By Allen Bacon
Editor
Bosco The Blog
I never personally met Ollie Johnston. But, as many others in the world, I knew Ollie Johnston.
I knew Ollie Johnston when my Aunt Doretta took my brother and I to see Bambi at the Fox Theatre in Fullerton where I cried and was heart broken when Bambi's mother was shot and killed by hunters.
I knew Ollie Johnston when I went to the theatre in Macon, Missouri and saw Jungle Book with my friends Gary Sights and Tina Tucker and laughed at the antics of Mobly and the gang.
I knew Ollie Johnston as my friends and I were amazed (and some maybe a little stoned) at the re-release of Fantasia in 1977.
I knew Ollie Johnston when my little daughter Nadia ran out of the theatre frightened from the images from Pinocchio.
Ollie Johnston died earlier this week at the age of 95. He was the last of the so-called "Nine Old Men" (who actually started while they were in their 20's) who set the standards and wrote the books for animation while working with Walt Disney at his studio.
In addition to the animated full-length features that were previously mentioned, Johnston with his eight co-animators created Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Snow White, Lady and the Tramp, Sleeping Beauty, 101 Dalmations, Mary Poppins, The Aristocats, Robin Hood and The Rescuers.
After Johnston and co-animator Frank Thomas, who died in 2004 at the age of 92 retired in 1978 they lectured at schools in America and Europe and co-authored several books on animation which many animators today believe are the animators bible. There was even a 1995 documentary on the two entitled Frank and Ollie.
Of course, as was Walt Disney's way, he paid the men that would give us so many hours of animated pleasure hardly anything in compensation while he and the Disney shareholders made literally millions on the underpaid talent. At one time in the 1930's the animators were paid only $17 a week for the many hours they spent.
Services for Ollie Johnston will be private.
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