Ruthie Thompson: 110 Years of Disney Magic
Today in general, people don’t live to be 100 years old, and living past the age of 100 is even rarer. One person, however, who used to work for the Disney Studios, turned 110 years old on July 22nd of this year. Her name is Ruth “Ruthie” Thompson, and in today’s blog, I thought we could explore her story.
Ruth Thompson was born on July 22nd, 1910 in Portland, Maine. Her family relocated to Los Angeles when she was only eight years old. The Thompsons moved to a house on Kingswell Avenue. Ironically, their house was just a few houses down from the house of Robert Disney, Walt and Roy’s uncle. Walt and Roy started the original Disney Bros. Studio at their uncle’s house and it wasn’t long before they met Ruth and hired her, along with several other of the neighborhood children to be live-action reference models for one of the “Alice” Comedies, which were a series of cartoons that the Disney brothers produced long before Mickey Mouse ever came into the limelight. She also like to play polo at Dubrock’s Riding Academy, which is also where Walt played polo.
In the mid-1930’s, when Walt successfully got his studio off the ground, he made the decision of taking on the ultimate project, producing the very first feature-length cartoon movie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). He hired Ruthie to be an “Inker,” or “Ink-and-Paint,” artist on the film, the one who puts the finishing touches on every drawing in a cartoon movie. After training as an inker, she also trained in the Paint Department and continued working on feature length films such as Pinocchio (1940), Fantasia (1940), and Dumbo (1941). Then she was promoted to the Final Checker position in which she reviewed animation cels before they went into the movie. At the time of WWII, she was promoted again to Animation Checker when she worked on training and educational cartoons for the U.S. Armed Forces starringMickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy. One example is the cartoon Donald in Mathmagic Land (1959), which also came out the same year as Sleeping Beauty, both contributions of Thompson.
Ruthie continued working for Disney in the ‘60s and ‘70s, checking and scene planning for Mary Poppins (1964), The Aristocats (1970), and Robin Hood (1973). She also worked on five episodes of the cartoon television series Popeye the Sailor (1960-1963) and the Winnie the Pooh short, Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too (1974). The very last film she worked on for Disney was The Rescuers (1977) and she retired from Disney after more than 40 years. However, she also worked on United Artist’s animated adaptation of The Lord of the Rings and the Japanese animated film Metamorphoses, both of which were released in 1978. Since her retirement, she has also appeared as an interviewee in documentaries about the early days of the Walt Disney Studios, including the two-part episode about Walt Disney of the PBS series American Experience (2015) and in the web series Not-So Small World just earlier this month.
When Thompson celebrated her milestone birthday on the 22nd, she received a very special celebration at the Motion Picture & Television Fund (MPTF) in Calabasas, California, where she lives. The staff decorated the halls with Disney and the Dodgers (her two favorite things), received a Disney-themed cake, and learned from the MPTF that they planned to dedicate one of their post-production facilities in her name. Disney chairman, Bob Iger, gave her a very special birthday wish when he said “You’re an amazingly talented artist, a courageous pioneer and a true Disney legend. All of us at the Walt Disney Company salute you. Keep smiling!” Thompson was also interviewed for the Disney fan club, D23. When asked if there was any wisdom she’d like to share that she’s accumulated throughout the years, she replied “Have fun. Try to do as much as you can for yourself. Remember all the good things in life.” And there is no doubt that her work helped bring many good things in lots of people’s lives.
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