Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library

Pinocchio Wall Clock
1940
George A. McFadden (1904-1991)
USA: Massachusetts, Winchester
Wood, metal, paint
23"h x 14"w x 8"d
Gift of the Estate of George A. McFadden
91.018.6

Pinocchio Wall Clock; a: clock: crouching man offering a dog a bone; orange, green, and cream painted colors; "Sessions" movement in front of peaked gable, gingerbread house; b: pendulum; c: winding key.

One of Walt Disney’s pioneering feature-length animated films, Pinocchio, released in 1940, inspired George McFadden to create this clock the same year. More than thirty years passed before McFadden made another clock. McFadden’s image of a man, perhaps Geppetto, giving his dog a bone, may illustrate his own warm feelings toward animals, dogs in particular. Upon his death, he left the bulk of his estate to organizations dedicated to the care of unwanted dogs.