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Walt’s Nine Old Men
Hey everyone, I’m Mike, and she’s Sophie, and We’re on the Road with Mickey! This is Season 2, Episode 4 for January 25, 2021, and our feature topic today is Walt’s Nine Old Men, Part 1! This week, we’re joined by friend of the show Brenda from Pixie Vacations, and we’re starting a three week look at Walt’s Nine Old Men! Grab a drink, relax, and join us as we talk about all the things that we came up with! Here’s our rundown of what we talked about:
- Cheddar from the Big Cheese
- Mike: Disneyland Paris announced that they will stay closed until April 2, 2021.
- Sophie: Coming to Disney+ starting on Friday, February 19: All 5 seasons of the original The Muppet Show!
- Sophie: Good news! Bob Iger and his wife, Willow Bay, are donating $5 Million dollars to small businesses in Los Angeles!
- Mike: Last Wednesday the Hall of Presidents closed for refurbishment as they add President Biden into the attraction. There is no word as of yet for when it will reopen.
- Sophie: Exciting news out of Disney’s Animal Kingdom Park! Coming this summer: The Return of Festival of the Lion King!
- Connect with us! Here’s how:
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- Email: info@ontheroadwithmickey.com
- Phone Voicemail: 919-799-8390
- Feature Topic: Walt’s Nine Old Men, Part 1
- Who are the Nine Old Men?
- The Nine Old Men were a core group of animators that were hired by Walt Disney. They created some of Walt Disney Studios’ most famous work — such films as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Rescuers, and many more.
- As a joke, Walt called them the Nine Old Men as a play on words for Franklin D. Roosevelt’s nine Supreme Court judges. The joke was that most of the Nine Old Men were in their 20s!
- All nine of them were named Disney Legends in 1989.
- Brenda’s First Selection: Frank Thomas
- Name: Franklin Rosborough Thomas
- Born: September 5, 1912 Birthplace: Santa Monica, CA
- Died: September 8, 2004
- College: Two years at Fresno State College where he played in the band. While there he filmed a silent film called “The Sophomore.” He also drew cartoons for the school yearbook.
- Then he finished his degree with two years at Stanford University –
- and then onto Chouinard Art Institute (met Ollie Johnston at Stanford and both went to Chouinard)
- He painted beautiful watercolor pictures and illustrations. He also produced oil paintings and portraits. His life drawings are absolutely beautiful. I suggest you Google “Breakfast and the Genius of Frank Thomas” to get a look. They are really something.
- After Chouinard, he applied at the Walt Disney Company.
- As the 6th hire of Walt’s Nine Old Men he was hired by the Walt Disney Company on September 24, 1934. His employee number was 224.
- He retired on January 31, 1978
- Animation Career
- 1st animation short – “Brave Little Tailor”
- He was known for combining artistry and sincere acting
- He and Ollie Johnston were a great team – Frank and Ollie
- Popular characters and scenes he animated:
- The dwarfs crying over Snow White’s “dead” body
- Pinocchio singing at the marionette theatre
- Bambi and Thumper on the ice
- Lady and the Tramp eating spaghetti
- The three fairies in Sleeping Beauty (Flora, Fauna and Meriwether)
- The dancing penguins in Mary Poppins
- Directing Animator for several villains:
- Lady Tremaine in Cinderella
- Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland
- Captain Hook in Peter Pan
- Other professional accomplishments:
- Co-authored with Ollie the book “Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life” THE TEXTBOOK for Animation courses still today. The book is known as “the bible” among character animators.
- Last professional work before his death in 2004 was The Incredibles. He wasn’t an animator, though, he was a voice character. You may remember the scene with the 2 old men saying “That’s old school…” (Frank) and “Yeah, no school like the old school.” (Ollie)
- Best professional advice he gave to upcoming animators? Don’t animate what the character is doing, rather what they are thinking!
- Hobbies:
- Frank was a pianist
- He was a member of the Dixieland Band and the Firehouse Five Plus Two. He played at night and did animation in the daytime.
- Family life:
- Frank’s wife was Jeannett
- He had 4 children: Ann, Gregg, Theodore, Douglas
- Frank and his family lived right next door to Ollie Johnston and his family
- Frank did reading on Astronomy. He wanted to get a better sense of the solar system so he built a solar system right in the living room.
- He helped his boys to make movies with models they had made of rockets.
- He drove a Dodge Dart GT
- He was well-loved by his family, friends, co-workers and so many who came after him in the field of animation.
- About Walt:
- Frank’s assessment of Walt played into his own philosophy of attributing emotion to his characters: “The most important thing in your life was pleasing Walt. Now that wasn’t because he was the boss or because you had any special relationship with him. He just had an air about him that you wanted to please this man! The other thing which I think was even more important was that he drew out of you what he thought—what he believed you could do. And he made you believe it.” Frank needed the audience to believe in his characters and for Walt to believe in him.
- Sophie’s First Selection: Marc Davis
- Born March 30, 1913
- Began working at Disney Studio on December 2, 1935.
- He was the 9th and last hire of the Nine Old Men
- He started as animator for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
- He was nicknamed “The Ladies Man” because of his work on many female characters.
- When asked which animated piece Walt liked the most, he said it was Cinderella’s transformation ball gown. It was Marc Davis who animated the iconic scene.
- Despite his skill with animal anatomy and caricature, it was Marc Davis and Milt Kahl who were stuck with over a decade of “difficult-to-draw” and “dull” human characters. In Davis’s own words, “Milt got stuck with the prince a lot and I got stuck with the girls.” Despite his distaste for this role, his commitment to artistic excellence never let him forget that he “still had to put personality into the characters. You had to believe the characters were alive, give a performance like an actor and make them come alive for the audience.”
- Marc Davis also used the facial structures and live references of the actors and actresses when animating characters such as Maleficent, Briar Rose, and Cruella De Vil.
- Marc Davis also designed many of the characters and animatronics that can be found in classic rides at the Disneyland Parks, including the Jungle Cruise, The Enchanted Tiki Room, and the Carousel of Progress, and many more.
- He was also a professor at Chouinard Art Institute, where he met his wife Alice Estes. They’ve been together since 1956 until his passing in 2000.
- In the same month of his passing, the Marc Fraser Davis Scholarship Fund was formally established at the California Institute of the Arts.
- Mike’s First Selection: Ward Kimball
- Born March 4, 1914
- Began work at the Disney Studio on April 2, 1934.
- He was the 4th hire of the Nine Old Men
- Ward started as an inbetweener (an artist who creates the drawings that appear in-between the extremes of an action that are drawn by an animator)
- His nickname for the Nine Old Men was “The Mad Genius”
- One of his best characters: Jiminy Cricket in Pinnochio.
- In 1948, he formed the Firehouse Five Plus Two, a Dixieland jazz band that had fellow Cast Members as the other members. Ward Kimball was a jazz trombonist. The band appeared on television shows, in movies, played live at Disneyland, and recorded a string of albums. Now get this: at one point, the record sales actually outsold Dizzy Gillespie on the jazz charts!
- Lastly, Ward was a big railroad fan. He is noted as being one of the men that helped get Walt’s passion for railroading, leading to Walt installing the Disneyland Railroad at Disneyland.
- Ward Kimball was married to his wife Betty, who worked in the ink and paint department, and they were married for 65 years. They raised 3 children and had several grandchildren and even great grandchildren. Ward passed away on July 8, 2002.
- One last note: In 2005, the Disneyland Railroad introduced it’s fifth steam locomotive — and it was appropriately named the Ward Kimball. Even better, Ward’s grandson Nate Lord is one of the Disneyland Railroad engineers, and is often seen at the helm of the Ward Kimball locomotive at Disneyland.
- Who are the Nine Old Men?
- Disney Who’s Who Character: Jiminy Cricket
- Walt Disney Quote
- Said of Ward Kimball by Walt Disney: “Ward is one man who works for me I am willing to call a genius”
- Coming Next Week: We continue our discussion on the Nine Old Men with Brenda! She’ll be talking about Ollie Johnston, Sophie will be talking about Les Clark, and I’ll be talking about Milt Kahl!
- Sponsorship
- On the Road with Mickey is sponsored by Pixie Vacations by Mike Ellis and Tech Solutions NC.
As always, thank you for listening. We are having a lot of fun talking Disney, and I’m glad you are enjoying it as well! Remember, you can reach us in many ways — first, by email to info@ontheroadwithmickey.com. Second, you can leave us a voicemail at our voicemail box 919-799-8390. You can also talk to us on our Facebook Page, On the Road with Mickey or in our On the Road with Mickey Group. Feel free to join us! Have a great week, and we’ll be back to talk with you again next week!
