Snow White in France. Chapter 4: 1973.

For their 50th anniversary, the Disney studios want to to celebrate in a big way.

In September 1973, "Si Disney m'était conté" [Once Upon A Time Disney] is released in France. It is a package of shorts like Hawaiian Holiday starring Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy, followed by "Le monde magique de Walt Disney World" a documentary about the Florida resort which has opened two years before that and is twice larger than Manhattan. The film stays 15 weeks on the French screens with 149,215 tickets sold.

Then comes The World's Greatest Athlete in November, One Little Indian in February 1974 and an Easter re-release of The Song of the South. The press release even announces a new feature for Christmas 1974 : Robin Hood.

But for the time being, the crowned jewel of Christmas 1973 is "the first and still the greatest of the great feature cartoons", Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs.

On December 14, 1973, it is announced that new arrangements regarding foreign distribution have been made: if MGM was previously responsible, it is now la 20th Century Fox International which will oversee the Disney releases in Germany, Denmark, Argentina, Columbia, Peru, Central America, Taiwan, Greece and Eastern Africa. CIC will take care of Brazil, the Middle East, Italy and Austria. Wometca is getting Puerto Rico and Amalgamated Theatres gets New Zeland.
Naturally, Buena Vista International takes charge in the United Kingdom, Sweden, Japan and France, under the name "Walt Disney Productions", which offices are located at 52 avenue des Champs-Elysées, in the old RKO building.

The new poster, available for theater owners at 40x50 cm, 120x160 cm, as a two-piece vertical 160x240 cm, or an eight piece horizontal panel of 400x300 cm, announces "The cartoon masterpiece" and features the studio's 50th anniversary logo.

Lobby card

9 color lobby cards are also available, as well as press photos and of course, a trailer. As complement, the shorts Les contes de ma mère l'Oie [Mother Goose Melodies?] and Hiawatha le petit indien [Little Hiawatha] are part of the package.

But this time, the already solid publicity campaign is coupled with a wider promotional operation. For that purpose, Jean Tomachot, head manager of the production company gathers the C.E.O.s of several big companies and the heads of the U.G.C. theater chain which will release the film on about 100 screens in the country, at Club 13, a popular restaurant among film professionals, to prepare a 6 month marketing campaign on Snow White.

As early as October, Euromarché supermarkets publicize the film with a 4 million franc budget and organize a contest to win 400 trips to Disney World at easter. The also sell boxes of Banania chocolate drink that also offer a contest where "21,000 prizes" can be won: the game of magic mirrors, which first prizes are a trip "in the land of Walt Disney" and 10,000 francs. 800 messages on several radio stations will announce the contest: Europe n°1, RTL, Radio Monte Carlo, Radio Andorre and Sud Radio.

From October 1 to December 4, a tour in 40 provincial towns is organized with the characters in costume so that children can see their heroes in real life before press screenings or at special events.

At the salon de l'enfance (Childhood salon) which takes place at the CNIT from October 27 to November 11, a million visitors can see the shows in the giant theaters on the theme of Snow White. The Snow White trailer is shown on a giant screen during intermission.

In November, the laughing cow offers Snow White stickers in their boxes of cheese. The film's characters can be found on Nova yogurts. For 3 months, the packaging of Knorr's mashed potatoes comes with a cardboard set and characters. From November 15, all Coca-Cola trucks have a Snow White poster on the back. Henkel decorate their boxes of Super-croix washing powder with scenes of the film and offer a promotional record of the story of Snow White recorded by Micheline Presle in their boxes of Dato. 8,000 notions store "Laines du pingouin" sell patterns of the characters to knit.

150 companies who bought the Snow White license in various domains like clothes, school supplies, toys, etc. flood the market with Snow White.


Hachette plans 18 different books, from the popular edition to the deluxe version with 300,000 copies for the first press. Records are announced for the end of the year. Some are old books that are being reprinted and others are new adaptations.

Hachette comic book

France soir

The comic adaptation is redrawn, published as a book, and also in color in Le journal de Mickey weekly from December 1, and in black and white in France Soir.

Naturally, more records are made and Le petit ménestrel company publishes Dany Robin's recording again with a new cover. This time even audio cassettes are made. François Périer's version is also reissued. Yet, in spite of an avalanche of new releases, the French original soundtrack can only be heard in theaters as no records are cut yet. Marc Laferrière also releases a 45 rpm where he plays the tunes of the film in a New Orleans jazzy version. On publie également l'enregistrement américain de Tutti Camarata pour l'occasion.

The record that has the privilege of featuring the official Snow White poster that year is the LP (and single) of Henri Salvador. On it is a song especially composed for the release and appropriately title "Blanche Neige et les sept nains". Other than the song Heigh Ho, that isn't even found on the single, none of the other songs of the album has anything to do with Snow White. The song "J'ai envie de Lucie" (="I want Lucie" maybe a nod to Lucie Dolène?) is even relatively inappropriate for a child to hear.

So why such a privilege then? At the time, Henri Salvador has a weekly Sunday show on TV, Dimanche Salvador, in which he generously promotes his songs, often aimed at a young audience. He will naturally become a kind of Disney ambassador and he, along with Pierre Tchernia, is the one who will talk most of the Princess on TV that year. He had even sung Some Day Your Prince Will Come on December 16, 1972 on the show Top à Joe Dassin.

Sheet music of Henri Salvador's song

All dressed in white with a matching top hat, he sings his Snow White song to a playback, with characters in costume behind him (he confuses Sneezy and Bshful), on October 7 and November 25 1973, and on January 1, and May 21, 1974.

On October 21, 1973, still in Dimanche Salvador, in the same conditions, he sings Heigh Ho.

Pierre Tchernia

December 2, 1973 TV Guide

But Pierre Tchernia is still very much present and is show L'ami public numéro 1 of December 2, 1973 is dedicated to Snow White. First he offers a 3,30 minute extract of the escape through the woods. Then Tchernia tells of his 1962 visit to the French dubbing studio. Images of that are shown again as well as his interview of Walt Disney and the now famous soup sequence.

But this will not be his only show: he is now host to a quizz show called Le dernier des cinq (Last of the Five), in which contestants must guess a film title according to clues. On December 23, a clip of the dwarfs washing is shown.
And on December 25, it is time for the usual Christmas show: S.V.P. Disney, where by popular demand, the silly song is shown.

Pierre Tchernia

All this should not make you forget the film itself: from November, special showings of the film are organized for handicapped children, as in Nice during the carnival which theme this year is "In Wonderland".

In Paris, the release is announced for December 5, 1973 in sixteen theaters. In the first week, the Rex skyrockets as the first theater in the city in terms of ticket sales (31,024) and Snow White is the second film in that department right behind The Man From Acapulco starring Jean-Paul Belmondo. There are similar results in Lille where the top films are, The Man From Acapulco, Snow White, The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob and Sugar Cookies!
Yet everywhere else, Snow White takes the first place of the box office, often way before its contestants, which gives it first place nationwide. The film is released in 12 cities and 40 theaters during this exclusivity.

Front of the Telstar theater

At the time, competition is tough: in December 19, as Rabbi Jacob ands its ninth week with 1,093,564 tickets sold, Snow White already sold 220,261 in two weeks. The little Princess also hs to fight the most famous secret agent on the planet with the release of Live and Let Die which steals first place in Paris, although the Rex stays at the top of the list thanks to the Disney film.

Magic Convention Theater front

On January 14, one can rad in La cinématographie française that Snow White is the "absolute record breaker of Walt Disney re-releases". "In 4 weeks, Snow White has met Rabbi Jacob in the (very private) club of films that made over 10 million francs of gross (...). Christmas week saw an advantage for My Name Is Nobody, but the Disney film took the first place back for Newyears with 3,420,146 francs".

Here is a sample of figurs:

	12/5	Du 6/12 au 12/12	From 12/13 to 12/19	From 12/20 to 12/26	From 12/27 to 1/02	From 1/03 to 1/08	From  1/09 to 1/15	From 1/16 to 1/22	From 1/23 to 1/29	From 1/30 to 2/05
Total (tickets + gross)	16,293 (FF163,281)	111,426 (FF2,286,216)	92,542 (FF2,035,816)	139,463 (FF2,329,865)	182,266 (FF3,420,146)	38,939 (FF1,057,496)	36,691 (FF495,220)	(FF275,127)	(FF153,867)
Combined Total (Paris tickets/ Country's gross)		127,719 (FF2,449,497)	220,261 (FF4,485,313)	359,724 (FF6,815,178)	541,990 (FF10,235,324)	580,929 (FF11,292,820)	617,620 (FF11,788,040)	636,190 (FF12,063,167)	647,164 (FF12,217,034)	657,088

List of Paris theaters (and surrounding towns):

	From 12/06 to 12/12	From 12/13 to 12/19	From 12/20 to 12/26	From 12/27 to 1/02	From 1/03 to 1/08	From 1/09 to 1/15
Rex	31,024	24,407	63,934	70,652	12,639	12,004
L'Hermitage	7,512	5,874		9,058	2,367	2,505
Miramar	7,853	5,955		10,058	2,384	2,540
Mistral	6,216	5,130		10,942	2,686	2,446
Telstar	7,565	6,015		11,282	3,085	3,228
Magic-Convention	7,344	5,205		7,552	1,856	1,609
3 Murat	3,436	2,357		3,854	1,037	-
Terminal-Foch	2,097	1,749		3,308	626	857
UGC Odéon	253	6,355		3,562	1,119	1,042
Cyrano Versailles	6,662	5,386		12,511	2,218	2,145
Carrefour Pantin	6,181	5,147		7,449	1,970	1,845
Palais du Parc	8,013	7,512		11,174	2,586	-
Artel Villeneuve	5,446	4,392		7,478	1,536	-
Artel Nogent						1,579
Alpha Argenteuil						2,347
Les Flanades						1,969
Hollywood Enghien	5,225	3,534		5,988	1,189
Dame Blanche	3,797	2,518		3,353	595	575
Royal St Germain	2,802	2,006		4,045	1,046

And now for provincial towns:

	From 12/05 to 12/11	From 12/12 to 12/18	From 12/19 to 12/25	From 12/26 to 1/01	From 1/03 to 1/08	From 1/09 to 1/15	From 1/16 to 1/22	From 1/23 to 1/29
Marseille (Capitole, Odéon, Majestic, K7).	24,025	19,135	16,412	28,680	9,367	4,218	1,682	1,330
Bordeaux (Ariel, Mondial)	9,398	10,212	11,149	14,484	4,489	1,891	1,189
Rouen (Club, Ariel)	7,317	5,861	5,993	9,525	3,072	1,478	-
Strasbourg (Capitole, Rit's)	12,588	9,835	8,136	10,792	4,090	1,211	-
Nancy (Lumière)	8,074	8,011	7,928	11,305	2,969	1,515	-
Lille (Métropole)	9,471	8,253	10,288	17,361	3,969	1,991	-
Toulon (Royal)	7,273	6,830	7,212	10,211	3,803	2,311	-
Toulouse (Variétés)	10,924	10,641	12,181	15,944	5,458	1,243	-
Lyon (Cinéjournal, Ritz, Zola, Duo)	17,020	16,487	17,552	30,583	8,917	4,709	-
Nice (Forum, Paramount, Concorde)	12,065	9,336	8,598	13,494	4,336	1,980	-
Metz (Ariel)	6,664	5,514	4,223	7,505	2,976	-	-

It is eventually once more an enormous success for Snow White, especially in the week between Christmas and Newyears where grand-parents who had loved the film as kids, and who had taken their own children to see it, are now gladly waiting two hours in the cold for the chance to show Snow White to their grand-children.

In the spirit of the 1939 Menier albums, and the 1951 Eclair albums, Vanderhout internationale S.A. offers a sticker album with the poster of the film on the cover. Pierre Tchernia writes the introduction and, this time, the stickers are not new drawings, they are actual stills from the film! Issued in Belgium and France, it is clearly a French-speaking company's initiative: the still of Snow White in the bedroom has been taken from a French copy of the film: on it, the dwarfs' names are in French!

As usual, the memory of the film is kept alive through various books, records and TV Shows well after the film has left the screen. Extracts will be shown on June 15, 1975 (The silly song) in the show Système deux, On December 26, 1976 with Michel Drucker as host of a special Christmas edition of Les rendez-vous du dimanche where Henri Salvador sings "La chanson rose" (The pink song) where he evokes Disney characters. The day before, S.V.P. Disney offers us Whistle While You Work once again.

Henri Salvador

On November 24, 1977, for the release of The Rescuers, Belgian singer Annie Cordy, who recorded the storybook, tells us of the films she loves and Snow White is among them: a clip of the magic mirror is shown.

Dorothée et William Leymergie en 1979

On December 25, 1977, Pierre Tchernia is back on the small screen to show us an extract of With A Smile And A Song after having expressed his surprise overt the fact that Dumbo was chosen before Snow White that year.
For Christmas 1978, it is the bedroom sequence that is shown on S.V. P. Disney. The year after that it is now Dorothée and William Leymergie who host the famous show and who offerus an extract of the dwarfs at the mine. In fact since May, these two have created a new clip how: Disney Dimanche [Disney Sunday].
Still in December, it is Jacques Trémolin who hosts Les visiteurs de Noël [Christmas visitors] with other Disney movie extracts like Grumpy sticking his tongue out to Snow White.

Dorothée in 1980

Dorothée and William Leymergie come back to show the washing song in S.V.P. Disney for Christmas 1980.  These past two years, Leymergie notices each time that, unlike previous years, Snow White is once again no longer chosen first by spectators who are supposed to vote for their favorite film.
In 1982, Dorothée announces the extract of Cinderella by describing the dwarfs "singing their famous song: Heigh Ho"! She later acknowledges her mistake and the clip is shown later in the show.

S.V.P. Disney in 1980

Since early September 1979, Snow White is not seen quite the same way in France: a theater play called Elle voit des nains partout [She sees dwarfs everywhere], written and played by Philippe Bruneau, tells of the crazy and lustful adventures of a nymphomaniac Snow White (played by Claire Nadeau) whose costumes are clearly inspired by Disney. Colorful dialog is spoken in rhymes.
The play meets with so much success that a film is released in 1982 with Zabou Breitman in the title role and future French stars like Martine Lamotte, Thierry Lhermitte, Coluche, etc. In it, the rhymes disappear and so does the success.

In the record department, Rosy Varte and Maurice Vamby record several educational records in 1974. Actress Rosy Varte, at the time mostly a theater actress, later became famous in France when she starred in one of the first French TV sitcom Maguy, the French version of Norman Lear's Maude starring Beatrice Arthur. Blanche Neige apprend l'heure aux sept nains [Snow White teaches the time to the seven dwarfs], Blanche Neige et les sept gourmands [Snow White and the seven gourmets] where you can cook while listening to the record and Prof apprend l'alphabet à ses copains les nains [Doc teaches alphabet to his pals the dwarfs]. The three 45 rpm will later be published in a single LP..

In 1977, 10 years after it was issued, Claude Nicot and Anna Gaylor's version of the tale is reissued with a different cover showing Snow White discovering the dwarfs at the foot of the bed. The content of the disc is the same.








In 1981, conductor Robert Quibel, who is often seen on French TV then, makes an arrangement of two songs of the film, heavily inspired by Christiane Legrand's interpretation : Un sourire en chantant and Un jour mon Prince viendra. This time, Marie Myriam is the singer. She is, to this day, the last singer to have won the Eurovision song contest in 1977 for France. She also sings the French theme song of the animated TV series The Wonderful Adventures of Nils.
Songs of the film are irregularly sung on TV by Nicole Rieu in 1979 (Un jour mon Prince viendra), Karen Cheryl and Carlos in 1980 (Sifflez en travaillant)

If no records offers the actual French soundtrack so far, there is now a rather easy way to buy an extract of Snow White: super 8 film. Film Office now issues extracts of Disney films on that format for home viewing. The first Snow White extract is the Dwarfs' dilemma.It can be in black and white and silent, color and silent or color with sound depending on how much you're willing to pay. Funnily enough, the sound version features the first French version.

Now fans can own a piece of the film, but it is now time to raise the ever young girl from her deep sleep so that a new generation can discover her.

I want to thank Christian and Remi for their help and giving me access to their collection.
Don't forget to click "like" on the Facebook page to get updates! Check out the Snow White Museum too!
That's all for today folks!