“The dialect for Uncle Remus” quote is in “Committee for Unity Protests Disney’s Uncle Remus Cartoon,” California Eagle, August 24, 1944.
The quote about “lily-white propaganda” is in “Needed: A Negro Legion of Decency,” Ebony, February 1947.
Bosley Crowther, “Spanking Disney,” New York Times, December 8, 1946.
Bob Iger’s comments about Song of the South were made at a shareholders’ meeting in San Antonio, Texas, in 2010 as reported by Paul Bond, “Iger Keeps Options Open for ABC,” Adweek, March 11, 2010.
Whoopi Goldberg’s quotes concerning Song of the South were obtained from Kevin Polowy, “Whoopi Goldberg Wants Disney to Bring Back ‘Song of the South’ to Start Conversation About Controversial 1946 Film,” Yahoo Entertainment, July 15, 2017.
Walt is quoted and the atmosphere is described in transcripts of story meetings for Song of the South from July 20, 1944; August 8, 1944; and August 24, 1944.
Mary Blair’s work titled Sick Call can be seen in John Canemaker, Magic Color Flair: The World of Mary Blair (San Francisco: Walt Disney Family Foundation Press, 2014).
Frank Braxton’s history is recounted in Tom Sito, Drawing the Line: The Untold Story of the Animation Unions from Bosko to Bart Simpson (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2006).
Chapter 10: So This Is Love
The 1946 layoffs are described in Michael Barrier, The Animated Man: A Life of Walt Disney (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007).
A history of American television can be found in James Baughman, Same Time, Same Station: Creating American Television, 1948–1961 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007). While the number of television sets in the United States rose to three million in 1950, this still represented a small proportion of total households, likely around 2 percent.
The percentage of women planning to continue work following 1945 was reported by the Department of Labor, Women’s Bureau, Women Workers in Ten War Production Areas and Their Postwar Employment Plans, Bulletin 209 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946).
An overview of midcentury-modern design can be found in Dominic Bradbury, Mid-Century Modern Complete (New York: Abrams, 2014).
Mary Blair’s concept art for Cinderella can be seen in John Canemaker, The Art and Flair of Mary Blair: An Appreciation (Glendale, CA: Disney Editions, 2014).
A discussion of Dior’s influence on the fashion of Cinderella can be found in Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell, “Cinderella: The Ultimate (Postwar) Makeover Story,” The Atlantic, March 9, 2015, and Emanuele Lugli, “Tear That Dress Off: Cinderella (1950) and Disney’s Critique of Postwar Fashion,” Bright Lights Film Journal, February 15, 2018.
For Iwao Takamoto’s history, see Iwao Takamoto with Michael Mallory, Iwao Takamoto: My Life with a Thousand Characters (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2009), and Susan Stewart, “Iwao Takamoto, 81, the Animation Artist Who Created Scooby-Doo, Dies,” New York Times, January 10, 2007.
Walt said, “This is it. We’re in a bad way,” according to “Recollections of Richard Huemer Oral History Transcript,” University of California, Los Angeles, Oral History Program (1969).
Thelma Witmer’s background is discussed in Mindy Johnson, Ink & Paint: The Women of Walt Disney’s Animation (Glendale, CA: Disney Editions, 2017).
Marc Davis’s history at the studio can be found in Disney Book Group, Marc Davis: Walt Disney’s Renaissance Man (Glendale, CA: Disney Editions, 2014). Davis described his early employment and being mistaken for a woman in Rick West, “Walt Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean,” Theme Park Adventure Magazine, 1998.
Chapter 11: In a World of My Own
For a history of Alice in Wonderland at the studio, see Mark Salisbury, Walt Disney’s “Alice in Wonderland”: An Illustrated Journey Through Time (Glendale, CA: Disney Editions, 2016).
Aldous Huxley’s participation in Alice in Wonderland is discussed in Steffie Nelson, “Brave New LA: Aldous Huxley in Los Angeles,” Los Angeles Review of Books, November 22, 2013.
Reviews of Cinderella in Mae Tinee, “Children Find Cinderella Is a Dream Film,” Chicago Tribune, February 24, 1950, and “Cinderella,” Variety, December 31, 1949.
Cinderella was the sixth-highest-grossing movie of 1950, as reported in “Top-Grosses of 1950,” Variety, January 8, 1951.
Retta’s illustrations for Cinderella can be found in Jane Werner Watson and Retta Scott Worcester, Walt Disney’s “Cinderella” (New York: Golden Books, 1949).
The success of Cinderella’s RCA recordings is described in James Bohn, Music in Disney’s Animated Features: “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” to “The Jungle Book” (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2017).
Mary Blair’s concept art for Alice in Wonderland can be found in John Canemaker, The Art and Flair of Mary Blair: An Appreciation (Glendale, CA: Disney Editions, 2014).
Kathryn Beaumont explained what it was like to film live-action sequences for Alice in Wonderland and her excitement about the film’s premiere in Susan King, “Alice in Wonderland: Sixty Years Later, Former Disney Child Star Looks Back,” Los Angeles Times, February 18, 2011.
A history of the television series Disneyland/The Wonderful World of Color can be found in J. P. Telotte, Disney TV (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2004).
The development of Disneyland is chronicled in Neal Gabler, Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination (New York: Random House, 2006). Walt Disney’s dissatisfaction with Alice in Wonderland and his description of the film as a “terrible disappointment” are recorded in Richard Schickel, The Disney Version: The Life, Times, Art, and Commerce of Walt Disney (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985).
Chapter 12: You Can Fly!
Patterns of divorce rates after World War II are discussed in Jessica Weiss, To Have and to Hold: Marriage, the Baby Boom, and Social Change (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000).
Project Whirlwind is described in Kent C. Redmond and Thomas M. Smith, From Whirlwind to MITRE: The R&D Story of the SAGE Air Defense Computer (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000).
Peter Pan was first performed onstage in London in 1904 and later adapted into a book by the author; see J. M. Barrie, Peter and Wendy (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1911). The character Peter Pan was introduced in J. M. Barrie, The White Bird (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1902).
The quote from Dorothy Ann Blank about Tinker Bell being a “surefire sensation” is in Mindy Johnson, Tinker Bell: An Evolution (Glendale, CA: Disney Editions, 2013).
Walt’s quote that “Bianca has been working” is from a story-meeting transcript from May 20, 1940.
Mary Blair’s concept art for Peter Pan can be found in John Canemaker, The Art and Flair of Mary Blair: An Appreciation (Glendale, CA: Disney Editions, 2014).
Retta Scott’s sketches for On the Trail can be seen in Didier Ghez, They Drew As They Pleased, vol. 2, The Hidden Art of Disney’s Musical Years: The 1940s—Part One (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2016). The book she used for reference is Hopi Katcinas Drawn by Native Artists (Washington, DC: U.S. Bureau of American Ethnology, 1903).
The stereotypes in Peter Pan are analyzed in Angel Aleiss, Making the White Man’s Indian: Native Americans and Hollywood Movies (Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing, 2005).
Description of racial caricatures in Peter Pan can be found in Sarah Laskow, “The Racist History of Peter Pan’s Indian Tribe,” Smithsonian, December 2, 2014.
Eyvind Earle’s early experiences at the studio are recounted in Eyvind Earle, Horizon Bound on a Bicycle (Los Angeles: Earle and Bane, 1991).
Marc Davis’s role in developing Tinker Bell is described in Johnson, Tinker Bell.
“But why does she have to be so naughty?” was said in a story meeting on May 20, 1940.
The role of Ginni Mack in posing for Peter Pan and Carmen Sanderson’s use of Asian ox bile is explained in Mindy Johnson, Ink & Paint: The Women of Walt Disney’s Animation (Glendale, CA: Disney Editions, 2017).
The early vision for Disneyland was described in story-meeting transcripts and correspondence from 1948 to 1955. The name Disneyland was attached to the project in 1952 according to Neal Gabler, Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination (New York: Random House, 2006).
Chapter 13: Once Upon a Dream
A history of wide-screen cinema can be found in Harper Cossar, Letterboxed: The Evolution of Widescreen Cinema (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2011).
“Imagine Lauren Bacall on a couch” is documented in Charles Barr, “CinemaScope: Before and After,” Film Quarterly 16, no. 4 (1963).
The colors of Peter Pan were praised before the critic called Tinker Bell a “vulgarity”; see Bosley Crowther, “The Screen: Disney’s Peter Pan Bows,” New York Times, February 12, 1953.
Thelma Witmer’s backgrounds for Peter Pan were specifically praised by Mae Tinee, “Disney’s Peter Pan Tailored for the Modern Generation,” Chicago Tribune, February 5, 1953.
Peter Pan’s four-million-dollar production budget was reported in boxofficemojo.com and the-numbers.com.
The difference between Disney and United Productions of America styles is explained in Adam Abraham, When Magoo Flew: The Rise and Fall of Animation Studio UPA (Middleton, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2012). Most artists at the Walt Disney Studios, including Mary Blair, were not interested in the UPA style.
“Produce better pictures at a lower cost” is in Neal Gabler, Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination (New York: Random House, 2006).
Historical analysis of the fairy-tale legend can be found in Tim Scholl, Sleeping Beauty: A Legend in Progress (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004).
A description of the 1946 premiere of Sleeping Beauty in London can be found in Jennifer Homans, Apollo’s Angels: A History of Ballet (New York: Random House, 2010), and Anna Kisselgoff, “Sleeping Beauty—The Crown Jewel of Ballet,” New York Times, June 13, 1976.
The establishment of WED Enterprises and the creation of Disneyland are told in Martin Sklar, Dream It! Do It! My Half-Century Creating Disney’s Magic Kingdoms (Glendale, CA: Disney Editions, 2013).
The ABC television series is described in J. P. Telotte, Disney TV (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2004).
Walt’s letter to his sister, Ruth, was written on December 2, 1954, and is archived in the John Canemaker Animation Collection in the Fales Library and Special Collections at New York University’s Elmer Holmes Bobst Library.
Biographical information for Alice Davis obtained from author interviews, interviews recorded by Maggie Richardson and John Canemaker, and correspondence used with their permission.
Eyvind Earle’s influences for Sleeping Beauty and the quote starting “On top of all that” are from Eyvind Earle, Horizon Bound on a Bicycle (Los Angeles: Earle and Bane, 1991).
Quota systems for the number of required drawings a day are described in John Canemaker, Walt Disney’s Nine Old Men and the Art of Animation (Glendale, CA: Disney Editions, 2001).
Biographical information for Elizabeth Case Zwicker obtained from interviews with her family, former coworkers, and previously conducted interviews with the artist made available by her estate.
Chapter 14: Dalmatian Plantation
Biographical information for Elizabeth Case Zwicker obtained from interviews with her family, former coworkers, and previously conducted interviews with the artist made available by her estate.
Introduction of Xerox machines in the studio is explained in Michael Barrier, Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003). Changes necessitated by Xerox are described in Floyd Norman, Animated Life: A Lifetime of Tips, Tricks, Techniques and Stories from a Disney Legend (Abingdon, UK: Taylor and Francis, 2013).
Ub Iwerks’s involvement in bringing Xerox to the studio is recounted in Karen Paik and Leslie Iwerks, To Infinity and Beyond!: The Story of Pixar Animation (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2007).
The expense and financial loss of Sleeping Beauty are reported in Barrier, Hollywood Cartoons.
Roy Disney urging Walt to consider shutting down the animation department is reported in Haleigh Foutch, “How ‘101 Dalmatians’ and a Xerox Machine Saved Disney Animation,” Business Insider, February 13, 2015.
Sylvia Roemer and Sammie June Lanham are mentioned in Mindy Johnson, Ink & Paint: The Women of Walt Disney’s Animation (Glendale, CA: Disney Editions, 2017).
Dodie Smith, The Hundred and One Dalmatians (London: Heinemann, 1956).
Biographical details concerning Dodie Smith obtained through correspondence between her and Walt Disney archived in the Fales Library and Special Collections at New York University’s Elmer Holmes Bobst Library.
Information concerning Bill Peet can be found in Bill Peet, Bill Peet: An Autobiography (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1989).
Marc Davis’s background and work at the studio are documented in Disney Book Group, Marc Davis: Walt Disney’s Renaissance Man (Glendale, CA: Disney Editions, 2014).
Earle’s quote “not Walt Disney” and Walt’s quote “Ken’s never going to be…” in John Canemaker, Before the Animation Begins: The Art and Lives of Disney Inspirational Sketch Artists (New York: Hyperion, 1996).
Biographical information for Gyo Fujikawa obtained from interviews performed by John Canemaker on October 27, 1994, used by permission.
One of Gyo’s early illustrated books was Gyo Fujikawa, A Child’s Garden of Verses (New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1957).
An appreciation of Gyo’s role in expanding diversity in children’s literature is presented in Elaine Woo, “Children’s Author Dared to Depict Multicultural World,” Los Angeles Times, December 13, 1998.
Homogeneity of children’s libraries is described in Nancy Larrick, “The All-White World of Children’s Books,” Saturday Review, September 11, 1965.
The book containing controversial images of multicultural infants is Gyo Fujikawa, Babies (New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1963).
Reviews of One Hundred and One Dalmatians cited are in “Cinema: Pupcorn,” Time, February 17, 1961, and “One Hundred and One Dalmatians,” Variety, December 31, 1960.
The economic impact of One Hundred and One Dalmatians is recounted in Neal Gabler, Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination (New York: Random House, 2006).
Chapter 15: It’s a Small World
Rolly Crump biographical information obtained from interviews conducted with John Canemaker and Maggie Richardson, and from his autobiography, Rolly Crump, It’s Kind of a Cute Story (Baltimore: Bamboo Forest Publishing, 2012).
A brief history of audio-animatronics can be found in Matt Blitz, “The A1000 Is Disney’s Advanced Animatronic Bringing Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge to Life,” Popular Mechanics, February 28, 2019.
The difficulty Walt Disney faced in obtaining the rights to P. L. Travers’s books is recounted in Valerie Lawson, Mary Poppins, She Wrote: The Life of P. L. Travers (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2013).
Petro Vlahos’s history is remembered in Anita Gates, “Petro Vlahos, Special-Effects Innovator, Dies at 96,” New York Times, February 19, 2013.
Sodium-vapor lights and green-screen technology are expanded on in Jeff Foster, The Green Screen Handbook: Real-World Production Techniques (Indianapolis, IN: Wiley Publishing, 2010).
The quotes “Dear Walt, Don’t be frightened by the size of the enclosed letter…” and “I beg, beg, BEG you to give her a more sympathetic, more Edwardian name…” are from a 1963 letter from P. L. Travers to Walt Disney housed in the Fales Library and Special Collections at New York University’s Elmer Holmes Bobst Library. Background on Julie Andrews can be found in Richard Stirling, Julie Andrews: An Intimate Biography (New York: St. Martin’s Press,
2008).
Julie Andrews recalls Walt saying, “We’ll wait for you,” in Andrea Mandell, “Julie Andrews and Emily Blunt were both new moms making Mary Poppins,” USA Today, November 30, 2018.
Footage from the premiere of Mary Poppins and the short film The CalArts Story can be seen in the bonus materials in the fiftieth-anniversary edition of Mary Poppins, released on December 10, 2013.
Walt is quoted as saying, “CalArts is the principal thing…” on the CalArts website, calarts.edu.
“Disney has gone all-out in his dream-world rendition” appears in “Mary Poppins,” Variety, December 31, 1963.
Revenue from Mary Poppins and comparison to other features’ obtained from boxofficemojo.com and the-numbers.com.
Protests that occurred during the 1964–1965 World’s Fair are described in Joseph Tirella, Tomorrow-Land: The 1964–65 World’s Fair and the Transformation of America (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2013).
Sketchpad was first described in Ivan Sutherland, “Sketchpad: A Man-Machine Graphical Communication System” (PhD dissertation, MIT, 1963).
A history of Ivan Sutherland and Sketchpad can be found in Tom Sito, Moving Innovation: A History of Computer Animation (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2013).
Walt’s passing is recounted in Neal Gabler, Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination (New York: Random House, 2006).
Chapter 16: Up, Down, Touch the Ground
Biographical information for Heidi Guedel obtained from interviews with coworkers and her autobiography, Heidi Guedel, Animatrix—A Female Animator: How Laughter Saved My Life (Bloomington, IN: iUniverse, 2013).
Biographical information for Edwin Catmull obtained from Edwin Catmull and Amy Wallace, Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration (New York: Random House, 2014), and Karen Paik and Leslie Iwerks, To Infinity and Beyond!: The Story of Pixar Animation (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2007).
The 1972 video “A Computer Animated Hand” can be found online at https://boingboing.net/2015/08/05/watch-breakthrough-computer-an .html.
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