Bob Welbaum
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One of the first questions we asked was did he have a mentor? Ward immediately told about how he was in a bullpen as an in-betweener and there was a clean-up artist he used to take his work to and get it criticized . Then the conversation went directly into Disney’s bonus system, which was based on animation output measured in footage (16 frames of animation to the foot). Ham Luske could put out more footage than Ward, and Ham would bring a lot of the cleanup work and corrections to him. Ward would also add time-consuming details like speed lines, etc. As Ward was making corrections on Ham’s work, Ham would be doing more animation.

Ham also did a lot of fairly simple animation that was done on “twos�? — every other frame was animated. (This was pretty normal because at 24 frames per second no one could tell the difference. So each drawing would be used twice and only 12 frames per second would be animated.)

But certain situations, like Chip ’n Dale running, required faster motion and so had to be done on “ones�? (every frame animated). One artist (whose name escaped us) never received a very large bonus because almost all his animation was fast motion and in effect he had to animate twice as much to get the same footage.

The bottom line was Ham got the bigger bonus checks. Everyone knew what was happening; one guy in particular would come up to Ward and say, “What did you get? Did Ham share his bonus with you?�?

But what impressed us about this story was Ward seemed genuinely glad to learn about animation this way. Whenever Ward would complain that the corrections and details were beyond his skills, Ham would show him how. Ward didn’t dwell on his smaller checks but on his improving skills as an animator.

Ham did give Ward some golf clubs, so the story went around the Studio that all Ward got for helping Ham was a set of clubs. And Ward wasn’t really much of a golfer.

Of course the quintessential Ward Kimball story is about the time he purchased a windmill he had seen while driving through the countryside. I had read several versions by other people. One was obviously fictionalized : in his book Walt: Backstage Adventures With Walt Disney, Charles Shows described how “Firehouse Fred�? tried to buy a windmill. We had seen what was left of it in the backyard (it had been partially dismantled and the rest stored). So I asked about it the first chance I got. Here is the “official�? version :

Ward was driving his band, The Firehouse Five Plus Two, to a late engagement and they were lost, motoring around the countryside on a cloudy night. Suddenly the clouds parted and there on the horizon in front of them was this gorgeous, lacy windmill. Ward slammed on the brakes and exclaimed, “Look at that!�?

Of course the other band members had no idea what he was talking about and asked him why he was stopping. But Ward wasn’t paying attention to them. He pulled into the farmhouse driveway, stopped, jumped out and ran up to the door. He banged on the door and a woman answered.

Ward opened with “I like your windmill. Would you consider selling it?�? The woman replied they just might because they were putting in a gas pump; she called over her shoulder to her husband, “There’s a man here asking about the windmill. Would you consider selling it?�? Yes, he might be willing.

Suddenly her expression changed and she began to inch away from Ward. A few seconds later Ward felt a presence behind him. He turned to see a couple of the band members dressed in their white artist smocks and some sort of hat, making them look exactly like medical technicians. In their most condescending voices they motioned and told Ward to “come along now.�? (Ward actually demonstrated this with his best Cheshire Cat grin.)

Ward tried to cover by turning back to the lady and laughingly saying “These guys are always kidding me. They’re a bunch of cut-ups.�?

And they of course responded, “Sure, Ward. Now come along.�?

“No, I’m very serious about this windmill. I want to buy this windmill!�?

“Yes, Ward. We’ll get you a windmill. Now just come with us.�? And they led him back to their vehicle, protesting all the way.

It took Ward several months and five letters on Disney stationery to convince these people he was who he said he was, he was not crazy, and he really was serious about purchasing their windmill.

Next: Some of Ward’s personal stories.

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-- Bob Welbaum

-- December 2, 2004