21 Comments
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Nicki Broch's avatar

Oh Debra, you've done it again...the memories! I'll bet I'm among the few who saw Snow White the first time around, and then The (real)Wizard of Oz, then GWTW...went to the movies a lot, with and w/o grownups. When I was 10, I played the Wicked Stepmother in our grade school production of SW. Everything was SW for years ......those were the days, my friend.

Debra Esolen's avatar

I recall the great joy of taking our kids to see "The Wizard of Oz" on the big screen some years ago. WOW. I'd only seen it - and loved it -- on television, but I recall the joy of seeing it just about every year on the tiny screen. What a film. 1939 was a wonder year in Hollywood, for sure. And "Snow White" was still going strong when I was growing up, for which I am glad, too. Happy to have helped bring back the great memories!

Jack's avatar

Debra: a fine description of that era.

A CD with Snow White is on my shelf awaiting the next visit from my granddaughters when we will once again share the magic.

Debra Esolen's avatar

Now that sounds like a fun tradition! Keep it going! And thank you for the compliment. I was listening hard to my parents' and many relatives' stories of the Great Depression. Snow White had to be an amazing experience for kids back then!

Margaret Lindsey's avatar

The Andrews Sisters were inspired by the Boswell Sisters —-the “Bozzies” also sang in tight harmony but in a smoother 1930s style rather than the Andrews’ peppy 1940s style. The main singer, Connee Boswell, sometimes sang solo, sometimes duets (for example, with Bing Crosby). Ella Fitzgerald said that as a young girl she aspired to sound like Connee Boswell. I think Ella Fitzgerald kicked off her career with a Boswell hit, “The Object of My Affection”. If you haven’t heard the Boswell, you might enjoy their version of that song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oslbxm1MA9E&list=RDoslbxm1MA9E&start_radio=1

Steve Terenzio's avatar

My apologies, but I couldn't resist linking this version of the song - my introduction to the number:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_5IYQ9qZyQ

Debra Esolen's avatar

Ha! Steve, that was outrageously cute. :D

Debra Esolen's avatar

Margaret, I do know the Boswell Sisters .. and thanks for the link! Think of all the "sisters" acts and the "brothers" acts back then. The harmonizations are absolutely perfect when the vocal quality comes from the same family, I believe. I rest my case on this with The Williams Brothers, of Andy Williams fame. When they sang together it was magic. My father loved The Ames Brothers (recall Ed Ames?) and then there were another favorite of his, The Mills Brothers! That phenomenon is past, much to our loss. As for the Andrews Sisters, they were the perfect perky trio for the upbeat War Effort. Too bad they kind of hated each other's guts. Alas!

溪煮親, Lord Kaingin's avatar

I think Gone With The Wind overtook Snow White pretty quickly.

Debra Esolen's avatar

Actually, you got me there. It was the highest grossing film of 1938, and then came Gone with the Wind a year later. I was writing at 3 AM and losing my mind a bit last night! What Snow White held must have been highest grossing feature-length animated film -- but then it was the first in its field with that. Disney was a phenomenon .. which sadly went south in later years.

溪煮親, Lord Kaingin's avatar

Disney has gone up and down since the twenties.

溪煮親, Lord Kaingin's avatar

Thank you!

It may have still been number one for a year.

Nan G's avatar

What fun! I think I remember seeing this long ago, perhaps on the Wonderful World of Disney.

Debra Esolen's avatar

It was revived and appeared in several venues over the years. I recall seeing clips from the film throughout my childhood, but I never did see it as a whole, in its original form.

Nan G's avatar

I agree, clips were all I ever saw as well, unfortunately!

EL's avatar

I’m watching the whole movie for the first time thanks to your tip! It’s available on Disney +. Truly, the best part of the subscription is the availability of all the oldies. I’ve joked I’d pay extra to get “Disney Minus” — minus all of the nonsense.

Debra Esolen's avatar

My daughter tells me that Walt Disney died during the production of The Jungle Book. And after that movie the company was "minus" Walt, and it showed.

Steve Terenzio's avatar

Yes, with regular production disrupted during WWII, Disney started making a series of so-called "package films," wherein various unrelated short segments were tied together to produce a feature length movie. It wouldn't be until Cinderella in 1950 that the studio resumed producing truly linear animated features. I don't believe The Three Caballeros or any of the other package films were ever theatrically re-released in their entirety. The individual segments were ideal for use as short subjects prior to feature films or as portions of episodes on the Disney anthology TV program.

Anne Mallampalli's avatar

Chippy happy snappy!

Debra Esolen's avatar

We're three happy chappies, with happy sarapes! Haha! When I finally purchased a Victrola to play my collection of 78's on -- back in about 1990 -- my overall collection was small, but I had come into possession of a stack of Bing Crosby records with the Andrews Sisters, and this was among them. It was so much fun to listen to those on the old crank-up machine! The songs still make my smile to this day, though I don't crank up the Victrola as often as I used to.