Bob Walbaum: This One is About Me (Part 3)
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As Bill added material to his first draft, the book began to come together. Of course, illustrations would be a huge part of a project like this. A few years earlier, veteran animator/storyman/director Jack Kinney had authored a book entitled Walt Disney and Assorted Other Characters  that was liberally illustrated with Jack’s own line drawings. So Bill did some nice drawings of his own. Plus he found some special photos and items that would help tell his story. Especially fascinating was a 1940 menu from the Walt Disney Studio Restaurant, listing such offerings as

Stromboli’s Favorite Sandwich
Hot Roast Prime Ribs of Beef with Gravy, Mashed Potatoes and Vegetables
35¢

He also had some great photos, like Walt Disney and Leopold Stokowski working out together in the Studio’s penthouse gym, and the original storyboard drawings for the first Disneyland Christmas Parade, which we printed in color.

Then we remembered Bill said he’d been offered his Disney job by answering an ad in Esquire magazine. A copy of that ad would make a nice illustration for the book’s first page. So I was off to the library of nearby Wright State University to pore over microfilm to try and find that ad.

Bill had left for California around the first of July, 1937. So I started with Esquire’s January 1937 issue, carefully scrolling through the entire magazine. Nada. February. Nothing there, either. March. Nope. April…May. Still nothing. My eyes felt glued to the microfilm reader as I muttered under my breath about the effects of ageing on the human brain when suddenly there it was: “Walt Disney Wants Artists�? and Mickey’s smiling face in the June issue. Talk about things happening fast! Bill must have heard opportunity knocking when he first saw that ad. Of course, that’s exactly what Walt’s reputation did to people.

I was very happy to tell Bill that I’d found that ad … and to complement him on his infallible memory! Incidentally, I did look at a couple of issues past June and never saw this ad again. Apparently it had only run once.

With these illustrations, the project really moved fast. During this time, Tom was working the business end.  I had no role in this aspect. All I know is we were able to obtain Disney’s permission to publish a limited edition of 1000 copies. I was personally disappointed the press run would not be larger, but this way we could use any company photos, character artwork, etc. without having to worry about any legal issues.

But there was another complication. Bill dearly loves his granddaughter Marissa Kimberlee. He not only wanted the book dedicated to her, but he wanted her picture -- in color -- to appear on the dedication page. This was more difficult than it sounded. First, her unusual first name, a combination of her grandmother’s Marie and her mother’s Melissa, was a bit tricky. The one time I met Melissa, her only request for the book was to make sure I got her daughter’s name spelled right.

Second was the picture had to be in color. Without launching into a technical explanation of printing (which I don’t fully understand myself), we couldn’t just print one page in color. Books are printed in sections called signatures. Basically, multiple pages are printed on a large sheet of paper, the paper is folded, the edges are trimmed off, and that’s a signature. Tom determined the best way to include one color picture would be to have a color photo printed along with the book’s four-color signature, then “tip�? or glue them onto the dedication page.

The project was finally completed in 1992. A printer in Michigan got the job, and Tom’s son and I were dispatched in the company van to pick them up. The standard printing contract at the time allowed for an overrun/underrun of ten percent. In other words, the printer didn’t count 1000 copies and stop; some leeway was involved. So 1060 copies were ordered to make sure we got 1000. As it turned out, the actual spoilage was more and we barely had enough copies.  

Upon our return to Dayton, the first step was to check for these inevitable spoiled copies. We stacked the boxes in the warehouse section of the building, and I opened each box and quickly scanned through every book to look for mistakes. (Fortunately by this time, Tomart had moved into more expansive quarters.) And there were some. But the real problem was when you look at that many books that quickly, your mind kind of stops functioning normally. Like the copy (I think it was around 400) that I grabbed, opened, and was stunned to see the print upside down. My first thought was sheer panic: “Omigod, they printed this entire book upside down!�? It took me a couple of seconds to realize the problem was simply that the dust jacket had been put on the wrong way. D’Oh!