Author Description

Two years before Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, four months after the release of the first Mickey Mouse short in color, The Band Concert, Walt Disney traveled to Europe and took conscience of the extent of his international fame. His wife, Lillian; his brother, Roy; and his sister-in-law, Edna went with him. They were feted by nobility, by political elites, and by the most prominent European artists, among whom H.G. Wells and Louis Lumière. They came back with more than three hundred books, which would remain sources of inspiration at the Disney Studio for years to come. They came back with a broader view of the world. And Walt came back with ideas which would infuse his creations for decades. All in all, it was a seminal trip at the height of Disney's Golden Age. But did Walt really receive a medal from the League of Nations during his stay in Paris? Did he really meet Benito Mussolini while in Rome? Was the trip pure pleasure or did it involve much business? How were the Disney businesses structured in Europe at the time? Using as his sources Edna and Roy's diary of the trip, as well as hundreds of European newspaper and magazine articles released in 1935, Didier Ghez, for the first time, gives precise answers to those questions, analyses the roots of Disney's expansion in Europe, and lets us relive--complete with dozens of never-released photographs--the trip of a lifetime, Disney's Grand Tour.