Disney’s Magic Makers: Les Clark
Here’s the first of nine parts where we’ll look at Disney’s “Nine Old Men.” First up:
Les Clark was born on November 17, 1907, in Ogden, Utah. While attendince Venice High School (in Los Angeles), he held a summer job at a lunch counter near the Disney Brother’s Studio. While working there, Clark noticed that Walt and Roy ate lunch at the restaurant most week days. Eventually, he got up the nerve to ask Walt for a job at the studio. After seeing some of Clark’s
sketches, Walt offered him a job straight out of high school (Clark graduated on a Thursday and started at the Studio the next Monday). In 1927, Clark became the first of Walt Disney’s “Nine Old Men.”
Once out of high school, Clark joined the Ink and Paint Department. He worked diligintely in the department while admiring the skills of Iwerks and Disney. During his time in the IPD, Les happily worked in the lower, entry-level, positions (operating the animation camera, then as an inker-painter). In 1929, Clark became an animator. His first assignment as a junior animator was to animate a skeleton playing the ribs of another like a xylophone in the first Silly Symphony: “The Skeleton Dance.”
On the side, he started practicing how to draw Mickey Mouse (the only one of the “Nine Old Men” to work on the Mouse) as Walt and Ub worked to popularize the character. By the time animators were being assigned to “Steamboat Willie,” Iwerks got the top slot, but Clark was told to animate one of the scenes and to do in-betweening drawings (those that blend one frame into another seamlessly).
During the rest of his tenure at the Disney Studios (some 48 years) he animated a scene in the “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” in “Fantasia” (when Mickey’s sleeves fall down as he brings the brooms to life) as well as animating or directing some 20 other features like “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”, “Sleeping Beauty,” and “Lady and the Tramp,” not to forget close to 100 short films and TV specials (i.e. “Donald in Mathmagic Land” and “Donald and the Wheel”).
Les Clark retired from Disney in 1976, died in September 1979, and was posthumously awarded the Disney Legend Award in 1989.
[...] to the 5th of 9 posts featuring Walt Disney’s Nine Old Men. Our previous reports include Les Clark, Ollie Johnston, Frank Thomas, and Wolfgang Reitherman. This week, we’ll focus on John [...]