Heigh Ho...

Here are photos from a recent eBay auction of some remarkable paperwork relating to Ellington and Strayhorn's musical project entitled originally Cole Black and the Seven Dwarfs.

I have posted the text from the vendor and the pictures in the sequence in which they originally appeared. Ellington's involvement with this project is documented by John Franceschina's definitive work Duke Ellington's Music for the Theatre.

There is much interesting work to be done comparing the lyrics for  pictured here for such as Once Upon A Dream (performed so memorably at the weekend by The Juilliard Jazz Orchestra)with their final versions. Studio recordings for Columbia do exist from this fascinating period of the late forties. The legacy of this project is long, too, through to the recording and publication of Satin Doll in 1953, Strayhorn's subsequent temporary break from Ellington and his own dabbling in musical theatre (one day I shall write a paper about this period called Strays Strays)all the way through the years to one of Ellington's final projects Queenie Pie.

As you can imagine, these various pages sold for premium prices - to one buyer, I hope, so that they were not scattered to the four winds...

DISNEY Artist TEE HEE Original 1946 Drawings of DUKE ELLINGTON & BILLY STRAYHORN

THIS AUCTION IS FOR ONE VINTAGE 1946 PAGE - Extra Photos are for reference and informative purposes

This is an ORIGINAL VINTAGE 1946 HAND  DRAWN Caricatures by DISNEY DIRECTOR / ARTIST TEE HEE  who wrote this MUSICAL, COLE BLACK AND THE SEVEN DWARFS with BILL COTTRELL ( Walt Disney's Brother in Law ) 

In 1943, after encouragement from Duke Ellington to make an all black musical animated cartoon, animation legend, Bob Clampett directs the infamous African-American parody: Coal Black and De Sebben Dwarfs. 

In 1946 Duke Ellington’s all black musical idea resurfaces again as Cole Black and the Seven Dwarfs. This time as a Broadway parody produced in partnership with none other than Disney. 

( actually these artists - T HEE & MARY BLAIR & BILL COTTRELL (Walt's Brother in Law) & DUKE ELLINGTON created this behind Walt's back and was not affiliated with the Disney Studio Productions )

The musical was never produced but development for the production went as far with a book and lyrics written by Disney storymen, T. (Thornton) Hee and William Cottrell AND concept designs (sets and costumes) by none other than Mary Blair.

( if anyone know about "The Book" mentioned, please let me know )

In stark contrast, and still a parody Cole Black on the surface looks like something pointing in the direction of “good taste” and "class" with a Harlem Renaissance sensibility present.

Satin Doll went on to being a Jazz classic and the production once known as Cole Black and the Seven Dwarfs men faded into obscurity. Pity. It really sounded like it could have been something great. Arguably if Satin Doll and the Seven Little Men made it to Broadway it could have been a hit especially with the name Disney attached to it.

If the production was successful, Satin Doll arguably might have been re-imagined in an animated medium making her Disney’s first African American princess, and not Tiana from Princess and the Frog some sixty-odd years later.

Thornton Hee (March 26, 1911 – October 30, 1988) was an American animator, director, and teacher. He taught character design and caricature.

Hee worked at Leon Schlesinger Productions from 1935–36 as a character designer. He designed many of the celebrity caricatures used in The CooCoo Nut Grove (1936) and The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos (1937).

 A 1936 Christmas card that he drew, featuring caricatures of the Schlesinger animators, was used to design the gremlins in the 1944 animated short Russian Rhapsody.

Hee joined Walt Disney Animation Studios around 1937. 

He is most recognized for directing the Dance of the Hours segment of Fantasia. He left after the strike, but returned to work there twice, from 1940 to 1946, and again from 1958 to 1961.

 Hee also worked for United Productions of America (1951 to 1958) and Terrytoons (1961 to 1963).

Hee was one of the co-founders, with Jack Hannah, of the Character Animation program at the California Institute of the Arts. He later served as chairman of the Film Arts Department.

Hee provided the illustrations during the opening credits of The Life of Riley television show of the 1950s.

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American composer, pianist, and leader of a jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life.

Born in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based in New York City from the mid-1920s and gained a national profile through his orchestra's appearances at the Cotton Club in Harlem. In the 1930s, his orchestra toured Europe several times

PAGE is 11 X 8 1/2.

This is a Set of 2 pages of ORIGINAL VINTAGE 1946 HAND WRITTEN SCENES STORY OUTLINE by DISNEY DIRECTOR / ARTIST T HEE  who wrote this MUSICAL, COLE BLACK AND THE SEVEN DWARFS with BILL COTTRELL ( Walt Disney's Brother in Law )