As a small boy Walt Disney was taken to see a silent film called Snow White, based upon the classic Grimm fairy tale. This made a lasting impression on Walt and no doubt explains why he chose Snow White und The Seven Dwarfs as the subject for his first feature length cartoon. He had already achieved fame with his 700ft cartoon shorts of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Pluto, also a Silly Symphony, called The Three Little Pigs which was President Roosevelt's favourite. In 1934 the money was beginning to roll in from all over the world for these shorts, as they were technically superb and far ahead of the competition. Disney decided to spend the profits on a full length cartoon, although the initial budget for Snow White was $500,00O - more than the company reserves. There was some doubt as to whether the public would go for a feature length cartoon, as Louis B. Meyer reputedly said "Who's going to pay to see a drawing of some fairy princess when they can see Joan Crawford's boobs for the same price?".
But in spite of brother Roy's plea to 'just stay with Mickey Mouse', Walt Disney had his own way as usual and began shooting Snow White in the summer of 1935. He assigned his most talented and experienced animators to the film; Norman Ferguson was responsible for production design and sketching the Wicked Witch, Ham L[u]ske concentrated on Snow White, and young Frank Moore handled the Seven Dwarfs. Frank was a self-taught artist, and as an 18-year old had animated the Three Little Pigs. Unfortunately Disney's most famous animator, Ub Iwerks, who had mastermimded all the early cartoons such as Steamboat Willie and The Skeleton Dance, had already left the company to start up on his own. For Snow White, Disney introduced a brand new animation technique called 'Multiplane', with the background and foreground cells separated to give a more realistic effect of depth.
Snow White had to have music and songs of course, and Frank Churchill (Disney's pianist) was asked to compose some compelling theme tunes. Frank had previously written Who's Afraid of The Big Bad Wolf and soon the first few bars of the Dwarf's song Whistle While You Work were heard all around the studio.
Disney was looking for somebody with a young clear voice for Snow White, and gave an audition to a talented 13-year old Canadian girl. Having listened to a recording of her singing Someday My Prince Will Come, he turned her down because she sounded too mature, too professional. Her name was Diana Durbin. Disney settled instead for an unknown amateur called Adriana Caselotti who had a thin soprano voice which sounded more virginal.
Work went on steadily all through 1936, with the studios often open seven days a week so that animators and cell animators could complete their quota. Disney was becoming increasingly concerned that not only his reputation, but the whole future of the studio was at stake on this one film. Snow White had already cost $1,750,000 which was far more than MGM had spent on Broadway Melody of 1936 which a cast of hundreds including Robert Taylor. The Bank of America had already come to Disney's aid when his own money ran out, and now another $500,00 was needed to finish the film. After viewing a rough cut of the footage completed so far, the Bank agreed to provide an additional loan, although it gave them some sleepless nights. By this time exhibitors were keeping a close watch on the production and its problems. Radio City Music Hall in New York made an advance booking for Snow White and placed an ad to that effect in Variety. Other exhibitors were not slow to follow.
The World Premiere was at the Cathay Circle theatre in Hollywood in December 1937, and the film was also chosen as the Christmas attraction at the Radio City Music Hall. Word had spread throughout Hollywood that Snow White was going to be a big hit, and the first night audience included most of the top stars and producers. When the lights vent up at the end, Walt Disney appeared on stage and was given a standing ovation. With tears in his eyes he told the audience that he had always dreamed of having a Hollywood gala premiere for one of his cartoons, and they had made his dream come true. More than 20 million people saw the film during the first three months, and it earned over $8,000,000 on its first release. Snow White was awarded a special Oscar in 1938 at a time when there was no category for animated features.
The policy on screen credits for a Disney film was simple, as only Walt Disney's name would appear. For years nobody ever knew who did what on a Disney film, but the policy was changed for Snow White so that many artists, animators, composers and voices who had worked on the film were credited. Now telegrams of congratulations began to arrive for many of the technicians who had contributed to the film's success. Walt Disney gave the entire studio staff and their families a 'thank you' party in the form of a weekend at a resort near Palm Springs with all expenses paid. Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs went on to make a profit of over $500,000,000 for the Disney Organisation, including large overseas earnings and became one of the most successful films of all time at the box office. Another money spinner was the idea of selling miniature replicas of the Seven Dwarfs, and the royalties on the model of Dopey alone raised $100,000. It is only in the last few years that the Disney Organisation has opened its own chain of stores for the direct selling of Disney memorabilia.
Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Snow White, Disney Studios launched an ambitious restoration programme in 1987 for all its classic films. The initial restoration of Snow White was given to YCM Laboratories in Los Angeles, who used traditional methods and clean-up techniques to eliminate scratches and damage due to handling - the same techniques they used for the restoration of Fantasia in 1990. But by 1992 Kodak had developed their new Cineon tape-to-film transfer system using high resolution digital electronics, and they successfully restored a one minute section of Snow White as a test. Based on this evidence Disney Studios made a commitment to restore the entire film in this manner when the new Cinesite facility opened with a range of prototype equipment.
Snow White contained 700 scenes, which amounted to 119,550 frames of 35mm film. Each was individually scanned and transferred to digital tape at a rate of 3 seconds per frame. As many, as 40 workstations working in 3 shifts were employed to detect flaws in the original film, which were replaced electronical by 'cloning' information from adjacent frames. Fine dust which had settled on the plate glass platen of the original animation camera was visible, and proved to be the greatest problem to eliminate. Dirt from the original Technicolor separation negatives also showed up as a minute yellow, cyan or magenta spots. Operators had been trained to eliminate these flaws using sophisticated software supplied by Kodak. They also had to 'paint out' scratches and other physical damage, as well as apply colour correction. Snow White contained more pastel shades than the deeply coloured cartoons which were typical of Disney, and these colours had faded.
The master tape was finally transferred back to colour intermediate film using a Cineon camera at a rate of 3 seconds per frame and a high intensity laser light source. The rerelease of Whote White in the summer of 1993 was an authentic replica of the version premiered in 1937, right down to the 1.33/1 aspect ratio. Like so many early Disney films, Snow White does not lend itself to cropping for wide screen.
It is interesting to note that one of the sound crew was William Garity, who had recorded the sound for Disney's Steamboat Willie, in 1928 whilst working for Powers Cinephone. Garity was also responsible for designing Fantasound, the multitrack photographic system used for Fantasia.
