There have been a lot of publications about the history of Disneyland but some of the nicest have come from Ape Pen Publishing. All of their books are put together by Carlene Thie and feature the photography of her grandfather Mell Kilpatrick. Mell worked at the Register newspaper in Orange County, CA and when Walt Disney needed a local darkroom to develop staff photos, they ended up using his at the paper. Thus Mell got special access to Disneyland while it was being built, he was there on opening day and continued to photograph the park until he died in 1962.
Well 30 years later, his darkroom had remained untouched until Mell's wife and his granddaughter, Carlene, decided to go through the prints and negatives. They found a treasure trove of Disneyland imagery. Well a little research showed that there were large numbers of Disneyland enthusiasts that wanted to see the photos. So Carlene decided to publish the photos in book form.
Homecoming: Destination Disneyland is Carlene's fifth book and it is quite a treat. It is hardback book of 174 pages with most of the pages devoted to single black and white images. To supplement the photos she has gotten Disneyland employees, Imagineers and fans to write short essays. Also included are a number of rough sketches that Sam McKim did for the attraction posters. It is quite a stunning book.
It can be ordered from the Ape Pen Publishing website along with all their other books which are all equally enjoyable.
We have most of Carlene's books and they're an amazing window into the early days of Disneyland.
ReplyDelete