One of the Great Pictures of All Time…!
This RKO Campaign Book has been made for the 1952 re-release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the film’s third issue. It is 12 pages long and has a 12-page supplement that focuses on licensee merchandise, the most important of which seems to have been Bendix and Rinso.
The introduction explains the marketing angle of this re-release: “the accent (…) is placed on those gay, inimitable characters, the Seven Dwarfs, and with particular emphasis upon the appealing Dopey, who has proved to be the picture’s most popular character.”
Sure enough, the little dwarf is the most important character on all posters, lobby cards and various ads that year.
After a reproduction of the credits, the footage of the film is given as 7462 feet and 83 minutes. The next 3 pages offer ready-made articles focusing on the plot, behind-the-scenes details such as the Multiplane camera. The center pages show the illustrations that may accompany these articles.
The next page focuses on the “National and New England Promotions”. New England is a region composed of six states: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It’s unclear if other versions of the book circulated focusing on other regions but the two copies I know of are the same.
The film was re-released on February 13, 1952 during the school holidays and a full marketing strategy was planned so no one would ignore the event. “The entire Yankee Network of 26 TV and radio stations was enlisted to sponsor a search for a “Snow White,” “Prince Charming” and most popular schoolteacher in each city of the area, with newspaper, chain store and exhibitor cooperation. This search was to culminate in Boston with the first-prize winners to be announced at a great coronation ball. Planned was a European trip for the winning girl, youth and teacher. All this was to tie in with the wide background of national advertising, music promotions and “Snow White” licensed merchandise, along with personal appearances of the off-screen “voices” of the cartoon characters and Seven Dwarfs impersonators.” Sure enough, Adriana Caselotti was asked to make appearances.
TV, Radio, Books and more
The December 25, 1951 TV special “One Hour in Wonderland” is mentioned which contained Snow White scenes and music and apparently gathered an estimated 25,000,000 people! The Lux Radio Theaters carried announcements for the film on December 24 and 31. Adriana Caselotti appeared on the December 24 program. She also appeared on the Edgar Bergen show on the CBS network on December 23. New books from Simon & Schuster, Dell Publishing Company, Whitman Publishing Co. come out. Exhibitors are encouraged to order a transcription disc for use on local radio time with messages in 15 seconds and one minute.
The page lists the national ads coverage in magazines and newspapers in a total of 90,296,421 copies!
Ideas to promote the movie are provided ranging from erecting a wishing well in the theater lobby to having a publicized helicopter delivering the film cans to the theater.
Among more press illustrations features a list of records already released:
- The complete score of Snow White by Fred Waring, his orchestra and choral group
- “Whistle While You Work” by Red Foley (Decca No. 81743)
- New illustrated story and record album of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by Dennis Day (RCA Victor No WY-33)
- Two special “Golden Records” by Simon & Schuster.
Hilariously, this list has many errors and typos: the reference number of the “Denis Day” is wrong (“Y-33), the Red Foley title is announced as “Whistle While You Wait”, and there is a blank space as the number of the Decca Fred Waring record apparently was not known at the time the book went to press. Actually, it is unclear to me which record that is. I suppose it is the Decca DL 5435 “Song Hits from Walt Disney” which contains 2 tracks and 3 songs of the film, but is a mix of songs from several films as its title suggests.
Stills and displays
The antepenultimate page reveals the available publicity material to decorate a movie house. A set of 10 photos available in color or black and white. The references are: SWP 10, SWH 52, SWP 3, SWH 51, SWP 7, SWP 4, SN 3, SWP 14, SWP 11, SWS 42. The reference SN depicts a Gustaf Tenggren drawing, the reference SNH a Tom Wood drawing, and the reference SWH corresponds to new stills created for the 1944 release using cels and backgrounds especially made to resemble the film’s look. These stills will be used again and again for lobby cards, books, records and so on until the 1980s.
“Stensgaard displays: deluxe Snow White dimensional displays are available from W.L. Stensgaard and associates, Inc., 346 North Justine St., Chicago, III.”
Trailers
“From National Screen Service is obtainable the regular-length advance trailer, carrying the music, scenes and text, at the current terms for such a style of trailer.”
“Available without rental cost is a brilliant 90-foot advance trailer in full Technicolor for Snow White. It carries a musical animated condensed announcement for the show. Plan to use it three or four weeks in advance.”
Posters
“Hundreds of Snow White One-Sheet posters were ordered by the Western Printing Company for use in its book promotions as a Disney licensee. Copies were allocated to dealers across the country for display use.”
The last page gives a black and white sample of the set of 8 11×14 lobby cards and of each format of posters available:
- Twenty-four-sheet
- Six-sheet
- Three-sheet
- One-sheet
- Insert
- Window card
- 22×28 style A
- 22×28 style B
Slides with the same designs as these two last posters are also available, as well as a “Front Cover and Center spread design specifically for printed media.
The Campaign book
Supplement to the Campaign Book
Bendix, National Biscuit, Rinso
In this supplement, the light is thrown on the Bendix Home Appliances campaign. The company launched a new automatic washer and called it Snow White. A complete list of the material available to dealers is given in the first pages, after which it is described what is expected of theater owners in that respect, like distributing the 32-page comic “The New Adventures of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” where Snow White gets a washing machine to help her with the laundry in the cottage of the seven dwarfs.
National Biscuit co’s bakeries’ nation-wide campaign is also described: children are expected to fill in the figures of the characters on bread wrappers.
Finally, the Rinso Name Game, from April 3 to May 11, 1952, is simple as day: and ad published in 232 newspapers asks to name 4 characters of the film and the Rinso bird mascot. Associated with the promotion are TV host Arthur Godfrey, and the CBS show “Big Time”.
Records
The records advertised in this supplement are sometimes new, sometimes re-released.
The re-releases are:
- The Dennis Day & Ilene Woods record already mentioned above
- Two Little Golden Records: “Hi-ho-hi-ho” & “Whistle While You Work”
The new ones are:
- “Snow White and Sneezy” & “Snow White and Dopey” starring Dennis Day
- Two Little Golden Records: “The Dwarfs’ Yodel Song” & “Buddle-uddle-um-dum”
- A 10-inch Big Golden Record: “Songs from Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” with all four numbers named above.
Books and Comics; packages
The story of the film is published in the Big Golden Book ($1.00) and Little Golden Book ($0.25) from Simon & Schuster, as a one-shot comic from Dell Publications ($0.10) and in a paint book from Whitman Pub. Co. ($0.25). As a package deal with this paint book, sewing cards ($0.49), stand-up figures ($1.00) and 4 different Snow White frame tray jigsaw puzzle ($0.25 each).
The last page gives us a complete list of Snow White licensees in 1952, and the kind of merchandise that was being sold then. Dolls by Alexander, Gund or Duchess, Rubber toys, wooden toys, jigsaw puzzles, scarfs, balloons, handbags, string puppets, watches, rattles, etc.
