Disney Books and Magazines

 By Bruce Shawkey

One of my childhood memories is of the Little Golden Books stored up at Grandma and Grandpa's house in Lodi, Wis. They were always available to read, any time I was in the mood. One of those is pictured at left, with the Looney Tunes caricature of Bugs Bunny. These books involved the cooperation of many entities, including Disney, Warner Brothers, Simon and Shuster Publishers, among others. The books were originally priced at 25 cents when they first came out during WWII. 

I still have a collection of about 12 Little Golden Books, but this particular one, Bugs Bunny and the Indians, is my favorite. It is so politically incorrect, that it could never be published today, but it is quite complimentary toward Indians and puts them in a favorable light, on a par with the cowboys that Bugs associates in the story. One of the cowboys is even an Indian. The story ends with the Indians (excuse me, Native Americans) trading goods for Bug's six guns (actually water pistols in the book). 

Little Golden Books are still published today by Penguin Random House. Titles and topics have become more "tame" of course, so as not to incite controversy within the politically correct crowd. But their mission remains the same: to entertain and teach youngsters how to read and teach them valuable lessons like sharing, respect, empathy, and so forth.


Another of my favorites is Dumbo, the little baby elephant who could fly. 

The story is loosely based on the real life elephant Jumbo, a male African Bush elephant born in Sudan in 1860.

In the book,  Jumbo Jr., is cruelly nicknamed "Dumbo", as in "dumb". He is ridiculed for his oversized ears, but in fact he is capable of flying by using his ears as wings. His only true friend, aside from his mother, is a mouse named Timothy – a relationship parodying the stereotypical animosity between mice and elephants.

Disney was a prolific publisher of books and magazines, always attempting to tie in with movies one of his ventures was the Mickey Mouse Club Magazine. A copy is shown at right and ties in with one of Hardy Boys mystery novel. 

The inside cover (right) is an ad for shoes.

The masthead (below, left) reveals an interesting staff, with Walt as editor-in-chief. 

The table of contents reveals an interesting of articles.
















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