![]() Storyman Dick Huemer said, "Somebody at the studio had started working on it and there were quite a few sketches that I remember, but no storyboards yet. As you rolled the little wheels on top, the pictures would appear like they would in a film." Story man Joe Grant remembered in an interview that he saw the Roll-A-Book for Dumbo: "It was sort of a little novelty idea. Copyright Office on April 28, 1940, along with a separate assignment of the copyright on the book from Roll-A-Book to Disney. ![]() People at the studio at the time seem to remember that Aberson was a New York schoolteacher. President of Roll-a-Book Fred O’Hara sold all rights to the story to Walt Disney on June 14, 1939.Īberson and Pearl felt that the prestige of being connected with Disney would spark attention for other future books from them and would guarantee more money than could be generated by sales of the untested Roll-A-Book. Rose may have been made aware of the product through Disney merchandise genius Kay Kamen, who reportedly saw a prototype with the Dumbo story while in New York. Supposedly, one of managers in the Disney story department, John Rose, first brought the story to Walt's attention. It was not unusual for Walt to see manuscripts before their official publication and to then purchase the rights to the story. It featured about a dozen illustrations or so with text that appeared on a short scroll that was built into a box and the reader would twist a small wheel at the top of the box to get to the next panel illustration into a screen.Īpparently no known copies of this original Roll-A-Book survive today, even in the Library of Congress, and that has led some historians to conclude that it might not have actually been produced other than a few test copies. The original story appeared as a prototype Roll-A-Book. The original story was roughly 4,500 words long.Īndra Frank, who was 4 years old when Dumbo was written, was the next door neighbor of Aberson and remembers that she was a one-girl test audience for Aberson telling her the story (and other stories). Aberson claimed she was the sole author and Pearl the illustrator but after their divorce, Pearl claimed he was co-author and co-creator, and identified himself as such in newspaper interviews.įor the Roll-a-Book where the story first appeared, the illustrations were actually done by artist Helen Durney (galley proofs of her artwork are kept in Syracuse), and it is suspected that the 1941 book credited to Aberson and Pearl had illustrations done by Disney Studio artists-not Pearl-and that the text was influenced by early story work on the film by the Disney Studio. It is much longer than the original.Īs we await the premiere of Burton’s version, let’s take another look at the original animated film.Ī book cover from the original Dumbo The Flying Elephant, by Helen Aberson and Harold Pearl.ĭumbo originated with Helen Aberson and Harold Pearl (Aberson’s husband at the time). ![]() The film tells the basic story through the eyes of a live-action cast and goes off in a different direction. The film is not a sequel, nor is it really a remake. ![]() The original Dumbo is perhaps my favorite Disney animated feature film of all time for a variety of reasons and I will confess that it filled me with a sense of unease that Tim Burton, known for his dark and askew interpretations, would be re-creating this gentle film. While some of these live-action re-imaginings have been well-made and certainly have been hugely financially successful (which is why even more have been announced), none of them seem to me to have captured the magic and memorable moments of their cartoon inspirations.īurton’s re-imagining of Disney’s Alice in Wonderland ended up pulling in more than a billion dollars in ticket sales and sparked a merchandising bonanza. At the end of March, a live-action (with a CGI Dumbo) feature film directed by Tim Burton will be released to once again tell the tale of the little elephant with huge ears who could fly. ![]()
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