Ub Iwerks came to Hollywood in 1924 and joined Walt Disney at his upstart studio, working quickly and efficiently on the “Alice Comedies.” Although his drawings were simpler than the work of today’s animator—who can create 80-100 drawings a week—Iwerks was renowned for dashing out as many as 700 drawings a day! The future two-time …
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Walt Disney’s older brother Roy was born on this day in 1893. He was not only a co-founder of the Disney company in 1923, but the financial genius behind it. When former Chief Disney Archivist Dave Smith was asked about his favorite memories working at the Company, he recalled, “I think some of my favorite …
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A goofy man by the name of Vance DeBar “Pinto” Colvig was born on this day in 1892 in Jacksonville, Oregon. A master of sound effects, Pinto appeared in a number of Disney animated films and shorts, providing sounds for spitting grasshoppers, belching bugs, and grunting hogs amongst other things, but today he is best …
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On this day in 1890, Raymond Disney was born to Elias and Flora Disney. Raymond was the second of four boys and one daughter. Brother Walt would not be born for another 13 years. Kaye Malins, who currently lives in the Disney house in Marceline, Missouri, recently told us more about Raymond. “Most what I know about …
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Walt Disney found much inspiration from his boyhood home of Marceline, Missouri, which was founded on this day in 1888. To learn more about the occasion, we turned to Kaye Malins, affectionately known as the Queen of Marceline, who currently resides in Walt’s boyhood house. Kaye told us, “In 1885, officials of the Atchison Topeka …
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Long before Flora was a character in Disney’s Sleeping Beauty, the name had special meaning to the Disney family. After all, Flora was the name of Walt Disney’s mother. Flora Call was born in Steuben, Ohio, and on New Year’s Day 1888, she married Elias Disney. Together they had five children: Herbert Arthur, Raymond Arnold, …
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A happy event happened on this day in 1865, when Otis Harlan was born in Zanesville, Ohio. Although he would go on to provide the voice of Happy in the 1937 animated feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, he already had a long successful acting career by that time. Otis began his theatrical career …
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On this day, Walt Disney’s father, Elias Disney was born in Bluevale, Ontario, Canada to Kepple and Mary Disney. Throughout his life, Elias dabbled in a variety of careers, usually with little success. He was a carpenter contractor in Chicago where Walt was born and later became a newspaper dealer in Kansas City, Missouri. Interestingly, …
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