![]() While both Mother Ella and Little Jumbo were unhappy that everyone made fun of him because of his ears, they were happy when Jack, the elephant trainer decided to give the little elephant a part in the new elephant act. As they went from city to city, all the circus babies grew except for Little Jumbo who even though he ate his bale of hay each day only his ears grew and he often tripped over them. The circus is in its Winter quarters in Florida and is preparing to visit hundreds of cities and will be transported by a proudly puffing train. ‘Why, he’ll probably be a regular Jumbo,’ remarked another.Īnd right then and there Mother Ella named him JUMBO.” ‘You can tell by his ears that he’s going to be a big fellow,’ said one elephant. She caressed him with her trunk while she listened to the other elephants praise him. Everyone made a great fuss over the baby elephant because he was the cutest of all. There was a new baby lion, a new baby zebra, a baby bear, a baby hippopotamus, a baby camel, a bay giraffe and a new baby elephant. “Spring seems to be the season for circus babies. Not to mention that some of Dumbo’s expressions are odd in the sense that they don’t communicate the innocence of his better known cinematic incarnation. There doesn’t seem to have been a model sheet for Dumbo or his mother as their appearance and proportions seem to fluctuate from drawing to drawing. The design of the book includes eight full page pictures (leaving barely twenty-four pages of text mixed with drawings that often take up half a page). Some pictures of humans are little more than stick figures with a dot for an eye. In the illustrations, Dumbo looks very much the way he does in the feature film, although how many variations are there when it comes to drawing a baby elephant with huge ears? The artwork is very rough almost like quick black pencil sketches or charcoal. The book was published by Whitman Publishing Company and there are two copyrights: 1939 by The Roll-A-Book Publisher, Inc. Dumbo is waving a flag with red and white stripes (no blue square with white stars). The cover features Dumbo with a red, white and blue color and a yellow clown hat with a red ball on it. It is only 36 pages long (counting covers) and the bright yellow cover declares: “Dumbo the Flying Elephant by Helen Aberson and Harold Pearl” with no mention of Disney at all. He told me that it had taken him over two decades to locate a copy and discovered it by accident at a flea market in Central Florida. While visiting Disney historian Jim Korkis during Mousefest, my eyes popped out and my mouth dropped to the ground when he pulled out from his private collection a copy of that book edition. Shortly after the Roll-A-Book version, the story and illustrations were reprinted in a regular book edition of no more than one thousand copies. ![]() Apparently no known copies of this original Roll-A-Book survive today and Helen’s family had never heard about the Roll-A-Book version of the story. It featured about a dozen illustrations which appeared on a short scroll that was built into a box and the reader would twist a small wheel at the top of the box to get to the next panel illustration. The Disney feature film, “Dumbo” originated with a story by Helen Aberson and Harold Pearl, and was adapted for the screen by the great story team of Joe Grant and Dick Huemer. Several months ago, I wrote a column about wanting to know more about Helen Aberson. Sampson’s story about Dumbo’s original story … Sampson.Īnd now - without further ado - here’s Mr. Which is why we’re now going to see some more stories from Mr. A good friend of this site, Disney historian Jim Korkis, took some time from his own whirlwind life to encourage Wade to return to sharing his insights into Disney history with readers. Sampson has been absent from JHM for the latter part of 2004 because he was busy dealing with a family tragedy and some related financial challenges. “So where has Wade been these past few months?,” you ask. After a far-too-long-absence, Wade Sampson has returned to. Talk about your belated Christmas presents.
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