Retta Scott

Retta Scott was an American artist. She was notable as the first woman to receive screen credit as an animator at the Walt Disney Animation Studios.
==Early life==
Scott was born in Omak, Washington.http://legends.disney.go.com/legends/detail?key=Retta%20Scott Disney Legends - Retta Scott, accessed 14 October 2009 She graduated from Seattle's Roosevelt High School in 1934. She received an academic scholarship from the Chouinard Art Institute, so she moved to Los Angeles, California. She spent much of her free time sketching wildlife at the nearby Griffith Park zoo. Her ambition was to mold a career in Fine art.Disney Legends
==Career as movie animator==
As she readied to complete her Institute training, the Institute's director encouraged Scott to apply at Disney Studios. She was hired in 1938 and assigned to the Story Department, where the ambitious Bambi project was being developed. Her stunning sketches caught the eye of Disney himself,"No one matched her ability in drawing animals from all angles." Marc Davis, The Making of Bambi, at http://imdb.com/name/nm0779694/bio so when the film went into production she was assignedhttp://mouseplanet.com/81661/The_Mystery_of_the_Female_Disney_Animator accessed 14 October 2009 to animate scenes of hunting dogs chasing Faline. This was a significant coup for the young woman since at the 1930s-era Disney studio, women were considered only for routine tasks: "Ink and paint art was a laborious part of the animation process, and was solely the domain of women . ." http://disneybooks.blogspot.com/2009_08_01_archive.html from a brief history of another Disney female pioneer, Evelyn Henry Coats (1910-2009). The website also contains a Disney Personnel Department form letter used to explain to female applicants that animation as such was reserved for men. Accessed 14 October 2009 She worked under the film's supervising director, David D. Hand,http://www.dhprod.com and was tutored by Disney animator Eric Larson.http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/?p=1110
After Bambi, Scott contributed to the Disney features: Fantasia, Dumbo, and Disney's version of The Wind in the Willows, which was shelved due to World War II and released in 1949 as part of the film The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. In addition, Albert Becattini's website of animator credits lists her as an animator on the 1942 Donald Duck cartoon releases: Donald's Snow Fight and Donald Gets Drafted,http://www.immaginariofiorentino.com/albertopage/amimatorsa-z/animatorss.htm along with an unnamed Goofy short (1945). Retta appears on-screen in the Disney live-action studio tour film The Reluctant Dragon, alongside other Disney animators, such as Wolfgang Reitherman in the portion of the film, where Robert Benchley tours the Disney Studio's life-drawing classroom (where the model that day happens to be an elephant). Retta presents Benchley with a caricature of himself as an elephant. She was laid-off from Disney during a periodic studio downsizing in late 1941, (partially as a result of the infamous Disney animators' strike in the summer of 1941) but was rehired by the Disney Studio in 1942 to work in the Story Department. Retta Scott left Disney in 1946 and moved to the East Coast, where she continued to freelance, illustrating Disney publications, such as the Big Golden Book edition of Disney's Cinderella.http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/?p=1112some websites list Retta Scott Worcester as the illustrator of Cinderella; this may be the same person. See e.g. http://jacketflap.com/persondetail.asp?person=129991 accessed 14 October 2009 She remained active as an illustrator for many years and returned to film animation with The Plague Dogs, directed by Martin Rosen, released in 1982. Around that same time in the early 1980s, she also worked for the animation studio founded by Bud Luckey, The Luckey-Zamora Moving Picture Co. in the San Francisco Bay area. That studio later became a part of Colossal Pictures, and Luckey later became part of Pixar.
Some writers have occasionally confused Retta Scott with another Disney artist with the first name Retta, Retta Davidson, who worked at Disney from 1939 through 1966.
Scott merited a chapter in The Little Big Book of Disney ("Retta Scott: Beauties and Beasts", pp. 303–319) by Monique Peterson, and also a chapter in Walt's People - Volume VIII ("Retta Scott") by Didier Ghez.
Retta Scott died at her home in Foster City, California on August 26, 1990.
==Filmography==
Year	Film 	Position
1940	Pinocchio 	assistant animator (uncredited)
1940	Fantasia 	animatorassistant animator (segment: "The Rite of Spring", uncredited)
1941	Dumbo 	animator (uncredited)
1941	The Reluctant Dragon 	Herself - Studio Artists (uncredited)
1942	Donald's Decision 	animator (uncredited)
1942	Donald's Snow Fight 	animator (uncredited)
1942	Donald Gets Drafted 	animator (uncredited)
1942	Bambi 	animator
1943	The Grain That Built a Hemisphere 	animator (uncredited)
1945	Tuberculosis 	animatorbackground artistadditional story (uncredited)
1946	The Story of Menstruation 	animator (uncredited)
1949	The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad	"The Wind in the Willows" - animator (uncredited)
==References==
*Photograph of Retta Scott at Disney Studios, c.1940
*Retta Scott Disney Legend page
fr:Retta Scott
Category:Females
Category:1910s births
Category:1990s deaths
Category:Deceased
Category:People from Washington
Category:American people
Category:Artists
Category:Animators
Category:Writers
Category:Pinocchio
Category:Fantasia
Category:Dumbo
Category:The Reluctant Dragon
Category:Bambi
Category:The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
Category:Donald Duck
Category:Goofy
Category:Disney Legends
Category:Walt Disney Animation Studios