James Bodrero
James Spalding Pompeo Bodrero was, in the words of a brief biography sent soon after his death to Michael Barrier by his daughter Lydia Hoy, “born in Belgium, where his father, a Captain in the Italian Bersaglieri, was his country’s military attaché. His mother was the granddaughter of a Nantucket whaling captain, one of the first Americans to settle in Hawaii before the arrival of the missionaries. His early schooling was in Europe and USA, with summers spent on [his grandparents’] sugar plantation in Hawaii.”
In other words, Jim Bodrero differed considerably from most of the other people who worked at the Disney Studio when he did (1938-1946). He was older—older than Walt Disney himself—and vastly more sophisticated and socially well-connected. He married in 1926; his wife, Eleanor Cole, was, in their daughter’s words, “from a prominent pioneer family and granddaughter of Cornelius Cole, first Senator from California.” (In case that name sounds familiar: Corny Cole, the animator and designer, was Bodrero’s nephew by marriage.) The Bodreros lived in southern California’s loveliest cities—Santa Barbara, San Marino, Pasadena—and their names turned up in the society columns of the Los Angeles Times. […]
Parent contents
- Parent entry
- 1 - Ruth Disney Beecher (Dave Smith)
- 2 - Les Clark (Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston)
- 3 - Harry Tytle (Richard Hubler)
- 4 - James Bodrero
- 5 - Sylvia Holland - as remembered by Theo Halladay (Robin Allan)
- 6 - Retta Scott (Robin Allan)
- 7 - Retta Davidson (Jim Korkis)
- 8 - Retta Davidson (Floyd Norman)
- 9 - Moe Gollub - as remembered by Mark Kirkland (Steve Hulett)
- 10 - Ben Sharpsteen (Richard Hubler)
- 11 - Lou Debney (David Tietyen)
- 12 - Jim Macdonald (David Tietyen)
- 13 - Charles Wolcott (David Tietyen)
- 14 - Bill Cottrell (Richard Hubler)
- 15 - Herb Ryman (Richard Hubler)
- 16 - Donn Tatum (Richard Hubler)
- 17 - Card Walker (Richard Hubler)
- 18 - Bob Sherman (Richard Hubler)
- 19 - Dolores Voght (Richard Hubler)
- 20 - Tommie Wilck (Richard Hubler)
- 21 - Welton Becket (Richard Hubler)
- 22 - Bill Anderson (John G. West)
- 23 - Robert Stevenson (Richard Hubler)
- 24 - Don Griffith (Christopher Finch, Linda Rosenkrantz)
- 25 - Floyd Gottfredson (Jim Korkis)
- 26 - Floyd Gottfredson (Tony Fischier)
- 27 - Al Taliaferro (Jim Korkis)
- 28 - Jack Hannah (Jim Korkis)
- 29 - Carl Barks (Jim Fanning)
- 30 - Blaine Gibson (Paul F. Anderson)
- 31 - Harriet Burns (Scott Wolf)
- 32 - Roy E. Disney (Charles Solomon)
- 33 - Correspondence with Frank Thomas (Göran Broling)
- 34 - Bud Hester (Didier Ghez)
- 35 - Ken Southworth (Didier Ghez)
- 36 - Dale Baer (Didier Ghez)
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