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.
It was at the 1989 Academy Awards ceremony that Snow White, along with Rob Lowe, put on what is considered by many to be one of the worst opening musical numbers in the history of the show. Walt Disney was surely turning over in his cryogenic grave on that inauspicious night. It was so bad that, 25 years later, it's still difficult to watch.
The quality of the performance is not entirely the fault of Eileen Bowman (the aspiring actress who played Snow White) or Rob Lowe--though the attempts by Bowman to simulate Adriana Caselotti's original operatic voice were far from melodic. It also didn't help that Lowe doesn't have a singing voice. The blame for the number should (and did) go on the show's producer Allan Carr. It was way too long and way too corny.
It all begins with Variety columnist Army Archerd telling Snow White how to find the stage. "Follow the Hollywood stars." He's referring to actual dancers in star-shaped costumes--not a good sign of things to come.
Snow makes her way through the audience, all the while singing a parody of I Only Have Eyes For You.
It's followed up on stage with Merv Griffin singing his 1950s hit I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts. Then for no apparent reason, he introduces a host of screen stars from years past before bringing Rob Lowe on stage as Snow White's date. This leads to a seemingly never-ending duet between Bowman and Lowe, a parody of Proud Mary.
It's sometimes difficult to find a video of the entire opening number online. There are those in Hollywood who'd probably like this to go away forever. Yet at least for the moment, we have this one below...
The next day, Disney filed a lawsuit against the Academy for the unauthorized use of their copyrighted version of Snow White. Seventeen of Hollywood's elite signed an open letter criticizing the telecast as an embarrassment. And producer Alan Carr would never work in television or motion pictures again.
So whatever happened to poor Eileen Bowman? Last year, The Hollywood Reporter caught up with her for an exclusive interview. She tells her experience of it all for the first time. It's a great article. Read the February 2013 piece its entirety below...
With the tremendous success in 1938 of Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, expectations would be high the following year for MGM's Wizard of Oz. Mervyn LeRoy, producer of the film, was a great admirer of Walt Disney.
In the spring of 1938, LeRoy found himself unimpressed by the many Oz script drafts and rewrites that had been contributed to the project. On May 10, 1938, as a way to "revitalize his production team's mind-set," he would screen Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs right on the MGM lot. LeRoy asked for a print of the film directly from Disney himself, and of course, Walt agreed.
One of the most notable signs of respect that Mervyn showed for Walt was revealed at the eleventh annual Academy Awards in February 1939. The Oscar statuette along with the seven smaller ones that Disney received for Snow White was actually LeRoy's idea.
When principal photography had wrapped on the film in February 1939, LeRoy once again turned to Disney. This time he sought help with merchandising his characters. Walt connected him with Kay Kamen, the marketing genius responsible for the massive Snow White promotions of 1938.
After the release of the The Wizard of Oz, Walt wrote a letter of congratulations to Mervyn on August 23, 1939. Both he and Lillian had seen the picture and "liked it very much."
Knowing the difficulty that we have with cartoons, a medium that is limited only to the imagination, I can fully realize how tough a production of this type would be in the live-action medium. Pg.151, Scarfone and Stillman book.
This rare poster was a promotion for a compilation of five Academy Award-winning Disney cartoon shorts. They were re-released together on May 19, 1937 to help promote the upcoming premiere of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The cartoons were: Three Orphan Kittens, The Country Cousin, Flowers and Trees, Three Little Pigs, and The Tortoise and the Hare.
It's interesting to note that this poster is an advertisement for a United Artist release of these films. Since 1932, all Disney shorts had been owned by the Walt Disney Company but were distributed through United Artists. However, it was at about the time of this Academy Award Revue that distribution of Disney films would switch to RKO. With the huge success of Snow White just a few months later, RKO found itself in the right place at the right time.
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Walt Disney's Academy Award Revue (United Artists, 1937). One Sheet (27" X 41"). Image via Heritage Auction Galleries.
Don Graham, the Chouinard Art Institute instructor hired by Walt Disney to teach his animators the finer points of figurative drawing, told the Disney Studio students that if they wanted to see how things moved in real life, they needed to study movement in motion pictures. He instructed them to watch movies.
In the late 1930s, films of all kinds were studied by the animators. "We saw every ballet, we saw every film," remembered animator Marc Davis. "If the film was good, we would go see it 5 times."
The animators took home more from their cinema excursions than just lessons on the science of movement too. Many of the renderings of Snow White bare a striking resemblance to the Hollywood stars of the day.
The New Movie Magazine was a periodical sold in the 1930s through the Woolworth dime store chain. They published an annual issue, The New Movie Album, which featured photos and info on the top Hollywood stars of that year.
Constance Bennett, remembered today as the lead actress who in 1937 appeared opposite Cary Grant in Topper, was one of the bright stars spotlighted in this early 30s edition of the Album. Although a blond, Ms. Bennett does bare a resemblance--the short wavy hair, large eyes and other facial features--to a number of inspirational illustrations made of Snow White.
Constance Bennett, The New Movie Album, copyright early 1930s.
Snow White Storyboard Sketch via John Canemaker's Paper Dreams
Snow White scan via Michael Sporn Animation Splog
It is known that Walt Disney wanted his animators to think of the Snow White character as a Janet Gaynor or Mary Pickford type. While both actors did bare some resemblance to their animated counterpart, it's possible that Walt was focused less on their looks and more on the individual persona that each tended to portray on screen--that is, their asexual qualities and childlike innocence.
In 1928, Janet Gaynor was the first ever "Best Actress" Academy Award winner. It was the only time the Oscar was given for multiple performances--three silent films--rather than one particular role. Mary Pickford won the award the following year for her performance in the talkie Coquette.
Video clip of Janet Gaynor in Sunnyside Up (1929)*; posted by stjn00.
Janet Gaynor
Snow White animation cel, copyright Disney.
Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford in silent era Cinderella (1914). Video and Mills Brothers soundtrack posted by jenzeppelin.
* Special thanks to Muir Hewitt for the link to the Janet Gaynor video clip.
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.
