Snow White at the Carthay - 73 years tonight

73 years ago tonight, spotlights scanned the night sky, and stargazers lined the streets, as Walt Disney's masterpiece, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, made its premiere at the Carthay Circle Theater, in Hollywood, California.

The large Christmas tree is visible on the left side of this image. Invited guests walked down the carpet under the canopy to the entrance of the theater, just visible on the right. NBC radio broadcast the event live on premiere night. The garden with the Snow White characters, can be seen to the left of the center of the photo.

Three years ago I posted a major story on that evening and the run-up to it. Click this link to read that post. Here are some new images I came across on eBay earlier this year, which show the exterior of the Carthay during Snow White's run.

Large papier mache heads of the Dwarfs line the top of a canopy. Cels, backgrounds, model sheets, drawings, and photographs were displayed to satisfy the curiosity of those wanting to know more about the animation process.

Snow White and Dwarf figurines on display in a garden bed outside the theater.

The December 22, 1937 issue of Variety reported in part:

"Crowd of more than 20,000 jammed entrance to premiere of Walt Disney's first all-color feature length cartoon, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, at the Carthay Theater last night. Assistant Chief of Police George Allen had 80 coppers on hand, 15 more than for the ordinary preem [sic] detail. Aiding them were 11 RKO Studio policemen. Two women fainted in the early crush."

When Snow White went into general release, film critic Frank S. Nugent wrote in the January 14, 1938 edition of the New York Times:

"Sheer fantasy, delightful, gay and altogether captivating, touched the screen yesterday, when Walt Disney's long awaited feature-length cartoon, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs had its local premiere at the Radio City Music Hall. Let your fears be quieted at once: Mr. Disney and his amazing technical crew have outdone themselves. The picture more than matches expectations. It is a classic, as important as "Birth of a Nation," or the birth of Mickey Mouse. Nothing quite like it has been done before; and already we have grown impolite enough to clamor for an encore. Another helping please!"

The article continued:

"...no child of course, could dream a dream like this. For Mr. Disney's humor has the simplicity of extreme sophistication...and technically it is superb. In some of the early sequences there may be an uncertainty of line, a jerkiness in the movements of the Princess; but it is corrected later and hand and lip movements assume an uncanny reality. The Dwarfs and animals are flawless from the start. Chromatically it is the best Technicolor to date, achieving effects possible only to the cartoon, obtaining - through the multi-plane camera - an effortless third dimension. You'll not, most of the time, realize you are watching animated cartoons. And if you do, it will only be with a sense of amazement.

Nor can any description overlook so important a Disney element as the score. There are eight songs - solos, duets, choruses - which perfectly counterpoint the action...they're gay and friendly and pleasant, all of them, and so is the picture. If you miss it, you'll be missing the ten best pictures of 1938. Thank you very much Mr. Disney, and come again very soon."

Snow White went on to gross over eight million dollars. The Disney brothers were able to pay back their Bank of America loan, and Walt Disney was able to plan and build his new state-of-the-art studio, just down the road from his Los Feliz location, in Burbank.