Mary Blair’s mural in Disneyland in the 1960s; it may or may not still exist. Courtesy the estate of Mary Blair.
Acknowledgments
A heartfelt thank-you to the readers whose messages and stories have buoyed me at low moments, spurring me to write further. This book would not have been possible without Maggie Richardson, who from the beginning has encouraged me, made available seemingly endless research materials, and strengthened my resolve with her own powerful storytelling ability. I am very grateful to all the current and former Disney employees I spoke with as well as their family and friends, who shared both their memories and archival material: the wonderful Jeanne Chamberlain, Berkeley Brandt, Ben Worcester, Theo Halladay, Ann Tarvin, Steve and Suzi Onopa, Carol Hannaman, Michael Giaimo, Pete Docter, Brenda Chapman, Ellen Woodbury, Rita Hsiao, and many others. I am indebted to the many Disney historians who helped me in my research, in particular John Canemaker. Without their invaluable collections of photographs, artwork, interviews, story-meeting transcripts, and so much more, this book would not have been written. A special thank-you to the many librarians and archivists, including Katherine Platz, who aided my search and helped me find documents that I didn’t even know existed. I am also very grateful to the members of the Hyperion Historical Alliance, who have not only assisted my research but also allowed me to join their rich community.
I would be lost without Laurie Abkemeier, my wonderful agent who supports and inspires me. I have infinite gratitude for my editor, the talented Asya Muchnick, and am so fortunate to benefit from her expertise. Thank you to Jayne Yaffe Kemp and Tracy Roe, who not only improved the manuscript considerably but also made me smile with their witty edits and comments.
For my Met Hill family: Rachael and Gerry Coakley, Susie and Ben Bird, Elizabeth Keane, Sean Cashman, and Sarah Elliott. For my Ventucky crew: Elizabeth Shaw, Emlyn Jones, Jennifer and Payson Thompson, Tim Flanagan, J. A. and Joline MacFarland, Amy Cantor and Scott Ambruster. For my dear friends: my BFF Anna Seltzer, Dorothy and Mariano Deguzman, Jeremy Bennett, Rebecca Lee and Rich Cegelski, Darcie and Mark Tuite, Lisa and Luther Ward, Deborah Ward, and Megan Furniss. I am so grateful to my little turkeys who have lifted me up during the darkest of days: Kristin Rascon, Ashlee Mikels, Amy McCain, Amanda Webb, Shelly McGill, Kate Brum, Michelle Danley, Lisa Funari, Samantha Wilson, Jessica Sakaske, Erika Hilden, AJ Lund, Andrea Alexander, Stacey Williams, Holly Button, Jenna Wood, Rachael Nelson, Erica Johansen, Jessica Mydland, Callie Slama, Becky Brown, Kimberly Philip, Amanda Schuster, Valerie Halsey, Clare Rice, Rosie Forbes, Karyln Goodman, Kiersti Pilon, and Amy Blackwell. For the teachers: Jennifer O’Reilly, Ms. McCool, Koresha Braxton, Stacey Isles, and Jacqueline Rosario. For my family: Marco Katz, Betsy Boone, Joyce Boone, Rose Grundgeiger, Claire and Jerry McCleery, Shane, Frannie, Ruby, Harrison, and Andrew Vesely, Scott Holt, and Shea Holt. For my sweet Hannah Holt. In memory of a loving father and grandfather: Kenneth Fry Holt.
To the most important people in my life: my husband, Larkin, and the girls who inspire me every day with their curious minds: Eleanor and Philippa.
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Notes
Research for this book relied heavily on family collections from Maggie Richardson, Jeanne Chamberlain, Berkeley Brandt, Theo Halladay, and Benjamin Worcester, and archival material collected by historian John Canemaker. In addition to the excellence of the published work of Canemaker, their vast personal and publicly available collections of interviews, story-meeting transcripts, correspondence, photographs, and artwork offer a wealth of details about the studio and its female employees. Unpublished interviews conducted by John Canemaker and used with his permission formed an essential core of biographical information. Story-meeting transcripts were obtained from personal collections or script libraries and archives. In addition, I conducted interviews with former and current members of the Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios as well as their friends and family members.
Unless otherwise credited, biographical material on Bianca Majolie, Sylvia Holland, Retta Scott, Grace Huntington, and Mary Blair was obtained from correspondence, notes, sketches, photographs, journals, and interviews with relatives, friends, and coworkers.
Chapter 1: One Day When We Were Young
Further information on Bianca Majolie, including examples of her work, can be found in John Canemaker, Before the Animation Begins: The Art and Lives of Disney Inspirational Sketch Artists (New York: Hyperion, 1996); John Canemaker, Paper Dreams: The Art and Artists of Disney Storyboards (New York: Hyperion, 1999); and Didier Ghez, They Drew As They Pleased, vol. 1, The Hidden Art of Disney’s Golden Age: The 1930s (New York: Hyperion, 2015).
Details of the meeting where Bianca presented a concept for Snow White and dialogue were obtained from a story-meeting transcript from January 25, 1937, Bianca’s letters, and interviews with her friends.
A recollection of Bianca’s disastrous story meeting and the quote that starts “This is why we can’t use women” can be found in Didier Ghez, ed., Walt’s People, vol. 9, Talking Disney with the Artists Who Knew Him (Bloomington, IN: Theme Park Press, 2011).
Background on Walt Disney’s history, including his service in the American Red Cross ambulance corps, is described in Neal Gabler, Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination (New York: Random House, 2006).
Background on the 1929 stock-market crash as perceived by those at the J. C. Penney offices in New York City was obtained in author interviews with former employees and their families.
A description of the first Mickey Mouse cartoon to synchronize sound can be found in Dave Smith, “Steamboat Willie,” Film Preservation Board, Library of Congress.
Thomas Edison said, “Americans prefer silent drama,” in Film Daily, March 4, 1927.
A description of how sound was incorporated into film can be found in Scott Eyman, The Speed of Sound: Hollywood and the Talkie Revolution, 1926–1930 (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997), and Tomlinson Holman, Sound for Film and Television (Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2010).
The history and technique of the click track are described in Mervyn Cooke, ed., The Hollywood Film Music Reader (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010).
The financial challenges Walt Disney faced in his early years and the sale of his 1926 Moon Roadster are chronicled in Timothy S. Susanin, Walt Before Mickey: Disney’s Early Years, 1919–1928 (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2011). Letters between Bianca Majolie and Walt Disney have been published in Ghez, They Drew As They Pleased, vol. 1.
Salary information was obtained from employee records housed at the John Canemaker Animation Collection in the Fales Library and Special Collections at New York University’s Elmer Holmes Bobst Library.
The origin of the Disney life-drawing class can be found in Michael Barrier, The Animated Man: A Life of Walt Disney (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007).
Information about the development and production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs can be found in J. B. Kaufman, The Fairest One of All: The Making of Walt Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (San Francisco: Walt Disney Family Foundation Press, 2012).
The origins of storyboarding can be found in Chris Pallant and Steven Price, Storyboarding: A Critical History (Berlin: Springer, 2015).
A history of how jobs were defined by gender in the 1930s as well as examples of rejection letters sent by the Walt Disney Studios can be found in Sandra Opdycke, The WPA: Creating Jobs and Hope in the Great Depression (Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2016).
Chapter 2: Whistle While You Work
Information about the early days of the studio when it was located at 2719 Hyperion Avenue can be found in Bob Thomas, Walt Disney: An American Original (Glendale, CA: Disney Editions, 1994).
The advertisement “Walt Disney Wants Artists” appeared in the April 1936 issue of Popular Mechanics. The ad brou
ght in many talented artists, including several members of Walt’s Nine Old Men.
Bianca’s early research for Bambi is documented in her correspondence at the time as well as subsequent interviews. Background can be found in John Canemaker, Before the Animation Begins: The Art and Lives of Disney Inspirational Sketch Artists (New York: Hyperion, 1996).
More information on Felix Salten’s work and its significance can be found in Paul Reitter, Bambi’s Jewish Roots and Other Essays on German-Jewish Culture (New York: Bloomsbury, 2015).
“Will they ever stop persecuting us?” is one translation of Salten’s text. It is sometimes translated as “Will they ever stop hunting us?” and follows a discussion of human cruelty and power. The theme of cultural assimilation in Bambi is further expounded upon in Paul Reitter, “The Unlikely Kinship of Bambi and Kafka’s Metamorphosis,” The New Yorker, December 28, 2017.
Hal Horne and his “gag file” is described in Daniel Wickberg, The Senses of Humor: Self and Laughter in Modern America (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2015).
Dorothy Ann Blank’s story can be found in Didier Ghez, They Drew As They Pleased, vol. 1, The Hidden Art of Disney’s Golden Age: The 1930s (New York: Hyperion, 2015), and Chris Pallant and Steven Price, Storyboarding: A Critical History (Berlin: Springer, 2015).
A history of the multiplane camera and its development can be found in Whitney Grace, Lotte Reiniger: Pioneer of Film Animation (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2017).
The remarkable contributions of Ub Iwerks have been documented in Leslie Iwerks and John Kenworthy, The Hand Behind the Mouse (Glendale, CA: Disney Editions, 2001).
The glamorous premiere of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is described in J. B. Kaufman, The Fairest One of All: The Making of Walt Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (San Francisco: Walt Disney Family Foundation Press, 2012).
Chapter 3: When You Wish Upon a Star
Discontent concerning on-screen credit among studio employees is documented in Todd James Pierce, The Life and Times of Ward Kimball: Maverick of Disney Animation (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2019), and Tom Sito, Drawing the Line: The Untold Story of the Animation Unions from Bosko to Bart Simpson (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2006).
A history of Los Angeles in the 1930s and of its booming 1923 supply of crude oil can be found in the Federal Writers Project of the Works Progress Administration, Los Angeles in the 1930s: The WPA Guide to the City of Angels (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011).
More information about the excavation of King Tutankhamen and subsequent Tut-mania can be found in Ronald H. Fritze, Egyptomania: A History of Fascination, Obsession and Fantasy (London: Reaktion Books, 2016).
The European illustrators who inspired artists at Walt Disney Studios are detailed in Bruno Girveau, ed., Once Upon a Time: Walt Disney: The Sources of Inspiration for the Disney Studios (Munich: Prestel, 2007).
Analysis of the Pinocchio text can be found in Clancy Martin, “What the Original Pinocchio Says About Lying,” The New Yorker, February 6, 2015.
Arnold Gillespie’s history at MGM is chronicled in A. Arnold Gillespie, The Wizard of MGM: Memoirs of A. Arnold Gillespie (Albany, GA: BearManor Media, 2012).
Visual effects for Pinocchio are described in J. B. Kaufman, Pinocchio: The Making of the Disney Epic (San Francisco: Walt Disney Family Foundation Press, 2015).
Techniques used by the Ink and Paint department for Pinocchio are described in Mindy Johnson, Ink & Paint: The Women of Walt Disney’s Animation (Glendale, CA: Disney Editions, 2017).
A history of Mickey Mouse merchandise can be found in Alan Bryman, The Disneyization of Society (London: Sage Publications, 2004).
Walt Disney’s down payment on fifty-one acres in Burbank is described in Erin K. Schonauer and Jamie C. Schonauer, Early Burbank (Mount Pleasant, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2014).
A history of penicillin can be found in Eric Lax, The Mold in Dr. Florey’s Coat: The Story of the Penicillin Miracle (Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan, 2004).
Dialogue for Grace and her colleagues was obtained from the story-meeting transcript of January 19, 1939.
Barbara Wirth Baldwin’s role in airbrushing at the studio is documented in Johnson, Ink & Paint.
Chapter 4: Waltz of the Flowers
The quote that starts “This is not the cartoon medium” was said by Walt Disney at a story meeting for the concert feature on December 8, 1938, as obtained from the transcript.
Walt Disney’s legendary meeting with Leopold Stokowski and their subsequent collaboration to advance Fantasound are documented in Tomlinson Holman, Surround Sound: Up and Running (Abingdon, UK: Taylor and Francis, 2008).
A recounting of Stravinsky’s history with Walt Disney and his quote “an unresisting imbecility” can be found in Daniel Albright, Stravinsky: The Music Box and the Nightingale (Abingdon, UK: Taylor and Francis, 1989).
Collaborations between the composer and choreographer are explored in Charles M. Joseph, Stravinsky and Balanchine: A Journey of Invention (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008).
George Balanchine’s early life is described in Robert Gottlieb, George Balanchine: The Ballet Maker (New York: HarperCollins, 2010).
The U.S. premiere of the unabridged ballet of The Nutcracker took place on December 24, 1944, and was performed by the San Francisco Ballet. A history of the ballet’s performances in the United States can be found in Sarah Begley and Julia Lull, “How The Nutcracker Colonized American Ballet,” Time, December 24, 2014.
Details on the development of Fantasound can be found in Mark Kerins, Beyond Dolby (Stereo): Cinema in the Digital Sound Age (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2010).
Constraints placed by the Hays Code are described in Thomas Doherty, Hollywood’s Censor: Joseph I. Breen and the Production Code Administration (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009).
Discussion of Sunflower’s character in Fantasia can be found in Johnson Cheu, Diversity in Disney Films: Critical Essays on Race, Ethnicity, Gender, Sexuality, and Disability (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2013).
Dialogue for the development of Sunflower’s character is from a transcript of a story meeting that took place on October 17, 1938.
Sylvia’s concepts for the Pastoral Symphony were obtained from her sketches and notes made during this period.
Information on the negotiations between the NAACP and Hollywood studio executives is from “Better Breaks for Negroes in Hollywood,” Variety, March 25, 1942.
“The only unsatisfactory part of the picture” quote is from Pare Lorentz, “Review of Fantasia,” McCall’s, February 1941.
The Pastoral Symphony is called “Fantasia’s nadir” in John Culhane, Walt Disney’s “Fantasia” (New York: Abradale Press, 1983).
Hattie Noel’s participation in modeling for the “Dance of the Hours” sequence is documented in Mindy Aloff, Hippo in a Tutu: Dancing in Disney Animation (Glendale, CA: Disney Editions, 2008). Subsequent comments made at her expense come from Lee Blair’s correspondence.
Information on story meetings for The Nutcracker Suite was obtained from story-meeting transcripts of 1938.
The quote “It’s like something you see with your eyes half closed” is attributed to Walt Disney in Neal Gabler, Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination (New York: Random House, 2006).
Herman Schultheis’s images from their trip to the Idyllwild Nature Center, along with the technical specifications of how stop-motion snowflakes and dewdrops were created for Fantasia, can be found in John Canemaker, The Lost Notebook: Herman Schultheis and the Secrets of Walt Disney’s Movie Magic (San Francisco: Walt Disney Family Foundation Press, 2014).
The BLB mask was designed in 1938 and introduced to the medical community in W. I. Card et al., “The B.L.B. Mask for Administering Oxygen,” Lancet 235, no. 6079 (1940).
Grace’s first altitude record was reported in “Woman Flyer Sets Altitude Record,” Los Angeles Times, August 1, 1939.
B
iographical information for Gyo Fujikawa obtained from interviews conducted by John Canemaker on October 27, 1994, used by permission; Edwin McDowell, “Gyo Fujikawa, Creator of Children’s Books,” New York Times, December 7, 1998; and Elaine Woo, “Children’s Author Dared to Depict Multiracial World,” Los Angeles Times, December 13, 1998.
One hundred feet of animation garnered on-screen credit at the Walt Disney Studio from its early days until the 1980s according to J. B. Kaufman, “Before Snow White,” Film History 5, no. 2 (1993).
Oskar Fischinger’s papers and works are currently held at the Center for Visual Music in Los Angeles. His history is recounted in William Moritz, “Fischinger at Disney,” Millimeter 5, no. 2 (1977). The incident of a swastika pinned to his door while working at the studio is recounted in William Moritz, Optical Poetry: The Life and Work of Oskar Fischinger (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004).
The Soviet-Japanese border conflicts of the late 1930s are further explained in Stuart Goldman, Nomonhan, 1939: The Red Army’s Victory That Shaped World War II (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2012).
Elias Disney’s conversation with his son about uses for the studio is recounted in Sarah Kimmorley, “Why Walt Disney’s Animation Studio Is Nicknamed ‘the Hospital,’” Business Insider, August 24, 2017.
The popularity of Mickey Mouse across Europe during the 1930s and ’40s is described by Richard J. Evans, The Third Reich in Power (New York: Penguin, 2006); Carten Laqua, Mickey Mouse, Hitler, and Nazi Germany: How Disney’s Characters Conquered the Third Reich (New Castle, PA: Hermes Press, 2009); and Robin Allan, Walt Disney and Europe: European Influences on the Animated Feature Films of Walt Disney (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999).
Walt Disney’s announcement of a million-dollar cut in expenses is recounted in Gabler, Walt Disney.
The production budget and returns for Pinocchio are reported at boxofficemojo.com and the-numbers.com.
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