Snow White in France. Chapter 5: 1983 - 1987

One clue proves the high esteem in which the Disney studios holds Snow White after so many years and so many new features films: the re-releases in France (and other countries) almost always coincide with a special event. Naturally, if the 50 years of the studio were celebrated in 1973, it is now their sixtieth anniversary in 1983.

To celebrate their "diamond year", Snow White comes to crown a year with many re-releases : on February 2, comes The Island On the Top Of the World with French actor Jacques Marin. On March 23, Pinocchio brings out his nose again, then on August 17, a collection of shorts is reissued under the title Donald Duck's Frantic Antic [La fabuleuse histoire de Donald].

If all these films meet with success, it is rather disappointing compared to the previous year: Pinocchio is the one that worked best with 270,531 tickets sold, which brings it right under the score of the new feature released December 15, 1982: Tron, far behind the 700,849 tickets sold for a French favorite: The Aristocats.

A new marketing plan, comparable to the previous release, is imagined with a contest about all Disney films of the year that will end by a hopefully successful release of Snow White. It is Richard Dassonville, distribution manager of Disney films in France, who appears briefly on French TV to explain the strategy.

Again, a new poster is created especially for France. Other than the expected difference in sizes (15x25, 45x65), a big 8 panel horizontal version with a slightly different layout is designed (760x160), as well as an insert version with a different drawing adapted to the format: Snow White is standing in front of the dwarfs who are lined up to admire her.

On these posters and on the lobby cards (2 sets of 9 cards each), a diamond year logo appears.

Lobby card

"Le film français" trade magazine whose archives prove the continuing success of the film, uses the film's poster as a cover for its November 25, 1983 issue. The following weeks will reveal figures just as fantastic as before thanks to the 190 copies for France alone where Snow White is re-released on November 30, 1983.

Week 1: third place with 145,844 tickets, behind Never Say Never Again released on the same day (278,389), and The ComDads [Les Compères], already in its second week with 186,004 admissions. Once again, Snow White is up against 007, but the fight is not equal: these two other  films, other than the added attraction of new productions, benefit from a network of 60 and 55 theaters respectively, when the film of our little 46 year old Princess is, so far, only in 29 theaters. Yet its potential is already obvious: just like ten years before, the Rex theater hits the top of the chart with 34,451 admissions thanks to Snow White. As a reminder, in 1973, 111,426 tickets had been sold in 16 theaters during the first week.
In the main 12 provincial towns (59 theaters), there are 132,861 admissions. The total gross for France is 6,084,142 French francs.

Snow White in Lyon

Week 2: on can read: "4 films with over 100,000 admissions represent 42% of tickets sold for the 92 movies showing this week. (...) Even though kids are not yet on vacation, Snow White's figures keep going up, which is rather rare, and leaves us optimistic for the rest of its career." In fact, with 150,126 admissions, Snow White gets the second place at the box office, still after Never Say Never Again, and the Rex keeps its leadership position with 35,023 tickets sold in one theater alone. That same week, however, Snow White hits first place in province with 152,723 admissions, which makes a total of 285,384 for two weeks in 15 cities): the film earned 7,017,761 francs that week, and with a total of 13,101,903 francs, it becomes he highest grossing film of the week.

Snow White in Marseille

Week 3: in Paris, the film is now showing in 31 theaters and keep its second place, but this time it faces a newcomer: Wargames, coming out this week in 39 theaters. But not only sales keep gong up (145,467), but the Rex is still on top with 40,071 tickets! Elsewhere the success is stable with 138,549 tickets and a solid first place for the film. Total for the week: 6,224,712 francs, so 19,326,615 francs in 3 weeks.

Mickey's Christmas Carol plays before Snow White

For week 4, Richard Dassonville and Walt Disney ask theater managers to offer a Christmas present to the audience: on December 25, the 190 theaters showing Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs will charge their Monday fee  (-30%). Coupled with the fact that the film is now available in 34 Paris theaters and the obvious Christmas boost, Snow White's success keeps growing: after getting first place for provincial France, it also gets first place in Paris in front of So Long, Stooge [Tchao Pantin] and Jaws 3-D [Les dents de la mer 3] both coming out this week with probably less Christmas appeal. These are the best results for Snow White since week 1.

Week 5: 1st place again with 7,386,676 francs!
Week 6: 4th place with 1,885,780 francs (57 theaters in 12 cities).

According to a report published years after that by Le film français, copies remained in circulation for 62 weeks and a total of 929,172 tickets were sold!!!

Here is some data I gathered from the first four weeks in Paris and surrounding towns:

	From 11/30 to 12/6 (1st)	From 12/7 to 12/13 (2nd)	From 12/14 to 12/20 (3rd)	From 12/21 to 12/27 (4th)
UGC Ermitage	4 408	3 832	3 101	3 893
UGC Odéon	3 667	2 953	2 491	2 571
Rex	34 451	35 023	40 071	40 525
UGC Convention	4 212	4 310	4 284	3 732
UGC Montparnasse	5 223	5 368	4 189	4 310
Mistral	4 547	4 324	3 330	4 189
La Royale	3 049	3 123	2 849	2 994
Napoléon	3 508	3 369	3 015	3 222
UGC Gobelins	5 363	4 977	4 858	4 213
3 Murat	2 233	2 159	2 046	2 277
Clichy Pathé				4 825
TOTAL PARIS	70 661	69 438	70 234	76 751
Cyrano Versailles	5 518	6 130	5 240	6 094
Vélizy	4 404	5 484	4 407	5 015
Ariel Rueil				2 632
Ulis Orsay	3 479	3 779	2 773	3 078
4 Temps	3 712	3 643	3 129	2 605
C2L St Germain	2 256	2 470	2 611	3 434
Artel Nogent	2 623	2 777	2 215	2 400
Méliès Montreuil				1 962
Artel Créteil	7 339	7 465	6 539	6 797
Artel Rosny	6 667	7 774	7 726	7 595
Artel Marne	4 992	4 826	4 487	3 940
Gamma Argenteuil	3 841	3 845	4 061	3 410
Français Enghien	3 838	4 478	4 462	4 888
Club Colombes	2 716	2 559		2 003
Carrefour Pantin	4 180	4 371		2 739
Paramount La Varenne	2 407	2 011		1 751
Buxy	2 957	3 390		2 020
Ciné Robespierre Vitry	3 792	3 207		2 371
Parinor	3 885	4 586		3 965
Gaumont Evry	3 374	4 563		4 079
Belle Epine Pathé				4 412
Pathé Champigny				2 767
Flanades	3 200	3 330		2 876
TOTAL SUBURBS	75 180	80 688		82 833

 You may remember that an extract of the film had come out on super 8 film for home viewing. Thanks to its success, a second extract was released: Whistle while you work with, unlike the first one, the second dubbing.

But this decade is a small revolution in the disc department: if the anglo saxon world has had a soundtrack record since the original release (actually the first soundtrack ever!), and if there are countless versions of the songs re-orchestrated and sung by a myriad of French singers, the French version has never been available on any format. In 1983, Adès records change that and release a disc and a tape version of the second French version of the film.
This release is quite unique in that, until then and even after that, the very rare extracts of Disney films that were available on any format were always accompanied by a voice over narration, and sometimes by re-recorded dialog. This time, the final mix of the film is offered as it is heard in theaters, the only drawback being that some scenes are shortened so that the entire recording could fit unto a 33 rpm record.

33 rpm of the condensed second French version

This is quite an homage to one of the greatest quality of that film: the clarity of its script and the simplicity of the story. No need for a narrator or any visual support to understand the meaning and appreciate the magic: the soundtrack alone, even incomplete, is enough to follow the story.

Tape version of the soundtrack

Yet old recording like François Périer's version of the story are being reissued. But new recordings are made for each release, and this time there are two of them! The LP with the film's poster on the cover was recorded by actor Bernard Giraudeau. This time, the actual music and songs from the film are used. However, dialogs are re-recorded by Isabelle Ganz, Louison Roblin, Gaëtan Jor, Roland Koessler, Raymond Loyer and Gérard Surugue. You may have noticed that two of them had already been part of the Dany Robin record, twenty years earlier.
Surprisingly, this version of the story is in fact no so new: these two actors aside, dialogs were also reused from the previous record although they were all re-recorded.

In the 45 rpm version, Marie-Christine Barrault does the narration and the music from the film is also used, but the dialogs, for which the actors are not credited are simply those of the Dany Robin record lifted right out of it with an occasional snippet of the actual soundtrack. Naturally, some of Christiane Legrand's songs which were mixed in Dany Robin's recording, are also used here. To recap it all, this disc mixes recordings from 1937 (the music), 1962 (the Christiane Legrand record and dialogs of the second dubbing and Dany Robin's record), and 1983 (narration)!

The records by Rosy Varte and Maurice Vamby are also reissued with new covers.

Since the OST is now available, a single comes out with extracts from the original French soundtrack: The 7 dwarfs sing. On it is the Silly Song, and on the flip side is : Heigh-Ho and Dig Dig Dig (in reverse order).

As for every previous release, a company produces an album with pictures to collect, only this time, a specialist does it: the Italian publisher Panini. This company benefited from the invention of the sticker in the 1970s and developed the concept of their collections, mainly in the field of soccer, then in different domains depending on what licensed was acquired, and throughout the world thanks to a  network of subsidiaries who issue each album cheaply with the stickers sold in international packaging with the titles translated in several languages. Since 1977 when The Rescuers Panini album comes out in France, the publisher makes it a habit to issue an album adaptation of the Disney film in theaters at the time.

Pochettes de stickers multilingues

So in 1983, an album entitled Blanche Neige et les septs nains is available in newspaper stands. The 360 stickers are stills of the movie. It is a lucrative operation for Panini: the closer he gets to completing his album, the more stickers the collector has to buy as chances of getting duplicates increase. To finish the album almost always implies exchanging stickers with other collectors or requesting the missing ones from the home company by mail at a higher price (25 cents per sticker plus FF3.40 of shipping charges in a limit of 40 stickers). The original cost (that of the album) is only 2 francs, but each bag of 6 stickers retails at 1 franc.

As for books, edi-monde publishes the usual comic adaptation. Once again, the magazine Le journal de Mickey also includes a weekly section of the adaptation.
Marie Tenaille writes her version of the story for a large GDL book illustrated with big stills from the film. The second part of the book is composed of games for children (see below).

Fernand Nathan edition issues, through the France Loisirs store network, an adaptation of Cécile Lameunière with soft pastel color drawings which will be re-adapted in 1985 with a slightly different cover.

Other books are also reissued: the bibliothèque rose collection comes out regularly with a new cover every time: in 1982, in 1986, in 1989...

Snow White is ever present on television at the time and appears on the cover of the January 10, 1984 issue of TV guide "Télé star", which also contains an article about the release.
This time, the third network, FR3, benefits from regional offices who have an alloted time every evening to broadcast regional news or other shows and almost all of them announce the release of the film in their main city: on November 23, FR3 Rhône Alpes shows images of the preview organized in Lyon for young orphans.
In Marseille, On November 26, the same kind of event is organized with, every time, the presence of Snow White and the dwarfs themselves!

Poster of the Toulouse Disney posters exhibit

At the museum of postcards on November 30, 1983 on FR3 Toulouse, in the show La vie à plein temps, the release of Snow White is announced accompanied by an extract of the film as well as the short Mickey's Christmas Carol. This new Mickey Mouse film is indeed part of the Snow White program and is shown right before intermission. Best of all, a special exhibit celebrating the studio's 60th anniversary is taking place: the museum gathered a collection of 50 original Walt Disney posters and postcards and will show them for the next 3 months. In the December 23, episode of that show, host Danielle Magne invites the curator and children among which turbulent little Julien announces that his favorite character is Snow White.

On December 13, we find the characters in Normandy surrounding the journalist who announces the program of the evening: a film about drugs! Our friends come back after the news for a little dance.
In all these shows, the extracts are always the songs Heigh Ho and Whistle While You Work, where the same video title announces that this is a Walt Disney production.
On December 22, in the show Midi 2, this time on national TV, we attend a screening of the films with kids who are lucky enough to meet the characters afterward.

On March 10, 1985, during the show Au nom de l'amour Georges Moneron, second husband and widower of singer Lucienne Dugard calls host Pierre Bellemare and makes a moving request: he has almost no recordings of his beloved wife's voice and would be quite grateful if someone could make him a tape with some of her songs. Pierre plays the song "Some Day My Prince Will Come" for him on the set, a song for which his wife won the "grand prix du disque" award in 1938 and assures that he will send a tape and a batch of records to him.

The shows dedicated to Disney allow young viewers to see extracts of Disney classics at a time when video was still in its infancy. Among them, Disney Dimanche has been airing on Antenne 2 (the second network) since 1979 and Dorothée hosts and sing the title song. Disguised differently depending on which cartoon she introduces, she often has an occasion of presenting Snow White extracts: in the costume of the Princess on December 12, 1982, in the middle of bubbles, sitting on a giant piece of soap, she introduces the washing song. On April 3, 1983, with a beautiful white beard, she rides Sleepy's chariot through the Dwarfs' mine before they take over and sing.
On October 16, 1983, as the release of the film draws near, she comes dresses as a dwarf in front of the cottage to introduce the sequence of the departure of the dwarfs and a clip of Mickey's Christmas Carol is also shown. At the end of that same episode, we see Snow White making her pie.

On November 20, 1983, the show opens with Snow White meeting the dwarfs and ends with a montage of songs from the film.
On October 16, 1984, Dorothée is once again dressed as Snow White and follows the witch about to bring her apple to the Princess.
On November 11, 1985, hidden in a tree trunk, disguised as a dwarf again, Dorothée introduces the scene of Snow White escaping through the woods.

On March 29, 1987, she dances around the Queen's courtyard dressed as a buffoon. The next extract is of the magic mirror and the song "I'm wishing". On June 28, 1987, Marie Dauphin has replaced Dorothée as host of the show, and introduces the pie sequence again.

Marie Dauphin in 1987

Dorothée at the dwarfs' cottage in 1986

As usual, SVP Disney is the Christmas show hosted by Dorothée and William Leymergie. On December 25, 1983, Snow White is the star of the show. We learn that 400 millions people have seen the film and that it had to be translated into 13 languages: in that episode is an extract of Whistle While You Work in German (first dubbing), in Finnish, Greek and Arabic. On December 25, 1984, the dwarfs reluctantly show their dirty hands to Snow White. In 1985, she discovers the cottage. In 1986, singer Carlos replaces William Leymergie at Dorothée's side and the extract is the dwarfs sleeping. In 1987, it is Marie Dauphin and Alain Chauffour who host the show for the last episode. They offer the washing song. That year the film is briefly re-released.

Marie Dauphin at Christmas 1987

On July 17, 1987, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs (the film premiered in Los Angeles on December 21, 1937), a special world release is organized. Since the last release dates back only 4 years in many countries, it is a symbolic limited release that takes place in France. It still represents 4000 theaters in the world according to the publicity material of the time, "even in the U.S.S.R. and China".

The famous Rex theater is faithful to the film that day and organizes a special showing of the film, announced on the news of the major networks TF1, FR3 and in newspapers. In the TV Guide "Ciné télé revue", we get a two page article (illustrated by the 1973 poster) as well as a promotional poster. However, in 1987, Sleeping Beauty was already released nationwide in France and 1983 was not so long ago, so apart from limited showings, Snow White made little competition that year as there was no official release.

Ciné télé revue issue of July 16, 1987

And yet, according to the Seattle Times, thanks to the fact that it was international, this release was the most profitable ever of the film. The studio offered Snow White a face-lift for her 50 years old so she would remain the fairest one of all. A restoration of the film was undertaken which the spectators could hear: the sound was remixed in Dolby Stereo.

But the project makes some people cringe: in order to adapt to the modern formats of projection (wider than the square of the original 35mm format), the film is restored and projected with a part of the image missing (at the top and bottom). The new French main title from 1962 was created according to that fact with a "margin" around the titles so they would not be hidden by the matte.
In a film where the heroin spends most of her time with characters half her size, it is a shame to erase 20 to 30% of the frame.
A the video market develops among the general public, the techniques available for professionals offer more and more incredible restoration possibilities. As so many other parents, the Walt Disney studios expect their precious little Princess to get what's best for her.

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That's all for today folks!