Yes my dad “Tony D’Orazi” aka Tony O’dare, was one of the first cartoonists for Walt Disney for the first animated movie for Disney “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”. In the notes that I was given by my mom twelve years ago, two years prior to her passing, my father wrote about the time he spent with Walt Disney in 1935. At that time, he saw an ad that Disney needed an In-Between Artist” for their first 80 minute animated film. It was an ad to become one of their first animators for their new film. He wrote about how when he got to Hollywood, he was excited about this opportunity to become one of four first cartoonist artists that would create the character Dopey for this first 80 minute animated film., “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”. Walt Disney had only done short animated films, up until this time. When my dad Tony got there, he found that Walt Disney only had 4 openings and had a 1000 applicants. He was really surprised. But, he was determined, and he was chosen to be one of the first four cartoonists, (In -Between Artists) for the movie “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. He mentioned that his supervisor at Walt Disney was a gentleman whose name was a man named Mr. Drake. And he told my dad Walt Disney always had taken their art and cartooning very seriously. He wrote that Walt Disney said he put all his artists back in school again.
Everyone always has asked me what is an In-Between Artist? An In -Between Artist , which was also called “inbetweening” is a term that was used to describe the artists who would generate the frames of animation between two key frames in order to give the appearance that the first image flows smoothly into the second image. This could be seven or ten drawings in between two positions. I didn’t realize this until I met a two retired artist employees that had just retired from Walt Disney, in Burbank, California, and they fully explained to me what an In-Between Artist and and what they did. They actually currently own a restaurant called John Sparr in Montrose, California. After that steak dinner there, I looked it up.
This was before the age of computer animation. For example it could be a number of pages that are flipped through from one body’s muscle position to the next position. This was done by flipping through the pages, from one cell to another.
Tony D’Orazi, felt this would be right down his alley, since he had already been the first famous celebrity radio cartoonist in Chicago in 1933 and 1934, teaching kids how to draw cartoons. At that time, his radio show was number one in the ratings This was when WGN Radio became a radio station in Chicago, and when radio first came out, before the age of Television. My dad Tony, was working with legendary Disney animator Art Babbitt. Tony said in his notes, that he really learned a lot from Art Babbitt. Also Tony’s training instructor who picked my dad to be one of the four first cartoonists, was Don Graham, who was known for establishing many of the principles that became the foundations of the animation process for Walt Disney would be made famous for. Tony mentioned that Don Graham, showed him how to make a drawing solid. He said he was an amazing artist and cartoonist.
Can you imagine, during Tony’s training in order to be chosen as one of the original cartoonists, for this Snow White Movie, my dad was making $10.00 per week during his initial trial period, and after he got the job with the other three cartoonists , he got a raise to $37.50 per week. That was lot of money back then. This entire story is all in the book. I thought I would share this experience my dad wrote about. Remember. this was all taken from his actual notes, he left behind, that I discovered about 12 years ago. He began his diaries in 1932.
All I know after all these years that have gone by, I am really proud of my father Tony D’Orazi, and all his accomplishments he had with Walt Disney.
I never realized until I wrote this story how famous my dad was, especially since he had been involved with Walt Disney’s first highest grossing film of all time in Walt Disney history, and was very instrumental in creating the character Dopey for the famous Walt Disney Film. I hope you enjoy or will the story, “The In Between Artist” in the future. I sure enjoyed writing this story, even though it took me five years to complete. I achieved my dream, being able to write this story, and actually getting to know how great my dad really was in his lifetime. To think that my dad actually toured the USA in Vaudeville and had shows in 37 states , and had one of Chicago’s top radio shows in Chicago, prior to his opportunity with Walt Disney. What a great life Tony D’Orazi , my dad had, and what a great cartoonist and artist he was during his lifetime. Thanks dad for leaving your notes behind!
It was truly worth all the hours I spent during the last six years putting this book together!
