CAREY ORR - WALT'S MENTOR

Last week I mentioned how Walt originally wanted to be a cartoonist, in 1917 when he was back in Chicago doing cartoons for the McKinley High School magazine THE VOICE, he attended night classes at the Chicago Institute of Art. Walt learned cartooning techniques from cartoonists Carey Orr and Leroy Gossitt.

When looking at Walt's early work it is evident that he must have been quite influenced by Orr, when comparing Walt's cartoons for THE VOICE (See pg 3 of illustrations in Bob Thomas' WALT DISNEY: AN AMERICAN ORIGINAL) with the above comic strip by Orr, you can see Walt groping towards that style of drawing. Walt even adds a note "appologies to Orr" at the bottom of the page. Contrary to what some have said Walt clearly had the ability to draw, and had he continued we may now be discussing Walt for a whole different set of achievements.

What I find quite reassuring is that Walt started out like all other artists, trying to find his voice and eventually did, moving beyond his humble beginnings.

I looked up Carey Orr online and found the following :


CAREY ORR (1890 - 1967) was an editorial cartoonist for the Chicago Tribune, and creator of the comic strip Kernel Cootie. He won a Pulitzer for his editorial cartoons in 1961, and was also the uncle of Apple Mary creator Martha Orr.


The above artwork being offered by the LEWIS WAYNE GALLERY on e-bay, was drawn in 1921 at which point Walt was already at Film Ad and starting up Laugh-O-Grams.

MICKEY SUNDAY part 13

It's interesting to consider for a moment that Walt's original dream was to become a newspaper cartoonist, after being rejected he discovered animation and the rest is history. Although he really didn't get too involved with the comic strip department, he accomplished that youthful dream in a kind of round about way.

MICKEY SUNDAY part 12

THE RELUCTANT DRAGON

Among the first photos I e-mailed Didier Ghez a couple of years ago were behind the scenes photos from THE RELUCTANT DRAGON. I recently added this one to my collection, the snipe on the reverse reads:

"In 'THE RELUCTANT DRAGON', which Walt Disney is making for RKO Radio, the famed creator of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck uses live action actors for the first time. Robert Benchley, star of the film, and Disney are pictured here on Benchley's first tour of the cartoon studio where Benchley met artists and learned how animated movies are made. 'THE RELUCTANT DRAGON' relates Benchley's adventures in studio, including screening of cartoon he has seen in process of creation."

Incidently, Robert Benchley was the grandfather of JAWS author Peter Benchley, and was himself renowned for his own series of short films which satirized contemporary life at the time, see KINO Video's ROBERT BENCHLEY AND THE KNIGHTS OF THE ALGONQUIN.

ADDED JULY 1: Can anybody confirm that that is Ken Anderson on Walt's left?

MICKEY SUNDAY part 11

WALT & NORMAN ROCKWELL part 2

Over the weekend I picked up a small book about Norman Rockwell by Karal Ann Marling and published by TASCHEN books. Inside I found the very picture I was referring to in my post of May 22.

MICKEY SUNDAY part 10

I thought I'd put up two strips this week, I figured with the amount of strips I've collected it will take me 3 years to post all at a rate of one per week. I hope people are enjoying them.

These strips certainly are a product of their times, every now and then there is something politically incorrect by today's standards, as in the strip above. I doubt however there were any mean spirited intentions when the strip was created.