In 1937, Whitman released a linen book which reprinted a dozen of the GOOD HOUSEKEEPING pages from 1934-1935. They were printed the same size as the magazine pages even though the overall size of the book itself is larger. The series of Disney linen books featuring Disney characters were thicker and printed on a more durable paper stock than similar books of the period. They were primarily designed for youngsters between the ages of two and six years old.
From December 3 to December 23, 1987 in conjunction with a special exhibition held at the Alexander Gallery of New York, a beautiful full color hardcover catalog of the exhibition was printed with sixty installments (and one half page of the September 1943 installment). Eva Peltz wrote a short, informative introduction. The pre-1942 installments were reprinted with no text except for the title and lettering on signs, mailboxes, and newspapers which suggests that the early episodes obviously must have had a transparent overlay with text that was placed on top of the watercolored artwork before printing. The post-1942 installments have the text (sometimes in the form of dialog balloons) incorporated directly into the artwork.
Disney announced it would publish a complete collection of all the pages in a large art book titled WALT DISNEY’S GOOD HOUSEKEEPING PAGES 1934-1944 which was to be released August 1995 at a price of $75.00. It was even assigned an ISBN number (1557094063) but the project was officially cancelled in 1997.
While the GOOD HOUSEKEEPING pages originally showcased versions of the upcoming Disney short cartoons, a shift in focus to Disney’s World War II contributions became apparent with the August 1942 installment which promoted the concept of buying saving stamps to help the war effort. Another significant change was converting the pages to merely two colors rather than full color.
A shift in style became more pronounced with the six “Good Neighbor” pages which ran from December 1942-May 1943. The installments were to help support the compilation feature, SALUDOS AMIGOS, which was designed to promote the U.S.’s “good neighbor” policy with the South American countries and was released at the same time. The pages were now no longer designed as full color images supporting a rhyming text much like a children’s book. Instead, they were designed like a comic book page with panels and dialog balloons. While these installments featured characters from SALUDOS AMIGOS, they were original stories that did not appear in the actual animated cartoon. An interesting sidenote is that the February 1943 page features Mickey, Pluto and an armadillo. Originally, the short cartoon PLUTO AND THE ARMADILLO was to be a segment of SALUDOS AMIGOS but ended up being released separately.
Another significant shift in the feature occurred in the October 1943 page when it became “New Tales From Old Mother Goose As Told by Walt Disney”. The pages remained in only two colors but were now divided into four equal sized panels with text at the bottom of each panel which was a revised version of a Mother Goose nursery rhyme. For instance, when Donald Duck as the Knave of Hearts ate all of the Queen’s tarts, he is sentenced to make some more. When Minnie as Miss Muffet is rescued from a big spider by brave Pluto, she rewards the pup with the remainder of her bowl of peaches and cream (rather than cruds and whey) that she had been eating.
While at this time, the name of “Walt Disney” was prominently displayed on everything from comic strips to coloring books to the animated cartoons themselves, it was a team of talented Disney Studio artists who toiled on these creations and more. In the case of the GOOD HOUSEKEEPING pages, it was the work of artist Tom Wood and then later his successor, Hank Porter, that produced these monthly mini-masterpieces.
Tom Wood was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania sometime around the 1870s and passed away October 4, 1940. He worked as a staff artist at Universal Pictures from 1915-1917 and then as a staff artist at the Los Angeles Herald newspaper from 1919-1932.
In 1932, he joined the Disney Studio in the Comic Strip/Publicity Art Department where among other responsibilities he lettered the Mickey Mouse comic strip during 1932-1933. On August 5, 1933, he was promoted to the head of the Disney Publicity Department which was a position he maintained until he left the Studio June 24, 1940, approximately three months before his death.
He is credited with supplying artwork for hardbacks, magazine covers, one sheets, movie posters, puzzles as well as covers and text illustrations for Mickey Mouse Magazine (1937-1940).
In her introduction from the Alexander Gallery catalog, Eva Peltz describes Wood as “a quiet, hardworking individualist. He was well liked and highly regarded by those who knew him both personally and professionally. He worked at the Studio until his untimely death in 1940 and, as publicity artist, assumed primary responsibility for the monthly Good Housekeeping page as well as the creation of publicity stills for the theater. Wood typically worked on each of these pages for a full week. Beginning with sketchy, penciled drawings which he would then ink himself, he also created the final watercolors which represented a seven minute Disney film short. Assisted by an ‘idea man’ and a third person who wrote the story or dialogue, the publicity artist had the final approval on the finished version.”
Hank Porter was born around the turn of the century and passed away in 1951. He joined the Disney Studio in 1935 and worked there until October 2, 1950. Standing an impressive six foot, six inches tall, the bespectacled Porter took over the monthly installments but his GOOD HOUSEKEEPING pages were but a small footnote in his work for the Disney Studio.
Like his predecessor, he was assigned to the Disney Publicity Art Department where he provided artwork for movie posters, advertisements, magazine covers, text and cover illustrations for Mickey Mouse Magazine and later the early issues of Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories.
He also drew the syndicated Sunday installments of the Disney comic strips that adapted SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS (1937-1938) and PINOCCHIO (1939-1940). In fact, it has been remarked that his style on the SNOW WHITE strip captured the spirit of the original Gustaf Tengreen illustrations surprisingly well.
Beginning with the U.S. Declaration of War in December 1941, the Disney Studio was flooded with requests for insignias for military units by every branch of the service.
In early 1942, Walt Disney summoned Hank Porter to his office and according to an article in FLYING AND POPULAR AVIATION (April 1942) said: “Mister, you have yourself a job. Just settle down to it. Make as many insignia as you can. If you get overloaded with work, let me know.”
Porter assembled a staff of talented artists including Van Kaufman, Ed Parks and George Goepper to design and create insignia for the military. However, Hank was the most prolific and his experience from the Disney Character Merchandise Department helped keep the characters on model.
In a special employee newsletter, DISPATCH FROM DISNEY’S (1943), Walt referred to Porter as a “one man art department”.
Disney animator Bill Justice who worked on the DONALD DUCK and CHIP’N’DALE animated series and later became an Imagineer remembered that “Hank Porter did hundreds of beautiful insignias in full color. Hank took great pride and care in his work.”
Roy Williams and Hank Porter are credited with creating the insignia for General Chennault’s famous “Flying Tigers” squadron. Chennault even sent Porter a gold clasp of the insignia in appreciation of the design.
Porter often had to draw upon his own imagination to create new characters in the Disney style like fighting fish for submarines, which at that time were christened after the names of fish.
While Walt Disney continued signing autographs until his death, the requests for special signed artwork, books and gifts for VIPs, charity auctions, special anniversaries and similar requests became so overwhelming that a group of artists including Hank Porter, Floyd Gottfredson and Bob Moore were authorized to sign the famous “Walt Disney” signature on these items when Walt was too busy, out of town or otherwise occupied. So, some of those cherished family treasures of a Walt Disney autographed cel or storybook is actually an example of the craftsmanship of Hank Porter.
However, while the names of the primary artists on the series have been discovered, uncovering the names of the writers is a mystery that may be lost to the ages.
Dave Smith, Director of the Disney Archives since its creation in 1970, remarked in a personal letter that the Archives has never known who wrote the Good Housekeeping pages, but it was evidently many different people.
Roy O. Disney wrote even as early as 1935 that: “We have one very capable man who has been steadily preparing the art work for the pages, but with respect to the verses, I haven’t been quite so fortunate. Instead I have had to rely on getting it done here and there around the studio, and sometimes I feel that not enough thought has been devoted to the verse to work it out as well as it should be. I always felt that it was more important to have the verse read with good feeling and understanding for the younger child, than to have it, necessarily, very correct in meter and rhythm.”
So over half a century later, like so many other Disney projects, mystery still shrouds this memorable and beautiful example of Disney’s classic Golden Era which still delights collectors today. In fact, the original art for “On Ice,” the Disney Feature for Good Housekeeping Magazine (Nov., 1935) sold for $40,747 at the 2003 MastroNet Americana auction.