Ward Kimball - Cartoonist, Animator, Train Fancier, Musician - A Well Rounded Artist!

Born this day in 1914, Ward Kimball one of "Disney's Nine Old Men" would have been 96 years old today!

Ward seen below at his drawing desk at Disney Studios, joined the team in the mid-1930's

He was a deft draftsman, even at this early age, but he really liked to do more cartoony characters and had a real knack for bringing them to life through animation.

During the heyday of Disney features, he was responsible for some of the most endearing characters in the films. Not just comic sidekicks used to lighten moments, but real characters who aided the story and kept things flowing and interesting.

Among his cast of characters - From "Pinocchio" - Jiminy Crickett:

One of the real highlights of "Dumbo" (another being the "Pink Elephants on Parade") are Ward's crows:

The not so comic, but irresistably cute, Falina from "Bambi":

In "Alice and Wonderland" he was responsible for The Cheshire Cat:

...The Mad Hatter:

...and Tweedledum and Tweedledee:

He also animated Bacchus in "Fantasia", Jacque and Gus-Gus the mice and Lucifer the cat in "Cinderella" and was responsible for the musical number in "The Three Caballeros".

Here's Ward, Walt, Frank Thomas and the boys in a staged publicity film working behind the scenes. Great stuff!

He was a hard working guy indeed. See his napping technique below:

Ward was truly a well rounded guy though and his interests were well beyond just animation.

One favorite extra-curricular activity of Ward and a few of his fellow animators, was a love of Dixieland Jazz. To break up their day and work up the creative juices, they would jam around the studio. They eventually formed a formal group called "The Firehouse Five +2".

They played around Disneyland and made a few records and here they are appearing in a couple films. These guys could cook. That's Ward leading the boys and playing the mean trombone.

He was also a train fan, below is a video with his appearance on "The Tomorrow Show" with Tom Snyder in the 1970's. Ward is in full retirement from the Disney studios in this one and like a kid in a toy store right at home. It's in 7 parts, just click the links at the end of each segment to continue...it's a good watch!

When Walt Disney produced his television series "Disneyland" in the 1950's, it was Kimball that was tagged to direct, write and supervise the "Tomorrowland" segments.

It seemed strange for a guy with interests in things of the past, like steam locomotives and dixieland jazz to do a futuristic show, but Walt knew what he was doing, and Ward's natural curiosity and genuine interest in all things human made these some of the most loved and remembered of the series.

The full list of credits for this amiable and multi-talented guys are too numerous for me to get into here...just imdb him and see what I mean.

Thanks Ward! For always having fun and letting us in on it!

Bridging a Post Gap

Phil Harris

Wolfgang "Woolie" Reitherman

Today I'm bridging a gap in posts. There is nothing much to report here from "Uncle Jeffy's Big Almanac of Cool Stuff" for June 25th, so today I'll mention Phil Harris' birthday on June 24th 1904 and Wolfgang "Woolie" Reitherman's birthday on June 26th 1909 and briefly explain how these two diverse talents from different fields crossed paths in the 1960's.

Phil Harris was a singer and bandleader who came to prominence on The Jack Benny radio show in the 1930's. He came across with a realy original persona of a cross between a streetwise urban hipster and an everyman proud of his southern and rural heritage. He would come on the show and flippantly call Jack Benny "Jackson", flirt with Mary Livingstone (Jack Benny's on air girlfriend and real life wife) then turn and cue his drunken and sloven band to break into "That's What I Like About the South", a song hailing the virtues of butter-beans and black eyed peas.
He eventually spun off into his own radio show with his real-life wife Alice Faye and also had a respectable recording career, including a monster novelty hit with "The Thing". Then he broke into the big screen and met with Woolie Reitherman.

Wolfgang "Woolie" Reitherman was an animator who began with the Walt Disney company in 1934. Woolie was one of the key innovative people there who helped the Disney company grow artistically as they moved from animated shorts through their culmination in the first animated feature "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", the key people Walt Disney refereed to as his "Nine Old Men". The "Nine Old Men" moniker was a goof on how FDR referred to his sitting Supreme Court Justices at the time, though all of Disney's "Men" were very young at the time. Woolie became Disney's chief animation director in 1961 beginning with "101 Dalmatians", and in 1966 when Walt passed away, Woolie was a key figure in unifying the in-turmoil studio and helped organize what was to come "After-Walt". As an example of how the Disney folks were really one extended family and gave their all to their films, over the years all 3 of Reitherman's sons did voices for Walt Disney. Bruce was Mowgli in "The Jungle Book", Richard was Christopher Robin in the "Winnie-the-Pooh" featurettes and Robert was Wart in "The Sword in the Stone". Woolie himself even appeared as himself in the 1941 feature "The Reluctant Dragon".

Bridge?: They came together when Woolie directed Phil as Baloo in "The Jungle Book"...and as Thomas O'Malley in "The Aristocats"...and as Little John in "Robin Hood".


Check out this documentary of Woolie discussing his career...








Here's Phil Harris in a cheesy 70's special, reminiscing with Scatman Carothers about "The Aristocats"...he sneaks in some Baloo too...



And an earlier Phil showing his "slick/hick" persona and musical interpretation...



Two greats crossing paths and birthdays just 2 days apart.


In Closing: Remember that this blog is about people who have done stuff that was worth doing. I see lots of folks (tele-journalists, bloggers, etc.,) who report on what is the "flava-of-the-day" or mainstream personalities (i.e. those who appeal to the lowest common denominator) and I feel those folks who deserve the least attention, receive far too much of the attention. You won't see much focus to those "non-celebrities/entities" here as I try and do what I can to re-calibrate the balance of the universe and give those who earned our admiration what's due them.


p.s.: Michael Whojacallit died today I guess. You know...the guy who's hair caught fire in the Pepsi commercial in the 80's and was in that "Captain Eo" 3D thingie at Disneyland? oh well...sorry, I couldn't find any pics of him on the net. Sha-mon!