Charlie Chaplin Assists Disney Snow White Distribution

At the Disney Studio in the late 1930s, the Snow White project set such a new precedent of operations on so many fronts, that both Walt and Roy sometimes found themselves having to figure out just what their next step should be. When it came to feature-length motion pictures, they were very much like newcomers to the business of Hollywood filmmaking.












According to Neal Gabler's book, Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination, the Disney brothers did not know what to charge for a feature film, especially overseas. It was Charlie Chaplin that came to the rescue...

Chaplin offered to give the Disney's all his "records and experience," most importantly his ledgers from Modern Times, which permitted Roy to press RKO to "go out and ask Chaplin prices" and get the same terms in foreign markets as Chaplin had gotten. p. 271

Modern Times released 1936.

Thanking Chaplin after Snow White's release, Walt called it an "invaluable service" and wrote "Your records have been our Bible--without them we would have been as sheep in a den of wolves." p. 271

Auspicious Anniversary - Premiere Night Memories

All of Hollywood's brass turned out for a cartoon--Walt Disney.

The return of the light--the Filmic Light. On this night of the winter solstice seventy-three years ago, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs made its world premiere at the 1500 seat Carthay Circle Theatre. It was cold outside, but an electricity was in the air. Grand stands set up across the street were packed with fans while dozens of Hollywood's brightest stars joined the sold out audience inside--which included a select number of the film's storymen, artists and animators.

Charlie Chaplin--who assisted the Disney brothers in setting the distribution price tag for this their first feature film--sent a wire to Walt earlier in the day. It read as follows: I am convinced all our fondest hopes will be realized tonight.

When Walt arrived at the theater, he was asked on national radio by interviewer Buddy Twist if he was going to watch the movie himself. He responded, Yes, and have my wife hold my hand.

Yet, once the film had begun, it was clear that this would be no ordinary screening, and Walt Disney need not fear the audience's reaction...

I believe everyone in that first Snow White audience could have predicted the enormous success of the film. They were carried away by the picture from the very beginning, and as it went along everyone was bubbling over with enthusiasm and frequently bursting into spontaneous applause. [1] Animator Bill Peet

The audience was so taken by the magic of what they had seen that they applauded after individual sequences, just as though they were watching a stage play. I've never seen anything quite like it since. [2]  Animator Wolfgang (Woolie) Reitherman

They even applauded the backgrounds and layouts when no animation was on the screen.[3a]  I was sitting near John Barrymore when the shot of the queen's castle above the mist came on, with the queen poling across the marsh in a little boat. He was bouncing up and down in his seat, he was so excited.[3b] Art Director Ken O'Connor

It was the most receptive, enthusiastic audience I have ever seen. Every song, every gag, every good piece of acting worked on those people like a bow on a fiddle. There was almost continuous laughter and applause until Frank Thomas' sequence, where the sorrowing dwarfs gather around Snow White's bier. The house fell silent, gripped by the emotional impact of the acting.[4] Animator Shamus Culhane 

As I look back on it, we knew where they were going to laugh from experience, but we weren't prepared for the crying and sniffing in the audience. That was the thing I started hearing. Clark Gable and Carole Lombard were sitting close, and when Snow White was poisoned, stretched out on that slab, they started blowing their noses. I could hear it--crying--that was the big surprise.[5] Animator Ward Kimball

What I wouldn't have done to be in that audience seventy-three years ago! It's stuff like this that makes life worth living. Tonight also marks one year of blogging here at the Snow White Sanctum...and if the muses be willing, more are in store.

1. Bill Peet quote via Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination by Neal Gabler, p.272. Photo via Michael Sporn Animation.
2. Woolie Reitherman photo via Michael Barrier December 18, 2008 post.
3a/b. Ken O'Connor quote via Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination by Neal Gabler, p.272. Also Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Studio Book), Viking Press, 1979, p.225. Photo via Re-Imagineering.
4. Shamus Culhane quote via Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: The Making of the Classic Film by Brian Sibley and Richard Holliss, p.65. Photo via Animation World Magazine. 
5. Ward Kimball quote via Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: An Art in Its Making, p.47. Photo via The Inkling Chronicles.

Marguerite Clark as Snow White (1916)

It's well-known that one of the first films Walt Disney ever saw was Snow White. It was a special free showing attended by sixteen thousand children squeezed into the Kansas City Convention Center. The hall was arranged with four separate screens set in the center of the room and the youthful audience encircling them. Four projectors all ran simultaneously and the film included live musical accompaniment.

I once saw Marguerite Clark performing in it in Kansas City when I was a newsboy back in 1917. It was one of the first big feature pictures I'd ever seen...I thought it was the perfect story. It had the sympathetic dwarfs, you see? It had the heavy. It had the prince and the girl. The romance. I just thought it was a perfect story. Walt Disney

Snow White title plate, 1916. Image via ImageShack

Marguerite Clark. Image in public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Directed by J. Searle Dawley with Marguerite Clark in the lead role, the 1916 feature motion picture adaptation of Grimm's fairy tale was first a 1912 play starring Clark. Her popularity in this and other Broadway productions led to a silent film contract in 1914 with Famous Players-Lasky Corporation. She was 31 when she starred in the first of her forty films--making her 33 when she played Snow White.

L to R: Creighton Hale (Prince), Dorothy Cumming (Queen) and Marguerite Clark (Snow White). Image in public domain.

Asleep in the dwarfs cottage. Image in public domain.

Marguerite became one of the most popular film stars of the teens and early 1920s--and also one of the industry's best paid. In November of 1916, the New York Times called her "one of the Big Four of movie stars, the other three being Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and Charlie Chaplin. Like Mary Pickford, Clark was quite petite (4'10") and possessed youthful features which allowed her to play characters much younger than her actual age.

In recognition of her accomplishments, she was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, located at 6304 Hollywood Boulevard.

Marguerite Clark, 1917 Kromo Gravure Movie Card. Image courtesy of Immortal Ephemera. Used with Permission. 

For detailed info on the Kromo Gravure card sets from the silent film era, see this video.

Movie playing card featuring Marguerite Clark. Card set featured a variety of film stars from the time period. Issued by Movie Souvenir Card Co, copyright 1916 by MJ Moriarty. Image courtesy of Immortal Ephemera. Used with Permission.

Watching this version of Snow White is like having a window into the past. Filmed nearly 100 years ago, we see a style of storytelling long gone. Many of the scenes were shot and performed as if it were still a stage play--not necessarily the most interesting filmically. Nonetheless, Marguerite Clark's performance is charming and charismatic. She makes the movie.

The Huntsman is unable to kill Snow White. Image in public domain.

One can also see the influence this film had on Walt Disney. Although there doesn't seem to be any confirmation of this, it almost seems as if he got ahold of the reels and screened it for his animators. The similarity of certain designs and scenes is noticeable.

The Huntsman and Queen with her chair in background. Image in public domain.

Contrary to popular belief, Walt Disney's film was not the first to name the dwarfs. Here we have Blick, Flick, Glick, Snick, Plick, Whick and Quee--a grumpy stubborn dwarf who is forced to wash up when the other dwarfs throw him in a water barrel.

Quee getting dunked. Image in public domain.

It's interesting to note the differences from Disney's film too. For example, the Queen and Witch are two separate characters, and it's the latter who demands to have the heart of the princess.

Witch and Queen as two separate characters. Image in public domain.

This version of Snow White was actually thought to be long lost until a copy was discovered by the Dutch film archives, Nederlands Filmmuseum. A 35mm preservation negative now exists in the International Museum of Photography and Film at the George Eastman House film archive.

The movie is available on DVD as part of the Treasures from American Film Archives set.

Watch a clip from the film...

Video posted by nyesteiran

Years afterward at a special dinner given to Marguerite Clark at the Disney Studios in Hollywood, [Walt Disney] told Miss Clark that [the] Snow White picture he saw in Kansas City--from a loft gallery seat--was the inspiration that caused him to create the first long cartoon picture.
From Walt Disney and Europe by Robin Allan

Movie Poster. Image in public domain.

The following review is from IMDb:

The highlight of this version of "Snow White" is the lively performance by Marguerite Clark, who fits into the role very well and shows why she was so popular in her time. Overall, the movie is a pleasant, old-fashioned telling of the story, with a stage-like technique but some pretty good production values for the mid-1910s.

At one time, Clark was as popular as any other actress of her day, but almost all of her movies have since been lost. Even this movie is still missing some material at various points, although the reconstruction in the Treasures From American Film Archives collection is very nicely done, and makes it fit together as well as it possibly could have.

Even when compared with the other great actresses of her day, Clark works very well in the role of a young girl. Her small stature certainly helps, but her actions and mannerisms are also very believable. For the story to work, "Snow White" has to be extremely sympathetic and engaging, and Clark is able to do that quite well.

The story stays fairly close to the Grimm Brothers' original, though downplaying or eliminating some of its more violent aspects.

Read another review on Commentary Track. And for more side-by-side comparisons between this and Walt Disney's version, see the post over at A Lost Film.

Hollywood Stories - Stephen Schochet on Lucille La Verne

Hollywood Stories storyteller Stephen Schochet shares (above) the well-known Lucille La Verne anecdote from the recording session for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The actress who voiced both the Evil Queen and the Witch achieved that distinctive sound for the more ragtag of the two characters through some very original improvisation.

Pose struck for animator Joe Grant during the dialog recording session. Lucille La Verne image via Disney Wiki

Schochet is author and narrator of numerous Hollywood tales including the audiobook Fascinating Walt Disney. In the bonus video below, learn anecdotal information about Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, and Sid Grauman as well as Mary Pickford and how she was inadvertently responsible for the creation of the handprints in cement at the Grauman's Chinese Theatre Forecourt. (Grauman's Chinese Theatre photograph by Carol M. Highsmith; public domain via Wikimedia Commons)