Vintage Disney Song of the South Shirt, looking for info

This past summer when we were visiting Seattle, I found this great vintage child's shirt at a flea market. (Being child-sized sometimes has its payoffs.) Being a massive Disney nut, I was thrilled to find it. I've been hoping to get some more info about the shirt, specifically when it was produced. I wore it to the Disney offices when I was visiting Kevin Kidney last week. Kevin is both very into vintage Disney and vintage clothing, and while he hadn't seen it before, his guess was that it was from the 40s, the 50s at the latest. There's no date on the selvage. The characters are from the movie "Song of the South" which was first released in 1946, then again in 1956, 1972, 1980 and 1986. I've also contacted the fellow who runs songofthesouth.net but I haven't heard back from him yet. I've been looking for a TC-type equivalent for vintage Disney collectibles but haven't found one yet; there is a section in the eBay forums, but it doesn't look like it's very active, lots of "what is this" posts with no responses.

I'd love to hear your ideas!

The label is very faded and hard to read, so I've enhanced it using Photoshop. It has an image of Brer Rabbit in the upper left corner, and says "BRER RABBIT" at the top. "ZIP-A-DEE-DOO-DAH" is swooping across the label in large print. Near the bottom, in small print are "MADE IN CALIFORNIA" and "COPYRIGHT WALT DISNEY PRODUCTIONS."

I'm guessing 40s - but maybe Christian Willis knows!
http://www.songofthesouth.net/

What makes that shirt an even more interesting find is that most people haven't even seen Song of the South, due to its controversial nature. I always found it odd that Disney won't release the film in the U.S., yet based an entire attraction on it (Splash Mountain), which happens to be one of my favorite attractions.

Yes, Song of the South hasn't been exactly pushed by Disney the last couple of decades. But they still have cast members in Brer Bear and Brer fox costumes at the character greeting restaurant at the Disneyland Hotel. The kids probably have no idea who they are.

Hey- by the style of material, the cut of the shirt and the tag it appears to be 1946 from the original release of the movie. There were lots of children's clothes out there with cartoon themes, I have seen Superman, Lone Ranger, and Steve Canyon shirts that are basically the same. Great piece, I am extremely jealous. One of these days I will be posting all of my Tiki room shirts and dresses, as well as the other Disneyland vintage clothing I own.

Double post- so sorry!

[ Edited by: Matterhorn1959 2006-02-18 15:02 ]

Thanks PJ - you were going to be the first person I asked about it (Humu is dying to know about it)!

Any chance there is info in any of the Tomart guides? I don't have them, but I'm guessing you might.

There may be a listing of the manufacturer, but Tomart is pretty light when it comes to the clothing. And if Disney Archives did not have the manufacturer in their lists, Tomart does not have it. It could be in the movie campaign book for Song of the South as they sometimes show the merchandise. Unfortunately I do not own a campaign book and my Tomart are currently packed away deep.

This has nothing to do with the shirt, but thought maybe some folks might not know where the stories upon which Song of the South is based originated.
http://www.lauraplantation.com/welcome_frame.htm

Laura Plantation is a real survivor, still hanging on after a recent fire and two hurricanes!

[ Edited by: purple jade 2006-02-19 11:34 ]

On 2006-02-19 11:26, purple jade wrote:
This has nothing to do with the shirt.

Same thing here, (showing my age) I saw the movie in the theater.
Where does the term "Brer" come from

Br'er is a contraction, a shortening of "Brother".

Kevin hasn't checked the Disney Archives yet, he just didn't recognize it. He & Jody have been working on some Song of the South collectibles recently, so they have been delving into vintage reference lately, but they hadn't done an exhaustive look through the archives. Thanks so much for your input on the shirt! TikiVixen noted on Friday that the color palette looks very '40s, and I agree with her... it's looking more and more to me like this is from 1946ish.

Still haven't heard anything back from Christian Willis at songofthesouth.net yet!

It "looks" 40s or early 50s to me..... Can't wait to see what you find out!

There was a great article in the paper recently, about the "gullah" language. This is the language used in the Brer Rabbit stories, and I believe also used by Mark Twain in Huck finn (the dialect spoken by Hucks companion, Jim). Apparently, the language is still being used in certain islands off the east coast! The article was about the Bible being translated into Gullah, and the people who initiated really had to talk to the 80+ crowd who still remember there own parents speaking it!

So, you can't buy "song of the south" in the USA? I remember seeing it in a theater, along with the sleepy hollow cartoon!

Hey Humu- any word from Song of the South net about the shirt?

Hey Humu- any word from Song of the South net about the shirt?

that actually reminds me. I have this old, huge story book of Disney. And it's FILLED with all the old disney stories, Including Song of the South. I'll put a picture of it up here sometime perhaps. (the new Expedition Everest is amazing, even better than Splash Mountain).

On 2006-03-01 20:13, PockyTiki wrote:
that actually reminds me. I have this old, huge story book of Disney. And it's FILLED with all the old disney stories, Including Song of the South. I'll put a picture of it up here sometime perhaps. (the new Expedition Everest is amazing, even better than Splash Mountain).

Everest DOES look amazing - I was out at Garner Holt's shop 2 weeks ago & saw the mock-up eagle they made for the attraction. It was very very cool....