DICK HUEMER MURAL

Richard P. Huemer, son of Scrappy animator Dick Huemer, has an urgent request:

A bit of Disney history is about to crumble under the wrecking-ball. Back in 1935, my father Dick Huemer built a house in North Hollywood and decorated the nursery walls with Disney characters. You may know Dick as the co-story director of Fantasia and the co-author of Dumbo, as well as the author of TV shows and Academy Award-winning shorts, but throughout most of the 1930s he worked at Disney’s as an animator.After my mother died in 1999, my brother and I sold the old house. It has recently been re-sold, and is to be demolished to make way for new construction.I thought that Disney’s might be interested in acquiring and preserving these murals. One wall shows Mickey with a fishing pole on a background of stars; he has caught a long-billed Donald Duck with his hook. The other wall (photo enclosed) shows 2 of the Three Orphan Kittens sliding down the face of the quarter moon. (I regret the color shift due to my computer printer.) The mural was painted by Dick and his assistant, and appears to be on some sort of thin fabric glued to the wall.The house is at 12012 Hesby Street, North Hollywood, CA 91607. I do not know who owns it now. I received this sad information from Helen Catledge, who can be contacted at 818-763-7890.I found out the name of the owner of the demolition company; he is David Harai, and his phone number is 818-612-6629. He has been very nice to the various people who’ve called, in that he doesn’t want any money for the murals, but he says that if they aren’t taken off the walls tomorrow (Nov.19), he will finish tearing down the house, which he commenced doing this morning. One of the neighbors made contact with an art restorer who is supposed go out to the Hesby Street house tomorrow and cut the canvas from the walls, but I have not spoken to the restorer yet and am awaiting his return call.

Can anybody help Mr. Huemer to save this rare piece of art?