December 21, 2017

Eighty years ago today, on Dec. 21, 1937, the animated motion picture Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiered before a star-studded audience at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles, California. The first full-length animated feature produced by a studio, Snow White achieved instant critical success. The film also began a lengthy popular run with its wide release in 1938. The Walt Disney Company movie revolutionized animation with its brilliant visual effects. Snow White ranks among the most popular motion pictures ever made.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Credit: © Walt Disney Productions

Tickets to the 1937 Carthay Circle Theatre premiere of Snow White were among the hardest to get at that time in Hollywood. The elite list of attending stars—all taking an unfamiliar back seat to Walt Disney and his wife, Lillian—included Milton Berle, George Burns, Charlie Chaplin, Marlene Dietrich, Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers, and 9-year-old Shirley Temple. Many thousands of people gathered outside the theater to be a part of the event.

In January 1938, after Snow White premiered at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall, The New York Times described the film as “sheer fantasy, delightful, gay, and altogether captivating.” Since then, millions of people around the world have agreed and continue to agree with that critical opinion, and the film remains a popular challenger to such recent animated Disney hits as The Lion King, Aladdin, and Frozen.

To mark the classic film’s 80th anniversary, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs returned for a brief run in select cinemas. Department stores issued Snow White-themed clothing lines. Numerous figurines, jewelry, plates, and other collectibles featured Snow White waking with Prince Charming’s kiss, and television’s Disney Channel ran a nostalgic 80th anniversary program that included a rousing rendition by the popular rock group Fall Out Boy of the Dwarfs’ song “Heigh-Ho.” And, of course, Disney Stores across the country are overflowing with Snow White-themed items for the Christmas shopping season.

Disney adapted Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs story from Grimm’s Fairy Tales, a famous collection of German folk tales published in the early 1800′s. The film tells how the beautiful Snow White triumphs over the evil plotting of the Wicked Queen with the help of seven dwarfs who live in a forest. Each of the seven dwarfs has a distinct comic personality that matches his name—Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, and Sneezy. The young woman eventually marries the handsome Prince Charming.

At the time the movie was made, Disney was taking a huge gamble in creating a feature-length cartoon. The expensive film took four years to make, and there were predictions that it would fail with a public accustomed to short cartoons. But the movie was an immediate international success. Disney received a special Academy Award for “a significant screen innovation.” The award consisted of the traditional Oscar statue and seven miniature statuettes.