Name Herman Schultheis | ||
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Died Peten Department, Guatemala | ||
Herman Schultheis (11 February 1900 – 21 May 1955) was a Walt Disney Studios photographer and technician in the Special Effects Department best known for his work on the feature films Fantasia, Pinocchio, Dumbo and Bambi.
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Career
Schultheis emigrated to New York City from his native Germany in 1927 working for sound-recording jobs. He then went to Los Angeles in 1937. In February 1939, Schultheis joined Walt Disney in Special Effects department. He left Walt Disney in June 1940.
Disappearance
On 20 May 1955, Schultheis disappeared near Petén while on a trip to the Mayan temples at Tikal in Guatemala.
Schultheis Notebook
Schultheis documented advanced special effect techniques used in Disney films in a notebook titled Special Effects It is on display at The Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco, California. His notebook, once offered to Walt for the sum of $200 in 1939 (equivalent to $3,444 in 2016), was discovered by Disney historian Howard Lowery hidden away in a Murphy bed in his Los Angeles residence upon his widow's death in the early 1990s.
John Canemaker’s book, The Lost Notebook: Herman Schultheis and the Secrets of Walt Disney’s Movie Magic is a partial reproduction of Herman Schultheis notebook. Canemaker called Schultheis book asthe Rosetta Stone of Disney animation.