Gryphon and Mock Turtle - Jello Commercial Cels

This Gryphon cel I acquired a very very long time ago, before I even knew of the existence of the Jello commercials. It came with another Alice cel that had the same heavy black lines, so it seemed like it belonged. I'm very glad I bought it when I did!

This next cel setup of Alice and the Mock Turtle is a Disneyland Art Corner setup as it is on a Sleeping Beauty background print, something that they did a lot of at the Art Corner.

Gryphon and Mock Turtle - Jello Commercial

Ok, so when I said that the Gryphon and Mock Turtle were forgotten characters, that was only partially true. They never appeared on the big screen...but they did appear on the little one. This is a Jello commercial from the same video collection as this post. But unlike the previous one, this one is almost entirely new animation, including the Gryphon and Mock Turtle!



Alice sounds like Kathryn Beaumont, but still need to verify.

Mock Turtle - Lobster Quadrille Storyboard Stills and Art

No Gryphon today, but lots of Mock Turtle. I think this is the storyboard sequence for an abandoned song called The Lobster Quadrille (as mentioned in Lost Chords) but I am not positive about that. I have posted the entire sequence since there are some pretty fun images in here that are not of the Mock Turtle. Again, these are stills from the same estate as yesterday's post.

I don't know who the artists is for these, anybody out there know who did these?

Guess this is the Lizard with the French Horn - Bill's cousin

and Frog with Lute....

and the blowfish with the music stands is quite something as well...

I love the Mock Turtle-ettes!


I swear it looks like that lobster is wearing loafers...



This past summer this one sold at auction, but I didn't get it :(

Gryphon and Mock Turtle - David Hall Storyboard Stills

This is a series of stills of David Hall storyboards of Alice leaving the pool of tears and encountering the Gryphon and the Mock Turtle on shore.

In this detail you can see the Gryphon in a very similar pose as one of the Tenniel illustrations from yesterday's post.

This is a very nice portrait of these two characters, I particularly like the Gryphon's bowler hat.

Here it appears as though the Caucus Race is beginning, with Mock Turtle and Gryphon taking part.

These stills came from the estate of Jack Cutting, Disney Foreign Agent (I love that title, sounds positively mysterious), and was part of a larger group that essentially covers the entire story arc.

Gryphon and Mock Turtle - Story Reference Stills

I'm beginning a new series, all about two of Alice's forgotten characters in the world of Disney, the Gryphon and the Mock Turtle.

All throughout the development of Alice in Wonderland, Disney struggled with how much of the two books to include in the final product. As such, all the original Carroll characters (and a few new ones) received at least some treatment. Two of those characters were the Gryphon and the Mock Turtle.

These are original stills that were used as reference - presumably for story development - enlargements of the original Tenniel illustrations of Alice with the Gryphon and the Mock Turtle. I found these with a large bunch of story stills from the estate of a former Disney employee. There were 34 of these Tenniel illustration stills, along with additional stills of story art.

Postcard from Germany - Mad Tea Party - 1960

As mentioned yesterday, this is the other postcard from Germany from the same company, with much more vivid (and PINK!) art than the previous one.

As you can see from the postmark, this was mailed from Amsterdam on Feb 17, 1960.

My German is not what it used to be, so other than Walt Disney Productions and Alice in Wonderland, I'm at a loss as to what this says on the back. Hans?

UPDATE: Sarah pointed out that these were printed in Nuremburg, Germany. Thanks Sarah!

I did a little Google-ing, and found out that the company, Michel & Co. is apparently still in business, and headquarted in Frankfurt. These postcards were made by the Kunstverlag , or art publishing division.

Postcard from Germany - Alice with Daisies - 1960?

Nice vintage postcard from Germany, featuring art of Alice in a field of daisies with the Eat Me cookie.

This art was used a lot in various different products all over the world, most notably a dye transfer that was available at Disneyland's Art Corner, although with more of a bluish tint than what we see here. I have another postcard from the same maker that is postally used with a postmark of 1960 that I'm posting tomorrow, hence the assumed date on this example.

Ferdinand Horvath Character Concept Drawing - Umbrella Bird

This is an original concept drawing of the umbrella bird from the Tulgey Wood sequence, by Ferdinand Horvath.

Horvath was at the studio for a very short time in the 1930s, did a lot of concept work on Snow White and others. For more information on Ferdinand Hustzi Horvath at Disney, there is a good article here.

Playthings Magazine - January 1951

Fantastic cover to the January 1951 issue of Playthings, the ultimate toy industry magazine.

Cover touts 1951 as being the Alice in Wonderland Year, and so it was as far as Playthings was concerned. Nearly every cover for the entire year was devoted to Alice in Wonderland.

Not much actual content Alice-wise inside this issue, a single page article that comments on what is in store for Alice in the coming months. Does make reference to the Pictorial Review posted here, and also to One Hour in Wonderland, Disney's very first TV show.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from 1987 in this postcard from Tokyo Disneyland.

Jello Commercial with Cheshire Cat - 1956?

Here is one of two Jello commercials that I have featuring Alice in Wonderland animation. This first one is pretty standard stuff, it re-uses feature film animation exclusively (with some new live action of a little girl with Jello), but re-rendered for TV with thick black lines for the crappy TV pictures in the 1950s. This originally came from a collection of commercials entitled Cartoons Celing Commercials. The jacket of this collection lists the date of these commercials as 1956, but I have no other corroborating evidence to support that date.



Voice over is by Sterling Holloway, which is pretty cool, and Alice's voice sounds like Kathryn Beaumont, but have not confirmed that.

Merry Christmas!

A very merry Christmas cover on this Disney Newsreel from December 21, 1984. Have a safe and happy holiday.

Art for this cover was done by Russell Schroeder of Lost Chords fame.

TV Junior - December 1959

What a great idea, a TV Guide-like magazine strictly for kids. Man, I wish I had had a subscription to something like this when I was a kid.

This is the special Christmas issue from 1959, featuring an article on the upcoming episode of Walt Disney Presents on Christmas Day. The feature presentation - Alice in Wonderland.

This would be the second time a Christmas Day Disney TV show was centered around Alice in Wonderland, the other show being the very first Disney TV show One Hour in Wonderland back in 1950 (click here for a great article by Wade Sampson on this groundbreaking TV show). Alice would go on to be presented on the various broadcast network incarnations of the Disney show a total of nine times (that I am aware of) through 1992.

1955 Hudson Commercial

My new toy is finally installed, called VCR2PC it digitizes video tape directly to digital files on disk so you can edit and upload or burn to DVD. Woohoo! I can finally transfer some of my rare video to a more stable medium. First up is this bizarre Hudson commercial for the 1955 model year, so probably actually from 1954. Quality is not that great, but cool to see nonetheless.

A New Discovery - McCall's Alice Sewing Pattern - Minikin Display Pattern

I have recently acquired the following, something I had never heard of before. What at first glance looks just like a standard McCall's pattern from the 1951 promotion with Indian Head Cotton, is in fact something pretty unusual - and quite cool.


This is a pattern for a display minikin. What is a display minikin you may ask? That is a very good question, something that I did not know myself until I found this item and received some assistance from people in the know sewing-wise.

Once you know what it is, it makes perfect sense. A minikin is a miniature mannequin. These were used in fabric stores to display finished clothing made from the featured patterns. These were of course smaller versions of the regular pattern, presumably to save money on fabric and time to sew them together. My wife actually has a minikin, it looks like a miniture dress form. We did not know that it had this special name until we found this pattern.

Apparently there were LOTS of these patterns made for use in stores, conceivably there are minikin versions of EVERY pattern, but that is probably unlikely, probably only those patterns that were thought to be big sellers got a minikin version. I would love to see photos of minikins in action with these Alice clothes...there must be some out there somewhere!

UPDATE: Sandra commented that the photo of my wife's 'minikin' is in fact just a miniature dress form. I'm on the hunt for a photo of a real minikin, if anyone out there has one, I'd love to see it!

UPDATE #2: Thanks again to Sandra, she provided me with this fantastic photo of a real minikin. I think she looks like Scarlett Johansson.

Apparently minikins are about 30 inches tall, and are essentially big (sometimes) articulated dolls. The ultimate Barbie ;-)

Marx Snowdomes - 1961

A quickie for now, holiday festivities are consuming more time than I realized. This is a pair of vintage Marx snowdomes featuring Alice in Wonderland characters. These are pretty difficult to come by, and in fact I did not even realize the March Hare dome existed for many years.

These two examples were recently sold on Hake's Americana.

Pageant Magazine - August 1951

By far the coolest magazine from the initial release, and maybe ever, is this Aug 1951 issue of Pageant magazine.

On the surface it looks just like any other digest-type magazine of the era, complete with starlet cover girl. But the back cover tells of the amazing Alice content inside!

Some marketing genius decided to publish a set of Alice playing cards in this issue. And not only that, said genius actually devised a way to get people to buy MULTIPLE copies in order to do it! What I like best about this is the fact that they are just brazen about it, they even joke about it in the copy on the page that explains how to do it.

"Ahem!" exclaimed the Printer. "But the cards will be printed back-to-back. One card on one side, another card on the other. You can't paste 'em!"

"Oh, you silly!" exclaimed Alice. "That's easy. Just tell the kids to get an extra copy of Pageant. They can paste up one side of a page from one copy, and the other side from the other copy. Then cut out each card."

"Great, great," said the Circulation Man. "Very smart child."






I must say though, I have never come across any of these created cards, just this magazine.

Storyteller 8-Track

Outdated technology anyone? Believe it or not, they actually made 8-tracks of the old storyteller records. Anyone got a player?

Disneyland 1963

I love this photo. Not because it is of the White Rabbit posing with a cute little girl, but because the Alice character is dangling off the Central Ticket Booth sign pole.