Memories of Marc Davis
Page 5 of 8

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On joining the Walt Disney Company
"I joined Walt Disney, went to work, December 2nd 1935, so obviously, I'm not too young! In the early days, Walt Disney knew that he wanted to do feature-length animated films, but nobody outside of his organization knew this. So he advertised practically around the world I guess, in classifieds; little ads. 'Walt Disney wants artists.' At that time, the people that were in the animated film business were mostly guys who were unsuccessful newspaper cartoonists. In other words, their ability to draw living things was practically nil. And he knew to do what he wanted to get done, he needed something else; another kind of person"

"Well, I answered one of these ads, and I was in Marysville, California. ... Anyway, I answered one of these ads, and my name, M-a-r-c, must have been mistaken by a man by the name of George Drake, who was doing the hiring and so forth, as being, I don't know, Marge or whatever the he thought it was. But anyway, I received this ltter, and it read, 'Dear Ms. Davis, at the present time, we're not hiring any women artists, but as such time as we do, we'll let you know...'

"Later, my father died up in Marysville. So, my mother and I got in the car and came down to Hollywood. I had some connections from the newspapers that I did work with up there, so there was a newspaper publisher in Hollywood, and they promised me work and so on. Finally, one of them said, 'Look, why don't you go see Walt Disney? They're hiring artists.' So I did, and the same guy who wrote this Dear Ms. Davis letter hired me on the spot."
   - Theme Park Adventure Magazine, Pirates of the Caribbean Issue, pg. 84

On the the hard work in the studio's early days
"It wasn't that you had to do these things, you wanted to do them. You were so proud. Every write-up the studio got, everybody went out and got it. Very few people have ever, as a group, experienced that type of excitement. What we were in on, really, was the invention of animation. Animation had been done before, but stories were never told."
  - The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation, by Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas, pg. 146

On drawing
"Drawing is giving a performance; an artist is an actor who is not limited by the body, only by his ability and, perhaps, experience."
  - The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation, by Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas, pg. 66

On Maleficient
"She was rather dull - she was a speechmaker and any character who has to stand up in front of the camera and make speeches is not very good. Maleficient was better when she batted a few of her goons around - and when she worked with the raven, she was probably all right"
  - The Disney Villain, by Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas, pg. 120

On being a storyteller
"To be an animator, you have to have a sense of the dramatic, a feeling for acting; you have to be a storyteller"
  - The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation, by Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas, pg. 176

On early Pirates sketches
"Some of these sketches were done at the very beginning of the Pirates project, when I was trying to find a direction for myself. That was the early sixties ... maybe 61 or 62. Walt had mentioned to me, 'Marc, I'd like to do some kind of a pirate attraction at the Park.' ... Before the [1964 World's] Fair, we knew there would be a New Orleans Square, and we knew we'd have some kind of ride underneath it, but I think Walt was still trying to find ways to go ... These roughs show how I was trying to 'find a way.'"
    - The "E" Ticket Magazine, Issue #32, pg. 7

Alice recounting a Walt Story about Marc
"First of all, [Walt] loved Marc's pirate drawings so much, that he wanted a book made, and he had that book made of Marc's pirate drawings to go along with the show. They had an open house, and he insisted that they have a whole wall of nothing but Marc's pirate drawings for everybody to see. So, Marc and I arrived, and we were standing talking with some people and Walt came over to me, and he said, 'Alice, come here. I want to show you something. Have you looked at these?' I said 'Yes! I look at them every day! I'm making the costumes'. And he said, 'No, for Heaven's sake! I don't mean that! Have you really looked at these drawings? These are the works of a genius. Marc can do anything I ask. He can do story, he can develop characters, he can animate, he can design these rides. I have a whole building over there filled with animators, and that's all they can do. They can't do anything else. Marc can do anything. He's my renaissance man! He can do anything I ask, and it always turns out great."
   - Theme Park Adventure Magazine, Pirates of the Caribbean Issue, pg. 93