Walt Disney Family Foundation and Weldon Owen Press present
The Lost Notebook: Herman Schultheis and The Secrets of Walt Disney’s Movie Magic 

New book reveals the secrets behind special effects and magic of Disney classics 

San Francisco, May 7, 2014— Herman Schultheis is one of early animation’s most enigmatic and fascinating characters. A technician at The Walt Disney Studios in the late 1930s, he kept a covert scrapbook capturing the behind-the-scenes ingenuity of the early Disney films. He left the film business soon after his stint at Disney and disappeared in a Guatemalan jungle in 1955. His notebook was all but forgotten, until 1990, when historians discovered it hidden in his recently diseased widow’s estate.

The actual notebook, which has been referred to as the Rosetta Stone of early special-effects animation, is now on display at The Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco. Though behind glass in an effort to conserve and protect the integrity of its pages, this compelling and beautiful book has been entirely digitized so that visitors can explore, scan, and zoom through every single one of its pages by means of a completely immersive, interactive, and multi-media touch-table.

Part annotated facsimile of the scrapbook itself, part biography of the complicated, incredibly ambitious man who made it, The Lost Notebook is a goldmine for Disney and animation enthusiasts and a vivid, riveting account of one man's plight to make it big in early Hollywood.  

Published in partnership with the Walt Disney Family Foundation and Weldon Owen, annotated and with background and biography by John Canemaker, this 292-paged book is exclusively available at The Walt Disney Family Museum and online for $75 and will be widely released May 27, 2014.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John Canemaker is an Academy Award-, Emmy Award-, and Peabody Award-winning animation director and designer. His twenty-eight-minute film The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation, won the 2005 Oscar for Best Animated Short, and his more than twenty films (and their original art) are in the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art in New York. He is also a tenured professor and director of the animation program at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. He is the author of twelve books on animation history, including Winsor McCay- His Life and Art, MAGIC, COLOR, FLAIR: the world of Mary Blair, and  Walt Disney’s Nine Old Men and the Art of Animation

ABOUT THE MUSEUM
The Walt Disney Family Museum presents the fascinating story and achievements of Walt Disney, the man who raised animation to an art, transformed the film industry, tirelessly pursued innovation, and created a global and distinctively American legacy. Opened in October 2009, the 40,000 square foot facility features historic materials and artifacts presented with cutting-edge technology to bring Disney’s achievements to life, and includes interactive galleries with early drawings and animation, movies, music, listening stations, a spectacular model of Disneyland, and much more.  

Hours:                      
10am to 6pm, Wednesdays through Monday; closed on Tuesdays and the following public holidays: New Year’s Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

Where:                    
The Presidio of San Francisco, 104 Montgomery Street, San Francisco, CA 94129                               

Contact:                   
415-345-6800 | waltdisney.org | waltdisney.org/blair 
facebook.com/wdfmuseum | twitter & instagram: @wdfmuseum