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Page 10 of 25 Cartoon Menagerie: Romance in the Air

Roy and his bride Edna Francis

Roy and his bride Edna Francis

Meanwhile, Roy was yearning for Edna Francis, the girl he had begun seeing back in Kansas City when he and Walt were living in the family house on Bellefontaine. Roy was a bank teller at the time and had been holding off on marrying Edna until he advanced a little in his career. After he became ill and was sent out west to recuperate, several years passed before they could be together again. As Roy recalled it, his period living with Walt ended with a dispute over dinner. "I used to go home early to take a nap in the afternoon," he said, "and then come back to the studio and work a couple of hours, then go on home to prepare something for dinner. Well, [Walt] just walked out on my meal one night, and I said, 'OK, to hell with you. If you don't like my cooking, let's quit this business.' So I wrote my girl in Kansas City and suggested she come out and we get married, which she did. And she and I were married on April 12, 1925." The wedding, naturally, was at Uncle Robert's house.
Walt had a girlfriend of his own -- and just three months later, he too would be married. That girl was Lillian Bounds. Her memories of meeting Walt were more concerned with proximity and commerce than romance. "I had come down from Idaho," said Lilly, "and this [girl I knew] came down and said, 'Would you like a job?'  I'm working for these two fellows up here and they need somebody to fill in the ink [in cartoons].' Lilly said yes." Her friend said, 'Well, you can come, if you won't vamp the boss!' 
But soon enough, Walt was interested in the quiet, pretty girl who was working for him. He drove her and another employee home at night -- and was always careful to drop the other girl off first. Lilly would tell stories about life in Idaho with nine sisters and brothers, and Walt was fascinated. He loved her tales of pioneering grandparents. But for some time, Walt turned down Lilly's suggestions that he meet her family. He was embarrassed by his old, worn-out clothes. When he and Roy finally saved up enough to buy new suits he was ready to call on her. "How do you like my new suit?" he asked Lilly's sister Hazel and her husband. And so began the courtship. He immediately liked Lilly's family; they were a singing, laughing bunch, somewhat like the family of his childhood friend Walt Pfeiffer, and Walt basked in their warmth. They liked him in turn.
Walt and his employees,

Walt and his employees,
including Lilly

Touring with the Moon

Touring with the Moon 

About this time Walt bought a secondhand Moon automobile, and he'd take Lilly driving through the orange groves and to dinner at a tearoom on Hollywood Boulevard. Their first big date was to see the musical "No, No, Nanette." 
    Meanwhile, back at the office, Walt and Roy repeatedly asked Lilly if she'd please not cash her $15 paycheck. "I happily did so," she said. "I'd keep them. I didn't need them. I'd put them away and then they would use that little bit of money to pay their expenses." Years later, Lilly reported that "he said he married me because he got so far in debt to me." Walt proposed shortly after Roy announced his plans to marry Edna. In home movies of Roy's wedding, one is struck by Walt and Lilly; they are not the center of attention here, and, unconcerned about prying eyes or cameras, are the model of a young couple in love.
They went to Lewiston, Idaho, to get married at her brother's house. He was the town's fire chief and had a parlor large enough for the wedding. Lilly, who giggled throughout, wore a lavender dress. Walt presented her with a little white-gold ring with a half-dozen tiny diamonds in it. After the wedding, they honeymooned at Mount Rainier, where from the look of photos that have been preserved of the occasion they were a rather elegant couple. Back in Los Angeles, however, their life was far from elegant. Their first home was a small, one-room apartment with a view of an alley. But they were happy. Though Walt was not known to outsiders as a physically demonstrative man, family members recalled that he never entered his home without hugging and kissing Lilly hello. Still, Lilly had to learn that a marriage to Walt Disney meant a marriage to the studio as well. In the evening, the newly married couple might go out for fun with Roy and Edna or by themselves. But eventually Walt would always return to the office. While Walt worked, Lilly slept on the couch. When it was time to go home, perhaps one or two in the morning, Walt would awaken her, lying about the time.. The happy newlyweds

The happy newlyweds

 
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