Disney’s first Christmas movie - “Empty Socks” from 1927 - was thought lost, except for 25 seconds of film preserved at MOMA in New York.



Earlier this year an additional five and a half minutes was discovered in the collection of the National Library in Norway. The movie is near complete, only missing around 30-60 seconds in the middle of the film.



This version was originally privately owned, but was donated to the National Library at one point, unlabeled. It’s an unstable nitrate film, a type of film that can burst into flames without warning. Their collection of nitrate films is vast, and kept in an own mountain hall, where’s been done quite an effort to go through all the films, make digital copies, and try and label exactly what they are.



When they first started working on “Empty Socks” they didn’t know the title or maker, but the storyline was written down, and the main details described. American Donald Duck artist and film historian David Gerstein could tell right away that what they had was a Disney movie that was considered lost. “Empty Socks” was remade into a Mickey Mouse movie in 1931, called “Mickey’s Orphans”, which still exists, but the loss of the original was mourned.



Now The Walt Disney Company has gotten their own copy of the until now lost movie, and it’ll be shown at the National Library in Oslo on December 17, with live piano music, along with another lost-then-discovered Disney movie; “Tall Timber” from 1928.



Norwegian article about it here:

http://www.aftenposten.no/kultur/Disney-filmskatt-funnet-i-Norge-7820284.html