1938 Snow White Press Release

Here we have a 1938 Snow White press release from S. Barret McCormick, Director of Advertising & Publicity at RKO Radio Pictures in New York. It may have been used independently or possibly as a promotional letter to accompany a press kit.

There is no date on any of the three pages, but from the wording, it appears that it may have been written after the December 21, 1937 premiere but before the 1938 general release.

Images courtesy of the Michael Filippello Collection.

Promotional Materials from RKO Executive Jean Mounier

These images of Snow White ephemera come from the personal belongings of Jean Mounier. Mounier was the Advertising Director of RKO in France during the 1938 publicity campaign for Blanche-Neige et les Sept Nains. He oversaw the promotion of the film not only in Paris but throughout Europe as well.

Learn more about Mounier at Cinéma Jean Mounier, a site overseen by his daughter Jacqueline Dana.



























Promotional booklet/manuals...

This page from the promotional manual displays Dwarf masks. Made from decorated pasteboard or cardboard, these were meant for lining the hall of the movie theater. They could also be worn by "sandwich men" behind the counter...

An announcement for the release of the RKO advertising manual, Bravo Mounier!...

A correspondence written on Snow White letterhead...

Images courtesy of Jacqueline Dana / Jean Mounier Collection. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
Special thanks to Greg Philip at A Lost Film for additional info.

Also see the movie program from the Paris premiere of Snow White at the Marignan Theatre.

74 Years Ago Today - Female Animator Rejection Letter

It was early 1938 and Disney's Snow White was breaking ticket sale records around the world. Interest in animated films was piqued. Even stalled projects such as Gulliver's Travels at the Fleischer Studios were now being green lighted. So it was in this atmosphere of great excitement and hope that a young woman named Mary Ford wrote the Disney Studio to apply for a job as an animator.

She would received a letter back, dated June 7, 1938, but the rest of the world wouldn't find out about it until after Mary had passed away, nearly 70 years later. Kevin Burg, Miss Ford's grandson posted it online and mentioned that the letter wasn't discovered until after her death.

Written on Disney Company stationery with a Snow White letterhead, Mary received a rejection letter, and by today's standards, a very difficult one to take. Mary Cleane of Disney's Human Resource Department signed the letter which outright rejects Mary Ford's request to be an animator. Why? Because she was female. Ouch!

Women do not do any of the creative work in connection with preparing the cartoons for the screen...

The only work open to woman consists of tracing characters on clear celluloid sheets with Indian ink and filling in the tracings on the reverse side with paint according to directions.

Letter Scan copyright Kevin Burg.

Interestingly, it appears that this rejection was actually a form letter. The same one was sent out to a Miss Frances Brewer in 1939. And it too was signed by Mary Cleane...

Image via animation guild blog.

While the world we live in today is far from perfect, it's hard to imagine such an openly discriminatory rejection letter being issued now by Disney or any major corporation. This is not to say that people are free from being discriminated against. Hardly. Yet, we have made some progress from those early days of animation in 1938.

SWSA Letter from Young Theme Park Guest

This letter was just forwarded to me from a Magic Kingdom cast member. It's "been making its way around the inner Disney circles. It was given to a Snow White face character by one of the children she was greeting."

The child expresses a sentiment shared by many a fan of Snow White's Scary Adventures...

[CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE]