In recent years more credit and accolades have gone to those behind the birth of animation, through the many acknowledgments (including a 2005 documentary) to Disney’s famous “Nine Old Men,” the main animators responsible for Disney’s golden age.
But these Nine Old Men were backed by more than their mostly-male animation department. For the glory years of Disney’s early animation, from the first cartoon shorts to the feature films leading up to World War II, the department in charge of all the inking and painting of the drawings was staffed almost exclusively by women.
In honor of Women’s History Month, I’d like to highlight their story, recently revealed in this month’s Vanity Fair.
The 1930s and 40s was a time when almost the only roles for women in Hollywood were in front of the camera, and those were reserved of course for those blessed with the storybook looks of budding young ingenues.
But over at the Disney Animation Studio, women were heavily recruited for the inking and painting department. Inking and painting was the second step in the actual animation process.
Images started out drawn in pencil by the (at this time all-male) animators. They were then sent over to the ink and paint department to be sharpened and filled in. Both jobs required vast skill and artistry. Inkers did the lines: the rounds of Mickey’s ears, the sparkle of water and fairy dust.
Painters filled in the details: the subtle bloom of red in Snow White’s cheeks (a creative decision made by the painters themselves), the complicated 27-color process needed for Jiminy the Cricket’s shade of green alone.
For Disney to hire so many women for such an important job was revolutionary, especially at a time when the chances of a woman making it as a professional artist were few to none. But though Disney did sometimes hire women based on talent, the process wasn’t always as progressive as it seemed.
Looks could be involved, though not in the way you’d expect. One girl, Marie Foley Justice, was hired because her healthy rosy appearance led the bosses to believe that she’d be able to withstand the long hours and plentiful overtime needed for the position.
Days would sometimes start at 4:30 AM and go until long after the rise of the moon. But the women didn’t feel slave-driven, or at least not singled out amongst the men for such treatment. Everyone in the studio was working those hours, and the women were glad for the chance to prove themselves equal to men in dedication to the job.
After the studio’s massive success with “Snow White,” the inkers and painters were offered further advancement through nighttime animation classes. Those who were brave enough to try to break into the men’s club of animation finally had their first real chance to do so.
The fairy tale world finally began to crumble in the early 1940s, first with a massive union strike that lasted months and divided the studio amongst itself, and next, more harrowingly, with the second World War.
The nail in the coffin came after the war, with the advent of Xerox. While there was still some inking and painting to be done, and a few women even made it as animators, the golden age of the women’s contingent at Disney was over. Specific positions weren’t reserved for them anymore, and though some advances had been made, finding a position at Disney, or another studio, was yet again a challenge.
I’d always assumed that the early Disney films I grew up with and loved were products of a total boys club, some voice acting and modeling notwithstanding. Hearing a whole new reason for just how revolutionary “Snow White” and those that followed were can provide such an inspiration for girls this women’s history month.
Backstage Hollywood is still, sadly, a man’s world. I hope that there are more stories out there like that of the women of Disney’s ink and paint department, and that the telling of these tales might open more doors for women in the film industry today.
Related Articles:
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
A Little Bit of History: Walt Disney Studios and Disneyland
“Dreams Come True” in New Orleans
Miyazaki: Master of Animation, Pt. 1
Miyazaki: Master of Animation: Pt. 2