Animator Bob McCrea, born on December 5, 1911, in Michigan, spent forty years at Disney, starting with Snow White in 1937 through The Rescuers in 1977. Afterwards, he became an animation instructor at CalArts from 1977 until 1986, the last four years as the head of the School of Character Animation. He passed away on July 1, 1995.
DAVE SMITH: Let’s just start chronologically and find out when you started here and why you came.
BOB MCCREA: It was a matter of the Depression, primarily. I was born in Minnesota and went to art school there in Chicago. I worked at the World’s Fair in Chicago, in the early Thirties, when I was in my early twenties, both years. But that seemed to be about the only work there was in Chicago. In fact, the advertising industries were just folding one after another.
DS: Was that the type of work you were looking for?
BM: In those days it was almost any kind. I was primarily interested in graphics. Not so much characters; graphic design. There just wasn’t much of that type of things around. I did a few jobs for magazines there, but…
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