John Lounsbery - Disney's Nine Old Men

John Lounsbery (March 9, 1911 - February 13, 1976) was hired at Disney on July 2, 1935. Times were tough, and any job was a good job. Still, his starting salary was only $12 a week. Not much to live on, especially for someone with hopes of getting married. So it was that John would draw for Disney during the day and work for Sears department store at night.

Don Graham, instructor for the studio's evening art school, saw that Lounsbery had talent. He got the young artist a raise so he could quit his night job. By December, John and his fiance, Florence were married.

The newlyweds, 1935...

John became an assistant to Norm Ferguson with whom he worked on several Pluto shorts. Lounsbery's strong draftsman skills shown through as he developed quickly under his mentor. For his assignment on Snow White, John continued with Ferguson as they tackled the all-important Old Witch character. A few of the scenes he was given included working over the rotoscoped drawings of the Witch atop the cliff...

Her poling the boat across the lake...

And the feigned heart attack...

Lounsbery was also asked to animate on his own the scene where the Witch exits her dungeon down through a trap door in the floor...

As an assistant, he was given no screen credit in the film. Yet, thanks to Ferguson, Walt was made aware of John's hard work on the movie's evil villain. As a result, Lounsbery did receive a nice financial bonus.

Pictured below, John working at his drawing board on Fantasia (with Leopold Stokowski)...

And on Mickey and the Beanstalk...

John Lounsbery photos via John Canemaker's Walt Disney's Nine Old Men and the Art of Animation, 2001.

Snow White image scans copyright Disney.

John continued as an animator at the studio until 1973 when he was moved into directing. It was a position he didn't really seem to enjoy. He would pass away three years later.

Further reading:

• Andreas Deja's Deja View
• Disney Legends: Bio
• 50 Most Influential Disney Animators: John Lounsbery

The Nine Old Men

1958 Photo: left to right, Kimball, Larson, Thomas, Davis, Johnston, Clark, Kahl, Lounsbery, Reitherman

Much has been written about the Nine Old Men and their larger-than-life animation achievements. These were not the first talented artists to work for the Disney Studio, yet they certainly became it's creative core for more than 40 years.

Probably the most definitive work on these 'conquistadors' of the Golden Age is John Canemaker's book, Walt Disney's Nine Old Men and the Art of Animation (Disney Editions, 2001, ISBN-10: 0786864966).

Front Cover

Canemaker recounts how Walt jokingly nicknamed this dream team after President Roosevelt's description of his contentious 1937 Supreme Court, "nine old men, all too aged to recognize a new idea."

Newspaper Cartoon, February 9, 1937, Brooklyn Citizen via New Deal Network.

Of course, the animators were neither old nor afraid of new ideas. Quite the opposite, they would be the leaders, taking the art of animation to new heights.

The Nine Old Men were:

• Les Clark (joined Disney February 23, 1927)
• Wolfgang Reitherman (May 21, 1933)
• Eric Larson (June 1, 1933)
• Ward Kimball (April 2, 1934)
• Milt Kahl (June 25, 1934)
• Frank Thomas (September 24, 1934)
• Ollie Johnston (January 21, 1935)
• John Lounsbery (July 2, 1935)
• Marc Davis (December 2, 1935)

1972 Photo: left to right, Kahl, Reitherman, Davis, Clark, Thomas, Kimball, Larson, Lounsbery, Johnston

Animator Les Clark was the first to be hired in early 1927. The rest of the group came in between 1933-35, just as things were heating up for the making of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. From 1935-37, all nine of the very young "old men" would be involved.

Throughout this month, we'll take a closer look at what each contributed to the film and in what capacity they served the animation factory that was the Disney Studio of the late 1930s.

Further reading:

• "2002 Interview with John Canemaker" at The Laughing Place
• "Walt's Nine Old Men" from A Day in Disney History