Alice in Wonderland Comic Adaptation in Margriet Magazine from the Netherlands

Previously we've seen serialized adaptations of the Alice film in comic strips and magazine from the US, the UK, Turkey, and Belgium.  It turns out there is another, also based on the Belgian Mickey Magazine adaptation, that appeared in a weekly women's magazine in the Netherlands.

Published from 1938 through the current day, Margriet ran a serialized adaptation in Dutch from December 22, 1951 to April 19, 1952.  While almost exactly the same as their Belgian counterparts, the individual installments do have one unique feature: color scheme.  Each issue (at this time anyway) is two-tone, but the non-black color varies from issue to issue, being one of green, red, or yellow.

We Made Some Ink! Washingtonian Magazine July 2022

Being residents of the greater DMV (that's DC, Maryland, Virginia for those not in the know), the Washingtonian is our version of New York Magazine or Los Angeles Magazine, with features on local interest, published monthly.  And this month has a one-page feature on the Alice collection, only 6 years in the making!  Pictures below of the cover and our single page, and then an annotated page.

In the photo below, the numbered its are:

1. Regal Mad Hatter Teapot
2. Gund Queen of Hearts Vinylite Stuffed Toy
3. Regal White Rabbit Creamer
4. Zaccagnini (Italy) Cheshire Cat Figure
5. Disneyland White Rabbit Press/VIP Gift from 1984 Attraction Re-Opening
6. Neevel Doll Wardrobe Case
7. Lars (Italy) Bill the Lizard Stuffed Toy
8. 1970s Disneyland Child's Sunglasses
9. National Leather Mfg Co Schoolbag
10. Madame Alexander Doll
11. Larceram (France) Lamp
12. Chad Valley (England) Nursery Play-Toy Tin Stacking Blocks
13. Unknown Tweedledee/dum String Holder (likely unlicensed)
14. Enesco Head Vase
15. Sni-Dor (Canada) Record Player
16. Goebel (Germany) Dodo Smoker Ashtray
17. Unknown (England) Meal Time Dish Set
18. Hassenfeld Bros (Hasbro) Nurse Kit
19. Linemar Mad Hatter's Sky-View Taxi Tin Friction Toy
20. US Time Watch in Teacup Box

ABC Press Release for Disneyland TV Show "Alice in Wonderland" Premiere - October 25th, 1954

Now this is the kind of thing that I just love.  In 1954 Walt Disney created the Disneyland TV show to promote the upcoming Disneyland theme park.  The show premiered on October 27, 1954, and featured Walt talking all about the park under construction.  An historic event, the first episode of a weekly Disney television show.  But, the second episode was just as much of an historical event as it featured the very first time a Walt Disney feature film was broadcast on television, and that film was "Alice in Wonderland."

This press release is dated two days before the series premiere and details the second episode featuring Alice.  It is comprised of three separate 'stories' that could be used to promote the show.  I especially love the letterhead featuring Donald behind the television camera.

The "Alice" episode was broadcast on Nov 3, 1954 and was heavily promoted, even the TV guide from that week had an extra large listing for the show!

 

Sunday News September 9, 1951

This is truly spectacular.  This is a copy of the Sunday News, the Sunday supplement of the New York Daily News from September 9, 1951.  That in and of itself is not that spectacular, even though it does have a very nice cover featuring Anne Francis of Forbidden Planet and Honey West fame.

No, the spectacular part is on the very next page, the inside front cover to be exact, which sports - in glorious full-color rotogravure - an amazing photo of Kathryn Beaumont speaking animatedly to her Wonderland friends in doll form.  I do find it amusing that whoever wrote the caption got the two rabbits mixed up.

These dolls have appeared before in several black and white photos, and while it is never clear what exactly they are, it now seems UN-likely that they are Lars of Italy (thanks to the keen eye of uber collector Mel Birkrant).  They could be custom made just for the studio or even by the studio, but regardless, this is just an amazing image.  And a rare full color image from the time.

70th Anniversary of the World Premiere in London

 I would be very remiss indeed if I let today go by without a post, it's not everyday one turns 70 after all!  Today we have a copy of the UK Photoplay magazine from August 1951, with a cover of Esther Williams looking quite fetching.  But the real gold is inside.

A four-page full color illustrated article on the film.  And while the illustrations are just frames from the film, the design is amazing!

Telling the story via this series of stills as if they were taken directly from the 35mm film is quite charming indeed.

And this was apparently a popular article.  It is the two centerfold wraps of the magazine, and this issue is often found with these four page missing.  People had good taste!

Screen Stories Magazine - August 1951

As I continue to unearth items from the Tulgey Wood as part of the writing process, I have begun scanning the vast numbers of magazines in the collection - both to index and catalog them for my research, and to prepare the images for inclusion in the book.  A recent example is probably the most well-known cover from the original release, that of Screen Stories from August of 1951.

The is everything you could want in a cover:  bright colors, lots of characters, very little text to interfere with the images.  The only way you could improve upon it was if you used new bespoke art rather that the standard set of images used by nearly everyone.  But who am I to complain, it is a great cover!

The interior contains a frequently seen 2/3 page film advertisement in two colors (red and black), one that was published in seemingly ALL the movie fan magazines that summer.

It also sports one of the longer publicity pieces issued for Alice, a 6-page article, the first three of which are illustrated with some very standard black and white stills from the film.  

The article is basically a synopsis of the movie, hence the name of the magazine.

This magazine is notoriously difficult to find in good condition, as the paper is super cheap quality newsprint, thus making it very prone to brittleness and chipping.  

The cover, too, is nearly always slightly damaged at least, due to the way the magazine is constructed, with the interior sets of folded pages (called signatures) stapled together and the cover then glued around the full interior.  

The staples are never flush with the pages ('natch) so invariably they create impressions in the cover, and introduce damage.

Better Living Magazine - September 1951, Featuring McCall's Sewing Patterns

Every have one of those things you've been searching for, a small little insignificant thing that is in no way truly important yet still compels you to keep searching for it?  Well this magazine was one of those items for me.  I've known of its existence pretty much since the beginning.  It appeared in a magazine index (remember those) at my local library in which it listed the article "Straight from Alice in Wonderland," which of course intrigued me.  But I could never locate an issue.  Until now.

Thirty years in the making have brought you this post.  This magazine was new in 1951, this being only issue #5, which probably helps explain my difficulty in finding it.  In the periodical publishing/distribution world, issues are ordered three months in advance.  So a retailer in this case would have ordered issues 1-3 before ever actually receiving an issue.  By the time issue #4 was ready to be ordered, they would have received and been selling issue #1, this influencing their orders for #4 and so on.  Thus, if sales of the first issues was not up to expectations, they would most likely reduce their order.  This being issue #5, sales for #s 1 and 2 would have been available, and order adjusted accordingly.  Now, as I said, I knew of this magazines existence, but I had never seen ANY issue in the wild until eBay came along, but never this issue.

One thing going for this issue is the cover, featuring Luana Patten from Song of the South and So Dear to My Heart.  Always good to have a cute kid movie star on the cover of your new and not original women's magazine in the 1950s.

Table of contents lists pretty standard fare, of course with the object of my search on page 48.  Note also the thumbnail photo of the cover with Luana in the upper left.

And at last we've reached the object of my years long search, a two page sponsored article by McCall's featuring a cute little girl dressed in the Alice clothes from the sewing pattern posted here.  I like the photo on the right with her playing with the Peter Puppet Mad Hatter marionette as posted here.  I must say in that photo on the left our little Alice has definitely had enough for the day.  Note also the single line of text below the photo that says "WHERE TO FIND IT page 80."

Where to find it is just that, it lists where to get the patterns, and includes a handy order form to order them directly from Better Living.  It also includes where to get the Mad Hatter marionette.

So, thirty years later, was it worth the wait?  Probably not.  But I am glad to have it.

Everybody's Weekly from July 21st, 1951

This comes in courtesy of my friend Charlie Lovett, Carrollian extraordinaire.  A British publication from the original release, Everybody's, dated July 21, 1951, a mere 5 days before the world premiere in London, priced at 4d (4 pence in 1951 is about 65 cents today).  Let's take a look, shall we?

Everybody's was a weekly tabloid-sized news magazine or paper that was published under various names from 1913-1959.  By the time this particular issue was released, it was being published as simply Everybody's.  Typical tabloid fare for the time, with lots of current events and celebrity stories, original fiction, sports, and of course movies.  That's where we come in.

This particular issue contains a three-page illustrated article on the soon-to-be released Disney's Alice in Wonderland.  As was common at the time in the UK, the movie is referred to as "Alice in Disneyland,"  presumably because of the issue taken with the Disney-fication of such a classic English story.  But I digress.  The article is constructed in much the same way as all of these glorified press releases of the day were constructed, as a series of standard stills from the film with captions describing the action, with some small commentary by the author.  This publication, as with many others from the UK at the time, have this strange black, white, and orange color scheme.  I'm sure there must be a reason for it, but I do not know it.

This article is not only not critical of the Disney adaptation, but practically doesn't mention it all.  The majority of piece expounds on the idiosyncrasies of Lewis Carroll, and hardly mentions the film except to say that the author thinks Carroll would have approved.  A grand total of 4 sentences of the 19 total are devoted to 'the film', one of which isn't really a sentence (this author is the king of the run-on sentence and sentence fragment).  One wonders if the author, Jonathan Routh, even saw it.

Happy Easter! Pictorial Review - March 25, 1951

Happy Easter!  In celebration I give you this very colorful cover to the March 25, 1951 issue of Pictorial Review, a Sunday supplement magazine.  No article inside, but really, who needs more than the cover anyway?

David Lesjak from Toons At War recently posted the original line drawing for this cover on the Disney History Institute facebook page, go check it out!  And look for his forthcoming biography of Hank Porter, the artist on this and many other covers.

Cinerevue December 1951 from France - Holiday Cover

Beautiful Christmas cover on this issue of Cinerevue magazine from France in 1951.  Alice was released at Christmastime in France, and this was one of several Christmas themed Alice items from that part of the world.

Dalla Magazine #1 1953 from Germany

From Germany comes this children's magazine I've not heard of before, Dalla.  Seems to be typical of the children's magazines of the times, very short stories on a variety of topics suitable for younger readers.

But wait, here is a one page article on Disney's Alice, complete with color photographs from the film.  All are pretty standard fare except the first, which is unusual and not familiar to me from any other publications.

The last picture too is unusual in that it has been reversed for publication.

Parents magazine September 1951

Thanks to Jerry Beck over at Cartoon Research for alerting me to the existence of this magazine, although it did take me nearly 5 years to locate a complete copy of it.  The September issue is a trove of Alice content, both large and small.

First up is a tiny tiny blurb for Alice in the Family Movie Guide section.

Apparently it is an excellent film for adults and youths but children need some preparation.  And it is a Parents' Magazine Family Medal Award film to boot!

Next up is an ad for an Alice school bag.

While not the Disney bags we saw back in this post, it nevertheless exhibits a phenomenon that still occurs today:  third party merchandising.  Seemingly for every Disney movie ever released, there is a slew of other merchandise that is NOT Disney, but riding the publicity wave caused by the Disney film.  In this case, other Alice merchandise not licensed by Disney but still Alice themed.  One of the problems with filming stories in the public domain.

Next up is this great ad for Children's Digest magazine, which I blogged about way back in the first year of the blog, nearly six years ago!  Wow, has it been that long?

And finally another great ad, this time for Alice in Wonderland themed children's clothing.

Togs like toys for girls and boys.  What a great tag line.  And this ad solved a mystery that had eluded me for nearly 20 years.  It mentions picture buttons.  I have one of these, but have never been able to figure out from where it came.  Now I know!

Kent Feedsack - Merit Chicken Feed Advertisement - October 1951

This is awesome, the only one I've ever seen, and I don't even know from which publication it came.  It is an ad for chicken feed featuring the Alice in Wonderland feedsack promotion.

This ad came out of a fantastic scrapbook I purchased about 10 years ago that belonged to a little boy in Texas.  This kid was just like me - totally obsessed with Disney's Alice.  The entire scrapbook is filled with all things Alice from when the movie came out, and this filled an entire page.

Based on the date on the bottom of the page it must be some sort of monthly  publication, and it is oversized, page size is about 11x14, and this is page 55.  It is newsprint rather than glossy, and it has browned considerably; the scan above has been heavily photoshopped by me.  If anyone has any idea from which publication this came, I will be in your debt.

UPDATE:  I now know that this is from a publication called The Farmer Stockman.  Let the search begin!

Le Patriote Illustré from Belgium - December 23, 1951

Another great Christmas cover from Belgium, this time on the December 23, 1951 issue of Le Patriote Illustré.

This feels more like a very large newspaper supplement than a magazine, as the pages (including the cover) are newsprint.  Inside is a brief article on Alice,

with some very nice color images from the film, including the Doorknob, who is rarely seen. And of course Bill.

Ons Volk from Belgium - December 20th, 1951

This is one of those items that I knew about for a very long time before I actually acquired a copy.

This is a Belgian magazine, in Dutch, from Christmastime in 1951.  I love the cover, which is good because that is the only thing Alice about this magazine.  I've seen this art reproduced in other places, most notably a music book from the 1950s here in the US, but this magazine cover (I think) is the largest reproduction of the art - and in full color, the music book is only line art.  I love this cover so much that I made it my Christmas card for 2012.  Hope you like it too!

Constanze from Germany - December 15th, 1952

This magazine from Germany features a cover with two ridiculously adorable children taking a bath...or are they?  Looks like perhaps these children were pasted into the picture based on hard crop lines in the bubbles.  Go figure.

Anyway.  This issue features your standard screenshots of the film with accompanying text, although I must say the color reproduction here is quite good.

How often do we see pictures of the bread and butterflies?  Not nearly often enough!

Uutisaitta from Finland - November 10th, 1951

This is a new one for me, and the first item from Finland on the blog.  A magazine called Uutisaitta from Finland in 1951, featuring an insanely cool cover.  Uutisaitta loosely translates to 'news trove', so I guess this is all the news that's fit to print - in Finland.

The cover on this is great, again with the weird red dress we've seen so many times in the past.  Did these people not actually watch the film?

The contents don't really have more Alice, just a smaller reproduction of the cover on the title page.  Still, only one I've ever seen!