Female Animation Pioneer held Numerous Animation Jobs
by Kirk Bangstad
kirk.bangstad@animationschoolreview.com
Animation School Review Columnist
All Roads Led Back to Disney
In the ’40s, there definitely weren’t a lot of women getting animation jobs, but Retta Davidson was an exception. She started working at Disney right out of high school as a painter on the feature film Pinocchio. Because of her experience, she was one of the lucky women selected for advancement when there was a shortage of men for animation jobs due to WWII. Davidson actually refused this opportunity and enlisted in the Navy for four years.
When her tour of duty was over, Davidson came back to Disney and began the second of her many different jobs in animation as an assistant animator. She left Disney in 1966 to work as a freelancer for animated commercials in Hollywood and eventually became an animation teacher in Canada. Throughout these many different jobs in animation, Davidson eventually returned to Disney in the early ’80s to train young animators working on the film The Black Cauldron. After all these years in the field of animation, Davidson herself finally became a head animator at Disney, where she stayed until retirement.
An Inspirational Career
The fact that Davidson moved through a fair number of animation jobs throughout her career might be due to the fact that advancement as a woman in these early years of animation was tough. As difficult as it may have been, Davidson eventually reached the top of her field and was able to earn a living by following her dreams. Today’s women with jobs in animation can look to Retta Davidson’s pioneering career for inspiration.
Source
About the Author
Kirk Bangstad is a singer living in Chicago, IL. Having received his B.A. in Government at Harvard, Kirk previously worked as a management consultant.
