Marcellite Garner
Encyclopedia
Marcellite Wall m was an American artist and voice actress. She is most remembered as the first regular voice of Minnie Mouse
during her time working at Walt Disney Productions and has been partially credited with defining Minnie's personality.
in 1910. She attended night classes at John H. Francis Polytechnic High School
in Los Angeles where she studied art.
painter and later as an inker. The studio at the time was a small organization of about 35 employees.
After Garner had been working about six months, she auditioned for the voice of Minnie Mouse
at the studio's sound stage, then located on Melrose Avenue
. Because Minnie was to play a Mexican in the upcoming film The Cactus Kid, Burt Gillett had asked the Ink and Paint department, which was entirely women, if anyone could speak Spanish. Only Garner and another woman responded, and when the other woman was unwilling to sing, Garner was cast for the role. She went on to voice Minnie in more than 40 films over a decade. Occasionally Garner also provided additional voices, such as cat meows (Three Orphan Kittens
, Lend a Paw
), dog barking, and crowd noises.
During the Disney animators' strike
of 1941, Garner shot home video of the picket lines in color. Some of this footage appears in the 2001 documentary Walt – The Man Behind the Myth
. Garner was sympathetic to the studio during the strike, commenting "I couldn't see that we were not being treated fairly. People weren't so union
oriented then I guess." She described the atmosphere at the studio as "one big family" before the studio was unionized.
Garner worked at the Disney studio off and on for 12 years, during which she also did work for some other studios, including Walter Lantz Productions.
where she again worked in the cartoon business, producing a newspaper comic strip
called El Gato for the Los Gatos Times–Observer.
During this time she also worked on different kinds of painting mediums and ceramics. Some of her artwork she gave to friends, and others she donated to charities and church bazaars.
She died in 1993 in Grass Valley, California
.
Minnie Mouse
Minerva "Minnie" Mouse is an animated character created by Ub Iwerks and Walt Disney. The comic strip story "The Gleam" by Merrill De Maris and Floyd Gottfredson first gave her full name as Minerva Mouse. Minnie has since been a recurring alias for her. Minnie is currently voiced by actress Russi...
during her time working at Walt Disney Productions and has been partially credited with defining Minnie's personality.
Early life
Garner was born in Redlands, CaliforniaRedlands, California
Redlands is a city in San Bernardino County, California, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 68,747, up from 63,591 at the 2000 census. The city is located east of downtown San Bernardino.- History :...
in 1910. She attended night classes at John H. Francis Polytechnic High School
John H. Francis Polytechnic High School
John H. Francis Polytechnic High School is a secondary school located in the Sun Valley area of Los Angeles, California. It serves grades 9 through 12 and is a part of the Los Angeles Unified School District...
in Los Angeles where she studied art.
Work at Disney
Garner started working at Walt Disney Productions on February 17, 1930 after interviewing the previous year. She worked in the ink and paint department, first working as a celCel
A cel, short for celluloid, is a transparent sheet on which objects are drawn or painted for traditional, hand-drawn animation. Actual celluloid was used during the first half of the 20th century, but since it was flammable and dimensionally unstable it was largely replaced by cellulose acetate...
painter and later as an inker. The studio at the time was a small organization of about 35 employees.
After Garner had been working about six months, she auditioned for the voice of Minnie Mouse
Minnie Mouse
Minerva "Minnie" Mouse is an animated character created by Ub Iwerks and Walt Disney. The comic strip story "The Gleam" by Merrill De Maris and Floyd Gottfredson first gave her full name as Minerva Mouse. Minnie has since been a recurring alias for her. Minnie is currently voiced by actress Russi...
at the studio's sound stage, then located on Melrose Avenue
Melrose Avenue
Melrose Avenue is an internationally renowned shopping, dining and entertainment destination in Los Angeles that starts from Santa Monica Boulevard at the border between Beverly Hills and West Hollywood and ends at Lucille Avenue in Silver Lake...
. Because Minnie was to play a Mexican in the upcoming film The Cactus Kid, Burt Gillett had asked the Ink and Paint department, which was entirely women, if anyone could speak Spanish. Only Garner and another woman responded, and when the other woman was unwilling to sing, Garner was cast for the role. She went on to voice Minnie in more than 40 films over a decade. Occasionally Garner also provided additional voices, such as cat meows (Three Orphan Kittens
Three Orphan Kittens
Three Orphan Kittens is a 1935 animated short film in the Silly Symphonies series produced by Walt Disney Productions. It was the winner of the 1935 Academy Award for Best Short Subject . It was followed in 1936 by a sequel, More Kittens....
, Lend a Paw
Lend a Paw
Lend a Paw is an animated short film produced in Technicolor by Walt Disney Productions and released to theaters on October 3, 1941. In the cartoon, which was largely a remake of Disney's 1932 film Mickey's Pal Pluto, Pluto saves the life of a kitten, and later feels jealous towards the kitten...
), dog barking, and crowd noises.
During the Disney animators' strike
Disney animators' strike
The Disney animators' strike was a labor strike by the animators of Walt Disney Studios in 1941.-History:The 1930s led to a rise of labor unions in motion pictures as in other industries such as The Screen Actors Guild which was formed in 1933. Animators of Fleischer Studios went on strike in 1937...
of 1941, Garner shot home video of the picket lines in color. Some of this footage appears in the 2001 documentary Walt – The Man Behind the Myth
Walt – The Man Behind the Myth
Walt - The Man Behind the Myth is a biographical documentary on Walt Disney. It was narrated by Dick Van Dyke and directed by Jean-Pierre Isbouts....
. Garner was sympathetic to the studio during the strike, commenting "I couldn't see that we were not being treated fairly. People weren't so union
Labor unions in the United States
Labor unions in the United States are legally recognized as representatives of workers in many industries. The most prominent unions are among public sector employees such as teachers and police...
oriented then I guess." She described the atmosphere at the studio as "one big family" before the studio was unionized.
Garner worked at the Disney studio off and on for 12 years, during which she also did work for some other studios, including Walter Lantz Productions.
After Disney
Garner eventually married Richard B. Wall and started a family. In 1941 she permanently quit her job at Disney to devote more time to her children. The family later moved north to Los GatosLos Gatos, California
The Town of Los Gatos is an incorporated town in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The population was 29,413 at the 2010 census. It is located in the San Francisco Bay Area at the southwest corner of San Jose in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains...
where she again worked in the cartoon business, producing a newspaper comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
called El Gato for the Los Gatos Times–Observer.
During this time she also worked on different kinds of painting mediums and ceramics. Some of her artwork she gave to friends, and others she donated to charities and church bazaars.
She died in 1993 in Grass Valley, California
Grass Valley, California
-2010:The 2010 United States Census reported that Grass Valley had a population of 12,860. The population density was 2,711.3 people per square mile . The racial makeup of Grass Valley was 11,493 White, 46 African American, 208 Native American, 188 Asian, 9 Pacific Islander, 419 from other...
.
Filmography
- The Cactus Kid (1930)
- The Fire Fighters (1930)
- The Shindig (1930)
- The Gorilla Mystery (1930)
- The Picnic (1930)
- Pioneer Days (1930)
- The Birthday Party (1931)
- Traffic Troubles (1931)
- The Delivery Boy (1931)
- Mickey Steps Out (1931)
- Blue Rhythm (1931)
- The Barnyard Broadcast (1931)
- The Beach Party (1931)
- Mickey Cuts Up (1931)
- Mickey's OrphansMickey's OrphansMickey's Orphans is a 1931 American animated short film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by Columbia Pictures. The cartoon takes place during Christmas time and stars Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, and Pluto who take in a group of disruptive kittens...
(1931) - The Grocer Boy (1932)
- Barnyard Olympics (1932)
- Mickey's RevueMickey's RevueMickey's Revue is a 1932 Walt Disney cartoon, directed by Wilfred Jackson, which features Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Horace Horsecollar and Clarabelle Cow performing a song and dance show.-Synopsis:...
(1932) - Musical Farmer (1932)
- Mickey in ArabiaMickey in ArabiaMickey in Arabia is a 1932 American animated short film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by Columbia Pictures. Walt Disney plays Mickey Mouse and Marcellite Garner Minnie...
(1932) - Mickey's Nightmare (1932)
- King NeptuneKing Neptune (film)King Neptune is a 1932 cartoon by Walt Disney, the second in the Silly Symphonies series produced in Technicolor. While Flowers and Trees was originally intended as a black and white cartoon, King Neptune was meant to be in colors already from the start, and was able to take full advantage of...
(1932) - The Whoopee PartyThe Whoopee PartyThe Whoopee Party is a Mickey Mouse short animated film first released on September 17, 1932.-Plot:In this short Mickey Mouse and friends have a party which in Minnie Mouse is playing the piano while Mickey, Goofy , and Horace Horsecollar are preparing some snacks...
(1932) - The Wayward Canary (1932)
- The Klondike Kid (1932)
- Building a BuildingBuilding a BuildingBuilding a Building is a 1933 American animated short film produced by Walt Disney Production and released by United Artists. A remake of the 1928 Oswald the Lucky Rabbit film Sky Scrappers, the cartoon depicts Mickey Mouse working at a construction site under the supervision of Peg-Leg Pete while...
(1933) - Mickey's Pal Pluto (1933)
- Mickey's MellerdrammerMickey's MellerdrammerMickey's Mellerdrammer is a United Artists film released in 1933. The title is a corruption of "melodrama", thought to harken back to the earliest minstrel shows, as a film short based on a production of Uncle Tom's Cabin by the Disney characters....
(1933) - Ye Olden Days (1933)
- The Mail Pilot (1933)
- Mickey's Mechanical Man (1933)
- Mickey's Gala Premier (1933)
- Puppy Love (1933)
- The Steeplechase (1933)
- The Pet Store (1933)
- GiantlandGiantlandGiantland is a one-reel cartoon produced by Walt Disney. It shows Mickey Mouse re-telling the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, where he plays the main character and takes on Rumplewatt, the "King of the Giants - Prince of the Tyrants"...
(1933) - Shanghied (1934)
- Camping Out (1934)
- Mickey's Steamroller (1934)
- Two-Gun Mickey (1934)
- On Ice (1935)
- Three Orphan KittensThree Orphan KittensThree Orphan Kittens is a 1935 animated short film in the Silly Symphonies series produced by Walt Disney Productions. It was the winner of the 1935 Academy Award for Best Short Subject . It was followed in 1936 by a sequel, More Kittens....
(1935) - Mickey's Rival (1936)
- Hawaiian Holiday (1937)
- Boat BuildersBoat Builders (film)Boat Builders is an animated short film produced by Walt Disney in 1938.-Plot:In this short, Mickey and his friends Donald and Goofy attempt to build a boat, which is made from fold-out parts, though they encounter problems of their own as they go...
(1938) - Brave Little TailorBrave Little TailorBrave Little Tailor is a 1938 American animated short film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The cartoon is an adaptation of the fairy tale The Valiant Little Tailor with Mickey Mouse in the title role. The film was directed by Bill Roberts and features...
(1938) - Mickey's Surprise PartyMickey's Surprise PartyMickey's Surprise Party is a 1939 Walt Disney commercial cartoon that promotes Nabisco products. It stars Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Pluto, and Fifi. This is the first cartoon of Mickey Mouse with his current design...
(1939) - The Little WhirlwindThe Little WhirlwindThe Little Whirlwind is a 1941 animated short subject, part of the Mickey Mouse series, produced by John Sutherland for Walt Disney Productions. Directed by Riley Thomson, the short was released by RKO Radio Pictures on February 14, 1941...
(1941) - The Nifty NinetiesThe Nifty NinetiesThe Nifty Nineties is an animated short film produced in Technicolor by Walt Disney Productions and released to theaters on June 20, 1941 by RKO Radio Pictures. The film stars Mickey and Minnie Mouse and romanticizes the decade of the 1890s....
(1941) - Lend a PawLend a PawLend a Paw is an animated short film produced in Technicolor by Walt Disney Productions and released to theaters on October 3, 1941. In the cartoon, which was largely a remake of Disney's 1932 film Mickey's Pal Pluto, Pluto saves the life of a kitten, and later feels jealous towards the kitten...
(1941)