50th Anniversary of Snow White (1987)

The clock is ticking down as we move closer to 2012 and a year of 75th anniversary celebrations for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Diamond jubilees don't come along everyday so it's certain that Disney has something singularly grand in the works. But for now, we'll spend this entire month looking back--reliving Snow White's 1987 50th Anniversary--the promotions, the festivities, the merriment.

Disneyland Festivities, July 17, 1987.

Image courtesy of the Raymond Collection. Used with permission.

1987. It was the year of Snow White! The Golden Anniversary Celebrations saw over 100 official licensees offering commemorative merchandise and memorabilia. There were parades and stage shows, a radio broadcast and television specials. And even though the movie had just been re-released four years earlier in 1983, the 50th anniversary brought it back for a major international theatrical run. It opened on July 17, 1987 in thousands of theaters, in 60 countries, and on six continents. Further still, the princess and the dwarfs participated in live public appearances at children's hospitals, the Smithsonian Institution, the Rose Parade, and the Superbowl. They even made it onto the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in celebration of Disney's highest-ever first quarter revenues.

_______

Variations of this anniversary insignia were seen on an array of things including dolls, pins, posters, plates, postage stamps and banners.

Logo found on Disney Collection doll box.

Disneyland Street Banner. Image courtesy of Harborhouse55. Used with permission.

_______

With July 17th as the date of the theatrical re-release, it was a day-long publicity blowout at the Anaheim theme park with swarms of people---guests, cast members and Disney suits. The Disneyland Post Office even had a temporary booth set up outside the gates. There you could purchase a postage stamp and they would cancel it on anything you wanted, postcards, envelopes, posters...whatever you brought them.

 Disneyland Post Office, July 17, 1987.

Image courtesy of the Raymond Collection. Used with permission.

The event cover cachet below was hand-designed by a Snow White enthusiast. The young entrepreneur then took a stack of these envelopes to the theme park and had the postage cancelled with the official Disneyland Station US Postal rubber stamp. This special stamp featured an image of Dopey and read "Celebrating the Golden Anniversary of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."

Snow White Cachet created by Toms Collectibles n More. Image used with permission.

_______

Cast members at Disneyland wore this special "50th Anniversary" name tag. It was used for a very limited time during the celebration months and only at the California theme park.

Snow White DL Name Tag. Image courtesy of the Name Tag Museum. Used with permission.

_______

The 35mm film reels used in the theatrical screenings were adapted to the widescreen format of 1:85 to 1 but they preserved the original aspect ratio of 1:33 to 1 so nothing was missing from the image. The movie was printed on LPP stock and had Dolby stereo sound. A total of five reels made up the film. Shown below is reel #3 which was approximately 20 minutes in length.

_______

The North American one-sheet movie poster was created with raised gold foil on the lettering and the highlights on Snow White's dress and bow (which scanned black in the image below). A "50th Anniversary" banner ran along the bottom.

 

 Buena Vista re-release (R-1987). Rolled One Sheet (27" X 41") 

Lower Banner on Snow White Gold Foil Movie Poster

_______

This was also the year that co-authors Brian Sibley and Richard Hollis published their timely book, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and the Making of the Classic Film and Brian broadcast his BBC radio program, Fairest of Them All.

Snow White Book by Brian Sibley and Richard Hollis.

_______

Among all the hoopla, Snow White even received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. See video of the event in an earlier post.

Snow White Hollywood Star

_______

So here we go! Break out your princess walking shoes because we're about to take a month-long stroll with Miss White down Golden Anniversary Lane.

Off to climb Everest

Well I'm not, but one of our Son's and his girlfriend are, so I thought I would make them a card to wish them good luck on their journey.

They are flying out to Delhi this week via Dubai, then moving on to Agra to see the wonderful Taj Mahal...........that's one still on my wish list and I have told them I want a text picture from that famous seat synonymous with the picture of Princess Diana. Then they fly up to Kathmandu and the trek to Everest Base Camp.

One of my friends asked why my kids don't do normal things like visiting the Lake District.........good question !

The  card above follows a very similar design to the Everest one and is one of my samples from the Demo day at Stampalot on Saturday which was a really fun day and as I suspected I met lots of new and familiar faces.......a big thank you to everyone who came and helped make it such a great day.

The stamp.....only the one repeat stamped, on the Everest card is Stampscapes and very simple brayering and sponging with Adirondack dye inks. The sentiment which is computer generated is a quote from Sir Edmund Hilary and I thought so apt as our son and his girlfriend are professional photographers..........they met at Uni doing the same course.

My second card uses Art Impression stamps, a hand drawn fence and again simple brayering. The sentiment is Penny Black 3227K Hope.

Thanks for stopping by, I really do appreciate all your visits and kind words.

Snow White Pet Costumes

Just in time for Halloween, it's a Snow White puppy costume for the "trick-or-treating" pet lover. Includes doggie dress and red bow hair clip. Available in pet sizes XS, S and M. Disney licensed. Original retail price $26.00 (USD).

Image via Costume Kingdom

_____________

Collared Snow White bodice for the larger discerning dog. Includes bodice, sleeves, cape and headband. Disney licensed. Originally $11.99.

Image via buycostumes.com.

_____________

This doggie dress features a royal blue and white striped bodice, a ruffled yellow skirt, and two red bows. Disney licensed. Originally $16.99.

Image via Tea Cups Puppies.

_____________

And finally, the dress that can turn any frumpy old pup into a princess. Sleeved bodice, frilly dress and red ribbons. Disney licensed. Original retail price $19.99.

Image via Pet Coupons and Deals.

Fan Art to Cosplay for Snow White Costume

Artist Claire Hummel, aka shoomlah, has created a series of impressive illustrations featuring the Disney princesses in historical dress. Her Snow White design, for instance, is set in 16th century Germany. She says on her deviantArt page, "I took a wide swath from about 1500-1530 to come up with something that still maintained the spirit of the original design...Honestly? I just wanted to draw those damn slashed sleeves. I want them SO BAD."

Image copyright Claire Hummel

Claire says she receives requests from cosplayers asking permission to re-create her dress designs, though no one has ever sent her a photo of a finished dress...until now. Here's a glowing example from costumer Chibirinoa who made the outfit for Halloween this year.

 

Image copyright Chibirinoa

Re-creating Hummel's illustrated design is an amazing feat in itself. Making it work in the real world is something else entirely. Yet Chibirinoa seems to have done just that. From her website...

Snood: The snood was one of the most annoying parts of this costume. It's made of a bunch of trim with hand sewn pearls between the diamonds and sewn down to bias tape with elastic strung through it. I'm wearing two wigs just to get the net full enough!

Bodice: The main part of the bodice is suede and has center panel embroidery that I did free motion on my machine. The gold on the sleeves was also embroidered with zig zag stitching to mimic the artwork. The rest of the fabrics are a loose weave boucle and a cotton eyelet. The back laces up with gold laces.

Skirt: the skirt is casa collection satin with the jacquard band and bias tape. The skirt had to have shoulder straps to keep it sitting high enough on my waist!

Muchas gracias to Hana Street for the notice on this.

Frosted Glass Figurines

Dutch Disney collector H.P. Hogenboom was given this Dopey frosted glass figurine when he was a child. It stands about 4.13" (105mm) tall and has a "Walt Disney Productions" imprint along the base. Though, not much else was known about the figure.

Back in the 1980s, a series of Snow White and Dwarf frosted glass figurines were manufactured, probably in Italy. But these figures typically came with painted highlights. This Dopey appeared to be unique because it had none.

I found a Snow White piece (5.75" tall) featured in the 2007 Hake's Price Guide to Disney Collectibles. It shows the painted highlights seen in the other figurines in this series.

Not much info is available online about these figures, but recently, I came across this unpainted Snow White on ebay. Looks to be the same mold as the one above but with no highlights. It now seems possible that there were two separate releases of these figurines, painted and unpainted.

Snow image via beemaw.

A couple of the painted dwarfs were found online earlier in the year. Grumpy measures 4.875"" high...

Doc clocks in at about the same height with similar highlights...

Grumpy and Doc images via Mid Century Gallery.

Were all seven of the dwarfs created for this series? Who was the manufacturer? There's still more research to do.

Christmas easel and a little bit sad

I am preparing this post Friday evening after a really rotten day, we lost Abbey the eldest family lab, so the whole household is pretty miserable as you can imagine. She's been poorly for a while with a tumour at the fore of her head, but jogging along with medications. But this morning she was very poorly and we knew the time had come. The vet was really lovely and came out within half an hour so she died in her own sitting room in familiar surroundings, but it's still so so hard to accept.

So I will tell you very quickly about this weeks theme at Allsorts, where my lovely teami Emma wants us to make a Christmas Easel card...............did she play into my hand or what. I thought the easel novelty might have worn off by now, but oh no, I am still totally addicted........does it show just a tad most weeks ?

I have used some of this scrummy 25th December DP from Kaiser and made the card shape using Grand Nesties 23. The image is Magenta 43032L which I stamped with versafine sepia, embossed with detail clear and coloured with Aquamarkers. The poinsettia is another appearance of my new Spellbinders Christmas die set.

Hope you have a good weekend and thanks for dropping by.

An awesome FREE prize draw, demo day and turorial

Good Morning Peeps, I really really quick post to remind you that tomorrow is the Fourth Ultimate Rubber Stamping Day at Sir Stampalot in Peterborough. There will be seven of us us demoing throughout the day from 10am through 4pm.......................we will be in a large unit right opposite Stampalot's shop, so all nice and convenient.

At the risk of becoming really boring, I am soooooooooooo looking forward to it, there's always lots of fun and laughter, free refreshments............it's the one day of the year my hubby gets crafty and seems to really enjoy overseeing the eats and drinks whilst chatting to (I did say to not up) the ladies and putting the world to rights with their other halves. And this year there is a really fabulous FREE PRIZE DRAW........you can check out the photo of it here............believe me it's an awesome prize.

Above are a couple of the Christmas decorations I have made for tomorrow. The idea came from one of my workshops recently when two crafty sisters brought along a beautiful Christmas wreath they had made. I think they said the original idea came from a magazine, but as I don’t know which one I set about creating one .......or several as it turned out.

So here we go with my version with thanks to the girls for giving me the idea.

Ingredients:

3 x 12x12 sheets double sided co-ordinating DP
1 x 12x12 sheet coordinating bazzil
1 x sheet coordinating glitter paper (or could use a second sheet bazzil)
6 x bells or embellishments
1 x length sturdy ribbon
Decoration for centre

Cut the three sheets of DP and one sheet Bazzil into 11” scalloped circles (I used the Cricut). Smaller wreaths can be made in exactly the same way, using smaller circles (for mine I used Nesites/Grand Nesties cut through the Big Shot)

Cut the three DP circles into halves, then quarters so you end up with twelve pieces. Don’t cut up the Bazzil circle as this is the base of your wreath.

Take six of the small pieces and cut apertures in the front of each using a circle Nestie or punch (see picture for placement). Using the glitter paper or second sheet bazzil, cut a frame for each circle using the same circle and a larger one, then stick onto the six pieces so each aperture is framed.

Roll each of the twelve pieces into a cone and secure with strong glue (I find the red backed ultra strong tape is best). When you have made all twelve cones, arrange onto the base circle so they fit snugly against each other, when you are happy with the placement fix the ribbon to the base then stick down all twelve cones. Don’t worry if the centre looks uneven as that will be covered.

Thread cord through each bell and fix one into each circle aperture…..this is best done when assembled and hanging so the bells dangle at the right angle. Decorate the centre as desired.

Thanks for popping in and perhaps see some of you tomorrow.

The Art of the "Unusual" Disney Princess

Haunted Mansion Snow White by Robert Farrell, digital media.

Some of the more strange, yet unique Snow White artwork found in The Art of the Disney Princess book from Disney Editions, 2009. See earlier post for additional images.

Title Page

Snow White by Timothy Palin, digital media.

 Snow White by Alpesh Patel, digital media.

Snow White by Rebbecca Wong, watercolor, gouache and ink on watercolor paper.

Snow White by Dan Beltran, digital media.

Snow White by Katie Weekes, digital media.

Snow White by Ming Ong, acrylic on wood.

 Snow White by Jeff Shelly; watercolor, gouache and digital media.
All images copyright Disney Editions.