Michael Barrier The Animated Man, A Life of Walt Disney (2007)(2)

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.18 They hired a cartoonist, Rollin Hamilton, who at twenty-five wasthree years Walt s senior, on February 11.That same month, they moved tolarger quarters, a storefront next door at 4649 Kingswell.Now they had aplate-glass window on which to emblazon Disney Bros.Studio. The Dis-neys shared one large room with their employees; a smaller room housed theanimation camera stand.19In May 1924, Ub Iwerks wrote to Disney telling him he was ready to leavehis Film Ad job a second time and join the Disney sta� as an animator.Dis-42 a cute i deaney was delighted, and he encouraged Iwerks to come to Los Angeles asquickly as possible ( I wouldn t live in K.C.now if you gave me the place ).20With Iwerks on his sta�, Disney could finally cut back on the live action inhis films, first making it a true framing device short segments before andafter the animation and then getting rid of it altogether, except for in-creasingly brief appearances by Alice.Iwerks was now a more accomplishedanimator than Disney himself, and his technical skills were immediately use-ful, too.The Disneys camera had to be hand-cranked to shoot the anima-tion frame by frame, but Iwerks converted it to a motor drive, so that eachframe could be photographed by pressing a telegraph key.He also drew theposters and lettered the titles and intertitles (the title cards in the body of thefilm) for the Alice Comedies.21While their business was getting under way, the Disney brothers lived to-gether nearby for more than a year. First, Roy said in 1968, we had just asingle room in a house this was across the street from Uncle Robert at 4409Kingswell, the home of Charles and Nettie Schneider, where the brothersprobably moved in the fall of 1923 around the time they started their com-pany.Later, Roy said, we got an apartment the address is unknown and I used to go home in the afternoon and take a sleep because I was con-valescing. Roy returned to the studio for a couple of hours before going homeagain to prepare dinner.One night Walt just walked out on my meal, Roy said, and I said, Okay,to hell with you.If you don t like my cooking let s quit this business. So Iwrote my girl in Kansas City Edna Francis, to whom he had been moreor less engaged since before he entered the navy and suggested she comeout and we get married, which she did, and she and I were married on April11, 1925.So that left Walt alone.So apparently he didn t like living alone, eventhough he didn t like my cooking. 22 Shortly afterward, Walt Disney pro-posed to Lillian Bounds, and she accepted.Lillian Marie Bounds was from Idaho, where her father had worked as ablacksmith.She had followed her older sister Hazel Sewell to Los Angelesand taken a job at the Disney studio soon after she arrived.The studio wasclose to her sister s home, and she could walk to work.She was a slender,dark-haired girl, a head shorter than her boss and future husband.He stoodaround five feet, ten inches, and his slicked-back hair was light brown.Dis-ney was slender himself then, so much so that in photos from the time hisfeatures seem sharper and his nose more prominent than in later years.Disney s wardrobe was extremely limited when she first knew him, Lil-lian said. He didn t even have a suit. 23 He wore a tan gabardine raincoat,the s elf- taught fi lmmaker, 1 923 1 928 43a brownish gray cardigan, and a pair of black-and-white checked pants.Hedid not own a car, either, until sometime after Lillian was hired. We used to work nights, Lillian told Richard Hubler in 1968. By thattime he had a Ford roadster with one seat and an open back.He used to takeus home after work.He took the other girl home first.When he got to mysister s he was embarrassed to stop in front of the house.One night he askedme, If I get a suit can I come and see you? The Disney brothers both boughtsuits at the same time, but Walt s had two pairs of pants to Roy s one. Waltalways got the best, Lillian said.24 He just had no inhibitions, Lillian said of Walt. He was completelynatural.He was fun.Even if he didn t have a nickel.We would go tosee a picture show or take a drive Disney had graduated to a Moon road-ster by then. We would drive up to Santa Barbara sometimes. On theirdates, she said, He was always talking about what he was going to do.Healways wanted to do the talking. 25Although Disney was making films that were seen throughout the nation,he was well short of being any sort of celebrity.26 An article about her mar-riage, ghostwritten from Lillian Disney s point of view, was published inMcCall s almost thirty years later.Although bearing a title I Live with aGenius that inspires skepticism, the article is persuasive in many of its de-tails, as in this account:The first time Walt ever saw one of his cartoon shorts in a theater was [in 1925],just before we were married.My sister and I were visiting a friend that night,so Walt decided to go to the movies.A cartoon short by a competitor was ad-vertised outside, but suddenly, as he sat in the darkened theater, his own pic-ture came on.Walt was so excited he rushed down to the manager s office.Themanager, misunderstanding, began to apologize for not showing the adver-tised film.Walt hurried over to my sister s house to break his exciting news,but we weren t home yet.Then he tried to find Roy, but he was out too.Fi-nally, he went home alone.27Disney was not a prepossessing figure financially or otherwise in 1924 and1925, and he was still very young.He was twenty-three when he and Lillianmarried, almost three years younger than his wife.The mustache he addedby the spring of 1925 (he is wearing it in home movies from Roy s wedding)may have been in part a means of closing that gap, although Lillian said manyyears later that he had grown it when he and members of his sta� made abet.They all grew mustaches.Walt wanted to shave it o� later, but we didn tlet him. 2844 a cute i deaDisney s optimism and charm were sufficient to overcome any reserva-tions Lillian may have felt. He said he married me because he got so far indebt to me, Lillian said in 1956. He d come around and say, Hold yourcheck, again..Roy would tell him, Now don t let Lilly cash her checks. 29As evidenced by Roy Disney s account book, it was very common during thisperiod for members of the animation sta� to take salary advances [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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