Love is in the air this Valentine’s Day! The Walt Disney Company is no stranger to this concept, as many of the most famous and important men and women to have ever graced the halls of Disney have wound up marrying one another.
Here are five of the most legendary Disney couples:
Lillian and Walt Disney
You know we couldn’t leave out the most legendary of all Disney couples this Valentine’s Day! Lillian worked as a secretary for the Ink and Paint Department beginning in 1923, although she was also an artist herself. The creation of Mickey Mouse is credited to Walt and Ub Iwerks, after the duo lost the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit to Universal Pictures. However, Disney’s original name for the character was Mortimer Mouse. It was not until a cross-country train ride from New York to California in 1928 that Lillian, thinking it sounded “too formal,” suggested the name Mickey Mouse instead.
The rest, as we all know, is history. The couple were married from 1923 until Walt’s death in 1966, serving as the bedrock for all of the company’s miraculous creations.
Marie and Ollie Johnston
Marie and Ollie Johnston were both the creative type, which is why they found themselves working as Disney artists in the early 40s when they met, Ollie as an animator and Marie as an ink and paint artist. Ollie was one of the legendary “Nine Old Men,” the team of animators behind the studio’s biggest hits from the 30s all the way into the 80s. The work of these animators was then brought to life through the efficient and meticulous work of the Ink and Paint Department, whose artists traced and filled in their drawings with the proper coloring on celluloid sheets.
A lifelong lover of trains, Ollie bought and restored a full-sized Porter steam locomotive in the 60s, which he affectionately named Marie E. In honor of Ollie and Marie, the Marie E. ran on the Disneyland Railroad in 2005, with Ollie himself at the throttle. This marked the first time any outside railway equipment was used on Disney property.
Ollie and Marie (neé Worthey), married in 1943, had two children, and were together for 63 years, before Marie’s passing.
Alice and Marc Davis
Speaking of the “Nine Old Men,” Marc Davis was another one of Disney’s brilliant animators who married a fellow Disney artist. Marc and Alice met in the early 50s, when Marc was a professor of an animation class at the prestigious Chouinard Art Institute, which Alice was attending. Although they did not form a romantic relationship at this time, Alice’s skills were apparent to Marc, who reached out to her a few years later for help on a little Disney project called Sleeping Beauty. Their connection now undeniable, they married in June of 1956.
Marc did a little bit of everything at Disney, leading Walt himself to give him the nickname “Renaissance Man.” His animation work could be seen on pictures like Cinderella, Peter Pan, Snow White, Alice in Wonderland, and One Hundred and One Dalmatians, while he also designed some of the prominent characters on major attractions like “The Enchanted Tiki Room,” “The Jungle Cruise,” and “The Haunted Mansion.”
Alice’s mark was made in costume design. You can still appreciate her work in attractions like “It’s a Small World,” the “Carousel of Progress,” and “Pirates of the Caribbean.” She designed 47 costumes for “Pirates of the Caribbean,” and a whopping 150+ for “It’s a Small World!” Her AA (Audio-Animatronic) costume manufacturing area, refurbishing technique, and quality control system, are still used by Imagineers today.
Marc and Alice were named Disney Legends in 1989 and 2004, respectively. You can see their names side by side on the Main Street windows of Disneyland. Now that’s couple goals!
Mary and Lee Blair
Mary Blair was one of the most uniquely talented artists and designers ever employed by the Walt Disney Company. Her use of modernist visual concepts was groundbreaking for its time, as films like Peter Pan, Cinderella, and Alice in Wonderland would not have been as successful without her color styling. Perhaps her pièce de résistance was her 90-foot Grand Canyon Concourse mural in the Contemporary Hotel in Disney World, complete with a five-legged goat!
Mary’s husband, Lee, was also an accomplished artist in his time. Believe it or not, the Olympic Games once featured artistic categories, with Lee taking home the gold medal in watercolor and drawings in Los Angeles in 1932. He and Mary were both students at the Chouinard Art Institute, and were married by 1934. They famously took a trip with Walt himself to several South American countries in 1941, in order to conduct research for upcoming projects like The Three Caballeros. His impressionistic watercoloring appeared in other projects as well, such as Fantasia and Pinocchio.
Talk about a power couple. Honor Mary with this fan club tee!
Leota and Harvey Toombs
Leota and Harvey Toombs were two of the brightest stars at Disney in their time. Leota, like many of the prominent female designers and animators in the company’s history, began in the Ink and Paint department. She was only there for a few years, however, moving on to the animation department; she was one of Disney’s first female animators! Continuing to break new ground later on in her career, she was also one of the company’s first female Imagineers, a title she gained in 1962. You can still appreciate her modeling and design work in attractions like “It’s a Small World,” “Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln,” the “Country Bear Jamboree,” the “Enchanted Tiki Room,” and “Pirates of the Caribbean.” You will also never forget her face, for she plays the part of Madame Leota in the “Haunted Mansion” ride.
Harvey Toombs met Leota when she was in the Ink and Paint department, and the couple married in 1947. As an animator, he had the privilege of training under the “Nine Old Men,” which led to his stellar work on projects like Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, The Sword in the Stone, Mary Poppins, and The Jungle Book.
The Toombs family is pure royalty when it comes to the history of Disney, as one of Harvey and Leota’s daughters, Kim Irvine, currently serves as the Executive Creative Director of Walt Disney Imagineering. We know where she gets it from!
Honor Leota with this fan club tee!
Happy Valentine’s Day from Oswald & Sons!
