شخصية اليوم أحدث الأخبار

In a Vienna show, the forgotten creator of 'Bambi' is celebrated

Princess Tarfa

While the 1942 Disney picture "Bambi" is considered a masterpiece of animated filmmaking, the story's author — a distinguished writer in pre-war Vienna who had to escape from the Nazis — is rarely recognized.

According to AFP, Felix Salten had been a product of the cultural blooming in the capital of the then Austro-Hungarian Empire around the turn of the twentieth century.

Since a Vienna exhibition highlighting the overlooked author demonstrates, he had been a creative writer who socialized in the same circles as that of Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis.

Under the title "Bambi: A Life in the Woods," Salten published the legendary and a heart-touching story of a fawn, who was orphaned by hunters in 1922.

When it was published the next year, it did not find immediate popularity with the reading audience.

Nevertheless, in the 1930s, Salten, who is apparently a hunter, sold the picture rights to an American producer for $1,000, who then sold them to Disney.

"Felix Salten changed publishers, and then after that, it became considerably more popular among readers," said Ursula Storch, director of the exhibition dedicated to the city's history at the Wien Museum.

"Of course, the film adaptation in 1942, by Disney has made it much more renowned," Storch remarked.

Visual Archive