Starting with snow white

Snow White 
initially for a children’s theatre, Ames reflected grander intentions:
“You see, the parents have to bring the children, and if the parents aren’t pleased, why 
they won’t come. So we have to have a play with enough humor and other qualities in it 
which will appeal to grown-ups” (“Fairyland” X6). It is evident here that neither his 
imagined audience, nor his purpose was the same as Merington’s. “An aura of idealism 
pervaded Ames’ attitude toward the theatre […] He idealistically believed that the 
objectives of the theatre were to instruct, inspire, and ennoble” (MacArthur 357). These 
aims might in part be geared toward a child audience, but, by and large, they extend a 
broader reach. “Ames’ attention was directed more to commercial success” (“The Little 

---

93
Girl/Little Mother” 110). Therefore, each of the Americanized elements that I reference 
in Merington’s usage have been utilized and/or amplified in White’s/Ames’ script. When 
looking toward White’s/Ames’ version(s) of the play then, instead of inspecting the 
similarities, which effectively display an American tradition of folkloric passing on, it is 
more productive to examine those sites of difference to begin to understand how 
White’s/Ames’ version persisted in a way that Merington’s did not.
 
Ames Departs: Cue the Drama, Set the Stage 
Winthrop Ames, whom I would term a kind of Disney before Disney, proved to 
be an architect of the story on stage. Although outside of circles of film and stage he is 
little thought of, Winthrop Ames was not far behind that fairy tale master, in terms of his 
artistry, innovation, and ownership, particularly when it came to staged productions. In 
his development of New York City’s key theatres—the Little Theatre and the New 
Theatre—he single-handedly manipulated a platform wherein the fairy tale, 
Snow White,
might be employed to speak to and of his culture. In this forum, wherein Merington 
developed and reframed the classical European tradition of 
Snow White
, Ames—self-
invested—veered away from it. The tale was less significant for Ames, whose strongest 
interests were in the theatrical space and the opportunities it created to produce an effect 
upon its audience (MacArthur 352). David Edward MacArthur notes, “At the New 
Theatre, he would spend evenings moving about the theatre to get the effect of every 
detail from every angle and taking notes for possible improvements” (357). As an artist 
and a scholar, he rekindles affiliation with the Grimms, yet his innovation and 

---

94
painstaking care to perfect his productions in the theatre bespoke the traditions of the 
American self-made man, deploying all of his knowledge and skill to rise to the top of his 
own field. Without the 
folkloric
background of the brothers Grimm but with the 
dramatic
background to bolster a new theatrical tradition, Ames produced and 
reproduced 
Snow White 
by emphasizing his own theatrical innovation. 
In the opening of White’s/Ames’ 
SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS: A 
Fairy Tale Play Based on the Story of the Brothers Grimm
, a viewer/reader again finds an 
early introduction of the Prince and Snow White, setting the stage for the romance to 
come. In this version, the Prince falls in love with Snow White, misperceiving her status 
as she plays a Maid of Honor. Yet a stronger distinction occurs in the initial exchange 
between the two characters. As in Merington’s play, this first interaction and flirtation 
rhymes. However, where the lines begin the same—“In the measure to ensue, / Lady, 
may I dance with you?”—Merington’s version contains only a single reply from Snow 
White (Merington 1.1, 5). In contrast, White’s/Ames’ version extends the rhyming 
flirtation throughout their dance (White 41). M. Thomas Inge contends that the earlier 
introduction of the Prince (which he