Walt Disney's Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs History

Trailer for the 1937 animated fairy tale film based on the Brothers Grimm fairy tale. Plot: A young girl on the cusp of womanhood is perceived a threat to her wicked stepmother and takes refuge among seven dwarfs. Starring Adriana Caselotti as Snow White Lucille La Verne as the Queen & Witch Roy Atwell as Doc Pinto Colvig as Grumpy Colvig also voiced Sleepy Otis Harlan as Happy Scotty Mattraw as Bashful Billy Gilbert as Sneezy Eddie Collins as Dopey Harry Stockwell as the Prince Moroni Olsen as the Magic Mirror, Stuart Buchanan as the Huntsman Songs by Frank Churchill, Leigh Harline, & Paul Smith Story by Ted Sears, Richard Creedon, Otto Englander, Dick Rickard, Earl Hurd, Merrill De Maris, Dorothy Ann Blank, Webb Smith Directed by David Hand Release date December 21, 1937 Posted for historical purposes. This channel is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.

Lux Radio Theater was a classic radio anthology series broadcast on the NBC Blue Network (1934–35) (owned by the National Broadcasting Company, later predecessor of American Broadcasting Company [ABC] in 1943–1945); CBS Radio network (Columbia Broadcasting System) (1935–54), and NBC Radio (1954–55). Initially, the series adapted Broadway plays[1] during its first two seasons before it began adapting films. These hour-long radio programs were performed live before studio audiences. The series became the most popular dramatic anthology series on radio, broadcast for more than 20 years and continued on television as the Lux Video Theatre through most of the 1950s. The primary sponsor of the show was Unilever through its Lux Soap brand. The show reenacted theatrical films as radio plays and was hosted by the legendary film director Cecil B. deMille. For their Christmas 1937 program, Song of Song, Walt Disney dropped in at the end of the show to plug the world premiere of his new film, Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs. Snow White would premiere less than 24 hours after this. In this rare clip you can hear Walt list of future films that were years away such as Bambi and Fantasia. Posted for historical purposes. This channel is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.

On December 21, 1937 Walt Disney's Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs premiered at the Carthay Circle Theater. A who's who of Hollywood fixtures came out to see the film. Some of the first costumed Walt Disney characters ever also appeared at this event and intermingled with the celebrities. This legendary premiere was a huge success that far surpassed expectations. Here's a radio broadcast of the red carpet before the premiere edited with photos from the event. This is a treasure we're blessed still exists. Posted for historical purposes. This channel is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.

Lux Radio Theater was a classic radio anthology series broadcast on the NBC Blue Network (1934–35) (owned by the National Broadcasting Company, later predecessor of American Broadcasting Company [ABC] in 1943–1945); CBS Radio network (Columbia Broadcasting System) (1935–54), and NBC Radio (1954–55). Initially, the series adapted Broadway plays[1] during its first two seasons before it began adapting films. These hour-long radio programs were performed live before studio audiences. The series became the most popular dramatic anthology series on radio, broadcast for more than 20 years and continued on television as the Lux Video Theatre through most of the 1950s. The primary sponsor of the show was Unilever through its Lux Soap brand. The show reenacted theatrical films as radio plays and was hosted by the legendary film director Cecil B. deMille. For their Christmas 1938 program, Walt Disney appeared with most of the cast from his film Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs to retell the story to listeners at home. In the adaptation, there's a few extended versions of the songs. At the end of the show deMille interviews Walt Disney on the success of his films. Posted for historical purposes. This channel is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.

1987 was the year of Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs. It was the films 50th anniversary and being the first major film to enjoy such a milestone, the pop culture red carpet was brought out to observe it. (MGM’s The Wizard of Oz, always following in Snow White’s foot steps would follow this same template in 1989.) There was merchandise, sweepstakes, high-end collectibles, even the declaration of a Snow White week made by act of congress! A high point of the celebration was this TV special that aired on NBC in celebration of the film. Several such TV specials were produced at Disneyland in this era when Disney was just starting its transition away from a family feeling company and into the global entertainment conglomerate we know today. It was still a company with a heart because there were still a lot of people around from the Walt/Roy/Ub era who cared. This wasn’t just a job for them, this was an institution and it showed. For Snow White’s 50th anniversary a special program was created that was part narrative story, part documentary, and part pop culture celebration. The major plot of the story is Dick van Dyke is hanging out with his buddies, the seven dwarfs, when the evil Queen, played by Jane Curtin, casts a spell on Grumpy so he’ll retire and she can finally do away with Snow White. Sherman Helmsley plays the Slave in the Magic Mirror (Yeah, that certainly wouldn’t fly today...) and does so in an urban update of the original, much like Jiminy Cricket in Pinocchio or even the Magic Mirror as played by Hans Conreid on Walt’s TV show. Through the course of the story, van Dyke convinces Grumpy and the others to stay in the film by reminding them of the story on its making. Through the course of the production we get to see historical footage and animation art from the original production, including glimpses of deleted scenes. In the end Dick van Dyke and the Dwarfs celebrates in singing a deleted song from the film, You’re Never Too Old To Be Young. Throughout the show there’s cameos of then current TV stars celebrating Snow White and finally Linda Ronstadt sings Someday My Prince Will Come for the finale. For a time, TV specials like this on network television were a staple of the Walt Disney Company in both celebrating their historical milestones and their new releases but Snow White’s Golden Anniversary is one of the most special among them. Audiences today have no idea how revered Walt Disney’s history was back then when many of the people who’d participated in it were still with us. It’s certainly not like this anymore under Woke Disney. Original air date May 22, 1987 Posted for historical purposes. This channel is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.

In the late 1970's, Radio City Music Hall was in danger of being torn down. They needed a miracle. They found it with Snow White Live! Walt Disney had a history with Radio City Music Hall going back to the beginning of his career. That relationship remained in place after he died with many Walt Disney films premiering there. That loyalty carried on when the Music Hall needed an attraction to bring in audiences and remain open. That attraction was a Broadway show based on Walt Disney's Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs and it saved the Music Hall at a time when movie palaces were being demolished across the country. While there had been traveling stage productions using Disney characters for some time, this marked the first time Walt Disney Productions allowed an outside company to adapt one of their films in a stage production. That production was overseen by longtime Disney Parks vet, Robert F. Jani and first debuted in St. Louis in 1969 returning again in 1972. The decision was made to bring this production to New York City at a time when America's future looked bleak. Originally only intended for a 14 day run, it proved immensely popular and was not only held over but returned after Christmas. The original production opened on October 18, 1979, closing November 18, 1979 after 38 performances in order to put on the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. It then reopened on January 11, 1980 running 68 performances and closed on March 9, 1980, a total of 106 performances. It also went on national tour. A cast recording LP was released in 1979 and was the final Buena Vista label LP record release. The performance was recorded and released on home video as Snow White Live! at Radio City Music Hall in 1981. The Walt Disney Company had stated they would never release Walt's actual animated feature to home video and this took the place of it. This stage production was the only way to see Walt Disney's Snow White story for a generation of people. It aired on HBO in the early 1980's and, starting in 1987 to coincide with the original film's 50th anniversary, it aired on the Disney Channel. The VHS of this production is long out of print, fetching hundreds of dollars on Ebay and has never been released to DVD. The entire production is here. While the Walt Disney Company began a string of Broadway adaptations of their modern day animated features, this is the original and a faithful adaptation it is. The story was expanded to give the Prince more to do and added a great character moment for Dopey in the finale. It also added additional characters such as Luna, the servant of the evil Queen, and for the first time we got to meet Snow White's father the King. Verses to the established songs cut from the animated film were restored and new songs were written adding to the score and they fit rather well. In casting the role of Snow White a national casting call went out looking for an unknown to create the PR of the fairy tale discovery story. A fan produced documentary on the stage production featuring interviews with man of the key players can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR-AyeartfM It should also be noted that Howard Ashman attended a few of these performances. He would go one to revitalize Walt Disney animated features starting with 1989's The Little Mermaid. Cast Mary Jo Salerno as Snow White Richard Bowne as The Prince Anne Francine as The Evil Queen Charles Hall as The Hag & Magic Mirror Don Potter as Doc Benny Freigh as Grumpy Richard Day as Happy Jay Edward Allen as Bashful Louis Carry as Sneezy Jerry Riley as Sleepy Michael E. King as Dopey Bruce Sherman as The Huntsman Thomas Ruisinger as The King Yolande Bavan as Luna Heidi Coe as Greta Lauren Lipson as Mother David Pursley as Chamberlain Songs by Frank Churchill, Leigh Harline, & Paul Smith Additional songs by Joe Cook & Jay Blackton Posted for historical purposes. This channel is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.

Perhaps no other Walt Disney film has had more TV specials devoted to it than Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs. This one tied in with the 1983 rerelease and is hosted by comedy star and character actor Dick van Patten. He was in several sitcoms in his career but may be best known to today's audiences for his numerous cameos in Mel Brookes comedy feature films. This TV special only aired once on CBS. This documentary was filmed by former Disney CEO Card Walker who'd been at the studio since the 1938 when he started as a mail clerk and personally knew all of these people and their important contributions to the studio. Walker cared very much about history and understood the importance of the Walt Disney legacy being preserved. He went on to make The Walt Disney Family Album after this. What makes this TV special unique is we see so many of the people involved with the film. This may be the only TV special on Snow White where many of them ever appeared. We hear from legendary Disney artists including Ken Anderson, Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, Woolie Reitherman, Ward Kimball, and Eric Larson. We also see a brief interview with Adriana Caselotti and Harry Stockwell who played Snow White and the Prince. Disney voice actors Paul Winchell and Clarence "Ducky" Nash also have a few comments. Wayne Allwine demonstrates some of the sound effect props that Jimmy MacDonald used in the original film at the Los Angelos Childrens Museum. We also see several very young Disney artists very early in their careers such as Glen Keane, John Lasseter, Phil Nibbelink, and Cyndee Whitney. We also see a comment from Joseph Bottoms who portrayed Major Effects in the infamous episode from Walt's TV show. There's also contemporary 1980's stars of time as well as vintage footage of Walt from the time of the film's original release. This is an important record of Walt Disney history and we're blessed it was produced at all. Original air date May 28, 1983 Posted for historical purposes. This channel is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.

This Disney Channel TV special was created for the 1993 rerelease of Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs. While not as in depth as the making of documentaries they'd produce for the contemporary films, the reason this program is so valuable is because it features some of the last interviews ever conducted from the people who made this film. We hear from Snow White's voice Adriana Caselotti and several of the Nine Old Men including Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, Marc Davis, and Ward Kimball. There's also a few soundbites from Roy Disney, Jr and animation historian Charles Solomon. There's lots of historical footage and we also get a segment on the restoration of the film as well as a few clips of both celebrities and average Americans discussing how they feel about the film. It's interesting to note just how diverse the audience is and they all universally praise the film. It's a shame this documentary has never been officially released on one of Snow Whites DVD releases. It's an important record of Walt Disney History. *Quality note - This is the best quality print of this film that could be located and opening is missing. If a better quality/complete print ever surfaces we will replace it in this archive. Original air date June 10, 1993 Posted for historical purposes. This channel is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.