| In 1934, when Walt Disney called for a meeting among | | | | pressed forward relentlessly for three years. The key |
| his artists, a rumor had spread that he was going to | | | | to the film, as far as Disney was concerned was the |
| shut the studio down and they would all be left | | | | evil queen/peddler woman. Snow White was |
| unemployed during the great depression. Instead he | | | | sympathetic, the dwarfs were humorous, but the villain |
| personally told them in his own spellbinding way the | | | | had to be horrifying to keep the audience interested. |
| story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which | | | | The vocals were performed by a renowned stage |
| he intended to make into his first feature length film. It | | | | actress named Lucille Laverne. Her haughty voice was |
| was a risk unlike any other he had taken before. The | | | | a great fit as the queen, but her playing of the |
| film would cost a million and a half dollars at a time | | | | character after she transformed into the old crone had |
| Disney was spending anywhere from ten to thirty | | | | some at the studio worried. "Wait, I have an idea", she |
| thousand on his short cartoons. Doubts came from his | | | | said. She left the recording room for a few minutes |
| wife Lillian and his brother and business partner Roy, | | | | then returned. "I'm ready". She delivered her lines in a |
| who were sure they would be in debt for most of the | | | | way that chilled and thrilled the Disney staff. After she |
| rest of the lives. Also nervous was Walt's backer | | | | finished there was applause and she was asked what |
| Bank of America, who at one point interrupted the | | | | she did when she left. She smiled and said," I took my |
| production by cutting off his credit. Then there were | | | | teeth out!"Walt's calculations were correct, Snow |
| the heads of the other studios like MGM, Universal and | | | | White and Seven Dwarfs was a hit throughout the |
| Warner Brothers. They would gather for their weekly | | | | entire world in 1938 and for many years beyond, |
| poker games at the Hillcrest Country Club and | | | | keeping audiences riveted. The only down side for |
| speculate that Walt, who they called "the Mickey | | | | Walt was that maybe the peddler woman was a little |
| Mouse Man", would never succeed, no one would sit | | | | too horrifying, he was disturbed by reports from Radio |
| still for an hour and a half to watch a cartoon. And the | | | | City Music Hall in New York where the film was setting |
| press referred to Snow White as "Disney's | | | | box office records. It turned out that every few days |
| Folly".Despite the doubters and his own health | | | | the theater management had to replace seats. . . due |
| problems (he suffered from a thyroid condition), Walt | | | | to excessive wetness. |