Sleeping Beauty

While in high school, Les Clark worked a summer job at a lunch counter near the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio in Hollywood, where Walt and Roy Disney used to eat. One day, Les got up the courage to ask Walt for a job.

He recalled Walt’s reply, “Bring some of your drawings in and let’s see what they look like.” So I copied some cartoons and showed them to Walt. He said I had a good line and why don’t I come to work on Monday. I graduated [from high school] on a Thursday and went to work [the following] Monday."

Les, who was the first of Walt Disney’s legendary “Nine Old Men” (an affectionate term Franklin D. Roosevelt coined for his Supreme Court Justices, which Disney adopted when referring to his key animators), spent the next 48 years of his life animating and directing for Disney.

Born in Ogden, Utah, in 1907, Les attended elementary school in Twin Falls, Idaho, until his family moved to Los Angeles, where he graduated from Venice High School. In 1927, he joined the company’s Ink and Paint Department and by 1929, won his first animation assignment on Disney’s first Silly Symphony “The Skeleton Dance.” Before long, Les developed an adept hand at animating Mickey Mouse, beginning with one scene in Mickey’s debut film “Steamboat Willie.” Other memorable scenes he animated include the “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” in “Fantasia,” when Mickey’s sleeves keep falling down as he brings the brooms to life.

Les animated or directed on nearly 20 features, including “Pinocchio,” “Dumbo,” “Saludos Amigos,” “So Dear to My Heart,” “101 Dalmatians,” “Song of the South,” “Fun and Fancy Free,” “Cinderella,” “Alice in Wonderland,” “Peter Pan” and “Lady and the Tramp,” as well as more than 100 shorts.

After Les served as sequence director on “Sleeping Beauty,” Walt asked him to direct television specials and educational films. For two decades, Les directed dozens of such productions, including “Donald in Mathmagic Land” and “Donald and the Wheel.”

Like Walt, Les didn’t believe in resting on his laurels, but in always expanding his talent. As Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston recalled in their book Disney Animation: The Illusion of life, “Les quietly went ahead perfecting what he did best, constantly at art class working hard to improve and learn. There was much admiration for this quiet, thoughtful man, who came in with no art background yet through sheer determination and desire not only kept up, but helped advance the art with his refinements of many fundamentals.”

Les Clark retired from Disney in 1976; he died in September 1979. —Disney Legends

Toward the end of his enduring career at The Walt Disney Studios, animator Eric Larson became a gentle and devoted mentor to the next generation of up-and-coming Disney artists. One of his former students Andreas Deja, who animated such Disney characters as Jafar in “Aladdin” and Scar in “The Lion King,” recalled Eric as “The best animation teacher ever.” Said Deja, “No one was more concerned with passing on the Disney legacy than Eric.”

In the late 1970s, Eric expanded the Studio’s Talent Program to find and train new and talented animators from colleges and art schools across the nation. This program, which still exists today, came at a crucial juncture in Disney’s history, when many veteran animators were stepping down from their drawing boards. Subsequently, through his close work with young animators, Eric helped preserve the integrity of Disney animation for generations to come.

Born in Cleveland, Utah, in 1905, Eric avidly read comic humor magazines, such as “Punch” and “Judge,” while growing up on the plains. After high school, he went on to major in journalism at the University of Utah. While there, Eric edited the campus magazine and won a reputation as a creative humorist in both literature and graphic arts. During this time, he also sketched cartoons, which appeared in the local “Deseret News.”

After graduation, Eric traveled around America for a year freelancing for various magazines and in 1933, landed in Los Angeles where he developed an adventure serial for KHJ Radio, called “The Trail of the Viking.” That same year, taking the advice of a friend, who was familiar with his exceptional drawing skill, Eric decided to submit some of his sketches to The Walt Disney Studios. He was hired as an assistant animator and his journalism aspirations changed for good.

Over the years, Eric animated on such feature films as, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” “Fantasia,” “Bambi,” “Cinderella,” “Alice in Wonderland,” “Peter Pan,” “Lady and the Tramp,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “The Jungle Book,” as well as nearly 20 shorts and six television specials. Later, he served as a consultant on “The Black Cauldron” and “The Great Mouse Detective.”

After 52 years at Disney, Eric retired in 1986. In an interview at that time, he said, “The important thing is not how long I’ve been here [at Disney], but how much I’ve enjoyed it and what I’ve accomplished in all that time. When I think about my contribution to the animation that people enjoy so much, it makes me feel good.”

Eric Larson died in La Canada-Flintridge, California, on October 25, 1988. —Disney Legends