Between Books - Bob Gurr: Legendary Imagineer: Life and Times – Disney and Beyond

I was super excited that Kindle Unlimited had Bob Gurr: Legendary Imagineer: Life and Times – Disney and Beyond as a title I could check out as part of the service. Everyone enjoys Bob Gurr. He is a natural storyteller. I loved his Design: Just for Fun. And he is full of optimism. In fact it felt like a great read to match a rewatch of Tomorrowland with. But in the end, I felt like I read a book that was more Frank Walker than Bob Gurr.

Bob Gurr: Legendary Imagineer: Life and Times – Disney and Beyond by Bob Gurr is the second autobiography offered by the Disney legend. The book starts very straightforward as the author discusses his family, early life, Disney career, and post Disney endeavors. Along with an outline of his life, the author provides topical chapters on his interests including automobiles, gliders, travel and society. The book provides no images and is strictly narrative. And the chapters are often focused on memories and opinions not designs and projects.

Honestly, you need a Bob Gurr book! But the book you need is Design: Just for Fun, if you can get it. For a Disney fan that book is a rich and detailed story of a career including Disney and non-Disney projects. While there are descriptions of his time at Disney and key projects, Bob Gurr: Legendary Imagineer: Life and Times – Disney and Beyond largely lacks this level of detail and is largely musings and opinions paired with thoughts on hobbies. I did enjoy myself learning about gliders through Gurr’s eyes. But I found myself more greatly immersed in the earlier book including discussions of non-Disney topics like his work with Universal and the Olympics. And these are topics that he largely skips over.

My biggest concern with this self-published offering is the need for an editor. While Gurr notes that he follows grammar rules of his own making, these rules do not support his natural storytelling ability. For example, he adds notes in text, which would flow better without notes notation but just being included in his natural flow. And sometimes I as a reader had trouble keeping track of family members especially with some of them sharing a name. And his transitions can be rough, with one paragraph starting with a comment about today’s films lacking cartoon shorts followed in the next sentence by a comment about the draft. And editor would likely have helped smooth out these bump while making the book sound like Gurr’s own natural storytelling voice

What is also odd is Gurr comes off as a pessimist at times, just like Frank Walker. When I think of Gurr I think of curiosity, innovation and change. But Gurr often laments today’s modern life and looks back fondly at earlier times as the good old days. While we all likely romanticize our childhood, Gurr’s tone at times does not feel aligned with interviews and other writings I have experienced. It felt less optimistic than I expected and believe him to be!

Disney fans really do want do to explore the career and thoughts of Bob Gurr. But Bob Gurr: Legendary Imagineer: Life and Times – Disney and Beyond sadly is not as satisfying as Gurr’s earlier out of print and pricey used Design: Just for Fun. This newer offering does not dig as deep and really only gives readers a brush to Gurr’s fantastic career. The book does add more about his hobbies, which help show his whole personhood. But readers may feel like they have an incomplete picture of this great innovator and designer.

Between Books - Star Wars:Vader - Dark Visions

They say everyone is the hero of their own story.  And as I read the back cover of Star Wars: Vader - Dark Visions by Dennis Hopeless and a team of artists I thought I was walking into a story that made the villain a hero.  Instead, I found myself immersed into a very different set of tales.

Star Wars: Vader - Dark Visions provides five separate short stories, all originally offered as single issues in a series.  The stories, unlike what I thought, do not provide us a unified story with Darth Vader as the hero.  Instead they are all views of the Sith Lord which show us how others view him.  In a world who does not know of the Empire, a youngster views the Dark Lord in action.  An Imperial Officer finds himself awaiting Vader's arrival, an arrival he dreads.  A young X-Wing pilot is faced with Vader in battle.  A nurse on the Death Star develops an infatuation with the armored knight.  And finally, we feel the intensity of being hunted by Vader.

Honesty, one of the most challenging tasks in comics is writing a single issue story.  And Hopeless really succeeds  Yes, the premise of the series works to support the changing tales and views.  The stories truly do not connect other an a character viewing Vader in action.  And some of the stories are stronger than others in my view.  But the collected volume is enjoyable and like the Dark Horse story "Five Days of Sith" demonstrates the true evil of Vader and the impact his actions have on others.  For those who want to dive into the evil that is Darth Vader, Star Wars: Vader- Dark Visions will be an interesting ride,

Between Books - 2019 Hyperion Historical Alliance Annual

The Hyperion Historical Alliance is a relatively new to the public association with a charge for professional historians to preserve Disney historical documents, artwork and materials. Additionally members will continue to grow Disney scholarship both through an annual and the support in publishing historical monographs. While the group has been in existence since 2009, it is only now in 2019 that the scholarship publications have moved the group into the public eye. And with a membership that includes Didier Ghez, Todd James Pierce and J.B. Kaufman among others, to me the promise of this group and truly professional Disney history seems promising.

The “2019 Hyperion Historical Alliance Annual” is really the first public facing effort of the Alliance. The publication serves as a true professional journal publication, helping to move forward the concept of professional Disney history. The journey fills a niche found in other historical societies by allowing members to provide the community professionally researched and written short articles on Disney history topics. And the publication truly feels like a professional journal with serious historical scholarship. Perhaps the only things missing are book reviews, calls for papers and membership opportunities (which is not available at this time.)

The “2019 Hyperion Historical Alliance Annual” offers six articles. The topics range from profiles of former Disney employees who are generally not known in the Disney community, two articles on Ward Kimball, and The Little Mermaid. The topics establish that the Alliance covers numerous decades of Disney history. The articles are all generally written as one would expect a historical journal article, professional, lacking a fan voice and relying heavily on primary sources many of which are not available to the general public. And overall, the authors succeed in providing a professional historical journal complete in tone and style.

Content wise, I really enjoyed “Jack Cutting, an Artist Abroad” by Jim Hollifield. The article did an excellent job of capturing the life of Cutting from artist to Disney executive working with international markets. Cutting served as an employee who could unite the Walt and Roy sides of the company. But perhaps what struck me the most is how examining one individual can show us historical trends at large. This lesson was most highlighted for me in Past Time by Jules Tygiel. While this monograph is focused on baseball, it demonstrates important immigration and industrialization trends in American history. The Cutting article demonstrates how corporate America functioned in a post-World War II environment and the growth of international markets for American businesses.

Sadly, the article I would have liked to see excluded is one of the best written, “Ward Kimball and the Making of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” by Todd James Pierce. I really enjoy Pierce’s written. But much of this content is already available in The Life and Times of Ward Kimball, an excellent monograph. Additionally, Pierce also adapted this content in an audio form as a podcast. And his work is so successful, I actually read the article hearing his voice including pauses and inflection. But I would have really enjoyed new content from this excellent historian, as I believe the audience for the annual may have likely read the Kimball book already like I have.

As someone with two history degrees I really support the idea of professional Disney history. And I plan to look into the both the monographs and future annuals. If anything I would ask right now is how can I support this effort? Membership at the moment is closed to the association. And there are no casual or supporter memberships. I am fully prepared to purchase the future offerings. But I do wonder if in the future there could be membership options like The Society of Baseball Research, which would offer merchandise or provide avenues for publication. Because the “2019 Hyperion Historical Alliance Annual” makes me hopeful for future of professional Disney history along with a desire to help.