About the celebration of Barks 96th birthday:
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On Saturday April 12, 1997, Barks 96th birthday was celebrated with a banquet at the California Grill at Disney's Contemporary Resort. Life-sized figures of some Duck and DuckTales characters attended and there was a special Scrooge cake and lots of good stuff. There also were some special custom made Disney items on exhibition, like Donald carved in a flat piece of glass illuminated from below...
The evening included an exclusive gallery featuring a selection of works by Carl Barks and a gourmet dinner. Premiering was a collection of 75 original colored drawings created by Carl Barks especially for this event (on which he has worked non-stop for six months), a limited edition serigraph honoring 50 years of Scrooge McDuck titled, "I May Have To Spend Some of This Stuff", and a variety of other pieces by Carl Barks. The 75 pieces of new Barks drawings (colour-pencils) were exhibited, they mostly had scenes from old stories and single new jokes like in a daily cartoon, featuring all his characters.
The art was sold by Disney [not by the Barks Studio?, DvE] with a price range that included pieces in four range categories: $1500 - $3000 - $5000 - $7000. Everybody got a numbered coin he / she could put in a box besides the pictures if he / she wanted to buy it. If more than one coin was found, chance decided who got it (no bidding).
In addition, many of these works were commemorated in a hardback book called "Barks' Treasury" (price $250), limited to an edition of 1000. This book contains a high-class reproduction of 40 drawings, together with a five-language description. It was presented in a nice box resembling a safe, filled with shredded Duck-Dollars (with a Barks portrait on them).
The next day, a selection of fans, old friends and foreign visitors had brunch with Barks in his suite in the (restricted) top floor of the hotel. In the afternoon Barks was driven, escorted by a marching band, in an open cabriolet to the "Chinese Theater"-copy at the MGM-Studio. On his car it said "Carl Barks - Disney legend" an official title he is allowed to carry since 1991. Beside him sat his 50 year old son... In front of the theater he signed and put his palms into concrete to be put up there for posterity. A bunch of journalists attended, but no TV-crew... Tourists cheered, mostly not knowing who this man was. (In Europe this would have been top-news on all channels...)
Barks looked good, walked with a stick but could do without, he was well-mannered as always and chatted jokingly with everybody.
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source: Information taken from a member of DCML. Dated 19 February 1997.
copy:
http://www.seriesam.com/barks/deta_text ... ation.html- - - - - - - - - -