development In 1935, Walt Disney first expressed interest in adapting J. M. Barrie's play Peter Pan as his second animated feature after Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). In April 1937, his brother Roy O. Disney visited the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children in London, who was the copyright owner, to acquire the rights to the play. However, the rights had already been acquired by Paramount Pictures, to which the hospital unsuccessfully offered to have the studios make an agreement with each other. In October 1938, Disney purchased the rights from Paramount, and in January 1939, Disney signed a contract with the hospital. By early 1939, a Leica reel had been completed. By May of that same year, Disney had several animators in mind for the characters: Vladimir Tytla was considered for the pirates, Norman Ferguson for the dog, Nana (who had also animated Pluto) and Fred Moore for Tinker Bell. During this time, Disney explored many possible interpretations of the story. In the earliest version, the film would start by telling Peter Pan's backstory. During a story meeting on May 20, 1940, Disney said, "We ought to get right into the story itself, where Peter Pan comes to the house to get his shadow. That's where the story picks up. How Peter came to be is really another story." Disney also explored the idea of opening the film in Never Land with Peter Pan coming to Wendy's house to kidnap her as a mother for the Lost Boys. Eventually, Disney decided that the kidnapping plot was too dark, and he went back to Barrie's original play, in which Peter comes to get his shadow and Wendy is eager to see Never Land. That same year, Disney personally attempted to contact Maude Adams, who had retired and was teaching drama at Stephens College. Adams had previously portrayed Peter Pan during a touring production of the play, which Disney had seen at the Cater Opera House in Marceline, Missouri in 1913. He notified her of his plans for an animated feature, and requested for her to view an early reel of the film that his studio had produced for her approval. He further affirmed that his studio would send the necessary screening equipment to Columbia College for the presentation and that it could be open to any Stephens College student or faculty member interested in attending. However, Disney