Merrill de Maris was born in New Jersey on February 26, 1898. De Maris was a member of the story adaptation team on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. De Maris is also mentioned the The Disney That Never Was, by Charles Solomn, as working with Ted Sears in 1936 on a Silly Symphony based the the Hans Christian Andersen story "The Emperor's New Clothes."
From December 14, 1937 until late April of 1938, de Maris and artist Hank Porter took over the Silly Symphony newspaper comic strip with stories of Snow White. This strip included the Queen capturing the Prince and locking him up, Snow White built a scarecrow type representation of the prince and named him "Prince Buckethead," and the Huntsman is addressed as Humbert (the name Walt had suggested). You can see the full comic strip on Michael Sporn Animation site. De Maris continued working on comic strips working with Floyd Gottfredson on Mickey Mouse and Carl Barks on Donald Duck.
He died December 31, 1948 in Escondido, California.
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Monday, February 24, 2014
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train Live Chat
Today at 2:30 EST, Disney Park Blogs will be hosting Walt Disney Imagineering Executive Creative Director Dave Minichiello to chat about the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Can't wait until 2:30? Check out some of the older articles on Disney Park Blog.
Sunday, February 23, 2014
They Made the Magic: Dorothy Ann Blank
Hired in the summer of 1936, Dorothy Ann Blank made a substantial contribution to Snow White as a member of the story department.
Walt and Roy had been working with Hal Horne, ;publicity director for United Artists, whom Dorothy worked for. When Horne left United Artists and found himself n financial difficulty, Disney helped him out and that was when Dorothy became am member of the Disney staff.
In his book, Fairest of the All, J B Kaufman notes that Dorothy objected to the notion of the birds helping Snow White make the pies for the dwarfs, she wasn't fond of the idea of the birds wiping their feet on the pies.
It was Dorothy who wrote the title that marked the passing seasons as the dwarfs mourned the loss of Snow White. Walt Disney pressed Dorothy to express the story with the least amount of words. She submitted four titles, but were changed down to three, and Walt himself rewrote the last title.
Dorothy was also given the responsibility to write the text for the November December 1937 issue of Good Housekeeping that featured snow White. In this version she included portions of the story that were not in the final film (death of Snow White mother, soup sequence, and the bed building). Additionally, the language includes some slang from the time. To see the magazine, check out this post from Filmic Light.
Walt and Roy had been working with Hal Horne, ;publicity director for United Artists, whom Dorothy worked for. When Horne left United Artists and found himself n financial difficulty, Disney helped him out and that was when Dorothy became am member of the Disney staff.
In his book, Fairest of the All, J B Kaufman notes that Dorothy objected to the notion of the birds helping Snow White make the pies for the dwarfs, she wasn't fond of the idea of the birds wiping their feet on the pies.
It was Dorothy who wrote the title that marked the passing seasons as the dwarfs mourned the loss of Snow White. Walt Disney pressed Dorothy to express the story with the least amount of words. She submitted four titles, but were changed down to three, and Walt himself rewrote the last title.
Dorothy was also given the responsibility to write the text for the November December 1937 issue of Good Housekeeping that featured snow White. In this version she included portions of the story that were not in the final film (death of Snow White mother, soup sequence, and the bed building). Additionally, the language includes some slang from the time. To see the magazine, check out this post from Filmic Light.
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Celebrations Magazine Issue 33: Snow White from Films to Attractions
The January February issue of Celebrations Magazine features an article all about the relationship between the film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and the attractions in Disneyland and Walt Disney World, including the upcoming Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. To order or subscribe check out Celebrations Press. They also have some detail images from the upcoming attraction on their blog.
Friday, February 14, 2014
Happy Valentines Day!
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| From the collection of 1937Fan |
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