"Toot..."-ing about Mary Schuster!

November 10th, 1953 marked the release of the first animated work completed in Cinemascope — Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom. This Academy Award-winning short was created by the Ward Kimball unit which featured the artistry of an unsung animator on his team — Mary Schuster.

Starting at Disney Studios in 1944, Mary was an Inbetweener and Assistant Animator who worked on such classic Kimball characters as Pecos Bill, Lucifer the Cat from Cinderella (1950), Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland (1951), and the Indian Chief from Peter Pan (1953). Mary also animated on the first animated 3D film, Melody (1953) capping a remarkable tenure within Disney animation!

(Photo, from left to right: Ward Kimball, Mary Schuster, and animator Julius Svendsen, circa 1952, during the production of Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom!)