"The Autobiography of One of Animation's Legendary Figures" who between 1924 and 1967 worked for most of the Hollywood animation studios: Bray, Disney, Fleischer, Warner Bros., MGM, Walter Lantz, Paramount.

From the publisher:

Shamus Culhane (1908-1996) enchanted several generations of animation lovers with his characters Pluto, Pinocchio, Woody Woodpecker, Betty Boop, and Popeye, as well as with his famous "Heigh-ho" sequence in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. He started as an errand boy at age fifteen at the Bray studio but went on to become president of his own company and later head of the animation studio at Paramount. Talking Animals and Other People is both a memoir of Culhane's life and career and a history of the art, taking readers from the earliest days of animation, the creation of the flipbook, and the first animated motion picture to the "assembly-line" Saturday morning TV cartoons and recent advances in computer animation.

Culhane gives an unsparing insider's view of the industry: from harsh labor relations and brutal internal politics to comical anecdotes and frank portraits of animation giants. Filled with over 50 photographs and illustrations, Talking Animals also includes detailed descriptions of the craft, technique, and processes of cartoon-making. Entertaining and informative, this book brings to animated life the everyday world of this beloved art form and the man who helped build it.

From Publishers Weekly:

Culhane's frank, conversational autobiography describes his 50 years as one of the artists who helped bring animated cartooning from its flip-the-pages beginnings to its present levelin the author's view, that of fine art. From an impoverished New York boyhood, Culhane worked his way to become a novice with a California-based genius named Walt Disney, who in time chose him to animate the opening "Hi-Ho" sequence in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the film that built the Disney empire and one that permanently influenced the animated film industry. Before and after Disney, Culhane worked with pioneers like Max Fleischer and Walt Lantz, as well as legendary artists Grim Natwick, Norm Ferguson and others. The account follows the technical growth of animation up to today's computerized wonders, which the author praises. Students and nostalgia buffs will treasure his book, for different reasons. The assessment of Disney is fine-tuned and fair, and while Culhane's post-Disney career is less interesting, the tale of the making of Snow White remains richly amusing.

From Library Journal:

In the history of animated films, the name Shamus Culhane may not carry as much weight as that of Walt Disney or Walter Lantz or the Fleischer brothers. But, in fact, Culhane worked with all these and many others in a fruitful and turbulent career that spanned more than 50 years. Culhane's memoirs are a model of the form, as he effortlessly combines personal anecdotes (not all of them self-serving) with detailed insider's looks at how animated films are produced. Among the book's many strengths are the honest assessments of the legends of animation, their strengths and weaknesses as both people and artists. Because Culhane worked on everything from Betty Boop, Pluto, and Popeye to TV advertising and assembly-line Saturday-morning cartoons, his life mirrors the history of animation in this country. A first-rate book.

This came from the library of Burny Mattinson (1935-2023), an animator, director, producer, and story artist for Walt Disney Animation Studios, from 1953 until his death in 2023. Mattinson directed Mickey's Christmas Carol and The Great Mouse Detective. He was named a Disney Legend in 2008 and was the longest serving employee of The Walt Disney Company, with a career that spanned almost 70 years. His extensive library included numerous subjects and especially large collections of books on Disney, animation, and classic comic strips.