"WHO'S AFRAID OF THE BIG BAD WOLF?": DISNEY'S THREE LITTLE PIGS STORYBOOK, 1933, SIGNED BY DISNEY

DISNEY STUDIOS. Three Little Pigs. New York: Blue Ribbon Books, (1933). Slim quarto, original pictorial paper boards, pictorial endpapers, original dust jacket. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. $17,000.

First edition, inscribed "To Jamie Palmer, with best wishes, Walt Disney," with 26 full-page plates (11 in color) and numerous in-text line-cuts.

"It was the Great Depression that made the Three Little Pigs a cartoon hit, at least so the story goes. Allegedly, when Disney released it as part of the Silly Symphony series in 1933, the playful frivolity of "Who's Afraid of The Big Bad Wolf" helped people to forget the wolf at the door. Be that as it may, Three Little Pigs won an Oscar for its director, Burt Gillett— the second one ever given for animation. Its characteristic song became Disney's first musical hit [dance orchestras the country over played it nightly]" (Roy E. Disney). "Of all the short films produced by Disney in the 1930s, Three Little Pigs has claims to being both the most significant and the most prescient. It is widely acclaimed as a breakthrough in character animation, leading the way for such indelible anthropomorphic creations as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Tom and Jerry, who dominated the various Hollywood animation studios from the late 1930s until the late 1950s" (Adrian Danks).

Interior fine. Modest wear to board edges and spine ends. A few chips and closed tears to original dust jacket (with minor loss of text). Boldly inscribed in Disney's fanciful calligraphy.