, let me know in the comments below...

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

11.08.08
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News: Mary Blair's It's A Small World Scheduled for Revision

Today, the Disneyland blog Re-Imagineering is reporting that plans are underway to revise the classic Disneyland attraction, It's A Small World. Mary Blair's incredible mural for Tomorrowland was covered over by plastic panels several years ago, and now the iconic ride which is seen by many to be her greatest achievement for Disney is next in line to be monkeyed with. Created for the 1964 World's Fair, It's A Small World presents a simple and clear message of world harmony. Introduction of Disney characters and a new section devoted to patriotic images of the USA would clearly undermine the original spirit of the ride.

Read the report at... Re-Imagineering: A World of Tears.

For more on Mary Blair's incredible artistry, see our posts on... The Mary Blair Song Book Part One, Part Two and Part Three; Little Verses Part One and Part Two; and Baby's House.
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Illustration: Uncle Remus Stories Part Two

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 3 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about 50s children's book illustrators.



Here are more scans from "Uncle Remus Stories", loaned to us by archive volunteer, Eric Graf. These wonderful illustrations are by Al Dempster and Bill Justice. For more images from this great Giant Golden Book, see... Uncle Remus Stories Part One

As always, if you'd like to see more of this book, let me know in the comments below.













If you found this to be useful, see also... Uncle Remus Stories Part One, Little Verses Part One, Part Two and The New Golden Song Book Part One, Part Two and Part Three, and Huckleberry Hound Builds A House.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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Illustration: Early 50s Disney Christmas Cards

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 3 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about 50s children's book illustrators.

1948


No, you're not suffering from some sort of holiday flashback... It's almost Valentine's Day, not Christmas! Today, we digitized a batch of wonderful 1950s Christmas cards from the Disney studio from 1948 through the mid-1950s. The designs on these cards are so much fun, it makes you wish the films themselves looked this cartoony.

You might wonder why I chose today to post Christmas images. This illustrates a point that I need to make every once in a while... The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Project Blog is NOT the archive itself. It is only a forum for us to report the progress of the project and show examples of the sorts of things we were working on that particular day. Today, we digitized Christmas cards... tomorrow it might be an illustrated children's book from the 1920s... the next day a clip from an animated cartoon by Paul Terry... there is no order implied or intended. The order comes in the way keyword searches link material within the database itself.

The other thing to keep in mind is that for every image you see here on this blog, there are dozens and dozens that we don't post. Our database has grown into the terabytes. There's no way that we will ever be able to post all of it online. My hope is to eventually syndicate the archive as kiosks at university libraries, studios and ASIFA chapters all over the world. But that's quite a ways in the future!

I want to thank the family of Clair Weeks for sharing these great cards with us. See the bottom of this post for links to more treasures from the Weeks collection.




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Many thanks again to the family of Clair Weeks for sharing these with us.

For more treasures from the collection of Clair Weeks, see... History: Clair Weeks' Goodbye Book and History: 1938 Disney Artists' Tryout Book

See you at the Annies!
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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Illustration: Uncle Remus Stories 1949

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 3 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about 50s children's book illustrators.



On Saturday archive volunteer, Eric Graf brought by another treasure for us to digitize... a 1949 edition of the Disney Giant Golden Book, "Uncle Remus Stories". It features a spectacular cover by Mary Blair and many beautiful interior illustrations by Al Dempster and Bill Justice.

This book is interesting, not just for its relationship to the rarely seen Disney film, Song of the South, but for the material that doesn't appear in the film. Along with the familiar stories about the Tar Baby and Brer Rabbit's Laffin' Place, the book illustrates a dozen other stories like "De Great Rabbit Terrapin Race", "Brer Fox and de Stolen Goobers" and "Why de Cricket Fambly Lives in Chimbleys".

As always, if you'd like to see more of this book, let me know in the comments below.





















For more from this book, see Uncle Remus Stories Part Two

For more great Golden Books, see Little Verses Part One, Part Two and The New Golden Song Book Part One , Part Two and Part Three, and Huckleberry Hound Builds A House.


If you would like to volunteer to help out this Saturday, please email me at sworth@animationarchive.org. There are two shifts available, 1:30pm to 5:30 and 5:00pm to 9:00.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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Illustration: Mary Blair Song Book Part Three

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 3 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about 50s children's book illustrators.



Today, we continue digitizing Mary Blair's "New Golden Song Book" from 1955. If you missed the first two parts of this book, see Mary Blair Song Book Part One and Part Two.



Click on the image for a full size view.

















If you missed the posting of the first part of this book, see Mary Blair Song Book Part One and Part Two.

For more beautiful illustrations by Mary Blair, see... Little Verses Part One, Part Two, and Baby's House.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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Illustration: Mary Blair Song Book Part Two

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 3 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about 50s children's book illustrators.



Today, we continue digitizing Mary Blair's "New Golden Song Book" from 1955. If you missed the first part of this book, see Mary Blair Song Book Part One and Part Three.














If you would like to see more from this beautiful book, please let me know in the comments below.

If you missed the posting of the first part of this book, see Mary Blair Song Book Part One and Part Three.

For more beautiful illustrations by Mary Blair, see... Little Verses Part One, Part Two, and Baby's House.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

Stumble It!

Media Mary Blair Song Book Part One

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 3 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about 50s children's book illustrators.



Mary Blair is one of the most popular illustrators/color stylists among today's animation designers. This book was published in 1955, and it's a great example of Blair at the height of her powers. The full color illustrations are great, but check out the duotones and the page layouts... It's as if she can do no wrong! Her taste is impeccable. Check out the links at the bottom of this post for more beautiful images by Mary Blair.




































For more beautiful illustrations by Mary Blair, see... Little Verses Part One, Part Two, and Baby's House.

If you would like to see more from this book, let me know in the comments below...

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

11.08.08
.

Stumble It!

Media: 50s and 60s Album Covers

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 3 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about 50s children's book illustrators.


Archive volunteer and resident video guru, Eric Graf has amassed an amazing collection of novelty and children's records from the 50s and 60s. He brought a stack by the other day to be scanned. Check out how these covers make you want to rush to your phonograph to play the record. Tiny, badly designed CD and DVD covers just don't have the same impact. Thanks, Eric for sharing these with us!

















For more amazing illustration for kids, see our postings on Little Golden Books

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

10.16.08
.

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Media: Mary Blair's Baby's House

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 3 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about Golden Book illustrators.


Earlier, we featured Mary Blair's Golden Book "Little Verses" in two postings ( Part One / Part Two ). Today, we feature her long out-of-print book, "Baby's House".

I'm always interested in the observations of artists regarding the work I post, so I asked Clarke Snyder of Inspiration Grab Bag to put together a few lines to introduce this gallery of images. Here is what he had to say...

"Baby's House" is heavily infused with Mary Blair's signature blend of charm, appeal and delightful child-like spirit that has made her an inspirational icon to artists, designers, and animators. In this book however, she seems to forgo her typical pattern-heavy, decorative approach with its strong and dream-like colors for a much more subdued and natural palette. The combination of bold simplistic shapes, subtle color harmonies and minimal decoration evoke a feeling of comfort and familairity that one would expect to find in a typical home full of commonplace fixtures and objects.

Blair doesn't deviate too far from her norm though... This book is obviously loaded with her lush, well placed brushwork-- whether in a bold textured stroke or a delicate detail. I absolutely love the one image of the baby wrapped up in the towel after the bath. It's brimming with such beautiful simplicity. The depth she creates with negative space amazes me, and the bold use of texture to form creates that familiar feeling of a nice clean fluffy towel after a bath or shower.

Blair's appealing sense of design and compostion also figure prominently throughout each and every page of this book. The Baby seems to bounce around and jump all over the pages, full of life and movement-- so much so that you might swear that the playful tyke was actually animated.

It's no wonder that Mary Blair continues to be such an influential and revered artist amongst so many of todays top artists. --Clarke Snyder




















Many thanks to Mike Fontanelli, who loaned us his Giant Golden Book copy of this book to digitize.

For more beautiful artwork by Mary Blair, see... Little Verses Part One, Part Two and The New Golden Song Book Part One , Part Two and Part Three.

See also... Bozo and his Rocket Ship, Rojankovsky's Frog Went A Courting, Tibor Gergely's A Day In The Jungle, Gustaf Tenggren's The Little Trapper, Uncle Remus Stories Part One and Part Two, and Huckleberry Hound Builds A House.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

6.13.08
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Media: Mary Blair's Little Verses Part One

The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive is packed with great stuff like this... Bookmark Our Homepage!


Mary Blair has become well known in the past few years for her concept work on Disney's classic animated features of the forties and fifties, but two of her masterpieces remain unavailable for viewing... one is the set of murals she designed at the entrance to Tomorrowland in Disneyland, which were covered up several years ago by a plastic wall covering that was supposed to look futuristic... and the other masterpiece is her Golden Book titled, "Little Verses", which has been out of print for over 40 years.

Originally serialized in the children's magazine, "Highlights" in the early fifties, these paintings were issued as an oversized Golden Book in the early 60s. This particular Golden Book is one of the most sought after titles by collectors. Rita Street was kind enough to loan a copy to be be digitized for the Archive's image database. I've done a little Photoshopping to remove the text, so you can see the paintings unobstructed.

Here are a few scans from this beautiful book...




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For more by Mary Blair, see... Mary Blair Song Book Part One, Part Two and Part Three; as well as Baby's House.

See also... Bozo and his Rocket Ship, Rojankovsky's Frog Went A Courting, Tibor Gergely's A Day In The Jungle, Gustaf Tenggren's The Little Trapper, Uncle Remus Stories Part One and Part Two, The New Golden Song Book Part One, Part Two and Part Three, and Huckleberry Hound Builds A House.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

5.27.08
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