What's in a Name?

December 2nd, 1935, Marc Davis began working at Walt Disney Studios. Starting as an Inbetweener, Marc quickly advanced to assist Grim Natwick on his animation of Snow White for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Marc's superior draftsmanship led him to become one of Walt Disney's legendary "Nine Old Men" of Animation, designing and animating many of the studio's leading ladies including: Snow White, Cinderella, Alice, Tinker Bell, Aurora, Maleficent, Cruella DeVil...and more!

Shortly before his father passed, he took Marc to see a Disney animated short and told Marc this was what he should be doing with his talent. By 1933, at just 20 years old, Marc was already a superior artist. At the height of the Depression, and now the breadwinner for his widowed mother, Marc sent his portfolio to Disney Studios for consideration.

After a few weeks, he received a form letter addressed to "Miss Marcia Davis," from a man who was in charge of handling job requests, stating: "Disney was not hiring women at the present time," noted Marc's wife, Alice. "And they would let 'her' know if and when they decided to hire women because they liked 'her' portfolio very much." Not knowing that the French spelling of "Marc" was with a "c," this early studio recruiter presumed Marc was a girl. "Marc was so angry," Alice recalled. "He wadded the letter up and threw it in the wastepaper basket."

Two years later, on December 2nd, 1935, Marc was hired the very day he brought his portfolio in to Disney Studios to apply for a job. For the course of these two years, Marc was stunned that the Studio would have made such an aggregious error, but as Alice later recalled: "When Marc met the man who sent the letter to him, Marc finally understood why, because he was not the brightest person."