Welcome to a new Wildcard Wednesday! This month marks the 65th anniversary of the premiere of Walt Disney’s long-running anthology TV series, first billed as Walt Disney’s Disneyland when it debuted courtesy of ABC on October 27, 1954.
In honor of this important date, I’m sharing with you an essay that I wrote in spring 2018 for one of my classes at USC — a critical studies course on the Disney brand, with an emphasis on his creative endeavors. For my final essay, I chose to write about Walt Disney’s earliest forays into television — even prior to the 1954 premiere of Disneyland — via two Christmas specials in 1950 (NBC) and 1951 (CBS), the first of which, One Hour In Wonderland, has been released as a special feature on recent Alice In Wonderland DVD/Blu-ray releases.
I’m proud of this research effort — I liked the chosen subject matter and was rewarded with an A+ grade — and I’ve long believed that it’s the kind of material that fits the premise of this blog, so I’m happy now to finally have an excuse to share it here. (Click the image.) Enjoy!
And, although I can’t share the full show, here’s a clip from Disney’s 1951 special, The Walt Disney Christmas Show, which has yet to make its way on home video (but certainly should)!
NOTE: Please do not ask me for a copy of the 1951 special. I cannot share it, or clips from it, beyond what I have featured above in support of my essay. Thank you!
Come back next week for another Wildcard! And stay tuned Monday for a musical theatre rarity!
Really enjoyed this. Thanks for sharing.
Hi, Smitty! Thanks for reading and commenting.
My pleasure. Glad you enjoyed!
you deserved an A+
Hi, Beau! Thanks for reading and commenting.
Thanks — glad you enjoyed!
Hi Jackson, how are you?
I just send an email to you, but now I realized that I used the wrong place! Lol
First I would like to congratulate you for your AMAZING website, it is so gorgeous and with a lot of precisou and nice informations, really nice and wonderful work! ;)
My name is Leonardo and I’m a huge Disney fan, I was recently doing some searching about Disney articles in old newspapers and I discover that in 1951 Disney shown ‘ The Walt Disney Christmas Show’ and in this show he included an clip of Snow White (my favorite Disney movie) with multiple languages, but unfortunately I couldn’t find this TV special… Then I find your great website and your article about it with a small video included. I would like to know if you could share with me the Snow White part in the special, with the multiple versions and the promotion of 1952 reissue? A shame that Disney never released this wonderful TV show on DVD/Blu-ray…
Well, greetings, have a nice day and once again, congratulations for the nice work on the website ^^
Hi, Leonardo! Thanks for reading and commenting.
I appreciate the kind words, but unfortunately, I am unable to share all or even part of this special.