Marc Davis - Disney's Nine Old Men

Marc Davis (March 30, 1913 - January 12, 2000) was the very last of the "nine old men" to join the Disney studio, December 2, 1935. As with all new recruits, he started out as an in-betweener, but his first assignment was to attend two-weeks of intensive life-drawing classes under Don Graham.

Marc Davis

By late spring of 1936, Marc was made assistant to Grim Natwick, the original animator of Betty Boop. Although Davis' background experience was more in line with drawing animals, he would soon be helping to create the star of Walt Disney's first feature.

Grim Natwick

Natwick had a team which consisted of three assistants, Davis being the principle of these, and three in-betweeners. Their sole purpose during production? Animate the Snow White character. Supervising animator Hamilton Luske also had a Snow White team, and it was not uncommon for conflicts to arise between the two heads. In a nutshell, Natwick saw the princess as being older, more mature, Luske as more childlike.

According to Michael Barrier...

As Davis became aware of the hostility between Luske and Natwick, he gradually took it upon himself to make the necessary changes in Natwick's drawings. Those changes went beyond the character's proportions to what Davis called a "kind of feeling of the character"; Natwick, he said, wanted the girl to have "a vitality," more than simple cuteness, and it was this vitality that Davis had to tame. Hollywood Cartoons, p.198

Production Drawing via Collectors Paradise Galleries

Animator and assistant worked well together. Grim would say about the help that Marc provided during Snow White, it "was like having two right arms."

"During the three and one-half years that Marc and I worked together at Disney's," wrote Natwick in 1979, "twenty months or nearly six hundred days were spent drawing Snow White herself in scene after scene for the picture that carries her name in the title." Source: John Canemaker's Nine Old Men p.274

Snow White with broom. Rendered and initialed by Davis in graphite and red pencil on a 12 field sheet of animation paper (12" x 10"). Includes Disney studio stamps. Sold in May 2007 for $597.50 (USD). Heritage Auctions...

Snow White with bird. Drawing on animation paper (9.5 x12"), lead pencil with colored pencil accents. Marc Davis initialed bottom right-hand corner. Sold in June 2008 for $747.50. Hake's Americana and Collectibles...

Snow White collage, each head has been trimmed from an original animation production sketch and mounted to another piece of paper. All drawn by Davis. Image area 7.25" x 9.5". Sold in February 2011 for $1314.50. Heritage Auctions...

Marc had fond memories of those early days at the Disney Studio when the push to learn was immense...

At one time, Walt rented a studio up in North Hollywood and every Wednesday night we would see a selection of films--anything from Chaplin to unusual subjects. Anything that might produce growth, that might be stimulating--the cutting of the scenes, the staging, how a group of scenes was put together...

Everybody here was studying constantly. we had models at the Studio and we'd go over and draw every night. We weren't making much, because the Studio didn't have much, but it was a perfect time of many things coming together into one orbit. Walt was the lodestone. Nine Old Men p.273

As Natwick's assistant, Marc had to attend the "sweatbox" projection room meetings with the directors and Walt. But "the boss" hardly knew who he was. It wasn't until Davis started doing story sketches for Bambi that Walt "got excited" about his drawings.

Davis would go on to animate key characters in many of the classic features from the 1940s and 50s including both Maleficent and Aurora in Sleeping Beauty.

Video posted by TheBunnyHD

His contributions to the Disney empire, however, weren't restricted to just the animated motion picture. His visionary work as an Imagineer is the stuff of Disneyland legend.

Marc pictured below in 1987 at a Snow White 50th anniversary celebration...

 Marc Davis and Grim Natwick photo via John Canemaker's Walt Disney's Nine Old Men and the Art of Animation, 2001.

Snow White image scans copyright Disney.

Further reading:

• Andreas Deja remembers Marc: Deja View
• Mouse Clubhouse interview
• Memories of Marc Davis at the Laughing Place
• Disney Legends: Bio
• 50 Most Influential Disney Animators: Marc Davis

Grim Natwick Poster Sketch

One of the many original Grim Natwick sketch designs created for possible use as Snow White poster art. His influence can be seen in the 1937 Gustaf Tenggren 40x60.

Grim Natwick images from personal collection. Shot at the Grim Natwick/Betty Boop Festival in his home town of Wisconsin Rapids, August 2010. Sketch is now part of the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive.

A Visit to the Grim Natwick Betty Boop Festival

Betty Boop Festival Poster

[CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE]

I attended the first annual Grim Natwick/Betty Boop Festival yesterday in Wisconsin Rapids. Natwick, the main animator of both the original Fleischer Studios' Betty Boop character and then of Disney's Snow White, was born and raised in this small central Wisconsin municipality. In honor of their most famous resident as well as Betty's 80th birthday (August 9th), the entire town threw a party. Here's what I saw...

Image (right) via Betty Boop Festival website.

A youthful Grim Natwick.

Natwick info pamphlets; Ms. Boop cardboard standups.

Natwick character design from the very first BB cartoon Dizzy Dishes (1930). Patterned after singer Helen Kane.

At the heart of the fest was the Grim Natwick artwork collection on loan from the non-profit ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archives. Also "on loan" from the Archives was its director Stephen Worth who gave talks and tours throughout the weekend.

Stephen Worth leading a discussion on the Natwick animation collection.

The story of Bimbo the dog and his new girlfriend as shared by Stephen Worth...

In 1930, Bimbo the dog was the star character at Fleischer Studios. Director Dave Fleischer asked Grim to design a girlfriend for Bimbo in the upcoming short Barnacle Bill. Natwick went to work and created the design sheet (below). When Fleischer returned, he saw that Grim had simply "retooled" the Helen Kane character from the previous short Dizzy Dishes. The director argued, 'Bimbo is a dog. Don't you think he ought to have a dog girlfriend?"

Natwick quickly drew a dog body on the sheet with the Helen Kane head and asked,

"Would you rather have this?" He circled the dog.
"Or this..., " he pointed to the human form, "as Bimbo's girlfriend?"

Fleischer gave in and thus was born a character soon to become a bigger star than Bimbo would ever be.

Character design from BB cartoon Barnacle Bill (1930).
NOTE: Photo has been manipulated from color to grayscale for ease of viewing. 
The actual drawing paper shows yellowing from age.

"A dog or this?"

______________________________

Yes, it was the "Betty Boop" Festival, but I was interested to see drawings from Natwick's entire career, especially those from his Disney period. Below is a Snow White animation rough...

Natwick Snow White animation rough, close-ups.

______________________________

The festival also included screenings of Betty Boop shorts, other films by Grim Natwick, animated treasures from the ASIFA Hollywood archives, and special showings of Nina Paley's Betty Boop-ish Sita Sings the Blues. My wife Ti and I had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with Nina whose animation art was on display throughout the day.

Nina Paley's Sita Sings the Blues artwork.

And now, here's a rather racy Barnacle Bill with his new girlfriend...

Marge Champion - Dancer, Model, Princess

Walt Disney will always be remembered for his countless innovations in filmmaking and entertainment. Yet, when he set out to create his first feature film, he was like an explorer heading into uncharted wilderness. Back in 1934, no one knew if an audience would sit through a full-length "cartoon" Critics and cynics said it couldn't be done. Walt of course believed it could and did everything in his power to insure that his animators would.

One thing was to bring movement models into the studio to give the animators a reference in order to achieve realistic human motion (i.e., walking, dancing). Marjorie Belcher, around 14 at the time, was hired for $10/day to "play" Snow White. See the October 2009 MovieWeb interview with Marge as she talks about how Walt chose her for the part from 200-300 other girls. She came into the studio two or three times a month for a period of about two years. The animators "showed me storyboards and then they let me go free."

The modeling-action sessions were filmed under the direction of Hamilton Luske and Grim Natwick. For certain scenes, rather than using the footage as reference for original drawings, the animators utilized the the technique of rotoscopy (see earlier Fleisher Studios post). The movements on film were traced directly to paper. While many of the animators like Art Babbitt were against the idea, overwhelming factors such as the massive scope of the project and the approaching December 1937 deadline ended up being the deciding factors. There are certain scenes in the movie where this rotoscoping is noticeable, and the stiffness of it seems to be frowned upon by most animators then and now. Personally, I kinda like how it looks.

Video posted by LucaItaly84

They traced every line and the animators chose whatever they wanted from that. They didn't use every frame of it, but it was a guide to their actions. It was much more inclusive than I had ever been told. Marge Champion, MovieWeb interview

Marge Belcher posing as Snow White (plus dancing with animator Wilfred Jackson in imitation of Dopey on top of Sneezy)...

Images copyright Disney.

Some of the animation from Marge's footage as Snow White was reworked for the Maid Marion scenes in Disney's 1973 Robin Hood as seen (along with other clips) in the video below...

Video posted by quatuorlindsay. All clips copyright Disney.

Marge later modeled for the Blue Fairy in Pinocchio and was working on Fantasia (the dancing hippo sequence) when Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs finally premiered in 1937. She eventually went on to become one of the great dancer/choreographers in both movies and stage. Marge and her husband Gower Champion worked together as a highly successfully dancing team during the MGM musical years.

Copyright 1949, Life Magazine

Pixar's John Lasseter with Marge Champion, DCA celebrating Snow White's 70th anniversary, 2007. Image via Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy

2009 Video copyright CBS.

View a boatload of images from Marge's MGM dance years. Also see the Marge Champion October 2009 interview at Animated Views.

Fleischer Studios - Gulliver's Travels

The development of Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was first disclosed to the world by Walt himself via the New York Times in June of 1934. This was also the year that Max and Dave Fleischer had wanted to counter Walt Disney's announcement and begin work on their own animated feature at their New York-based Fleischer Studios. Their aspirations were thwarted, however, by the Paramount suits who refused to support and distribute anything other than the Fleischer short cartoons.

Yet, with the massive success of Disney's Snow White premiere in 1937, the Fleischers finally got the green light in the spring of 1938. Grim Natwick, the main animator on Disney's Snow White character, returned to the Fleischer Studios to be a part of this feature. Working for the Fleischers was nothing new for Natwick as he was the original animator of their Betty Boop series back in the early thirties.

On December 22, 1939, Paramount Pictures released Fleischer Studios' Gulliver's Travels, and like Snow White, it turned out to be a box-office success. The film is now in public domain.

Watch the entire film below.

Video courtesy of the Internet Archive

Fleischer Studios - Betty Boop as Snow White

Around 1915, Max Fleischer invented the rotoscope technique where live-action film movement is traced frame by frame to create lifelike animations. Max and his brother Dave developed their first character, Koko the Clown using this method, and in 1921, founded Out of the Inkwell Films (later Fleischer Studios). The studio became well known for its human characters (as opposed to the anthropomorphized mice, cats, dogs, ducks and pigs of the other animation rivals). In its prime, the Fleischers--with characters like Betty Boop, Popeye and Superman--were the only serious competition for Walt Disney.

In 1933, the Fleischers produced their own version of Snow White featuring Ms. Boop as the, um, "princess" and a song, Saint James Infirmary Blues, sung by Cab Calloway. The real artistic talent behind this film was not, however, Natwick or the Fleischer brothers, but rather animator Roland Crandall.

Dave Fleischer was credited as director, although virtually all the animation was done by Roland Crandall. Crandall received the opportunity to make Snow White on his own as a reward for his several years of devotion to the Fleischer studio, and the resulting film is considered both his masterwork and an important milestone of The Golden Age of American animation. "Snow White" took Crandall 6 months to do.

The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. In 1994 it was voted #19 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field. The film is now in public domain. Source: Wikipedia

Watch the film below.


Video courtesy of the Internet Archive

It's interesting to note that it was 1934 when Grim Natwick went to work for Walt Disney as the primary animator of his Snow White character. But four years earlier, Natwick was actually employed by the Fleischer's as the original top animator of Betty Boop.

Prologue: Carthay Circle Premiere

The winter solstice, the Northern Hemisphere's shortest day of the year. Though it marks the onset of winter, it also signifies the return of the sun--or as in many a mythical tale--the rebirth of the light. Walt Disney's animated masterpiece Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiered at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles 72 years ago today. It was the winter solstice, December 21, 1937.

Detail section of original 40x60 movie poster featuring artwork by inspirational artist Gustaf Tenggren
with influences from animator Grim Natwick.

And thus is launched the Filmic Light blog...