This just in from Lars Emanuelsson:

[Almost three years ago now, a post on this blog related a story, originally sent to Jim Korkis as a follow-up on an article about the Snow White premiere.

The content was this: for the Snow White premiere, Gustaf Tenggren was presented with an envelope with two tickets. But his wife Mollie didn’t like the seats they were given so she didn’t attend. Years later Gustaf had given the envelope and ticket to a friend in the children’s book trade. The e-mail sender had acquired the ticket but had since sold it.

As a Tenggren biographer I was quite moved by this story. Gustaf had attended the Snow White premiere without his wife, and he had kept the remaining ticket as a token. He was not as discontent with his time at Disney’s after all, I thought.

I was really curious of who the person was that had received the ticket from Gustaf. With the tremendous and kind help of Jim Korkis, I finally got hold of the previous owner of the ticket, and wrote to him to ask who he bought it from. The seller proved to be a person I had known since 1990, when I first started my Tenggren research. His report of the events changed my idea totally.

The parents of the seller had met the Tenggren’s while travelling in Mexico. After Tenggren’s moving to Maine, the seller’s parents worked for Tenggren around the house for some years. After Gustaf’s death, the seller visited Mollie several times. At one of these visits, Mollie presented him with the ticket and told him the story about it: Gustaf didn’t like the places, so he didn’t want to go. Apparently she must have attended herself, since there was only one ticket left. The seller kept it for a long time but later, reluctantly, sold it to a friend, who then sold it on E-bay years later. Unfortunately, none of the owners had a scan of the ticket.

After hearing this last version of the story, my previous image of Gustaf was turned upside down, and in a disappointing way. It indicated that he was just as grumpy as I had suspected after all. Just to think that he participated in this historical and fantastic production without going to its premiere, just because he was discontent with their seating. What a grouch!

If the present owner of the ticket and its envelope reads this, and would like to share a scan of it, I would be truly grateful!

Lars Emanuelsson

e-mail: lars.emanuelsson@gustaftenggren.com]

Did Gustaf Tenggren work very shortly for Fleischer's in Miami? We know that he lived for a short while in Miami after he left Disney in 1939 and one source mentions that he worked on the Fleischer short Snubbed by a Snob. Would any of you have any evidence that would support what remains for now an unproven theory?

This just in from Lars Emanuelsson:

[Last week I spent some days with the Tenggren holdings at the Kerlan Collection in the University of Minnesota, MN. I was there to do research for my Tenggren biography, which is planned to be released autumn 2014. I had the opportunity to browse through a number of interesting items of Tenggren’s, among these this little folder from the Saturday Evening Post from September 1956, presumably an in-house staff publication. Later that year, in November 1956, the famous Tenggren cover with Walt Disney on the train was published, illustrating Diane Disney Miller’s article “My dad Walt Disney”. The folder describes the process of the cover from idea to finished painting.

It’s great to see Ken Stuart’s sketches for the various cover ideas, compared with Tenggren’s final well-known artwork. Especially the little addition of Jiminy Cricket is fun to learn about.]

This just in from Scott Carmody, through Jim Korkis:

[I just enjoyed reading your article on the Snow White premiere. One anecdote that I know of involved Gustaf Tenggren, the famed artist who did conceptual work on Snow White and other Disney films. He and his wife were presented with 2 tickets to the premiere but his wife did not like the seats they were given. So she did not attend. Years later Tenggren gave his wife's ticket (and matching envelope) to a fiend of his in the Children's book trade. I eventually became the owner of the ticket and envelope for several years but have since sold it.]

This spectacular news just in from Lars Emanuelsson:

[Just wanted to forward a link to you on a great piece of art, just recently discovered and soon being sold at Bonham & Butterfield's in Los Angeles. The auction catalog isn't published yet.

I've written about it on my Gustaf Tenggren-blog.]

I love those two cute concept drawings by Tenggren which are being sold at the moment on Heritage Auction Galleries. (Thanks to Emmanuel Bourmalo for the link)

This just in through Lars Emanuelsson, who will soon post more information about his upcoming book and the subject below on his blog about Tenggren.

[I enclose an image of Gustaf taken on a combined painting and vacation trip to Catalina Island in 1936. Documents I have copies from prove that Walt Disney actually bought a landscape painting Tenggren made 1938 on one of these trips. Rumour has it there was a conflict between the two large egos of Tenggren and Walt Disney, but maybe it wasn't so deep after all?

I'm also enclosing two images that may give a hint about why Disney chose to hire Tenggren for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The first one is an illustration for "Bland Tomtar och Troll" (Among Gnomes and Trolls), a Swedish fairy tale compilation from 1924. The other one is the well known illustration from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" from 1938. I think it's pretty obvious where the inspiration came from. ]

I have been in contact for the last few days with Lars Emanuelsson who recently completed the manuscript of an in-depth biography of Gustaf Tenggren (not plans yet regarding its release in book form, let alone in English). Lars, who runs the Tenggren web site I mentioned a few days ago, sent me yesterday the following email:

[I'm enclosing a fun youth image of Gustaf playing chess, probably with an unknown artist collegue. The picture should be from around 1920 – 1922. He might be around 25, just arrived in Cleveland from Sweden. It's not common to see him smiling later on. It would be interesting to know who his friend is...]

Any idea of who the other man might be?