Disney Bed Building Scene Layout Drawing (1937)

The Seven Dwarfs take a little break outside the diamond mine in this outstanding 16 field 5 peghole layout drawing from Disney's first feature film. Created for the unproduced bed building sequence (also called the "Lodge Meeting") where the dwarfs tried to build a large bed for Snow White. The sequence started in 1934 but wasn't cut from the film until the summer of 1937. This drawing was the first (and therefore is correpondingly numbered #1) in the final proposed idea for the sequence. It would have been used at the start of the scene where the dwarfs brainstormed together before deciding to build the bed for Snow White. We see the dwarfs grouped around the stump , straining to think of an idea for an appropiate gift. As inspiration strikes, one after another jump to their feet with a suggestion, only to be voted down by the others. Finally it's Sleepy who naturally thinks of a bed. To a group who have just spent a painfully uncomfortable night sleeping on benches and in cupboards after giving up their beds, this is an inspired notion.The dwarfs seize on it and eagerly volunteer to start construction. Sleepy makes himself available to try it out when finished. Walt Disney said he was particulary taken with "Albert Hurter's sketch showing a tree trunk with drawers carved into it and a hole in the trunk of a tree with a bell hung in it". Rendered in graphite and red pencil with a 14" x 10.75" image. From the little details of the foliage and animals to the various expressions on the dwarfs faces it conceptualized and established the look of the environment and props. It is easy to recognize and name all seven dwarfs. It includes a production stamp in the lower right that reads 'return promptly to unit G'. Published in THE FAIREST ONE OF ALL by J.B. Kaufman, The Walt Disney Family Foundation Press, San Francisco,2012.Page 203.