A two-page spread on Snow White model, Marge Belcher, was published in the April 4, 1938 issue of LIFE magazine (pp.18-19). The article contains several nice photos of her along with Louis
Hightower, the model for the Prince.
A few of the images were used in promotional materials for the film--including the swimsuit photo of Marge--which appeared in the 1938 RKO Danish theartre program.
At the time of publication, Marge was wedded to her first husband, Disney animator Art Babbitt, "whom she married last summer.”
Walt's Field Day (June 4-5, 1938) was planned as a way for Disney to give back to his staff for all the hard work they'd put in on Snow White over the previous three and a half years. The daytime events included such activities as footraces, swimming, and baseball. Yet, when evening arrived, the itinerary and the mood changed. With plenty of food, drink, and music on hand, the dancing and romance got a little wild.
Photos via the BabbitBlog. The dinning room of the Lake Norconian Resort.
Walt, wife Lillian, and Snow White director Dave Hand. Walt and Lillian wouldn't arrive to the party until that evening for dinner.
Drinking started in the early afternoon. By 9:00 pm, dancing kicked in. Snow White live-action model--Marge Belcher--is seen here in the flowered dress.
And here she is guzzling from a water pitcher. Note the sporting event handsome cups on the table. They would be handed out to the winners later in the evening.
Since the Snow White movie was doing so well in theatres, many animators and artists were hoping when Walt addressed the group with his evening speech, that there would be an announcement of financial bonuses for everyone--something that was hinted at during the production of the film. However, no such statement was made that night. As the party wore on, reports of drunkenness, nudity and promiscuity increased; Walt was not pleased. You can learn all the juicy details from the Disney History Institute Podcast.
Walt Disney will always be remembered for his countless innovations in filmmaking and entertainment. Yet, when he set out to create his first feature film, he was like an explorer heading into an uncharted wilderness. Back in 1934, no one knew if an audience would sit through a full-length cartoon. Cynics said it wouldn't succeed. Walt, of course, believed it was possible, and he did everything in his power to insure that his animators believed too.
One thing was to bring movement models into the studio to give the animators a frame of reference to achieve realistic human motion (i.e., walking, dancing). Marjorie Belcher (born September 2, 1919) was hired as a teenager for $10/day to play Snow White. See the October 2009 MovieWebinterview with Marge as she talks about how Walt chose her for the part from 200-300 other girls. She came into the studio two or three times a month for a period of about two years. The animators "showed me storyboards and then they let me go free."
The modeling-action sessions were filmed under the direction of Hamilton Luske and Grim Natwick. For certain scenes, rather than using the footage as reference for original drawings, the animators utilized the the technique of rotoscopy (see earlier Fleisher Studios post). The movements on film were traced directly to paper.
Many of the animators, like Art Babbitt, were against the idea. Yet, overwhelming factors such as the massive scope of the project and the approaching December 1937 deadline left them with few alternatives. In certain scenes of the finished film, the rotoscoping is definitely noticeable. The "stiffness" of it is frowned upon by many animators, then and now. However, I personally kind of like how it looks.
Video posted by LucaItaly84
From a Marge Champion MovieWeb interview...
They traced every line and the animators chose whatever they wanted from that. They didn't use every frame of it, but it was a guide to their actions. It was much more inclusive than I had ever been told.
Marge Belcher posing as Snow White.
Images copyright Disney.
Some of the animation from Marge's footage as Snow White was reworked for the Maid Marion scenes in Disney's 1973 Robin Hood as seen (along with other clips) in the video below.
Video posted by quatuorlindsay. All clips copyright Disney.
Marge later modeled for the Blue Fairy in Pinocchio and was working on Fantasia (the dancing hippo sequence) when Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs finally premiered in 1937. She eventually went on to become one of the great dancer/choreographers in both movies and stage. Marge and her husband Gower Champion worked together as a highly successfully dancing team during the MGM musical years.
1949 Life Magazine cover. And in 2007 with Pixar's John Lasseter at the DCA Snow White's 70th anniversary celebration.
The year is 1929. It's Friday evening and the work week has ended for most people. Walt Disney, however, is personally driving a handful of his animators into downtown Los Angeles to attend classes at the Chouinard Art Institute. Walt has a fire in the belly! He's looking to push the envelope of cartoon realism, to see his animated shorts infused with a sense of believability. He wants the audience to feel, to actually care about the characters. To achieve this, he knows his animators need to rise to a new level of artistic understanding. They need training.
Image of Don Graham.
By 1931, Walt had hired an instructor at Chouinard to train about a dozen of his artists once a week at the institute. Don Graham was that instructor and Arthur Harold Babitzky, better known as Art Babbitt, was one of the students. These lessons continued into the next year but the location changed when Babbitt decided to hold his own classes with a live model at his home. Animators attended in greater numbers until there was standing room only. Walt soon asked Babbitt to bring the classes to the studio where they could have free use of the sound stage and art supplies. Graham was once again invited to teach and on November 15th, 1932, "The Great Disney Art School" was underway.
Don Graham, 29 at the time, had no formal schooling in animation; he was not an animator. His training was as an engineer before taking art classes himself at Chouinard. So Graham was not hired to teach animation to Walt Disney's artists. Rather, his task was to enlighten them to the techniques of figurative drawing. They studied movement, the human form, and how to create an authentic look in the "cartoon" world.
At first twenty to thirty students were attending two nights a week. But as work on Snow White kicked in, Graham was brought on the payroll full-time. Classes swelled until eventually they were meeting five nights a week with upwards to 150 students and the assistance of two additional instructors.
With the expansion of the art school came a corresponding growth in its curriculum. What began as mainly a life drawing class for under-schooled artists would eventually become a vast training program, encompassing all aspects of art and animation. Topics were as varied as possible, ranging from the physics of light to color composition to a multi-sessioned round on drapery. Even music and the psychology of humor in the cartoon were not considered too esoteric for inclusion. esoteric for inclusion. Source: The Disney Art School by David Johnson
In addition to leading the art classes, Graham...
was sent on a country wide talent search and in 1934 was called upon to review and judge the portfolios of potential new Disney artists. In seven years he personally examined over 35,000 portfolios. Source: donaldwgraham.com
The Disney Studio went from this in 1929...
The Merry Dwarfs Silly Symphony. Image copyright 1929 Disney.
To this in 1937...
Snow White and Old Hag. Image copyright 1937 Disney.
The "Golden Age" of animation had begun. Self-taught animator would become the fine-tuned artist. Mere cartoon would become a cultivated art form.
It was just a couple of weeks ago that I learned of the 8-page memo written by Walt Disney to Don Graham. It was posted by John Frost on The Disney Blog...picked up from Letters of Note...who found it on the Michael Sporn's Animation Splog. This document, dated December 23, 1935, clearly demonstrates how Walt's mind worked, not just in the training of an animator, but in general. The intensity of thought, the attention to detail, and the ever awareness of how one has to "feel" rather than just intellectualize. Seventy five years later, the information shared is still as alive and breathing for today's young animators as it must have been for Graham.
Images of the original memorandum follow below. The transcript is also written out (for easy reading) in the previous post.
Walt Disney Memo images via Michael Sporn Animation Splog.
Don Graham continued to teach at the Disney Studio until 1941. His book Composing Pictures, published in 1970 (reprinted in '82), is still a treasured reference for many an artist.
A two-page spread on Snow White model, Marge Belcher, was published in the April 4, 1938 issue of LIFE magazine (pp.18-19). The article contains several nice photos of her along with Louis
Hightower, the model for the Prince.
