Walt Disney & Shirley Temple Oscars Photo

In December 2016, Heritage Auctions listed this well-known b&w photograph from the 1939 Academy Awards. It features Shirley Temple presenting Walt Disney with the honorary Oscar for Snow White. The special award consisted of one full size statue and seven miniatures. (Learn more in an earlier post.)

The photograph belonged to the personal collection of Shirley Temple Black. Mounted to construction paper. Measures 11" x 14" (image area 8" x 9.5"). It is inscribed in black fountain pen ink by Walt Disney..."To Shirley Temple from Snow White, Dopey, and all the gang and me too - Walt Disney".

Also signed in pencil by the photographer, Hyman Fink.

Images via Heritage Auctions.

Walt Disney Letter to Venice Biennale

A letter dated July 17, 1939 from Walt Disney to Count Volpi of the Biennale Institute of Venice, organizers of the Venice Film Festival. The year before, in August of 1938, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs had won the festival's Grand Art Trophy.

Walt thanks the Count for the bronze trophy and the support that Italians had shown for his film. He also shares his hope that the yet unreleased Pinocchio will also be well received. Little does he know how War World II wil soon alter the outlook for his second feature-length picture.

Image via the Biennale site.

Special thanks to Nunziante Valoroso for sharing this one with us.

Snow White #1 in "Yearbook of Motion Pictures"

Film Daily was an American motion picture trade journal published from the early 20th century up until 1970. Each year, they would issue a hardbound recap of the movie accomplishments of the prior year.

In the 1939 edition of their Yearbook of Motion Pictures, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was honored as the Number One film of 1938, as ranked by a poll of national film critics. The other nine "Top Ten" pictures were similarly honored, each with full-page display.

















1st place display with a Christmas-themed illustration of Snow White and the dwarfs hanging stockings over the fireplace.

A full color example of this images was originally used for one of the 1938 US lobby cards.

Image scans and info courtesy of the William Stillman Collection.

Walt Disney Honored in 1938 Stage Magazine

Orson Welles on front cover of Stage, June 1938.

In the June 1938 issue of STAGE: The Magazine of After Dark, Walt Disney was honored with their annual "Palm" awards for the entertainment industry. The glowing tribute is for his success with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Also included is an unusually nice photograph of Walt.

 
All images courtesy of the Rick Payne collection. Used with permission. See what Rick has for sale at dadric's attic.

Snow White Awarded "Grand Art Trophy" - 1938 Venice Film Festival

In a 1980 article from the British film magazine, The Movie: The Illustrated History of Cinema (#9), author Flavia Paulon recounts the somewhat rocky start of the Venice Film Festival.

Established in 1932, it wasn't long before the festival caught the interest of both filmmakers and movie lovers alike. It grew quickly over the next few years playing to crowds of some 2000 spectators and attracting films from numerous studios in nearly 20 countries.


The sixth annual fest was held August 8-14, 1938. With the world on the brink of war, political controversy arose at the event due to the Mussolini Cup going to the German documentary-like Olympia. Many felt it was a Nazi propaganda film rather than a true feature.

"To pacify the Americans...the Biennale established a special award (the Grand Art Trophy) and gave it to Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."


A 1938 lobby card is pictured in the piece. Read the entire article below.

Image scans courtesy of the Colin Cameron collection.

___

2012 UPDATE:

The Grand Art Trophy as pictured on page 257 of J.B. Kaufman's book, The Fairest One of All: The Making of Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

 

___

2018 UPDATE:

A bronze version (?) of the Grand Art Trophy on display at the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco.

Walt Disney's Snow White Oscar

Oscar night February 23, 1939. On hand at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles was Walt Disney. At age 38, he'd already been the recipient of seven Academy Awards from previous years (the first of which he garnered back in '32 for his ground-breaking color Silly Symphony, Flowers and Trees--first Oscar ever awarded to an animated film).

But his award this night was different. As anyone who is a fan of Disney already knows, Walt was presented an Honorary Academy Award for Snow White's "significant screen innovation which has charmed millions and pioneered a great new entertainment field for the motion picture cartoon".

The Oscar consisted of one full size statue and seven miniatures. Shirley Temple, after presenting the award, said, "Aren’t you proud of it Mr. Disney?"  Walt replied “I’m so proud I think I’ll bust.”

Walt Disney holds the record for winning the most Academy Awards with 22 wins in the competitive categories. He was also the recipient of 3 Honorary Awards and an Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. Walt holds the record for most nominations as well with a total of 59.

His Oscars including the Snow White set are on display at the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco as seen in the video below.

Hollywood Snow

As part of the Golden Anniversary celebrations of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the fictional princess was honored on June 28, 1987 with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame..."for her contribution to the film industry." It is located at 6910 Hollywood Blvd. near Disney's El Capitan Theater.

Creative Commons image courtesy of Thomas Hawk's Hollywood Stars set.

Image via the Kennetti Snow White Database.

The video below is not the highest quality, but it offers a glimpse of the ceremony where such names were present as Roy E. Disney, Ward Kimball, Richard Frank and Adriana Caselotti. Even Snow White herself steps up to the podium to speak.

Video provided by sosaix

Screen Capture