Born: Mary Browne Robinson
Birthday: October 21, 1911
Location: McAlester, OK, U.S.
Nationality: American
Alma mater: Chouinard Art Institute
Occupation: Animator, Producer
Years active: 1933–1967
Died: July 26, 1978

Mary Blair was born Mary Browne Robinson on October 21, 1911 in McAlester, Oklahoma. Drawing from an early age, Mary and her family moved first to Texas, and then to Morgan Hill, California in the early 1920s.

She attended San José State University from 1929 to 1931, and earned a scholarship to study at the Chouinard School of Art in Los Angeles by the age of 20. Mary specialized in watercolor painting when she graduated from Chouinard in 1933 at the height of the Depression. Rather than follow her fine art and illustration dream, she took her first professional job at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s animation unit.

Mary and fellow artist, Lee Blair wed in 1934 (making animator Preston Blair her the brother-in-law). She and Lee became members of the California School of Watercolor where she rapidly established herself as an imaginative colorist and designer, exhibiting at renowned venues such as the Los Angeles Museum, San Francisco World Fair, and Chicago Art Institute.

She left MGM to join husband Lee at the Ub Iwerks studio but quickly chafed against the studio system, where she lacked the artistic freedom to pursue her fine art and illustration. Rejecting the animation industry, she retreated to her home to take up serious painting.

By 1938, Lee was working at Walt Disney Animation Studios and only a short time later, Disney tried to recruit Mary to join the team. After some prodding by Lee, she reluctantly accepted a position at Disney on April 11, 1940. There, she created story sketches for Dumbo, an early version of Lady and the Tramp, and a proposed second version of Fantasia titled “Baby Ballet” (unreleased until the late 1990s). Mary resigned from Disney on June 13, 1941, unsatisfied with the work assignments and frustrated at her inability to express her own artistic vision.

Only a month later, Lee brought her news that Walt Disney announced he was taking a small group of studio artists on a two-month research tour of South America as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor policy. Mary quickly made an appointment with Walt, who rehired her on August 8th, 1941 and agreed that she could join the tour along with her husband.

The Blairs traveled to various South American countries including Argentina, Bolivia, and Brazil with Walt Disney, Lillian Disney and several other artists. Mary captured a wide variety of unique Latin people and landscapes in her own style while on the tour.

Inspired by the tropical vistas, local dress, and decorative arts she’d encountered on her trip, Mary returned to the studio with an newfound enthusiasm for vivid color and a simplified stylization bordering on the abstract. Her imaginative and expressive work captured Walt’s attention, and he assigned her as the art supervisor for The Three Caballeros and Saludos Amigos, while the paintings of children she made during the tour would eventually become the foundation of Disneyland’s It’s a Small World ride.

Mary worked on shorts, package films, and features including Song of the South in 1946, So Dear to My Heart, Melody Time, Make Mine Music, and The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad.

Disney was so enthralled by Mary’s talent, when the Blairs left California in 1946 for Great Neck, New York, Walt kept her employed by the studio, flying back and forth to visit her there and bring her back to California for important meetings.

For Cinderella, she sketched concepts of the lead characters, like Cinderella and Prince Charming, as well as designing the backgrounds. Her work was so thorough, she drew 24 sketches for Walt’s favorite animated segment where Cinderella’s rags are transformed into a sparkling ball gown. She continued providing the color styling for Alice in Wonderland, Susie the Little Blue Coupe, The Little House, and Peter Pan.

After a decade at Disney, Blair resigned and founded Film/TV Graphics Inc. with her husband. Together, they produced animated films for television commercials as well as training and education. Mary also illustrated children’s books and designed stage sets for Radio City Music Hall.

She and Lee moved back to California, residing in Soquel, where Mary eventually passed away in 1978.

To honor her for introducing modernist art styles into Walt Disney’s studio, Mary Blair was named a Disney Legend in 1991, and in 1996, she posthumously received the Winsor McCay Award from ASIFA-Hollywood.