Ollie Johnston

I arrived home this evening to read the very sad news that legendary Disney animator, Ollie Johnston, has passed away at the age of 95. While it is always sad when such major figures from The Golden Age of Animation pass on, Ollie's death is particularly heartbreaking for me, as I had been lucky enough to have known him, as well as his longtime friend and colleague, Frank Thomas. Though both were wonderful fellows, Ollie always will occupy a special place in my heart for several reasons.

Back when I was 7 years old, Disney's "The Jungle Book" premiered in theatres. As I have written in a previous blog entry, it was this film that was the catalyst in starting me down the path to wanting to be a cartoonist and, hopefully, working for Disney someday. In particular, it was the character of Baloo the bear that I was so fond of, and the warmth and charm of the animation that so skillfully brought him to life. It wasn't until some years later when I started reading textbooks on Disney film history that I began to learn the names of the great animators who were responsible for these wonderful Disney characters. I learned that it was Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston who shared credit for Baloo, with my favourite scenes being handled primarily by Ollie. I felt that Ollie was especially adept at giving a certain warm, cuddly feeling to all of the characters he worked with, including Baloo. There was something about the way the eyes of his characters seemed to sparkle with inner life.



In 1980, I was able to visit the Disney Studio for the first time, arranged through my friend Russell Schroeder, who was then a top character artist at Walt Disney World in Florida. Russell was kind enough to put in a good word for me with Disney archivist, Dave Smith, at the Burbank Studio, and Dave agreed to host my visit there. As soon as I cleared security and was directed through the main gate of the studio, the first person I saw crossing the lot in front of me was Frank Thomas. I wasn't shy about going up to say hi to him, and Frank generously invited me to drop by the office that he and Ollie were using to compile artwork that would be photographed for inclusion in their upcoming book, "Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life". Needless to say, after going off to meet with Dave Smith, I later took Frank up on his offer to visit with he and Ollie.

It was a memorable visit with Frank and Ollie, surrounded by lots of original Disney cels and backgrounds that they were considering for images in their book. They were so gracious towards me, answering all my many questions, (especially about "The Jungle Book") and happily providing info on the artwork they had all around them. The following year, they ended up traveling to my hometown of Ottawa for the Ottawa Animation Festival. They remembered me and it was nice to renew acquaintance. I also provided them each with caricatures I had painted up for them and they appreciated my efforts.

In 1983 I was again visiting the Disney Studio, and Dave Smith was nice enough to have contacted Frank and Ollie before I'd arrived to inquire whether they would be at the Studio that week. Though there were no plans to, Ollie said he'd be happy to come in and visit with me while I was in town. This was a wonderful surprise for me, and Dave left his office for Ollie and I to chat for awhile together. It was during this visit especially that I just was knocked out by Ollie's warmth and generosity in making a special trip to the Studio just to say hi to a young fan. In the years that followed, I corresponded with Ollie and got to see both he and Frank when they were on a book signing tour that brought them to Toronto about a year after I had started my own Disney career in 1984. They expressed their happiness for me in having finally gotten into Disney to fulfill my childhood dream.

In 1989, I had the offer to go down to work at Walt Disney World in Florida, provided that they could get me a work permit through U.S. Immigration. Tom Tripodi, who managed the art department, said it would really help their case if I could get several letters of recommendation from anybody notable within the Disney or related animation industry. I wrote to Ollie Johnston, asking if he would be able to put in a good word for me and, the next thing I knew, I received a copy from Ollie of the letter of reference he had provided to Tom. I remember being so overcome with joy and gratitude for Ollie's sweet generosity in his appraisal of my work. Ultimately, I got the job, and I really felt that it was Ollie's letter that had helped bring it about. I've posted that letter below, as well as a previous letter that shows how generous and inspiring Ollie was in his correspondence with me.

While working at Disney, I got to see Frank and Ollie on several occasions, the last time was about 1993, when they were visiting in Florida and Ollie phoned to see if I could meet he and Frank for dinner at Disney's Beach Resort. They mentioned how they both had hit 80 that year, yet they were still in very good health. Though I never did meet with them in person again after that, both Frank and Ollie had been keeping in touch with me for over 15 years through personally designed Christmas cards that we all were producing each year. I may scan in some of those in the days to come to share with you, as both of these wonderful gentlemen were still drawing delightful cartoon likenesses of themselves with their wives on most of their cards. Though a bit shakier with age, their drawings still sparkled with as much life as ever. These cards will continue to bring me great joy in the years to come as I think back fondly on my favourite two of Disney's "Nine Old Men".

Adieu dear Ollie...

Goodbye Dear Friend...

Yesterday I received the very sad news that my friend from my Walt Disney World days, Ralph Kent had passed away. It wasn't unexpected, as poor Ralph had been in declining health for awhile now and a mutual friend had recently informed me that Ralph's doctor had estimated he only had a few weeks left. In the dozen years since I'd left my Disney job in Florida, Ralph had gradually been getting health problems due to his diabetes, but what finally did him in was a year long bout with cancer. I'm not sure how old he would have been, but I'm guessing he must have been approaching 70 when he died.

I first met Ralph Kent back in 1976. I was just a teen kid at the time, but I was able to arrange a visit to the Walt Disney World art department during one of my family's annual vacations down to the Florida theme park. It was at that time I met character artist, Russell Schroeder, who is still a dear friend after all these years, as well as fellow artist, Harry Gladstone, both of whom would be instrumental years later in helping me start my own career with Disney. Ralph Kent was the head of the art department back then, and he was quite keen on some little Disney figurines I had sculpted and was showing to the guys down there. He said I should keep in touch after I finished my schooling and maybe they could get me down there working in the art department.

Sadly, a few years later there was a series of layoffs which saw the letting go of many in Disney's art area, as well as many in middle management, including Ralph. I believe Ralph was freelancing for about the next ten years or so, working on creative projects for Goebel and others. In the meantime, I had started my Disney career in the character merchandise division that was here in Canada, leaving my Ottawa home to come work for Disney in Toronto in 1984. Six years later, due to the help of Russell Schroeder, I was able to relocate down to Florida to take a position in that art department I'd always wanted to work for.

Coincidentally, not long after I started working at WDW in 1990 I was reacquainted with Ralph, who was in the process of being rehired by Disney as a character artist in their newly established Character Merchandise art department. It was great to see Ralph again after all those years, and we quickly became good friends and frequent lunch buddies. Ralph was also a regular fixture at a ramshackle little bar in Kissimmee called "The Big Bamboo", where he held court regaling Disney fans and tourists with stories of his life at Disney and sketching pictures of Disney characters for them on napkins and such. One time I remember he had been given some flak about that from one of the Disney execs who told him he couldn't draw Disney characters for people. Ralph said to him, "Somebody else told me I could". When the exec furiously asked him who had given him that permission, Ralph looked him in the eye and replied,"Walt did".

Ralph meant it too, as he had started his career back at the Disneyland art department in Anaheim sometime in the early 60's I believe, maybe before that. He said Walt would often drop by the studio and was quite friendly towards them all. According to Ralph, Walt actually encouraged the Disney artists to do little sketches for people when asked, as he felt that it was a nice little goodwill gesture. When Ralph was first approached in 1970 to relocate to Florida to head up the new art services department that would be set up at the brand new Walt Disney World opening in 1971, he was rather reluctant about doing so. You see, Ralph was passionate about being a Disney artist, as that had always been his dream ever since he was a kid himself. To now be thrust into the role of an administrator didn't sit well with Ralph. They assured him that the move would only be temporary, and that he would be brought back to his old job once things were up and running well in Florida. Unfortunately for Ralph, that never did happen, and so he was in a managerial position that, by his own admission, he didn't feel comfortable at. When he was let go in the round of layoffs some years later, I know it hurt Ralph like hell, as all he ever had wanted to be was a Disney artist.

I am glad to report, however, that once Ralph was hired back in 1990, he started to get the respect that had long been due him. Disney, to their credit, now treated him as a veteran artistic talent and, just several years ago when he had retired due to his ongoing health setbacks, the Company officially designated him as one of the "Disney Legends" that year. In addition, he was also presented with his own "Window on Main Street", in the Magic Kingdom in WDW, which I know was something that he took great pride in. Here is a photo of that window right above "Coke Corner" that I took on my trip there last year. That was also the last time I saw Ralph, when I'd gone back for a vacation in Florida after an absence of nearly ten years having stayed away. It was just wonderful to see him again after all those years.

Here's a photo I took of Ralph and his wonderful wife, Linda, while visiting their home. Despite his health problems and looking older, he was still the same ol' Ralph in his friendly, easygoing manner and everpresent big grin. He seemed to have taken things in stride, not dwelling on his problems, and was still talking enthusiastically about his creative projects that he still intended to pursue. We had a really nice visit, but when he told me about the recent diagnosis of cancer I was afraid that this might be the last time I'd get to see this dear man. Sadly, this turned out to be the case and today all the memories of our friendship are just flooding back into my mind. Ralph was a lovable guy who brought so many people a lot of happiness through his art and genuine warmth over his long and successful career at Disney. He will be missed greatly by all who loved him.

(By the way, the cartoon character that accompanies my caricature of Ralph is "Arlo Armadillo", a mascot I created for the Florida based Disney fan club, "The World Chapter", who were kind enough to honour Ralph upon his retirement from Disney with their own celebration. I had done this artwork for that particular event.)

Your Passport To Adventure!

I was going through some boxes of stuff the other day and ran across some relics from my years in the art department at Walt Disney World. This is the illustration I did for the folder cover that held the 1992 Silver Pass that all Disney cast members (employees) at a certain level would have received. The banner would have been printed in bronze and gold on the passes for other levels. The name of the individual cast member would have also been printed on the banner so that the folder artwork itself was a nice little personalized souvenir for them.

Incidentally, these passes enabled the cast members to sign up to three guests into the park, as a nice side benefit of working for Disney. I believe there was some restriction on how often you could do this during the year, however, as some cast members had abused their privileges in the past. Anyway, I thought it was wonderful to be able to treat my family and friends to a day in the parks when they traveled down to visit me in Florida.

The original illustration itself was probably about twice the dimensions of this printed piece, and I painted it in gouache on illustration board. Modeling on the characters was all done in a dry brush technique, while the shadows underneath the characters and Tink's pixie dust trail were done with an airbrush - something I used sparingly, as I found it rather unwieldy! This was long before I started using Photoshop, which I find so much easier for creating highly controlled airbrush effects. Mind you, I still far prefer the look of the character art done with real paint.

I recall that the most fun part of this particular assignment was getting to draw and paint Henry Bear, the master of ceremonies in "The Country Bear Jamboree", my favourite WDW attraction. Though he may have been a 3-dimensional audio-animatronic character, I wanted to treat him as pure cartoon, like he could have easily existed in a 1940s/1950s Disney animated short, as a close cousin to Humphrey Bear. In fact, I was always disappointed that these bears from that attraction had never been utilized much on Disney merchandise through the years, and had never been portrayed in pure animated cartoon form, especially since the design concept art had all been done by legendary Disney animator and Imagineer, Marc Davis. It's also too bad that Disney didn't adapt them to animation and use that as the basis for the "Country Bears" movie they did some years back, instead of the godawful live-action/costumed crap that they churned out. A traditionally animated feature keeping the characters intact in their cartoon design would have been infinitely more satisfying to we longtime Disney fans.