Felix Salten (1869-1945)

Although he was born in Budapest, Austria-Hungary (on the Pest side), Felix Salten’s Jewish family moved to Vienna just weeks after his birth on 6 September 1869, as Siegmund Salzmann. (Many Jews immigrated to the city during the late 19th century because Vienna had granted full citizenship to Jews in 1867.) Of course, at the time of his birth Budapest and Vienna were both part of the Austro-Hungarian empire.

Felix Salten in 1910. PHOTO: Wikimedia Commons

Today his most famous work is Bambi, a Life in the Woods (1923), later adapted as an animated film by Walt Disney. Looking at Siegmund Salzmann’s early life, one would never have predicted that he would become a well-known writer and the source of at least four Disney feature films. Siegmund was one of seven children. Although little is known about his life before 1890, the family was in financial difficulty and Siegmund had to leave school early in order to provide financial support. Salten later described his engineer father as an assimilated Jew and a dreamer.

At 16 Salten took a job at an insurance company (Versicherung Phoenix) in Vienna. In his spare time he began submitting poems and book reviews to journals. In 1885 he began submitting articles to the art magazine Kunstchronik, and soon he was writing for various literary periodicals. Around 1890 Salten became part of the “Young Vienna” (Jung Wien) movement, joining in a circle of authors – Arthur Schnitzler, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Richard Beer-Hofmann, Hermann Bahr and Karl Kraus – who met regularly at the Café Griensteidl. He wrote short stories and newspaper features under the pseudonym of Felix Salten, which would later become his legal name. In 1896 Salten became the head of the editorial section of one of Vienna’s leading newspapers, the Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung. By the early 1900s he was writing for all of Vienna’s major newspapers and also commuted to Berlin to work as an editor for the Berliner Morgenpost.

1902 proved to be an eventful year in Salten’s life. In April of that year he married the actress Ottilie Metzl (Metzeles). Soon the couple had two children, Paul Jakob (1903–1937) and Anna-Katherina (Katja, 1904–1977). To support his new family, Salten continued to write, now at a more intense pace. In September 1902 he wrote an obituary for the French novelist Emile Zola. It somehow touched people to an extent that brought Salten to the literary forefront and helped advance his career. He wrote on topics ranging from the arts and theater to politics and literary criticism. Besides novels, he also produced plays, screenplays, and even opera librettos. As a critic Salten was a supporter of the painter Gustav Klimt and writers Arthur Schnitzler and Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Later, from 1927 to 1933, Salten served as president of the Austrian PEN-Club, an office he gave up following the Nazi book burnings in Berlin on 10 May 1933.

But today Felix Salten is best known for two very different works of literature. The first was a fictional account of the life of a Viennese prostitute. Considered pornographic, the novel Josefine Mutzenbacher was published anonymously in 1906 and banned by the Austrian government soon thereafter. Although many people believed at the time that it had been written by Arthur Schnitzler, the real author was Salten. Had he revealed his identity as the Mutzenbacher author in those days, he would have been kicked out of the social and professional circles he so enjoyed. The spicy book was rediscovered in the 1960s and became a bestseller in German and several other languages. In 1990 Salten’s heirs sued the book’s German publisher for back royalties, without success.

BAMBI: EINE LEBENSGESCHICHTE AUS DEM WALDE by Felix Salten was first published in 1923. Copies like this 1923 first edition are very rare. The American English translation by Whittaker Chambers, published by Simon & Schuster appeared in 1928. IMAGE: Wikimedia Commons

In 1923 Salten, an avid hunter, published a very different work of fiction, a novel about a baby deer that the author called “Bambi,” based on the Italian word for baby, bambino. In 1936, Salten sold film rights to the novel to MGM producer Sidney Franklin, who passed them on to Walt Disney for the creation of a film adaptation. (The amount paid ranges from $1,000 to $5,000, depending on the source.) Salten’s heirs fought in vain for years in an attempt to get what they felt was more fair compensation for the rights to the Bambi film that earned millions in box office revenue. Later Disney also used another 1923 Salten novel as the source for the film The Shaggy Dog (1959). It is based on Der Hund von Florenz/The Hound of Florence, the story of a man who turns into a dog every other day. There have been two remakes of the “Shaggy Dog” films, including The Shaggy D.A. (1976). The Disney film versions differ in many ways from the original source material. Salten’s Bambi is far more grim than the Disney film version, even though many consider the animated film one of Disney’s darkest.

In 1930, at the invitation of the Carnegie Foundation, Salten and some fellow journalists traveled to the United States. He published his impressions of America and southern California as Fünf Minuten Amerika (America in Five Minutes) in 1931.

BAMBI in English from Amazon.com.

While living in exile in Switzerland, Salten wrote the Bambi sequel Bambis Kinder (Bambi’s Children), published in 1940. He did this more out of necessity than desire, since he was forbidden to work as a journalist in Switzerland. His main source of income was his book royalties from the United States. He also published several other children’s books: Renni, der Retter. Das Leben eines Kriegshundes (1941), Die Jugend des Eichhörnchens Perri (1942), and Djibi das Kätzchen (1945).

Felix Salten was still living in Zurich when the Bambi movie premiered at the Rex Cinema (Kino Rex) there, and it is said he attended a showing of the film he helped create. But he died in October 1945, just a few months after the end of World War II. When the animated film became a worldwide success, Salten’s wife and later his heirs waged a campaign to get the Disney Studio to share more of the Bambi profits, an effort that Disney resisted until a court finally ruled in the family’s favor in 1996.

Salten, a confirmed Zionist, as demonstrated by his 1925 book about Palestine and his friendship with Zionism’s founding father Theodor Herzl, was buried in Zurich’s private Israelite Unterer Friesenberg Cemetery operated by the Israelitische Cultusgemeinde Zürich (ICZ), founded in 1862. In the same Jewish cemetery lies the grave of a fellow Jewish writer, Richard Beer-Hofmann (1866-1945), who also left Austria in 1939 for Zurich. But Beer-Hofmann went on to New York City, where he died in 1945.

Books and Essays by Felix Salten

Selected titles authored by Felix Salten:

• 1906 | Josefine Mutzenbacher, novel*
• 1907 | Herr Wenzel auf Rehberg und sein Knecht Kaspar Dinckel, novel
• 1910 | Olga Frohgemuth, novel
• 1911 | Wurstelprater, essay
• 1922 | Das Burgtheater, essay
• 1923 | Der Hund von Florenz/The Hound of Florence, novel*
• 1923 | Bambi, Eine Lebensgeschichte aus dem Walde/Bambi, A Life in the Woods, novel*
  Book from Amazon.com: Bambi (English) by Felix Salten (Kindle, paperback, hardcover, audio)
• 1925 | Neue Menschen auf alter Erde – Eine Palästinafahrt/A Palestine Journey, novel (Web: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neue_Menschen_auf_alter_Erde)
• 1927 | Martin Overbeck, novel
• 1929 | Fünfzehn Hasen/Fifteen Rabbits, novel
• 1931 | Fünf Minuten Amerika (America in Five Minutes) is a travel essay depicting Salten’s 1930 visit to the United States, sponsored by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. This is his second travel book, following his 1925 account of Palestine, Neue Menschen auf alter Erde (above). Salten himself considered these two books to be his best work.
• 1933 | Florian. Das Pferd des Kaisers/Florian, the Emperor’s Horse, novel*
• 1938 | Die Jugend des Eichörnchens Perri/Perri the Squirrel, novel (with ink drawings by Hans Bertle*
  Book from Amazon.com: Perri (English) by Felix Salten (Kindle, paperback, hardcover)
• 1940 | Bambis Kinder, eine Familie im Walde/Bambi’s Children: The Story of a Forest Family, novel*
  Book from Amazon.com: Bambi’s Children: The Story of a Forest Family by Felix Salten (Kindle, paperback, hardcover)
• 1940/1941 | Renni der Retter: Das Leben eines Kriegshundes, novel – Note: The English translation, Renni the Rescuer, was published in 1940 in the United States, and the original German-language edition was published in Switzerland only in 1941.
  Book from Amazon.com: Renni the Rescuer by Felix Salten (Kindle, paperback, hardcover)
• 1945 | Djibi, das Kätzchen/Jibby the Cat (1948), novel
  Book from Amazon.com: Djibi (English) by Felix Salten (Kindle, paperback, hardcover)

* Books later made into movies. See the films below.

Filmography: Motion Pictures Related to Works by Felix Salten

Films Based on Felix Salten Books

Florian (1940) | This American romantic drama film directed by Edwin L. Marin, and starring Robert Young and Helen Gilbert, was loosely based on the book of the same title by Salten. Florian is a Lippizaner stallion being trained for Emperor Franz Josef (Reginald Owen). Music by Franz Waxman; cinematography by Karl Freund – both exiles from the Nazis.

A movie poster for the 1940 Hollywood film version of Florian. PHOTO: Wikimedia Commons

Bambi (1942) | The classic Disney version of Salten’s German Bambi book makes some changes in the story, but is essentially based on Salten’s work. BUY BAMBI (Blu-ray, region-free) from Amazon.com, Prime, Blu-ray, DVD versions from Amazon.com, or the BAMBI 1 and 2 – Blu-ray combo edition from Amazon.com

The Story of Perri (1957) | A Walt Disney productions based on Felix Salten’s 1938 novel Perri: The Youth of a Squirrel. It was the fifth feature entry in the Disney True-Life Adventures series, and the only one to be labeled a True Life Fantasy. In doing so, the Disney team combined the documentary aspects of earlier efforts with fictional scenarios and characters. Watch PERRI on Prime Video – rent or buy from Amazon.com. Also on DVD: Walt Disney Legacy Collection – True Life Adventures, Vol. 4 (includes ‘Perri’ and 7 other True-Life Adventures)

The Shaggy Dog (1959) | Loosely based on Salten’s Der Hund von Florenz (The Hound of Florence), this black-and-white Walt Disney film is the story of Wilby Daniels, a teenage boy who by the power of an enchanted ring of the Borgias is transformed into the title character, a shaggy Old English Sheepdog. Starring Fred MacMurray, Tommy Kirk (as Wilby), Jean Hagen, Kevin Corcoran, Tim Considine, Roberta Shore, and Annette Funicello, this was Walt Disney’s first live-action comedy. DVD, Prime Video: The Shaggy Dog from Amazon.com

Josefine Mutzenbacher (Germany, 1969) | A German film based on Salten’s novel about a prostitute in Vienna.

The Shaggy D.A. (1976) | This variation of the Shaggy Dog series (now in color) stars Dean Jones as the adult Wilby Daniels, now a successful attorney. Also featuring Suzanne Pleshette, Tim Conway, Keenan Wynn, Dick Van Patten, and Jo Anne Worley. DVD, Prime Video: The Shaggy D.A. from Amazon.com

The Shaggy Dog (1994, TV movie) | A made-for-TV version starring Ed Begley Jr., Sharon Lawrence, Jon Polito, and James Cromwell.

The Shaggy Dog (2006) | This remake of the 1959 live-action film completely changes the main characters. The remake with Tim Allen presents a character named Dave Douglas transforming into a bearded collie after getting bitten by a sacred dog. It stars Tim Allen, Robert Downey Jr., Kristin Davis, Danny Glover, Spencer Breslin, and Jane Curtin. Released on March 10, 2006 by Walt Disney Pictures, this version received mixed reviews and grossed $87 million against its $50 million budget. DVD, Prime Video: The Shaggy Dog (2006) from Amazon.com

Bambi II (2006) | This animated feature, a sequel to the original Bambi, tells the story of Bambi growing up in the care of his father, The Great Prince of the Forest. The original title was “Bambi and the Great Prince of the Forest.” BUY BAMBI 2 (Special Edition) from Amazon.com (Prime, Blu-ray, DVD) – Also see the combo Blu-ray of BAMBI 1 and 2 above.

Films with Felix Salten as Screenwriter

German/Austrian Films: Beginning in the silent era, several of Salten’s novels were filmed, and he wrote or co-wrote five original screenplays for sound films from 1930 to 1933. (See IMDb for all of Salten’s films.) Some of the German productions:

Arm wie eine Kirchenmaus (1931, Poor as a Church Mouse) | A German musical comedy, co-written by Salten. General Director von Ulrich is determined to introduce American working pace at his office. The first to get fired is his secretary. She is replaced by stenographer Susi Sachs. On a business trip to Paris feelings evolve on both sides. – Director: Richard Oswald

Die Blumenfrau von Lindenau/Sturm im Wasserglas (1931, Austria-Germany) | Salten is credited as a co-writer (dialogue) for this comedy directed by Georg Jacoby. The film, starring Hansi Niese and Renate Müller, is based on a play. Hedy Lamarr’s second small film role before she went to Hollywood.

Scampolo, ein Kind der Straße (1932, Bavaria Film) | Scampolo, (Dolly Haas) is a female street urchin in this tragicomedy filmed at the Sascha Studios in Vienna and distributed by Bavaria Film. Co-writer with Billy Wilder and Max Kolpé.

Liebelei (1933) | Directed by Max Ophüls. Based on a play of the same name by Arthur Schnitzler, Salten wrote the story of an ill-fated love affair. Filmed on location in Berlin and Vienna. Cinematography by Franz Planer, who later worked in Hollywood.

More | Featured Biographies

Related Pages
AT THE GERMAN WAY

• Billy Wilder – The Austrian-born screenwriter and director was a successful Hollywood director.
• Hedy Lamarr – The Austrian-born actress came to Hollywood in the 1930s and became a star
• Also see Germans in Hollywood – German, Austrian and Swiss people in Hollywood
• Mini Bios A-Z – More brief biographies of people from the German-speaking world
• Featured Biographies – More detailed bios of notable people from the German-speaking world
• Notable Women from Austria, Germany, Switzerland
• Famous Graves in Germany – Where are they buried?

ON THE WEB

• Felix Salten at IMDb – Filmography
• Bambi Book Banned by the Nazis in 1936 – International banned books