Lesser-Known Disney Books
a list by Eric Mueller, airplane and bedtime reader
Here's a handful of Disney books you probably haven't heard about-- they aren't travel guides or big glossy mainstream books about Imagineering or Michael Eisner. These books cover more obscure topics, like living in Celebration (the real town that Disney built in Florida), a look at Tokyo Disneyland's impact on Japanese society, the machinations of Disney when they secretly bought the land for Walt Disney World in the '60s, and much more. Any true Disney fan will find something to enjoy here!
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onMouseOver="window.status='http://amazon.com/dp/0345417526'; return true;"
onMouseOut="window.status=''; return true;" rel="nofollow">The Celebration Chronicles: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Property Value in Disney's New Town
by Andrew Phd Ross
Amazon says:
Scholar and iconoclast Andrew Ross spent a year living in the much scrutinized, and often demonized, Celebration--the picture-perfect town that Disney is building for 20,000 people in the swamp and scrub of central Florida. Lavishly planned with a downtown center and newly minted antique homes, and front-loaded with an ultra-progressive school, hospital, and high-tech infrastructure, Celebration was to offer a fresh start in a world gone wrong. Yet behind the picket fences, gleaming facades, and "Kodak moment" streetscapes, Ross discovered a real place with real problems, and not a theme park village cooked up by the Imagineers.
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352 page paperback
|$10.20
|23 reviews
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onMouseOver="window.status='http://amazon.com/dp/B0016ODGAU'; return true;"
onMouseOut="window.status=''; return true;" rel="nofollow">Married to the Mouse: Walt Disney World and Orlando
by Richard E. Foglesong
After Disneyland was build in the '50s, a ton of tacky motels, souvenir shops and other detritus built up around the park. Walt saw this and said "next time, we're going to do it differently." This book details the secretive meetings and subterfuge that went into getting the 30,000+ acres of land purchased for Florida's Walt Disney World. An entertaining read and you'll be amazed how they pulled it all off...
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288 pages
|$9.99
|8 reviews
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onMouseOver="window.status='http://amazon.com/dp/0674768949'; return true;"
onMouseOut="window.status=''; return true;" rel="nofollow">Riding the Black Ship: Japan and Tokyo Disneyland
by Aviad E. Raz
Amazon says:
In 1996 over 16 million people visited Tokyo Disneyland, making it the most popular of the many theme parks in Japan. Since it opened in 1983, Tokyo Disneyland has been analyzed mainly as an example of the globalization of the American leisure industry and its organizational culture, particularly the "company manual." By looking at how Tokyo Disneyland is experienced by employees, management, and visitors, Aviad Raz shows that it is much more an example of successful importation, adaptation, and domestication and that it has succeeded precisely because it has become Japanese even while marketing itself as foreign. Rather than being an agent of Americanization, Tokyo Disneyland is a simulated "America" showcased by and for the Japanese. It is an "America" with a Japanese meaning.
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264 page paperback
|$20.95
|1 review
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onMouseOver="window.status='http://amazon.com/dp/0941613178'; return true;"
onMouseOut="window.status=''; return true;" rel="nofollow">Window on Main Street: 35 Years of Creating Happiness at Disneyland Park
by Van Arsdale France
Amazon says:
A fascinating look at the beginnings of Disneyland as the author was brought in at the concept of Disneyland to train the employees which would set a new criteria for hospitality. Van Arsdale France tells the story of how Walt Disney's dream became a reality with a great many tales of the early stuggles, some of the decisions that were made and why, and how he helped to "create 35 years of happiness at Disneyland Park." Contains many rare photographs and behind the scenes look.
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124 pages,
used, starting at $89.95
|9 reviews
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onMouseOut="window.status=''; return true;" rel="nofollow">Spinning Disney's World: Memories of a Magic Kingdom Press Agent
by Charles Ridgway
In this charming book, Disney Legend Charles Ridgway looks back on over forty years of working with the Mouse, from Disneyland to Walt Disney World to Disneyland Paris and beyond. There's so many interesting stories about outlandish publicity stunts, Disneyland flops, and celebrities at Disneyland that you'll be disappointed when you reach the end.
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240 page hardcover
|$16.47
|18 reviews
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onMouseOut="window.status=''; return true;" rel="nofollow">The Mouse Machine: Disney and Technology
by J P. Telotte
Amazon says:
Throughout Disney's phenomenally successful run in the entertainment industry, the company has negotiated the use of cutting-edge film and media technologies that have proven fundamental to the company's identity. Disney's technological developments include the use of stereophonic surround sound for Fantasia, experimentation with wide-screen technology, inaugural adoption of three-strip Technicolor film, and early efforts at fostering depth in the animated image.
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232 page paperback
|$18.00
|2 reviews
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by Stephen M Fjellman
Amazon says:
Walt Disney World is a pilgrimage site filled with utopian elements, craft, and whimsy. It's a pedestrian's world, where the streets are clean, the employees are friendly, and the trains run on time. All of its elements are themed, presented in a consistent architectural, decorative, horticultural, musical, even olfactory tone, with rides, shows, restaurants, scenery, and costumed characters coordinated to tell a consistent set of stories. It is beguiling and exasperating, a place of ambivalence and ambiguity. In Vinyl Leaves, Professor Fjellman analyzes each ride and theater show of Walt Disney World and discusses the history, political economy, technical infrastructure, and urban planning of the area as well as its relationship with Metropolitan Orlando and the state of Florida.
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512 page paperback
|$49.50
|12 reviews
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onMouseOut="window.status=''; return true;" rel="nofollow">Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
by Cory Doctorow
Jules is a young man barely a century old. He's lived long enough to see the cure for death and the end of scarcity, to learn ten languages and compose three symphonies...and to realize his boyhood dream of taking up residence in Disney World. Disney World! The greatest artistic achievement of the long-ago twentieth century, now in the keeping of a network of "ad-hocs" who keep the classic attractions running as they always have, enhanced with only the smallest high-tech touches.
Now, though, the "ad hocs" are under attack. A new group has taken over the Hall of the Presidents, and is replacing its venerable audio-animatronics with new, immersive direct-to-brain interfaces that give guests the illusion of being Washington, Lincoln, and all the others. For Jules, this is an attack on the artistic purity of Disney World itself. Worse: it appears this new group has had Jules killed. This upsets him. (It's only his fourth death and revival, after all.) Now it's war....
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208 page paperback
|$11.16
|86 reviews
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Flashlight Worthy.
Recommending books so good, they'll keep you up past your bedtime.
more...
I live in Los Angeles, where it's not really about reading, it's about movies -- yet given the choice, I usually prefer to curl up with a good book. Most of my reading gets done on airplanes or laying in bed in that quiet hour right before lights-out. I'm also known to collect pretty much every book having anything to do with Disney's theme parks.
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