While in high school, Les Clark worked a summer job at a lunch counter near the Walt Disney Studio in Hollywood. Walt and Roy Disney used to eat there, and, one day, Les got up the courage to ask Walt for a job. He recalled Walt’s reply, “‘Bring some of your drawings in and let’s see …
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John Lounsbery had his own special way of looking at things, according to fellow animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston. In their book, Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life, they wrote that no matter how bad a situation might be, John could always make “some funny observation to lighten the situation.” And while shy by …
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Animator Frank Thomas instilled vivid personality into his characters. He drew some of Disney animation’s most memorable, as well as touching, moments, including the Dwarfs crying at Snow White’s bier, Bambi and Thumper learning how to ice skate, and the charming spaghetti-eating sequence in Lady and the Tramp. To Frank, personality was always the key …
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Toward the end of his enduring career at The Walt Disney Studios, animator Eric Larson became a gentle and devoted mentor to the next generation of up-and-coming Disney artists. Former student Andreas Deja, who animated such Disney characters as Jafar from Aladdin and Scar in The Lion King, remembered Eric as “the best animation teacher …
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“Fred MacMurray,” director Billy Wilder once said, “gives people the feeling that he’s kind to dogs, children, mothers and widows.”
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D23 dips into the Disney twenty-three magazine archives for this touching story on Annette Funicello’s relationship with her devoted husband, Glen.
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With the help of his son Brian and colleague Steve Whitmire, this article from Disney twenty-three
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Read more stories about Walt Disney here. During a 43-year Hollywood career, which spanned the development of the motion picture medium as a modern American art, Walter Elias Disney, a modern Aesop, established himself and his product as a genuine part of Americana. David Low, the late British political cartoonist, called Disney “the most significant …
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Walt Disney arrived in California in the summer of 1923 with a lot of hopes but little else. He had made a cartoon in Kansas City about a little girl in a cartoon world, called Alice’s Wonderland, and he decided that he could use it as his “pilot” film to sell a series of these “Alice …
See moreTry to think of a company that looks to its past more than The Walt Disney Company. From Mickey Mouse to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, characters and stories introduced decades ago continue to be celebrated in brand-new films, television programs, merchandise items and theme park experiences. Recognizing the unique and enduring creative legacy started …
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