The Witch Awaits...

From the beginning the Snow White dark ride was the Witch's show. The ambitious "heroine's perspective" made guests in the vehicle to experience the adventure through Snow White's eyes. Hence Snow White wasn't seen during her original adventure. Instead, the ride featured four individual appearances by a ghoulish Wicked Witch and several other horrors emerging from perpetual darkness - without the lush fluorescence magic of the current ride versions. A queue mural featuring paintings of the Wicked Witch, hungry vultures, and other horrors indicated clearly that the ride wasn't going to be nice and wholesome. Observant guests knew it.

Snow White's Adventures
Disneyland California 1955-1982

FACTS & FIGURES
Location: Disneyland, California
Original name: Snow White's Adventures
Alternate names: Snow White and Her Adventures
and "Snow White's Adventures (Scary)"
and/or Snow White's Scary Adventures
Grand opening: July 17, 1955
(This version closed permanently in 1982)
Ride system: "dark ride" with single rail guide track
Ride designed and realized by WED Enterprises
(Walt Disney Imagineering)
Story adaptation and art direction: Ken Anderson
Original track layout: Bill Martin
Interior backgrounds: Herbert Ryman
Ultraviolet paintings:
Ken Anderson & Claude Coats
Improvements 1959-(1961):
Yale Gracey & Roland "Rolly" Crump
Vehicle theming: "Mine-cart"
Vehicles designed by WED Enterprises
Vehicles manufactured by Arrow Development
Vehicle capacity (originally): 2 - 3 persons per vehicle
Improved vehicle capacity (late 1960s): 4 - 6 persons
Original ticket required: C (later D)
Wicked Witch figures: 4 (+ 1 shadow)
Snow White figures (officially): 0
Dwarf figures: each 1 (+ 1 Dopey extra)
Skeletons: at least 1
Music and audio: whole unknown
Witch voice (1960s-70s): Ginny Tyler
Ride duration (estimated):
appr. 90 seconds

An Explanatory Facade,
a Muddled Perspective

The original Snow White's Adventures was in operation when California's Disneyland park opened officially on July 17, 1955. In general it has been said that park guests did not understand the basic point of view - that they were experiencing the scary adventure through Snow White’s eyes in the ride. However, since it took nearly 30 years to bring Snow White into the ride, we believe that during the ride's first two decades guests weren't actually complaining about the lack of the princess. In the original 1955 Snow White's Adventures, the princess was seen only in the queue area mural's cast portrait and on the facade plaque - and occasionally pushing the control buttons at the load, in the form of a pretty female ride attendant (as the above 1968 photo shows).

It was purely intentional decision by the design team to leave the heroes and heroines out from the Fantasyland area dark rides (Peter Pan Flight, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride) in favour of audience involvement. The man named Walt Disney had approved this approach. Unfortunately, the ambitious interactive aim of the original dark rides winded up mostly as a negative quirk in Disneyland's history. Of all three rides, Snow White's Adventures created most of its very own, unexpected kind of audience involvement and guest interaction.

Obviously too many guests either disregarded the clear message of the facade's explanatory queue mural or simply didn't believe that the original 1937 movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs contained a lot more than just merry little men, cuddly animals and a beautiful princess singing happy songs. It seems that children anticipated the ride's nature better than the adults; little kids took one look at the red-eyed Wicked Witch in the mural (the picture below) and refused to go on the ride. Parents were unfortunately less-observant and usually forced their reluctant offspring into the vehicles. Reportedly, an angry father growled to the ride operator "Why didn't you tell us there was a witch inside?"

Nevertheless, the ride remained in its very scary original form nearly 30 years (more precisely 27). It is somewhat ridiculous to think that "The Happiest Place On Earth" would have waited 30 years to react to the customer feedback of angry parents. A warning sign proclaiming "Beware the Witch!" was eventually added to the queue area. This was still the era when individual ride tickets were bought from booths inside the park - and even if the friendly seller or ticket taker at the queue didn't remember to point it out, the ticket (that could be used in a number of other rides) did also emphasize that Snow White's Adventures ride was scary.

Unfortunately these warnings could not prevent the birth of the infamous scary reputation of Snow White's Adventures. The infamy could have possibly been prevented by emphasizing the Witch instead of Snow White in the ride's name (for example with a name like "Wicked Witch's Ventures"). The name of the ride has definitely always been misleading - whether it was Snow White's Adventures or Snow White and Her Adventures, as the facade proclaimed.

The original Fantasyland part in Disneyland was realized in the style of a medieval fairground, with colourful but simple canopies serving as actual facades for the rides. The only significant difference - and thus huge emphasis - was provided by long murals on the back wall of the loading & unloading platforms. The modest queue area of Snow White's Adventures (with loading & unloading points) was decorated with a 10 x 40 foot long mural, split up into several sections representing actual scenes inside the ride - surprisingly in their chronological order: the Diamond Mine, the Forest Glade, the Dwarfs' Cottage, the Vultures, Witch at the Cauldron ("Lab"), the Dark Forest, and the Boulder Climax.

The mural contained one section that wasn't featured inside the ride: a gorgeous cast portrait based on the legendary original 1937 movie poster of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It was quite faithful to the old illustration style by the great Gustaf Tenggren (but for reason or another the entire cast portrait was flipped horizontally, resulting in a mirror image of the original poster). This breathtaking artwork of the main characters was later to be revived - and revised - for Disneyland Paris' 1992 version of the Snow White ride.

Thus the mural contained only one appearance by the beautiful Princess, but three separate paintings of the Wicked Witch. The scary old crone was naturally included in the cast portrait, but also in the cauldron section ("Lab") and in the climax section, pushing a boulder ("Boulder"). The actual entrance into the ride building was situated far-left, in the modest Diamond Mine section (leading naturally into the beautiful mine), while the exit - a creepy cave opening next to the "Boulder" scene - was far-right. (For reason or another, the traditional dark rides have nearly always been designed with a clockwise course).

Although the bright and beautiful cast portrait may have been misleading to the scary nature of the ride, the rest of the mural - especially the right hand side of it - established a creepy mood for the attraction quite effectively. The mural had also apparently been treated with fluorescent paints; some testimonials mention that after the sunset the mural was almost alive with eerie luminescence.

Despite its modest realization, Disneyland's 1955-1982 facade for Snow White's Adventures was indeed a functional one because of its explanatory mural. Unfortunately the ride's troublesome name - perhaps supported by the gorgeous but slightly misleading cast portrait - caused some guests to anticipate a more child-friendly experience instead of the genuine "spook ride".

The original Snow White's Adventures dark ride was designed and built between 1954 and 1955. Ken Anderson, one of the art directors of the original 1937 movie, adapted the script for the ride and led the original design team that included Bill Martin in charge for the track layout, Herbert Ryman creating several interior backgrounds, and Claude Coats contributing significantly to the ultraviolet realization of the ride. (More about the creators, details and development of the original ride can be found on the "Secret Laboratory" page).

The ride system of Snow White's Adventures used a single rail guide track, which has been a common feature of dark rides since Leon Cassidy of the Pretzel Amusement Ride Company patented the invention in 1928. Like most dark rides of the era, the original Snow White's Adventures made extensive use of simple plywood cutout sets and decorations, but brought a never-before-seen touch of class to these humble creations. While modest by today's standards, all of the ride's human characters, and also some animals, were three-dimensional figures. The original ride vehicles, resembling mine-carts, were designed by WED Enterprises and manufactured by Arrow Development. By the late 1960s the original vehicles had been replaced by double-bench versions.

The effects, tricks and gags of Snow White's Adventures were very simple from the beginning. Based on bending or rotating movements, these kinds of simplistic effects have been - and continue to be - common in amusement park dark rides. However, in the hands of the talented Disney Imagineers these simple tricks were enhanced with dramatic staging and storytelling style - and topped with magnificent fluorescent paintings under the magic rays of ultraviolet light.

In addition to the ride's controversial name, there was a significant problem in the ride itself - making the ambitious "heroine's perspective" quite muddled. The adventure started in the Dwarfs' Diamond Mine, continued through the woods into the dungeons and cellars of the Evil Queen's Castle, then into the Dark Forest, to the Dwarfs' Cottage and finally to the stormy cliffs. After the Dwarfs' Diamond Mine the route included an important turning point: a fork in the road that had signs pointing to the directions of the "Dwarfs Cottage" and to the "Witch's Castle". For some odd reason, the vehicle - representing Snow White's perspective - made the decision to continue towards the ominous castle! This fork in the road can be seen definitely as the weakest point in the ride's original ambitious aim; why would Snow White want to turn away from the path leading to the Dwarfs' Cottage?

As doomed as the "heroine's perspective" has always seemed, it was only a small part of a bigger whole. The essence and purpose of the ride was never in storytelling. As in any typical "spook ride", also the point of Snow White's Adventures was more significantly in atmosphere and experience - with strong emphasis in "night horrors" fueled by imagination, hallucination, and nightmare. The original 1955 ride was precisely a hallucinatory nightmare through the iconic scenes of a movie. It didn't need to make sense. Even though the character of Snow White was brought into her scary adventure in 1983, the ride remained significantly in the mode of a nightmare without much logic, without ending - having definite roots in the "spook ride" tradition. Only a few guests have understood this point.

And speaking of the infamous "Fork in the Road" - was there really a "Witch's Castle" in the original 1937 movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs? No there wasn't. In popular culture Snow White's stepmother, the Evil Queen, seems to be better known by her alter ego, the Wicked Witch, although in the original movie the Queen just disguises herself temporarily as the old crone to be able to kill Snow White. Thus the Witch character is not an actual character - and therefore people who are not acquainted to Disney's 1937 movie may have difficulty to understand that the Witch and the Queen are the same person. (Even most Snow White movie posters - like the 1937 original and thus also the 1955 ride's cast portrait - include both the Queen and the Witch). However, the Witch can be seen as the Evil Queen's "true identity" (a theory supported by KenNetti).

Despite of the above-mentioned sign of "Witch's Castle", the 1955 original Snow White's Adventures differed significantly from all its offspring rides by not establishing the Witch as the Queen.

In 1959 - when Disneyland got its epic Matterhorn mountain (with the thrilling Matterhorn Bobsleds rollercoaster) and also the legendary original Submarine Voyage - several significant improvements were made into the Snow White's Adventures ride. Yale Gracey and Roland "Rolly" Crump led the team. (More about these improvements in the ride description and on the "Secret Laboratory" page). Further smaller changes were made into the original Snow White's Adventures interiors and its facade throughout the 1960s and 1970s, but basically the ride stayed unchanged till the extensive remodeling of 1982-1983. Until that remodeling, the ride was officially called as Snow White's Adventures.

In 1982 it was time to say goodbye to the original Snow White's Adventures. Nearly everything of the old Fantasyland was bulldozed to the ground. The new Snow White ride was basically built from scratch, even though some of the original track layout followed into the reincarnation - Snow White's Scary Adventures (introduced on page 8).

Although Disneyland and the Disney Enterprises may not want to remember the good old scary days of the original Snow White's Adventures, the ride remains forever documented in the movie "40 Pounds of Trouble", released in 1962 by Universal Studios and co-produced by Tony Curtis Enterprises. Starring Suzanne Pleshette, Tony Curtis and the young Claire Wilcox, the movie is a wonderful testimony of Disneyland in the early 1960s. Although the 15-minute Disneyland segment offers a bit more fictional than a factual view of the park, the segment contains very rare dark ride footage from the early 1960s in the form of Snow White's Adventures and Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. During the short dark ride montage, Curtis and Pleshette take the young Wilcox on Peter Pan's Flight, but instead of reaching Neverland they come face to face with the original - and very grisly - skeleton in the "Dungeons" scene of the Snow White ride. After a couple of snippets from Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, the montage returns to the Snow White ride and shows the "Beware of the Witch" sign, the original gaunt vultures, and the very ugly Witch at the cauldron.

Produced by Stan Margulies, the "40 Pounds of Trouble" movie was one of the very few non-Disney productions allowed to shoot inside Disneyland. Cinematography was by Joseph MacDonald. While the dark ride montage has been proved as authentic footage by several Disney theme park aficionados, it is not known was the footage actually shot by the "40 Pounds" crew. The dark ride montage, however, has clearly been shot without the ultraviolet lights or other atmospheric lighting (with the exception of the quite spooky Witch at the cauldron). As the entire Disneyland segment in the movie seems to be faithful to the park's authentic audio materials, it is believed that the footage from Snow White's Adventures contains the authentic Witch voice by the legendary Disney voice artist Ginny Tyler. (Photos from "40 Pounds of Trouble" are included on next page's ride description and its image gallery).

Disneyland California 1955-1982
RIDE DESCRIPTION
on next page (3 B)

Snow White's Adventures
Disneyland California 1955-1982

Facade & Queue
IMAGE GALLERY

The KenNetti Tribute for Snow White's Scary Adventures strives for presenting at least some of the essence of the actual enchantment and atmosphere found in the Snow White dark rides. This is why most of our exclusively enhanced & expanded photos are not as glaringly revealing as most dark ride images on the internet. We ask you to notice, however, that some of these expanded and/or enhanced photos may not show things (sets, lighting and character design) exactly like they appear / or have appeared in the rides.

Most images have been especially processed for this KenNetti appearance. Original photos can be found at the websites of the image providers or copyright holders. Whenever a provider or copyright holder other than Disney has been indicated in these images and photos, the originals have been used with permission in this KenNetti Snow White's Scary Adventures Tribute. KenNetti doesn't always have the exact source of the original images and photos provided by several different people, so these originals are usually copyrighted to the providers of the images.

Facade & Queue
The Facade (Late 1960s)
The Loading Area (1968)
The Queue Mural - Complete 1954 Sketch
The Mural Cast Portrait (1960s)
A Postcard Based on the Cast Portrait
The Mural "Lab" (Authentic 1950s)
The Mural "Lab" (Restored Version)
The Mural "Boulder" Comparison
The Mural Horrors (Coloured Version)
The Demolition Combo (1982)

Specials
The C-Ticket "Scary" (Late 1960s)
Snow White's Adventures - Original 1954 Plan

Ride Interior Photos
and other images of
Snow White's Adventures
(1955-1982)
on next page's
Image Gallery!

Next Page (3 B)

KenNetti Presents
SNOW WHITE'S SCARY ADVENTURES
T h e -T r i b u t e

The Tribute Main Index

Research, analyse, text,
design and image processing
by Kenneth Sundberg

All original artwork © Disney

Other information & photo sources:
Jack E. Janzen: E-Ticket Magazine #13
Randy Bright: Disneyland - Inside Story (1987)
Richard Holliss & Brian Sibley: Snow White and the
Seven Dwarfs & the Making of the Classic Film (1987/1994)
The Imagineers: Walt Disney Imagineering (1996)
The Imagineers: The Imagineering Field Guide to the
Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World (2005)
Jeff Kurtti: Walt Disney's Imagineering Legends and
the Genesis of the Disney Theme Park (2008)
David Koenig: Mouse Tales (1994/2006)
David Koenig: More Mouse Tales (1999/2002)
David Koenig: Mouse Under Glass - Secrets of Disney
Animation and Theme Parks (1997/2001)
David Koenig: Realityland - True-Life Adventures
at Walt Disney World (2007)
Alain Littaye & Didier Ghez: Disneyland Paris
- From Sketch to Reality (2002)
Tim Hollis & Greg Ehrbar: Mouse Tracks
- The Story of Walt Disney Records (2006)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - Original Motion
Picture Soundtrack CD (Walt Disney Records, 1993)
Steve Birnbaum: Walt Disney World - The Official Guide (1986)
Birnbaum's Disneyland - The Official Guide (1997)
Steve Birnbaum: Walt Disney World - The Official Guide (1991)
Ollie Johnston & Frank Thomas: The Disney Villain (1993)
Disney theme park guidebooks & maps
YouTube / Wikipedia.org / Answers.com
www.DoomBuggies.com message boards
Happy Hills Way Happy Hoppies Test & Travel Group
Dr Vanessa Toulmin, NFA Website, 1997: Fairground Shows
Nick Laister (www.joylandbooks.com)
Darkride and Funhouse Enthusiasts (www.dafe.org)
Laff in the Dark (www.laffinthedark.com)
www.MovieMusic.com messageboards
Kentsu Pictures Video Archives
and Kenneth Sundberg
_______________________________________

KenNetti is a totally non-commercial website by Kenneth Sundberg to pay tribute and to honour the work of the talented people behind some of the most wonderful things found on this planet. All the material is gathered here only to inform, to promote things that need to be noticed, and to entertain people all over the world. KenNetti and Kenneth Sundberg are not affiliated to any of the companies, theme parks, movies, people, ghosts or other things appearing on this site. No rights of reproduction have been granted to KenNetti or Kenneth Sundberg, except where indicated. If You feel that some image or material whatsoever should not appear on this site, please CONTACT Kenneth Sundberg so that we can quickly resolve the problem.