Herman Schultheis (11 February 1900disappeared 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 ''

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'', '' Pinocchio'', '' Dumbo'' and '' Bambi''.

Career

Schultheis emigrated to New York City from his native Germany in 1927 working jobs in sound-recording. He married Ethel Wisloh in 1936, and the pair moved to Los Angeles in 1937. In February 1939, Schultheis joined The Walt Disney Company in the Special Effects department, at the old Hyperion Avenue Studios in Silver Lake, where he worked on a number of films, most notably on the animated features ''

'' and '' Pinocchio''. He left Walt Disney in June 1940. In 1949, he started employment with Librascope as a patent engineer.

Disappearance and recovery of remains

Schultheis was a dedicated amateur photographer and archeologist who traveled regularly to pursue his hobbies. In 1955 he traveled to Guatemala, where he was last seen on May 20. On that day he hired an airplane to fly him from

Flores Flores is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, a group of islands in the eastern half of Indonesia. Including the Komodo Islands off its west coast (but excluding the Solor Archipelago to the east of Flores), the land area is 15,530.58 km2, and th ...

to a landing area in the vicinity of

Tikal Tikal () (''Tik’al'' in modern Mayan orthography) is the ruin of an ancient city, which was likely to have been called Yax Mutal, found in a rainforest in Guatemala. It is one of the largest archeological sites and urban centers of the pre-Co ...

, where he intended to take photographs of the nearby ruins. Upon arriving at his destination, he arranged to be picked up three hours later for the return flight. Schultheis was last seen headed into a jungle area that was in the direction of the ruins. With no sign of him at the agreed upon departure time, the plane and crew left. They returned the next day, then the day after that, but still did not find him. Efforts by search parties on the ground and in the air failed to find him. Officials with the American Embassy in Guatemala reported in June 1955 that chances of finding Schultheis by that point, whether alive or dead, were "problematical." His remains were discovered on November 23, 1956, by a local

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worker. Two cameras, a pair of rubber-soled shoes, and a bag with personal items were also recovered.

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 The Walt Disney Family Museum (WDFM) is an American museum that features the life and legacy of Walt Disney. The museum is located in The Presidio of San Francisco, part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in San Francisco. The museum r ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. His detailed notebook, documenting the special effects for ''

'', is the subject of a 14-minute short-subject included on the film's DVD. The notebook, once offered to Disney for the sum of $400 in 1939 (), 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 the notebook. Canemaker called Schultheis' book "the Rosetta Stone of Disney animation."

The Herman J. Schultheis Collection of International Photographs, 1927–1950

The Schultheis Collection is composed of original photographic prints documenting Schultheis' various travels to the Mediterranean region, South America, the Caribbean, Mexico, and the eastern half of the United States, as well as many photos that document a wide swath of life in Southern California. Following the death of Ethel in 1990, conservators found a trove of thousands of photographs in the Schultheis home in

Los Feliz, Los Angeles Los Feliz (, ; Spanish for "The Feliz amily, ) is a hillside neighborhood in the greater Hollywood area of Los Angeles, California, abutting Hollywood and encompassing part of the Santa Monica Mountains. The neighborhood is named after the Feli ...

. The collection was deeded to the

Los Angeles Public Library The Los Angeles Public Library system (LAPL) is a public library system in Los Angeles, California. The system holds more than six million volumes, and with around 19 million residents in the Los Angeles Metropolitan area, it serves the large ...

, and nearly 6,000 are available in their Digital Collections.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schultheis, Herman 1900 births 1950s missing person cases Formerly missing people Missing person cases in Guatemala People from Aachen People from Los Feliz, Los Angeles Walt Disney Animation Studios people Unsolved deaths Year of death unknown

Career

Disappearance and recovery of remains

Schultheis notebook

The Herman J. Schultheis Collection of International Photographs, 1927–1950

See also

References