The Walt Disney Museum's Fred Moore Q&A

Is it 2021 yet? Because as of this writing in June 2020, it sometimes feels as though it may never get here. I think every one of us lives in hope for a better, brighter, wiser tomorrow to come.

In a\this time of upheaval unprecedented for almost everyone alive, writing about animation history can feel like a pursuit too trivial to attempt, but there's still value in communicating and hopefully evoking an understanding of what's come before in our art form. Animation artists are fortunate to be able to continue working on projects of all kinds, sharing work, drawing inspiration from each other, as well as from the best of the past.

From Andreas' collection, a Fred rough from Pluto Plays Football(unproduced, 1952)

Last fall I prepared answers to questions submitted by the Walt Disney Family Museum about Fred Moore and his relationship with Mickey Mouse. Initially this was meant to run concurrently with their exhibition on Mickey(beautifully curated by Andreas Deja), but a backlog resulted in it going live shortly after the exhibition's close in February. It can be seen on their blog along with many more fascinating posts on all subjects of Disney studio history, Here are links to my Q&A, presented in two parts.

This is also a reminder that the Museum continues to offer great programs-online, for now. Please pay them a visit, virtually and otherwise. They have much to offer.

Artist and Author Jenny Lerew Talks Mickey Mouse and Animator Fred Moore, Part 1

And here is a direct link to Part 2.

About Fred Moore-a flashback, and forward.

Reposting this entry from 2005. More Moore is coming!

I've got this thing for Fred Moore.
Yes, me and about 5,000 other animation geeks, professional and otherwise.
Fred:  by all accounts a likeable, ordinary guy with a natural drawing ability and a predilection for cartooning women in a style all his own-immmediately recognizable.  His achievments include redesigning Mickey Mouse into the appealingly boyish character he became, and likewise refined and animated much of the dwarfs in "Snow White".
Like most artists what he drew somehow seemed to physically resemble him and took on his brash, pixilated personality.  When I became aware of him there was nothing at all about him in print, save one or two lines and drawings in the Finch book,  "The Art Of Walt Disney", but the appeal of those was enough to make me determine to find out more about him.  A brief conversation with Ward Kimball started me on the best treasure hunt of my life: Ward suggested I call Ken O'Brien at WED("He was a big fan of Fred's", Ward drawled with more than a hint of amusement).  I did, and interviewed Ken, as well as Art Babbitt, Ollie Johnston, Larry Clemmons, Carl Urbano(who'd gone to high school with Fred and his brother), and of course, Ward himself.
These were priceless experiences, a kind of time travel.  My motivating question, "what happened to Fred Moore?" was answered very quickly.  I knew beforehand that he'd died very young in a car accident, but the greater mystery for me--as it's been to many other animation lovers--was why someone with such sterling provenance and amazing talent had faded so fast fom the pinnacle he reached at Disney's in 1933-39.  The brief answer, well known today, is that his talent and his health were ruined by alcoholism, but that's a bald-fact answer to a complicated set of circumstances.  What I really learned from Fred's former colleagues was quite a lot about the optimism, opportunities, genius and frustrations of more or less inventing your own job description--as Fred did.  He seemed to be as intuitive an artist as it was possible to be: self-taught, self-improving, an innate sense of the ever-elusive "appeal" so desirable in all things drawn and gestured, a natural grace.
When sitting across from these titans of animation, asking about Fred and Disney's, I was very young, a teenager, and I couldn't grasp all of the adult nuances of the business of animation then as I could now.  I do remember coming away from hours spent with Ward and Art feeling as though I were in a trance.  Clearly, to have one's heart's desire and animate at the best studio in the world during the "golden age" wasn't all a bed of roses.  This seems absurdly obvious now, but even though I had a pretty good idea of history, I just didn't have the life experience to interpret it at 18.  Many times I've wished I could go back and do it all over again, but sadly all but one of my generous interviewees are dead.
Ward, Art and Ken O'Brien (Fred's assistant in the early 40s at Disney; he was loyal to Fred to the extent that when Moore was fired in 1946, O'Brien quit too, and accompanied Fred to Lantz' studio for two years) all lent me materials to copy; Ward showed me some of his incredible collection of hilarious drawings, collected in voluminous scrapbooks.  Several books--fat as phone directories--contained nothing but daily (often hourly) gag drawings of Fred, Ward and Walt Kelly by Kelly himself (curiously not nearly as many that Kimball saved were by Kimball--or perhaps those were in other books. Very likely.).

Looking at us looking at them: Walt Kelly, Ward Kimball, and Fred Moore, drawn by Kelly and saved for posterity by Kimball.

As the years roll along and not just Fred but his peers and world disappear, his influence has actually continued to grow among artists. Why his talents mattered in a unique place and time are subjects worth discussing, as is the best animation he helped to realize. Look for more to come-and feel free to weigh in on him yourself!

Fred Moore Pinup Girls up for auction today

This typical Fred Moore group of ladies en deshabille is being auctioned online today by Heritage. It's lot 78744, 12x13.5", watercolor and ink mounted on cardboard(as were many of Fred's "presentation" girls), and described as being from the estate of one John McLaughlin.
 The bidding's currently at $1200(as of 10am PST). It's certainly going to be over my budget, but perhaps there's a Blackwing reader who'd be interested. Barring that, at least here's the artwork to peruse gratis.
 This one looks like a later example of Fred's pinups-late '40s, I'd guess. Incidentally, the initial listing had this as a pinup by "Frank" Moore, with no mention of any Disney studio relationship. Someone set them straight(it's signed, after all), but I wonder what it might have fetched if left unrecognized among the Elvgrens and other rarities that comprise the illustration auctions Heritage does.

Icons of Animation-another great Fred Moore piece going, going...

Profiles In History's "Icons of Animation" auction is happening right now, 11am PST, Saturday the 17th, so you still have a shot at acquiring the Fred Moore piece pictured above.
[5pm PST: it sold for the low-end estimate of $3,000]

Fred Moore's 100th

 Moore with his wife Virginia and baby daughter in the late 1930s

Robert Fred Moore, animator, was born on this day, September 7, 1911. 100 years on and his influence is still meaningful in the films he worked on, the characters he helped define, and the effortless joy of his draftsmanship. Happy Birthday, Fred!
Edited to add: I wrote this before seeing the wonderful post Andreas Deja wrote to mark this occasion. Andreas is a great admirer of Fred's work and has one of the finest collections of animation art in private hands-including a large selection of Fred's animation work and personal drawing. The prostrate figure below is one I've never seen before (I'm guessing it came to Andreas through his friend and former colleague, Ollie Johnston). Typically lovely. Head to Andreas' blog to see much more of Fred's art: Deja View

The Fred Moore Expert: Tim Walker's new book and booksigning

James-also known as Tim-Walker holds one of Fred Moore's original, well-worn pencils, along with a photo of Fred advising Ollie Johnston

One of the oldest friends of the Blackwing Diaries is a gentleman I met through our mutual interest in Fred Moore.  I'd heard of him in the 1990s mentioned at Warner Bros as a guy who knew funny timing--as in Bob Clampettesque funny--so I already liked him, but it wasn't until five years ago, after reading an essay about the late, great Moore on these pages, that we met. He immediately offered to share his amazing collection of Fred's drawings, as well as many of his private photographs, with the readers of this blog.  Talk about riches...

I've known quite a few collectors in my time, some with world-class collections that have taken years and a lot of money and effort to acquire, but it's not terribly common to find one with the open-hearted generosity of Tim Walker.

Tim's an animation artist of the old school, and his puckish sketches are all the more remarkable for having been done by completely re-training himself to draw using his left hand after he began to lose the use of his dominant right hand to the Parkinson's disease.

 Parkinson's is a dread scenario for anyone in any walk of life, and for an artist using his hand and arm in his work it's particularly tough, but Tim refused to stop drawing, forcing himself to use his left hand instead.  That's pretty astonishing, and inspiring.
He's collected a sketchbook of his called "Drawings From The Left, or Parkinson's Pictures", and it's filled with his buoyantly rounded, charming drawings. Tonight from 6:30-9 he's having a signing in Studio City.  Highly recommend you drop in, hang out and chat a bit about drawing, cartoons, or maybe about some of the golden age Disney artists Tim's an expert on.  He's a very cool guy.

Random Fred Moore

While on a Google search for Wilfred Jackson I happened upon this image, part of a terrific post of screen grabs Michael Sporn did back in December. Here, from 1951's "Operation Wonderland", is Fred Moore and Johnny Lounsbery. Artfully lit, they're looking offscreen as they go through the promotional motions, drawing the soundstage antics of the actors used for reference on "Alice In Wonderland".

As an aside, Mark Mayerson comments on Michael's blog that this might be the latest picture of Moore he'd ever seen. I think that distinction might actually belong to this shot of Fred with John Sibley taken outside the Burbank animation building, posted here in 2006(from the collection of James Walker).
In any case, it's hard to believe that the man shown here is barely 40 years old. This is the visible toll years of hardcore drinking can take.

Fred Moore Girl Statue

I saw the prototypes at Comic Con, and they were beautiful. There's a blonde and a raven-haired paint, and last but not least a red headed, green-eyed version available by special preorder from Electric Tiki. Just wanted to share.

Great Inspiration: music-only soundtrack for Lampwick's transformation in "Pinocchio".

I just found this on the blog written by Jaime Weinman, Something Old, Nothing New-which he in turn found on youtube. It's arguably the most frightening scene in animation history-Pinocchio witnessing the wages of childhood sin on his new friend Lampwick.
Everyone's seen it numerous times, but here it is presented with no dialogue or other track-nothing save the dramatic score of composer Leigh Harline. The character animation is primarily the work of Fred Moore, Ollie Johnston, Milt Neil, Milt Kahl and Eric Larson.



I can't remember how I initially found Weinman's blog (and in all honesty I don't check in with him often enough these days), but in my internet wanderings he's one of the best writers on film and other popular entertainment I've come across. His entries are frequently so fascinating that I'll become interested in a title I either had no patience for or any curiosity about before he examined it. That's obviously not the case with "Pinocchio", a film I probably put at the top of my animation mountain, but it figures it's Jaime who shares something that's a must-see for anyone who loves animation. Be sure to read his accompanying comments about composer Harline.

A Fred Moore for you

Click to enlarge-it's worth it.

...via the Animation Guild's blog and an anonymous collector with an enviable collection of artwork he likes to share.

One wonders just how many of these Fred did for people over the years. This looks as if it's the same format as the ones I own-approximately 11x17, mounted on board.

Much imitated in his day, surrounded by other expert good girl artists and brilliant cartoonists...but none captured the particular elegance and spirit of these studies by Moore. 60 years later he remains inimitable.

Fred Moore Los Angeles Times Obit

I've just finished reading today's New York Times obituary on Andrew Wyeth and have turned to organizing the files on my laptop. In doing so I rediscovered this, from a friend at the Los Angeles Times who follows this blog. So, just for the record, from November 25, 1952:

Fred Moore, Cuban style

click to enlarge

Many moons ago during the Fred Moore marathon here I posted some terrific rough character drawings Fred Moore did of this little Cuban rooster.   Here's one more, perhaps one of the best.  As with the vast majority of the others this is from the collection of James Walker--a man whose generosity (as well as his love of Fred Moore's appealing drawing)  is boundless.  A little end-of-year treat for readers of the Blackwing Diaries.

At the time I knew only the sketchiest details of the project they were created for, but thanks to a post by Wade Sampson that you can read here, I know more.  Fred Moore...in Cuba.  Something tells me that trip would make the wild spree in Guys and Dolls seem like a girl scout bake sale. But as nothing much has ever been said about it before to my knowledge, perhaps not. Either way, Fred did some wonderful work on that trip that shows he still had it in '46-about the time he was fired from Disney's.
As Sampson mentions, Disney historian J.B. Kaufman has been working on a book about all of the Disney Good Neighbor/Latin American films; after seeing the Ted Thomas documentary recently I'm especially looking forward to its seeing print.

Happy Holidays!

It's been 18 months since these were first posted, and as it's the right time of year and I haven't a new post ready, I repost them here for your enjoyment.




Have a lovely holiday, everyone.

all the rare material here appears--as before--through the generous courtesy of James Walker

...and here's one more for the road, from my house:

Merry, merry!

Fred Moore and family-previously unpublished

Here's a wonderful photograph: Disney animator Fred Moore, his first wife Virginia (for the record, his second wife was also named Virginia) and one of their two daughters, probably taken about 1938 or so.

Of course all we animation fans love the glimpse into the private, candid life of a legendary Disney animator, but as someone else (someone not in the business) pointed out upon seeing it: "it's great to see these kinds of images of people from seventy years ago. It's so vivid and casual-it's as if you're in the moment with them and makes you see them as real people, not caricatures, not just names on the credits or in a book." Indeed. The scene looks strikingly contemporary--the young Mrs. Moore could easily be my mom 30 years later, Fred one of my friends in the story department mugging with their own babies.

When's this insouciant artist going to get his own book? Until then, I'm grateful to be able to pass this happy snap along to Diary readers.

All The Cats sketch

This is a publicity still dating from the original release of "Make Mine Music". The caption is still affixed to the back and reads in part:

"THE JOINT IS JUMPIN'---These 'ickies' and 'alligators'[?] cut a rug when the jam session gets under way[sic] with musical and vocal backgrounds supplied by Benny Goodman's orchestra and The Pied Pipers. The scene is from "All The Cats Join In" sequence, one of the highlights of Walt Disney's latest full length comedy musical in Technicolor "Make Mine Music".

I wonder if this is an actual story sketch from the boards, rather than something drawn just for publicity? It looks like the former. I was just rereading Michael Barrier's biography of Disney; in an interesting anecdote it's mentioned (by one of the story men) that Walt looked at a pitch of the early rough boards for this sequence and was singularly unimpressed, telling them to "tighten it up", try again or something along those lines.

Instead, the guys had Joe Rinaldi take the drawings down and trace over each one, inventing nothing new but making everything look a heck of a lot better. When Walt next saw it, he approved the "changes" and this great number was good to go. This does look as if Joe Rinaldi drew it.

Fred Moore & Pete Emslie

Here of course is a lovely, interestingly unfinished Fred Moore painting. It appears courtesy of the generosity of Pete Emslie, cartoonist, collector, caricaturist, blogger, Sheridan Collge teacher(animation) and all-around nice guy, judging from his posts.
He's a very thoughtful man as well as a prolific artist, and I can't recommmend regualr visits to his blog too emphatically. Here's a sample of a recent post's illustration(by Pete):

Pete's gesture drawings of model Heather

In addition to the Moore above, he posted yet another painting by Fred he's acquired, as well as several centaurette cleanups that are a must see. Really lovely.
Thanks for sharing, Pete!

Moore Bats Again

Howard Lowery's animation art storefront on Magnolia is no more, but he still regularly sells some choice items on Ebay. Like this drawing I lost out on from "Casey Bats Again", a 1954 short sequel to "Casey at the Bat". It featured Casey with a family of gorgeous daughters--each and every one the design of Fred Moore.
This animation drawing certainly looks like Fred's work, but it's also possibly a close copy of Moore's style by the very talented animator (and Moore's close friend and onetime assistant) Ken O'Brien. More trivia: she sports a hair ornament very like that of one of the Moore-designed centuarettes in "Fantasia".

Moore died two years before the release of this short, directed by Jack Kinney; if he actually animated footage it was delayed quite some time in its release.

A Merry Moore Christmas

Fred Moore's christmas card (from himself and his second wife), circa 1950 or so--a very lovely gift to the author from James T. Walker, owner of the vast majority of the fabulous Fred Moore artwork that I've been privileged to share with you this year. Thank you, Tim, and I hope to see you soon!

2006 has been a year of terrific joy and personal and professional satisfaction for your diarist here at the Blackwing blog. It's also been on the personal side the single most challenging and difficult one I've ever had. The last couple of months have been fraught with the kind of drama no one wants to deal with but all of us do--just not usually so soon. As Groucho Marx once said(quoting faux-Eugene O'Neill), "The gods look down and laugh"--and roll the dice. Everyone takes a turn.

In that I know I'm not alone, and the kindness of my friends, colleagues and yes, to offer another swipe (from Tennesse Williams) 'the kindness of strangers', too--has meant a tremendous amount to me. Pardon my being so elliptical, but suffice to say that Christmas and the entire holiday season do nothing if not drive home to the average person all that's really important; the too-swift passing of another year; the beauty of the smallest things, and also wistful thoughts of the past.

Many of the posts here have dealt with the past in the form of various stories about animation. I don't believe in wallowing in an invented or idealized Golden Age, but I do think that far too much of recent history("recent" meaning the last hundred years)is unjustly forgotten, and that with each generation's disappearance from the world we too often lose the lessons that took our predecessors a lifetime to learn--the hard way. We do it all over again, and when we actually stop and read about them, or look at their work, we find that very little has changed. The "bad" things were there too, just as now, in droves: petty politics, career jealousies, unfairness, unrewarded toil, family dramas. But there too were all the same wonderful things--sudden spurts of artistic brilliance and satisfaction, laughs with irrepressible coworkers, joy at the births and weddings and promotions of deserving friends, discoveries of new talents that take the art of drawing, painting or animation further than you thought it could go. We share all those ills and triumphs not only with our bunch of fellow salmon swimming upstream but with the many schools that have gone before us, and stand in spirit shoulder to shoulder with us now.

To them, and to you, I wish you all the very merriest and most peaceful of holidays!


a very young Carole Lombard-not animation-related, but definitely another of my muses

Fred Moore by Ward Kimball via Steve Hulett

One of a series of extremes posed out by Fred Moore for an unproduced sequel to "Saludos Amigos" set in Cuba; this drawing hasn't been published before here. Courtesy of James Walker , from his collection. Fred's genius is often never more evident than in the roughest of his drawings.

Back in the late 70s and early 80s Steve Hulett had a dream job at Walt Disney Productions(as it was called then): he was assigned to interview many of the old-timers either on the lot or recently retired yet still connected to the studio. He's posted many of these--all worth reading--over on the The Animation Guild's union blog. Here's a sampling of a lengthy interview Steve did with Ward Kimball, which he was lucky enough to be able to tape--when I interviewed Ward in 1981 he insisted I not turn on my tape recorder, for two reasons: he'd been "burned" by a verbatim but cringeworthy (also exceedingly touching and honest) interview he'd done which had made print, and also--this is my opinion--he wasn't completely sure of a teenager who he'd never met before(me) rather than a Disney employee whose dad had worked for the studio(Steve)! Well, I was fortunate he talked to me at all--I still can't get over it. But I'm digressing again.

So, Steve Hulett posted an exchange with Ward about Fred Moore.
You can read it here.
It's almost exactly what he told me, complete with the part about finishing Fred's work for him. I did, by the way, sit in my car outside Ward's home for at least an hour furiously scrawling down all the quotes and stories I could before they left my memory, so I did have that.

Fred Moore in the 40s; from James Walker

I'll say that while I believe that all the men I interviewed were honest--Art Babbitt, Ken O'Brien, Ollie Johnston, Larry Clemmons, Carl Urbano, and Ward--obviously each one was not only digging back into memories that were decades old, but were talking about a colleague, once a superstar at the greatest studio in the world, who'd fallen from favor and died barely 40 years old...so there's bound to be some mixed feelings there. Ward I felt especially, as the man I spoke with closest at one time to Fred, struggled with emotions about his old buddy. As a matter of fact, in my conversations he showed a good amount of plain anger at Fred, and made it clear he had cared a lot about him, and felt frustrated at how little he could do for him. He'd use a fair amount of sarcasm in expressing this, but even me, a jejune teen, picked that up. I think those are things to keep in mind when reading some of Kimball's remarks in Steve's interview excerpts.

tags technorati : disney, animation, cartoons, animator, fred moore, ward kimball, union

from my garage...

Yes, really. The garage. I'd forgotten I still had this drawing from "Nifty Nineties". Features two "clever boys from Illinois"-caricatures of Ward Kimball and Fred Moore, designed by the indefatigable Kimball. These two also provided their own voices, a real rarity.

Animated by Ward and assisted by Tom Oreb, who probably cleaned up Ward's drawing here--although Ward said he did much of the cleanup himself on this ultra-fast, low-budgeted Mickey Mouse cartoon, a gap project between "Reluctant Dragon" and "Dumbo".