Starting with snow white

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
, until 1937, the point of inquiry 
becomes: what happened to 
Snow White 
between the time it came to the United States 
and the time (almost forty years later) when Disney placed his American stamp upon the 
tale. This history has not been discussed very much in a literary context, or in a way that 
bridges the influences of literature and media, reading the works of other media (stage 
productions and film) as folkloric models or texts mediating the process of folkloric 
29
See M. Thomas Inge’s “Art, Adaptation, and Ideology,” for a comparison in which Disney himself 
discussed alterations made from the Grimms’ version to create his own. 

---

70
production and reproduction. Film critics, Eric Smoodin and Karen Merritt have 
discussed the transformation of the fairy tale from printed word, to stage, to screen, but 
their interdisciplinary studies emphasize the latter forms of media,
30
and frequently work 
backward from Disney, per their field of primary engagement. As a result, they miss 
some of the cultural markings within the American lineage of the plays and film leading 
toward Disney. Reading both as cultural “texts” provides an alternate view. 
In 
Snow White
’s first marked appearances in the United States
, 
artists were just 
learning how to culturally distinguish a tale to reach a new audience. Thus, the greatest 
emphasis was on cultural adaptation—the production of alterations in themes, tone, and 
character intended to reflect the new cultural milieu. However, there was another side to 
this story, as well. In the United States, where the rags-to-riches narrative, the rise of the 
self-made man, and the American dream
31
all contributed to a cultural consciousness in 
which one individual strove to be recognized as 
the 
creator, 
the 
producer, 
the 
contributor 
to a tradition, later adaptations would endeavor to capitalize the opportunities which 
transforming the well-known 
Snow White 
tale held.
This self-promoting interest of the adaptor was compounded by the cultural 
evolution of various sites of media. Most importantly for this chapter, transformations 
30
In “The Little Girl/Little Mother Transformation: The American Evolution of ‘Snow White and the 
Seven Dwarfs,’ Merritt divides Disney’s version from its fairy tale origins, supplanting these with the 
“American theatrical tradition,” and primarily Winthrop Ames’ play (106). Then, ten years later, when 
Ames’ film surfaced, Merritt found the film and within it actress Marguerite Clark to have been Disney’s 
main sources of inspiration.
31
Tracey Mollet uses the “rags to riches story” and “American Dream” to discuss Disney’s transformation 
of the 
Snow White 
tale. In so doing, she argues that Disney’s version […] brings new merits to the idea of 
the American Dream. Material wealth is no longer important for success in Disney’s tale; the emphasis is 
instead on inner values and manners and on collective action for the sake of a better world for all” (114, 
123). This message, Mollet argues, “infuses hope and positivity into a society struggling with the 
Depression” (111). While this may be the case, I argue that Disney, as well as earlier American artists vie 
for their own individual interests in their production and re-production of 
Snow White
(114, 123). 

---

71
occurring within the theatrical and cinematic spheres resounded with the artists 
generating works to speak to those spaces. Cynthia Lucia, Roy Grundmann, and Art 
Simon link American cinematic developments, in particular, to
a series of developments in the economic, scientific, and artistic history of the 
nation: the tremendous growth of cities and the arrival of millions of immigrants 
between 1880 and 1920; the consolidation of business and manufacturing 
practices that maximized production and created a new means by which to 
advertise goods and services; the continuation, and in some cases culmination of 
experiments devoted to combining photography and motion, […] and the 
emerging power of the United States and its place within the world economy. (3) 
Many of these cultural enhancements paired with the rise of the city to profoundly impact 
and advance the competition of individual interests that initially drove