Niwot Historical Society Fills the House

The Niwot Historical Society (NHS) held its first lecture before a full in-person audience since the COVID-19 pandemic began with Niwot's Laurie Algar Adams speaking about her father's career at Disney.

The event was held at the Left Hand Grange on Wednesday, March 8, before an audience of 40. It was the first opportunity for the public to experience the new wood laminate flooring which replaced the old linoleum floor and has improved the acoustics in the building.

The title of the lecture was, "A Disney Life: Growing Up Disney," recounting the career of Disney legend James Algar from the viewpoint of his daughter, who spoke of her personal experience being involved in her father's career, which included working at the Disney Studios when she was in high school.

Adams recounted her father's journey from Disney animator to director of many Disney favorites, resulting in nine Academy Awards. James Algar's long career with Disney began as an animator in 1937 for the movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Adams described how the animators sometimes artistically made fun of each other. "My father with his florid English complexion and prominent profile was a natural subject," Adams said. The audience was entertained by drawings of Algar's face on Donald Duck, Pluto and the baby-delivering stork. The animators also created "Algartraz Island" and "North Algarica" as part of the fun. For Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Algar animated all the small animals in the forest scenes.

Algar then began working on a short subject, The Sorcerer's Apprentice. Walt Disney was impressed by the use of Technicolor for the first time in an animation demonstration reel. Disney thought that feature length films would make more money and so the The Sorcerer's Apprentice was incorporated in the anthology musical movie Fantasia, and Algar was given the job of directing the film.

Adams explained that animators continued their humorous inside jokes by naming the Sorcerer "Yen Sid," which is "Disney" spelled backwards. They sometimes animated their characters with the same raised eyebrow that they saw Walt Disney do when he was about to give critical feedback. Adams played some of The Sorcerer's Apprentice animation for the audience.

Algar's role as writer and director blossomed. In the 1950s he went to Africa for The African Lion. Adams described the rugged steel truck custom built in California and shipped to Africa to serve as both living quarters and studio. "Keep in mind that this was in 1959, before tourism even came to Africa, so it was quite the adventure," Adams said.

The African Lion was part of a long series of short and feature length nature films called True-Life Adventures made by Disney between 1948 and 1960. Adams explained, "Walt by instinct was a storyteller, not a historian or documentarian. He hated the word documentarian. He connected it with dullness."

The series won eight Academy Awards over those years. Many of Adams' years growing up were related to Adventures, some involving driving throughout the American west in the family car on their own family adventures finding stories and locations.

"Walt was always fascinated with new technology and loved to contribute exhibits to World's Fairs," Adams said. "Perhaps one of the most stressful endeavors of my father's career was creating 'Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln' for the 1964 World's Fair." This was one of the first audio-animatronics attempts by Disney, who created the technology and named it.

Adams described a letter her father received from a young boy who asked if he and his friend could tour the Disney Studios, at a time when tours were not normally offered. Her father recognized the family name, and arranged for the tour, though he was unable to meet up with the boy at the time. Adams showed a slide of the note her father later received from the boy, thanking him for arranging the tour. The note was signed, "George Lucas, Jr."

Adams ended the lecture by talking about how her father described the period of Walt Disney's failing health and subsequent death in 1966. Adams talked about how her father adapted to his own health issues after suffering a major stroke in 1979 by learning to draw and paint with his Left Hand. James Algar passed away in his beloved town of Carmel, California in 1998 at the age of 85.

As Walt Disney said, "If you can dream it, you can do it." James Algar lived an amazing life fulfilling that creed.