Lots of great stuff in here, S&S was pulling out all the stops with their support of Alice in 1951, and there are no less than 12 separate Alice items advertised in this catalog.
The inside front cover is a full page notice for the Big Golden Book, again utilizing Al Dempster art from the book itself.
Pages 4 and 5 list the new titles in the Little Golden Book line for 1951. Notice that the release dates of the various books are spread throughout the year, and at this point there are only 2 Alice titles - the Live Flowers and White Rabbit - the Mad Hatter book apparently had not been put on the schedule yet. Notice also the Mary Blair title I Can Fly. Based on the dates here, it appears that this catalog was released late in 1950 in anticipation of the spring season.
Pages 8 and 9 promote the relatively new Little Golden Records, of which they produced 8 different titles for Alice. And as Brian pointed out in his comment, some of the titles vary from what was actually produced, notably the Jabberwock title, and the Christmas Title (which I think is just a typo by an overeager editor, should be Unbirthday instead of Christmas).
The back cover is basically a check list for all the current titles available; none of the Alice titles appear yet.There is one more item in this catalog, but I'm saving that for my next post. Stay tuned for when I explore one of the most elusive items in the world of Disney's Alice in Wonderland, with a shocking conclusion (well, perhaps a bit melodramatic, but still, should be worth a read).
4 comments:
Hey Matt. I think I may have one of the Golden Records from this catalog but am not sure. The title is "Alice in Wonderland Meets the Caterpillar and the Cheshire Cat and 'TWAS BRILLIG. It was distributed by Simon and Shuster and features The Sandpipers, Mitchell Miller and Orchestra. Its a 6 inch record but I wasn't sure of the speed. If you want to see a photo of it, you can go to my etsy shop, Digital Scraps Etc. http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=23013155
I have close-up photos of it as well. I would love to hear any more background you may have on this neat vintage record. By the way, I love your blog! Thanks,
Kelley
http://digitalscrapsetc.blogspot.com/
Interesting that the disc listing refers to 'Beware the Jabberwock' - a sequence that would be abandoned before the film was released.
The campaign book lists Stan Freberg as the voice of the Jabberwock and the booklet with the Storyteller EP showed Alice talking to the creature all of which suggests that the sequence was dropped quite late on, but there doesn't seem to be any 'lost footage' in the Disney archive and nothing on the sequence other than the early inspirational art that was later published as a picture book.
Kelley - Yes that is one the records that was eventually produced. In fact it is the same record that Brian referenced in his comment, but obviously the title and content had changed by the time it was released.
Brian - I too have seen lots of references to the Jabberwock sequence and wondered just how far they got before they abandoned it; at least far enough to sign the voice talent and produce materials for licensees and the publicity department. There is also a segment on the DVD that shows the full Fred Waring show segment on Alice, which includes a brief Jabberwock sequence.
Hi Matt, I love this piece! I'm collecting these old Golden catalogs as well, so if you are ever open to moving yours please keep me in mind :) Thanks, Sebastien
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