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Page 10 of 25 |
Cartoon
Menagerie: |
Romance in the Air |
Roy and his bride Edna Francis
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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,
including Lilly
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Touring with the Moon
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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
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