The Life and Art of Mary Blair - Part Sixteen
Disney History Institute Podcast
Todd James Pierce
4.7 • 606 Ratings
🗓️ 17 August 2025
⏱️ 36 minutes
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Summary
Episode Description:
The story of Mary Blair, the person who is often described as Walt Disney's favorite artist. Part Sixteen.
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Links to the book, Making Mary Poppins
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | So, before we get started today, a quick heads up for the end of this month. |
| 0:06.6 | At the end of August, I'll be at Destination D in Florida. |
| 0:11.1 | Typically, there are announcements at Destination D about the future of the Disney Company |
| 0:15.8 | that we'll talk about here on the podcast. |
| 0:19.8 | But as Destination D happens on Saturday and Sunday, |
| 0:24.8 | this means that I'll be recording most of that episode on Monday. So for that week only, |
| 0:32.8 | our podcast won't post on Sunday night like usual, but will instead post early in the week, |
| 0:40.6 | probably either late on Monday or on Tuesday. So when you don't see the episode at its usual time, |
| 0:48.2 | just remember it will come out instead early in the week. But now on to far more interesting things, especially in |
| 0:57.3 | terms of our series about Disney legend Mary Blair. We are now up to the point where Mary's life |
| 1:04.3 | again is going to expand in terms of the art she creates. We're also at the point where the stylized children |
| 1:13.0 | that she has been drawing or painting for over a dozen years begins to connect with image-conscious |
| 1:20.6 | Americans in the 1950s. We're also going to see how Mary's vision and her abilities as an illustrator begin to expand |
| 1:30.5 | far beyond the world of Hollywood and into other centers of popular American culture in |
| 1:37.1 | the middle of the 20th century. |
| 1:40.0 | That is, we're going to pick up right where we left off last week. |
| 1:44.8 | So if you have all of that, let's go. |
| 1:56.9 | By the start of 1952, Mary was in a very different place than when she lived in California six years earlier. |
| 2:03.6 | She was one of the most successful artists at the Disney Studio, the only one who worked remotely. |
| 2:10.6 | She was now the mother of two young children, and following her success in publishing, she began to expand out her illustration and design |
| 2:19.4 | work for New York-based companies. To understand the level of success that Mary found in 1952, |
| 2:26.9 | it's important to remember the median yearly income for an individual at that time was |
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