Mary Blair: Mid-Century Magic

Last weekend I traveled to San Francisco to see The Walt Disney Family Museum’s special exhibition, Mary Blair: Mid Century Magic.

Walt Disney was such an admirer of Mary’s that the two paintings shown on the wall below hung in the Disney home. Her style had a strong influence on the studios films of the 1940s and 50s.

Mary began her career at Disney creating concept art for Dumbo and an unfinished segment for a Fantasia sequel, Baby Ballet.

In 1941, Mary was a member of El Grupo, a team of artists that traveled to Latin America with Walt Disney to absorb the culture, collect ideas, and inspiration for films to help strengthen the bond between the USA and Latin America during WWII. This trip would result in Sauldos Amigos (1942) and The Three Caballeros (1944).

El Grupo consisted of 17 members including: Walt and Lillian Disney, Frank Thomas, Herb Ryman, Norm Ferguson, and Mary’s husband, Lee.

No one was more inspired by the trip than Mary. The people, culture, customs, and colors had a profound effect on her. She went from an artist inspired by her peers, to discovering her own distinctive style. Her work became more colorful, stylized, with a childlike quality. Walt was so impressed he appointed her as one of the Art Supervisors on Saludos Amigos.

World War II caused major changes at the Disney studio. Walt was commissioned by the US Military to produce training and propaganda films. The studio also had a smaller pool of artists as many had enlisted. This forced the Walt to produce cheaper “Package Films” throughout the 1940s. These anthology films were made up of several short subjects which were more cost effective as they did not require special effects or attempts to break new ground in the field of animation.

While the animators were also enamored with Mary’s work, they had a hard time adapting her flat paintings into their three dimensional films, but her style can still be seen in the Melody Time (1948) segments, Once Upon A Winter Time and Johnny Appleseed.

She also contributed to the Sleepy Hollow portion of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949).

After World War II, the studio had the resources to produce feature films, Mary helped set the tone for Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951), and Peter Pan (1953).

After Peter Pan, Mary moved to New York, but Walt allowed her to remain on the payroll, giving her assignments, and visiting her on Long Island to see her work. She would also work as a freelance graphic designer creating advertising campaigns for Nabisco and Pall Mall Cigarettes. Mary also designed sets for Radio City Music Hall and illustrated Golden Books during this time.

She would return to Disney at Walt’s request to help design “It’s A Small World” for the 1964 New York World’s Fair. Mary worked closely with Rolly Crump and Alice Davis on the project which was relocated to Disneyland after the fair. In 1965 she appeared on camera with Walt for a television episode celebrating Disneyland’s 10 Anniversary. In the segment, Mary shows off a model of Small World’s exterior facade.

In 1966 Walt asked Mary to design a tile mural for the children’s waiting room of the Jules Stein Eye Institute. She would create similar murals for Disneyland and Walt Disney World’s Contemporary Resort.

Mary Blair:Mid-Century Magic celebrates her entire career, with over 150 pieces of original art. One of my favorites was a piece Walt Disney commissioned her to paint for actress/singer Carmen Miranda.

The exhibition features sections dedicated to her Latin American pieces, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Small World, and freelance work.

The day I visited, Disney historian and author John Canemaker was there to speak about Mary’s career with her niece Maggie Richardson.

Maggie had wonderful stories to share about her aunt, but my favorite had to be about the time she met Walt Disney. Mary’s sons were visiting Maggie’s family and they decided to go to Disneyland. Mary arranged for them to meet Walt at the studio. Walt gave them a tour of his office, ate with them in the studio commissary. When he found out they planned on taking the city bus to the park, gave them to keys to a studio car.

The exhibition runs until September 7th, I highly recommend checking it out.