TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS-Day Six

Script magazine was a weekly literary film publication started in 1929 by Robert Wagner a screenwriter, director, and artist. Throughout the Great Depression the magazine primarily focused on covering the burgeoning film industry of California, as well as local and national politics. It was left-leaning and as such attracted numerous artists and writers during the rough times of the thirties. Early contributors included the likes of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Ray Bradbury, Charlie Chaplin, Dalton Trumbo, William Saroyan, and Ogden Nash, to name a few. The magazine struggled throughout its existence and most artists contributed without pay. One such artist was Walt Disney, who approved the contribution of this Donald Duck cover for the Christmas 1938 issue, with the message: “Merrie [sic] Christmas and (Donald) Ducky Greetings to Script and all Scripters from Walt Disney.”

The publication and its decidedly Socialist-leaning founder, were very supportive of the Roosevelt administration’s New Deal, as well exhibiting strong Pacifist sentimentalities in the late 1930s. [A] It might be considered a bit odd that Walt would contribute to a publication like this, but one thing to note is that all the Disney material appearing in Script, that is here at the Institute, all hails from the 1930s—well before the Studio strike. It should also be noted that the magazine was popular with the artistic set in Hollywood during the 1930s, which Walt was considered to be a part of, at least creatively, certainly not politically. Wagner died in 1942 and Script took a more news and film centered approach, until the publication folded in 1949.

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