65th Anniversary of Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland's World Premiere in London

While the official release date may be July 28th, 1951, Walt Disney's animated classic Alice in Wonderland had its world premiere in London on July 26th, at the Leicester Square theater.  Kathryn Beaumont and Walt Disney were in attendance, and I'm sure a grand time was had by all.  Let's hear it for 65 wonderful years!

One From the Wall - Alice Studio Setup with Walt Signature

We've recently acquired one of our Holy Grail items here in the Tulgey Wood, a Walt Disney signed cel setup.

I love this cel. It is from the very first sequence that was animated, when Alice encounters the Caterpillar.  Several things mark this as such. First, Alice's face is rounder and more childlike than in the rest of the film.  Second, the color of Alice's collar is a lighter shade of blue than the rest of her dress. One can only assume that it was (wisely) decided that it would have been way too much trouble to animate her dress that way throughout the entire film. Third (but only audibly) Kathy's voice is much younger sounding in this sequence than in any other. 

I've always wanted a cel from this sequence, and a Walt signed cel?  Killed two birds with one stone with this acquisition.

I also figured something out, like a bolt from the blue.  Remember this cel setup from before, the one that Walt *almost* showed on national television?

I always wondered why the mat board at the bottom was so much wider than at the top.  And now I know:  To allow for Walt's enormous signature!  Guess he just never got around to signing my other setup.  Oh well, probably a good thing, it would've cost me a whole lot more than it already did!

Walt Disney and Family at the Alice in Wonderland World Premiere

In celebration of the 63rd anniversary of Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland, we have here a press photo of Walt and his family at the World Premiere in London.

The snipe reads as follows

I recognize Walt, Lily, Sharon and Diane, and perhaps Roy, but I don't know who that little girl is in the foreground.

Films in Review May 1951

An interesting article in a magazine with a scary cover (JUMP!), about how Walt Disney 'cartooned' Alice.


In it Walt (or his ghost write) discuss the difficulties they had bringing Alice to the screen. It is a fairly succinct description of why most Alice film adaptations are less than satisfying from a purely literary point of view - it is damn near impossible to faithfully adapt Alice as a film, it just doesn't lend itself that well.

Of particular interest is the descriptions of why specific characters were left out or combined, and both the consolidation and abridgment of the two books.

In general a pretty high-brow article, definitely meant for a different audience than would read Screen Stories or Movie Life. And so far in advance of the film's release too.

TV Today March 18th, 1951 - Fred Waring Television Preview

Today is the 58th anniversary of the preview appearance of Alice in Wonderland on the Fred Waring television show March 18th, 1951. Below is a copy of TV Today from the week of March 17th, featuring a blurb on the preview show.

The Fred Waring show was pretty amazing, it devoted the final 30 minutes of their 1 hour broadcast to a fully staged Alice musical vignette, complete with sets designed by Mary Blair! Kathy Beaumont and Sterling Holloway were live and in person acting out their various parts, all to the music from the film as performed by Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians. That score was later released on Decca records as a two record set with illustrated sleeve (stay tuned for that).

But what was most amazing to me as I again watched this segment today (available in the supplemental material on the most recent DVD)

was the filmed introduction by Walt Disney. My cel makes another guest appearance - almost. The still from my earlier post was actually taken during the filming of this segment, and Walt is frames away from showing my cel on live national television! Stupid editor, would it have killed you to let Walt show all three cel setups he was holding?

Holy Crap! That's Walt Holding My Cel!

Tonight as I was going through binders of photographs looking for something interesting to post in a 'behind the scenes' vein, I made an astounding discovery. Well, astounding to me at least.

This is my only really good cel setup, it is a studio-prepared setup with a studio background (art props most likely) with the cool little WD emblem in the lower right corner and the funky pencil script. I got this at a Howard Lowery auction waaaay back, 1992 or 1993 I think, and I shelled out big time for it, having just sold my entire runs of X-Men and Daredevil comics to finance this particular purchase. 'Cause, you know, there's no future in comic book resale value compared to animation art...

Tonight, as I was looking for photos (Walt with ink and paint girls, Walt with Ward and Mad Hatter art, Walt with multiplane camera, ho hum) I found this one. Looks intriguing, lots of Mary Blair art on the walls, movieola in the background, Evan K Shaw figures on the desk, oh, and Walt is holding two cel setups. The eye is immediately drawn to the one he is looking at, a large close up of Alice. But wait, the cel in his right hand looks so familiar.
With my limited photoshop skills I was able to isolate that part of the photo and do a little perspective rotating and skewing, and voilà! It is indeed my cel setup. And Walt held it...thumbprint right on the mat and everything...pretty damn cool if you ask me.

Ciné Revue May 25, 1951

This is a French magazine called Ciné Revue from May 25, 1951. It is your basic movie magazine, but large format 11x14. This particular issue has an amazing four page article on the making of Alice in Wonderland.

This mag is chock full of live action reference photos, some of which I've not seen in any other publications, and lots of art taken directly from model sheets too.

If you look closely at some of the photos, especially the large one of Kathryn Beaumont holding the kitten and the one with Walt, you can see some Mary Blair concept art.

The photos of Kathy and Bobby Driscoll in various locations are pretty fun too, since they were probably already recording the voices for Peter Pan at this time. The photo of them outside the Brown Derby is particularly cool.

The Great Goebel Posting - Addendum

Walt's Office
A very kind reader sent in the photo below. It is Walt Disney's working office as taken at the studio in 1968. For those of you who visited Disneyland a lot (like me), this office resided in the pre-show area of Mr. Lincoln for years. I believe it is now located in Walt Disney World.

If you look closely at the window sill, you will notice the Queen and King nodders! For years I would stare at them in Mr. Lincoln (but for some reason never took a photo of them) wondering if I would ever see them in person. Well, I'm half way there! Thanks again kind reader for sharing this photo with me.

Labels
As mentioned in several posts I have not seen any named character labels on the Alice figures. But I have seen variations on the generic Walt Disney Character labels. The most frequently encountered is the round label.

There is also a scalloped edged label that I've seen on some of the nodders, and as hang tags


And on one occassion I've seen a rectangular label (on a Carpenter figure DIS 64 that I was unsuccessful in acquiring).


Catalog Pages
Here are the two Goebel catalog pages that illustrate the entire Alice series.



More Disney Goebels
And last but not least, for those interested in more Disney Goebel figures, I'm attempting to catalog every vintage Disney Goebel figure over at my other blog Random Neat Stuff.

Disney Signs the Voice of Alice

I love this photo. Totally staged of course, but a great photo nonetheless. Caption is dated June 13, 1949 and shows an 11 year old Kathryn Beaumont signing the contract to be the voice of Alice with Walt Disney looking over her shoulder. The photo was taken in Walt's formal office, the office where these kinds of events took place rather than his 'working' office which is much more subdued (you can see both of these offices at Disneyland in the pre-show area of Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln).


Kathy is so cute in this photo with her nose full of freckles. Entire text of the caption reads:

C1116207..Watch your credit..International News Photos Slug (Disney-Beaumont)

Disney Signs the "Voice" of Alice

Burbank, CAL....Kathryn Beaumont, 11-year-old English girl, is shown as she signed a contract as the voice of Alice in Walt Disney's lavish cartoon feature production of "Alice in Wonderland". Kathryn is the daughter of British actor-singer Kenneth Beaumont. Disney (who stands beside her) gave her a voice test and was immediately captivated. It was originally intended for Margaret O'Brien to play the voice.
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