Grottos. There's the famous Blue Grotto on the island of Capri. There are the Yungang Grottos in Shanxi. And the Grotta dello Smeraldo on the Amalfi Coast. But those all stink! It's the Snow White Grotto you want! With its sculptures of Snow White and her pals, the Sieben Zwerge. Not to mention some woodland chums who will use their butts to help clean a dusty cottage.
One of the things I am impressed by is that the characters are all "on model", truly looking like they did in the 1937 movie; so often you'll see things like this that are just a bit "off". But the Italian sculptor did it right, each Dwarf is spot-on.
For decades there was a story going around (promoted by Disney) that the sculptures were a gift from a particular sculptor (named Leonida Parma); he just sent them, out of the blue! I can't remember the author (possibly Todd James Pierce?) who located an actual order slip for the sculptures (presumably in the Archives). Another Disneyland legend debunked!
Major-
ReplyDeleteI see "Mom" had her hair 'done' for the occasion - attempting to out-do Snow White. Hmmm.
Thanks, Major.
In 1994 we debuted The Walt Disney Imagineering Collection - a series of serigraphs of WED/WDI artwork .. the silkscreened prints were produced by the WDI graphics group on the exact same equipment the park attraction posters were screened on since the mid 70’s. We had a big luncheon with Marc Davis , John Hench , Nina Rae, Vaughn ( who hand cut many of the serigraph screens ) to train the Gallery cast members and get them familiar with the artwork . One of the serigraphs was the Snow White Grotto- by John Hench ( not the same version released by the Disney Gsllery as lithograph in 1987) anyway , John Hench himself told us that snow and the dwarfs were done by sculpting students … and Disney had purchased them . When Hench asked why Snow was basically the same size as the dwarfs , the instructor explained that all the students were given the same size of marble before being assigned a character .
ReplyDelete… Walt told John Hench that I guess we should display them down at Disneyland so Hench was tasked with coming up with how to display them… the first ideas Hench came up with looked like a cemetery before coming up with the grotto . WED artists added the animals … over time the marble originals began to develop some kind of discoloration .. so they were removed and placed in storage at WDI and today castings are displayed in most of the magic kingdoms around the world.
ReplyDeleteThat’s the story we were told by John Hench himself … was he lying to all of us??
You know that the Dwarfs' cottage was realllly filthy if, after the forest critters used their butts to do the cleaning, it actually got cleaner!
ReplyDeleteI guess I'm a Grotto purist. I get miffed if a human is included in the picture. And this is a particularly nice picture of the Grotto. The water looks all sparkly, the lighting is perfect, and all the detail can be seen. Dopey is peeking at us from behind the railing. (That's peeking, not peeing.)
Ah, now here's a pristine photo of the Grotto! It's as nice as the first one, but without people. I think I'll keep this one!
Nanook, "to out-do Snow White". 'Mom' just painted a big bullseye on herself! The Wicked Queen will not allow anyone to outshine her! I think i smell the pungent odor of poison apples wafting in the air.
Nice photos, Major. Thanks.
I love the Snow White Grotto, even if all those other grottos are fine to visit. My heart belongs to Snow White. Or at least the part that is fascinated by grottoes.
ReplyDeleteI’ve heard both origin stories and now I don’t know what to believe. Also, I think I saw a video of the revolving fish that showed them colorized! How can this be? Maybe the piranhas moved over from the Jungle Cruise?
Hopefully Dopey will get his fishing pole back.
Thanks for the grotto pics, Major.
Nanook, I thought Mom was wearing a helmet.
ReplyDeleteMike Cozart, gosh, I wonder if I’ve ever seen any of those silkscreened prints? Since you went to the event, do you have copies of them? Were they large, like the posters? I don’t remember seeing a silkscreened print of the Snow White Grotto, maybe these are new to me! Hench’s explanation about the relative sizes of the character makes sense. Too bad the squirrel and bunny aren’t the same size as the others!
Mike Cozart, perhaps years of exposure to smog in SoCal damaged the marble, we know this happens in Europe at important archeological sites. I know what you mean about “the story we were told”, you never know when it’s a story from the Disney company.
JB, I hardly ever use my butt to clean my place, though it is handy if I am on the phone. Video to be uploaded later. There is no wrong way to love a grotto. I like both the photos with smiling guests, and the ones that have no guests. I am easy to please. Now that you’ve mentioned the Wicked Queen, it is too bad there’s not a statue of her (or at least the Old Hag) lurking off to the side, holding an apple. Or a can of Sprite. Obey Your Thirst!
JG, I once went to some other grotto, and there were bugs. “What kind of cockamamie operation is this?”, I asked myself. I also asked the question to about 20 other people who were there (one at a time). I have never seen the fish any color but white, I suspect AI, or somebody with bad taste.
Major: the animals were NOT done by the scupting students - as I mentioned the animals were created by WED imagineers … only Snow White & the dwarfs were done by the students.
ReplyDeleteThe fist to WED/WDI concept art reproductions were done by WDI for Tokyo Disneyland but some were sold at the Disney Gallery … they included THE LONG NIGHT - sleeping beauty castle walk thru ( signed by Eyvind Earl ) and EUROPE COLLAGE - it’s a small world by Mary Blair ( signed by her husband) these were 1,200.00 each framed . At some point they also offered them unframed at 900.00 I think .
Then the official WDI collection debuted in the Fall of 1994 all gallery castmembers were taken through the facilities for training and we even saw some being worked on -at the time Nina Rae Vaughn had just finished inking the Mylar master for Disneyland’s 40th souvenir wall map - the first new wall
Map since the early 1980’s and she emulated Sam mckims style.
The luncheon for the kick off included the the serigraphs displayed and the original artwork EXCEPT the Disneyland early plan . The first series included
ReplyDelete1953 DISNEYLAND EARLY PLAN OVERVIEW , 1969 WDW CINDERELLA CASTLE, 1981 EPCOT ENTRY PLAZA - Herbert Ryman ( signed by his sister )
1960 SNOW WHITE GROTTO - John Hench ( signed) , PIRATE DOGERIL - assorted pirates of the Caribbean character sketches with the song lyrics /Marc Davis (signed)
These were the most accurate reproductions at the time done of these WDI art pieces and they were BIG mostly replicated from the original sizes . They were 1,500.00 each framed. Later they could be ordered unframed . They were done in editions of 200 and 50 artist proofs and 25 printers proofs ( but I can tell you there were about 50 additional ones done as well ) these were used as gifts to executives and for display in WDI and park offices .
Like the attraction posters the WDI COLLECTION was a WDI labor of love and were very expensive and time consuming to produce. there were plans for at least two more series… the second group included 1965- BLUE BAYOU MANSION - Dorothea Redmond , 1977-ORIENTAL DISNEYLAND SUNSET ( Tokyo Disneyland) - Herbert Ryman , THE HAUNTED MANSION - McKim /Ryman (??) 1965 SPACE MOUNTAIN COMPLEX - John Hench. 1988 Euro DL Castle - Collin Campbell, The Matterhorn & Monorail - Ryman .. Pirate Auction characters double set left side /right side. - Marc Davis . While these were being started Marty Sklar had the WDI silkscreen department shut down due to cost and many of the silkscreen craftsmen were laid off .. it was decided the cost of production was too high for the series and many of WDI technical print craftsmen were now gone. So the series ended . So did silkscreened attraction posters and the WDI seri-cell ANIMATION reproductions sold at galleries and Disney parks . ( an outside company was hired to do those - they have a heavier line ) the WDI custom built silkscreen equipment was sold off to a New Jersey printing company . While Marty Sklar in later years could seem to insiders and outsiders like a loving pro IMAGINEERING grandpa he was also a harsh shrewd businessman. PERIOD!
ReplyDeleteMajor I have the EPCOT ENTRY PLAZA unframed … I had the Ryman Disneyland Plan sold off ( I regret now) . I really had wanted the WDW Cinderella Castle but something looked off - this was the only serigraph that did not receive its final screen … Rudy Lord who managed the WED /WDI graphics and silkscreening admitted it was left off so they had time to enter it in to the silkscreen guild competition that year ( Disney had won many times starting with DL RR Bicentennial poster ) but alas the castle serigraph while looking more “painterly” didn’t win that year.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally there was discussions of including original attraction posters in the IMAGINEERING COLLECTION ..using the same color separations and ink colors on the same equipment …
Mike, thanks for sharing...I always enjoy hearing the 'behind the scenes' stories.
ReplyDeleteI love these images. I have a couple sets of Disney's "Cameonyx" Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs figurines that my mom purchased in the late 70s/early 80s in Disneyland. They look so much like the grotto statues; I bet the souvenir ones were inspired by the originals. (Google "Cameonyx" and "Disney Dwarfs" on eBay, if you want to see them. There are always some for sale.)
Major, ha! I'm not going to talk to you on the phone anymore.
Hugh Hefner had a grotto at the Playboy Mansion, where one could contract different kinds of diseases.
ReplyDeleteAs Columbo says “oh just one more thing…..” : when WDI was doing The Imagineering Collection they were developing another process of silkscreening/ serigraphy called ART-O-GRAPHOGRAPHY …. This allowed some layers of color to duplicate the artists change in paint thicknesses… resulting in a close duplicate of the original. Obviously this technique would have been used only for pieces replicating concept art that was created with heavy paint applications. One of the proposed 3rd series of concept replicas I was mega excited about … Herb Ryman’s 1967 New Tomorrowland Overview …..
ReplyDeleteMike Cozart, thanks for the clarification. I wonder if it was fun for the students to sculpt those figures? I guess at $1200 per print, I would not have been in the market for any of those pieces of art; I certainly paid that much for posters, but I figured they were “vintage” and genuinely limited. I know that Nina Rae Vaughn did some of those maps, she did a great job.
ReplyDeleteMike Cozart, I really want to see all of those different pieces! Is there a place online where images of them are shared?
Mike Cozart, I guess I understand shutting down the silkscreen department, but I don’t like it. After decades of beautiful work! I don’t understand why the pieces would cost so much, I suppose employing all those people, making all those individual screens, and then pulling one color at a time was laborious and definitely took a lot of time. Still, just look at how the company has used those classic poster images years after their original use!
Mike Cozart, I feel like the one I would want (without having seen any of them) is the 1953 Disneyland Early Plan Overview. Though perhaps that one was like a brownline copy and not so colorful or graphically interesting? I just love those old plan views, one of my favorite things about the recent Chris Merritt/Don Hahn book is the multiple two-page spreads with nice reproductions of wonderful early plans. It’s funny, I spoke to somebody once about Marty Sklar (and John Hench), and he said that their grandfatherly public images were a facade, and that they were (as you said) harsh and shrewd, or at least they could be.
Lou and Sue, I’ve never heard of “Cameonyx” figures. Send me photos! I wonder if they really *were* inspired by the grotto sculptures.
DBenson, ha ha, I forgot about THAT grotto!
Mike Cozart, I wonder how that “Art-O-Graphography” worked! If regular silkscreening was expensive, I’d imagine that the Art-O-Graphography (what a name) would be twice as expensive.