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Every now and again – through all of the mostly constant and miserable noise that passes for our current daily lives in the time of a global pandemic – a story presents itself to our jaded and cynical selves that gives us pause and reverts our Better Nature back to more simpler and gentle times when the days were longer and more sun drenched and our collective dispositions weren’t so…complicated. Such is the case today as we celebrate the 110th birthday of living Disney legend, Ruthie Tompson.
Ruthie is one of the background figures in the history of Disney Studios, known mostly to diligent students of the great history of animation who have long recognized and celebrated her as the living, breathing cultural treasure she is: Born on July 22, 1910 in the quiet burg of Portland, Maine (population for Portland in 1910, now one of the major cities in the United States? A slim 58, 571), this creative youth didn’t sit idly by chowing down on lobster rolls; instead, at the tender age of eight, she and her family trekked out to a young and shiny Los Angeles and promptly sat down stakes just down the street from an impossibly youthful Walt and Roy Disney. Keep in mind that 1918 was Nascent Career Time for the Disney brothers, with the first Mickey Mouse cartoon – Steamboat Willie – still ten years in the future. As Ruthie grew older and her talent for capturing figures with a Number Two pencil blossomed into a real gift, the Disney’s were quietly sitting up their first studio in their uncle’s garage. Ruthie, ever the budding artist, would remember in later years sitting on an apple box next to the two young men as they unknowingly began planting the seeds that would grow and flourish in a million and one ways that they never could have anticipated. That didn’t matter to Ruthie, though. The two were already confirmed heroes in her mind’s eye and it would take nothing less than a call from God or her own mother to cajole her away from her de facto chair, her head full of dreams to the exclusion of the hot dinner her mother had waiting for her back at home.
This early form of innocent networking paid off when Ruthie graduated from adoring kid to a young adult filled with dreams and ambitions: She began working for the Disney’s in their Ink and Paint Department, taking on a variety of tasks over the next four decades from reviewing animation cels prior to filming to casting her eagle eye over in-the-works projects such as the nigh iconic films Dumbo, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia, Mary Poppins (ye olde writer’s favorite Disney film) and Sleeping Beauty.
As I type out this appreciation and Happy Birthday column today, Ruthie Tompson is thriving at the Motion Picture & Television Fund’s Country House and Hospital and, like a lot of our own loved ones, is in COVID-19 quarantine. And, as her life history has more than shown us, she’s to this day still the enterprising and scrappy youth who pulled up an old apple crate at the foot of Uncle Walt himself: She is attempting to raise a not unreasonable $110,000 in support of a postproduction suite located at the Woodland Hills campus’ in-house television and video facility. This is more than personal for Ruthie as this domicile has provided innumerable hours to her and other retirees in pursuit of their own industry crafts.
Brilliant philanthropic causes momentarily to the side, Ruthie is looking forward to the day when we as a world kick the pandemic to the dust bin of history so she can get back to doing one of the things that makes all life worth living: Attending an honest-to-Pete Dodgers baseball game. “I can’t wait to watch my dodgers and eat a Dodger dog,” Ruthie confided to our upper-class sister, The Hollywood Reporter.
Want to reach out and contribute to Ruthie’s quest to support that much needed senior in-house postproduction suite? Donations can easily be made to Ruthie’s goal by clicking right here.
Happy Birthday Ruthie and thank you for all of your wonderful contributions to the world of animation over the years!
