Walt Disney's Uncle Remus "Brer Rabbit's Laughing Place" 1947 Song of the South Little Golden Book Illustration

"Everybody's got a laughin' place!"

This 7" x 6" original illustration, accomplished in Conte crayon by Disney artist Bob Grant, appeared in the earliest printings of the 1947 Little Golden Book Walt Disney's Uncle Remus. Based on the Academy Award-winning 1946 Disney film Song of the South, from the oral southern African-American folklore that Joel Chandler Harris collected in Georgia, the Simon and Schuster children's book was adapted by Helen Marion Palmer Geisel, Dr. Seuss's first wife.

The drawing depicts one of the most famous Uncle Remus tales in "Brer Rabbit's Laughing Place." Brer Bear and Brer Fox are about to roast Brer Rabbit over an open fire when suddenly the quick-witted critter begins to laugh. Brer Bear wants to know what is so funny, and Brer Rabbit tells him that he is just thinking of his laughing place. Before long, he convinces his animal captors to let him show the way to it. Now the roles are reversed, and it is Brer Rabbit who is in control of the situation--tied to a rope, he leads them into the woods to an old oak tree, where Brer Rabbit points to a hole in the trunk. But when Brer Bear and Brer Fox go to take a peek inside the hollow, they find only an angry swarm of bees, which sting them as they run away, leaving behind Brer Rabbit, who is nearly choking with laughter. Sure enough, they had discovered a laughing place--only, it was Brer Rabbit's!

The fan-favorite scene is highlighted in the Splash Mountain attraction at Disney Parks around the world.

Bob Grant worked primarily as a newspaper strip cartoonist at Disney, contributing to the "Merry Menagerie," "Pluto," "Scamp," and "Silly Symphonies" comics. He also drew the illustrations for other Golden Book adaptations, such as Bambi.