It is still Sunday evening on the west coast, so I can still say that today Fred Moore would be 103 years old. For a moment I imagined how great it would be to be able to visit him, shake his hand, wish him a happy birthday, and thank him for his incredibly groundbreaking, unparalleled work.
Utopia? Guess what, Bambi’s production designer Tyrus Wong is going to be 104 next month, and I happened to “run into him” yesterday, shook his hand and thanked him for his incredibly groundbreaking, unparalleled work. (I will follow up with birthday wishes on October 25).
Back to Fred, to quote Marc Davis: ”Fred Moore WAS Disney drawing.”
And Ollie Johnston said: ”He couldn’t make a drawing that didn’t have everything in the right place. More beautiful stuff came out of his pencil…it flowed like liquid.”
The charming self portrait above is testament to Ollie’s words.
This vintage photo was taken during the production of the Mickey 1938 short The Brave Little Taylor.
Ollie was doing his first animation ever, on miscellaneous village people, and Fred was mentoring. One of the drawings on the wall in the back is Fred’s sketch of the King from the same short.
Call it spooky, but here is a scan of that drawing, with pinhole and all.
A bit of Fred’s continuity animation with the little sister from Make Mine Music’s “All the Cats Join In”.
A lovely illustration for a greeting card of some sorts.
Happy Birthday, Fred Moore!
To see more Moore art, go to my post celebrating his 100th birthday:
