Around the world, belligerents were arming to the teeth while America tossed in the throes of the Great Depression. In 1936, the vision of one man was about to make history as he prepared to launch an army of a different kind on an artistic journey into the unknown. The stakes were high when Walt Disney put the very existence of his cartoon studio on the table as he began production on the first feature-length cartoon: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Sitting in ringside seats for the main event were a couple of 24-year-old artists, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, nervously awaiting the opening bell. Today, Thomas and Johnston are noted as two of the fabled Nine Old Men of the Disney Studio who presided over the creation of some of the world’s most famous films. So great is the artistry and timeless storytelling inherent in such Disney classics as Snow White and Pinocchio that they are the only products of Hollywood’s Golden Age that still have a viable theatrical life 50 years later. […]
