1941 Walt Disney's Dumbo Illustrated Letterhead Advertising RKO Radio Pictures

This is an original 1941 letter from the RKO Radio Pictures film exchange in Milwaukee, Wisconsin featuring advertising for Walt Disney’s full length animated feature production DUMBO in Technicolor. Film Exchanges, such as the RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. Milwaukee exchange, handled distribution of movies during the Golden Age of Hollywood when larger movie studios were vertically integrated and controlled both production and distribution in what became known as the so-called Studio System. This letter is a single sheet dated October 24, 1941 from Jerry Weiss to a theater operator in Wisconsin concerning completion of the exhibitor’s single reel contract. This letterhead is nicely illustrated at the top with color images from the full length animated feature Dumbo. A copyright by Walt Disney Production and “Distribution by RKO Radio Pictures” appear in small letters in the illustration. Dumbo, Disney’s most financially successful film of the 1940s, was huge and much needed success for the