Marge Champion

Walt Disney will always be remembered for his countless innovations in filmmaking and entertainment. Yet, when he set out to create his first feature film, he was like an explorer heading into uncharted wilderness. Back in 1934, no one knew if an audience would sit through a full-length "cartoon" Critics and cynics said it couldn't be done. Walt of course believed it could and did everything in his power to insure that his animators would.

One thing was to bring movement models into the studio to give the animators a reference in order to achieve realistic human motion (i.e., walking, dancing). Marjorie Belcher, around 14 at the time, was hired for $10/day to "play" Snow White. See the October 2009 MovieWeb interview with Marge as she talks about how Walt chose her for the part from 200-300 other girls. She came into the studio two or three times a month for a period of about two years. The animators "showed me storyboards and then they let me go free."