So today on the podcast, we continue our story of Disney legend, Mary Blair.

In recent episodes, we explored Mary's work on It's a Small World, both the version

for the New York World's Fair and an expanded version for Disneyland.

We took a look at how New York advertising and children's publishing were changing in the early

1960s, basically

moving away from the type of expressive illustrations that defined Mary's career, and we were

starting to look at how Mary's career would evolve as a result of changing tastes and

commercial illustration. Initially, Walt set up a meeting for Mary

with the New York Metropolitan Opera for work on set design, but employment there involved

union affiliation which Mary did not have. And that there leads us right in to today's episode.

After the Metropolitan Opera passed on Mary's services, she looked for other ways to continue her career in New York.

I'd like to do a book on color for children, she explained, and I'd like to make it amusing

rather than educational. But this project never found traction, in part because the visual

center of children's books like that of New York advertising had moved away from the bright

direct illustrations that defined Mary's style. It was Walt who once again found a way to further

Mary's career. His solution involved a public arts installation in Los Angeles. For the past two years, Jules Stein, president of the Talent Agency MCA, along with Waltz's

personal friend at architect Welton Beckett, had been developing a research institute for

eye diseases and dysfunctions at UCLA.

They had been joined by celebrity donors such as Alfred Hitchcock, Bob Hope, and

Jack Benny. The institute would have research areas, 11 examining rooms for adult patients, and a

wing for children. Walt, in addition to donating money, had volunteered to provide a mural and other

artistic decorations for the children's

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