• _The Hundred and One Dalmatians_ racist?

    From Joel Polowin@21:1/5 to All on Mon Oct 7 16:41:02 2024
    I recently ran across a review (https://youtu.be/1GxzNj8HO-k?t=788)
    which compared the original Dodie Smith book _The Hundred and One
    Dalmations_ with the 1961 Disney animated adaptation, _One Hundred and
    One Dalmatians_. It noted that the original book had some extremely
    racist comments, referring to "sneaky awful black-eyed gipsies". (This
    is in chapter 14 of the book.)

    But my copy of the book _One Hundred and One Dalmatians_ (with the
    altered title, and an image from the Disney movie on the cover) doesn't
    have that. The worst comment that my book makes is that "gipsies
    sometimes stole valuable dogs" And the gipsies do indeed try to capture
    the dogs.

    My guess is that the book was tweaked a bit for the post-Disney
    publication. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a copy of the
    book that was published pre-1961. (It's also possible that the changes
    were due to the book's North American publication, vs. the original U.K. release.) The copies at archive.org are no longer available; the
    passages available in Google Books don't include that chapter.
    Interlibrary loan was unsuccessful — although I found a library that had
    it, relatively close to where I live, the library then removed the book
    from their catalogue. I guess they discovered that the book was missing
    from their collection when they tried to find it for me.

    Do any of you have a pre-Disney (i.e. pre-1961) copy of the book? I'm interested in comparing the two book versions, or at least that section
    of them.

    Thanks,
    Joel

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  • From Chris Buckley@21:1/5 to Joel Polowin on Tue Oct 8 19:35:30 2024
    On 2024-10-07, Joel Polowin <jpolowin@sympatico.ca> wrote:
    I recently ran across a review (https://youtu.be/1GxzNj8HO-k?t=788)
    which compared the original Dodie Smith book _The Hundred and One
    Dalmations_ with the 1961 Disney animated adaptation, _One Hundred and
    One Dalmatians_. It noted that the original book had some extremely
    racist comments, referring to "sneaky awful black-eyed gipsies". (This
    is in chapter 14 of the book.)

    But my copy of the book _One Hundred and One Dalmatians_ (with the
    altered title, and an image from the Disney movie on the cover) doesn't
    have that. The worst comment that my book makes is that "gipsies
    sometimes stole valuable dogs" And the gipsies do indeed try to capture
    the dogs.

    My guess is that the book was tweaked a bit for the post-Disney
    publication. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a copy of the
    book that was published pre-1961. (It's also possible that the changes
    were due to the book's North American publication, vs. the original U.K. release.) The copies at archive.org are no longer available; the
    passages available in Google Books don't include that chapter.
    Interlibrary loan was unsuccessful — although I found a library that had it, relatively close to where I live, the library then removed the book
    from their catalogue. I guess they discovered that the book was missing
    from their collection when they tried to find it for me.

    Do any of you have a pre-Disney (i.e. pre-1961) copy of the book? I'm interested in comparing the two book versions, or at least that section
    of them.

    Thanks,
    Joel

    From Goodreads, it originally was serialized in _Woman's Day_ as "The
    Great Dog Robbery". There are full digital archives of this magazine,
    but I didn't investigate how freely they are accessible (eg ProQuest).

    I did see one 1957 copy on sale for $66, but that's going to extremes
    for the sake of curiousity!

    Good luck!
    Chris

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  • From Ted Nolan @21:1/5 to alan@sabir.com on Tue Oct 8 20:08:43 2024
    In article <lmlfs2Fn4vdU1@mid.individual.net>,
    Chris Buckley <alan@sabir.com> wrote:
    On 2024-10-07, Joel Polowin <jpolowin@sympatico.ca> wrote:
    I recently ran across a review (https://youtu.be/1GxzNj8HO-k?t=788)
    which compared the original Dodie Smith book _The Hundred and One
    Dalmations_ with the 1961 Disney animated adaptation, _One Hundred and
    One Dalmatians_. It noted that the original book had some extremely
    racist comments, referring to "sneaky awful black-eyed gipsies". (This
    is in chapter 14 of the book.)

    But my copy of the book _One Hundred and One Dalmatians_ (with the
    altered title, and an image from the Disney movie on the cover) doesn't
    have that. The worst comment that my book makes is that "gipsies
    sometimes stole valuable dogs" And the gipsies do indeed try to capture
    the dogs.

    My guess is that the book was tweaked a bit for the post-Disney
    publication. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a copy of the
    book that was published pre-1961. (It's also possible that the changes
    were due to the book's North American publication, vs. the original U.K.
    release.) The copies at archive.org are no longer available; the
    passages available in Google Books don't include that chapter.
    Interlibrary loan was unsuccessful — although I found a library that had >> it, relatively close to where I live, the library then removed the book
    from their catalogue. I guess they discovered that the book was missing
    from their collection when they tried to find it for me.

    Do any of you have a pre-Disney (i.e. pre-1961) copy of the book? I'm
    interested in comparing the two book versions, or at least that section
    of them.

    Thanks,
    Joel

    From Goodreads, it originally was serialized in _Woman's Day_ as "The
    Great Dog Robbery". There are full digital archives of this magazine,
    but I didn't investigate how freely they are accessible (eg ProQuest).

    I did see one 1957 copy on sale for $66, but that's going to extremes
    for the sake of curiousity!

    Good luck!
    Chris

    You can find out here, for a $250 PDF!

    https://wonderclub.com/magazines/WOMANSDAYmagWOMANSDAY195606.htm
    --
    columbiaclosings.com
    What's not in Columbia anymore..

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  • From Joel Polowin@21:1/5 to Chris Buckley on Wed Oct 9 12:39:00 2024
    On 2024-10-08 3:35 PM, Chris Buckley wrote:
    From Goodreads, it originally was serialized in _Woman's Day_ as "The
    Great Dog Robbery". There are full digital archives of this magazine,
    but I didn't investigate how freely they are accessible (eg ProQuest).

    I have an alumnus account with my university library, and I've been
    trying to access those issues (1956 June through September). Their
    system initially says that they're "available electronically" but when I request any of them, the notation changes to show that they're in the
    library storage. I'm confused about this, and have sent a request for clarification. Perhaps they're "available electronically" in some
    digital form that's in storage, e.g. a CD/DVD. I should hear back
    within a couple of days.

    I've found a number of on-line archives that store a variety of versions
    of _The Hundred and One Dalmatians_, but every one I've looked at has
    the same text as my own book copy. I'm going to try to contact the guy
    who did that review video and ask for the publication details of the
    version that he used.

    Joel

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