Dodie Roberts

Doris "Dodie" L. Roberts (née Saathoff) worked in Disney's Ink and Paint Department for 45 years, the last decade of which she was supervisor of the paint lab where she painted cels for feature films and shorts.
Roberts was born in Plainview, Nebraska. She graduated from Wilmington University in Delaware as a business major before heading to California for work at 20 and married Lyle Roberts. In 1939, a former classmate, who was working at Disney at the time, had invited her to visit and, on October 24 of that year, she joined the company as a runner delivering freshly mixed paint to inkers and painters. Before long, however, she was promoted to the task of creating colors and mixing the paints alongside Ruthie Tompson, Grace Bailey, and Becky Fallberg among others. "I love puzzles, and mixing paint was like putting together a puzzle," she said. "It was fascinating to create colors and to get them exact." Throughout the next several decades, Roberts' team became responsible for the manufacture of transparent colors to guarantee the magical effect of certain elements, such as fairy dust or even the halo of light surrounding the appearances of Cinderella's Godmother, the Three Good Fairies, Maleficent, and Merlin.
On September 24, 1961, Walt Disney paid tribute to Roberts and the ink department department in "An Adventure in Color/Mathmagicland", the first episode of his new show Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color. Broadcast on NBC, the program was the very first of its kind to be broadcast entirely in color. For the occasion, viewers were exceptionally allowed to enter what was presented as the Paint Lab.
Renowned for her talent in creating perfectly harmonious color palettes, Roberts was promoted in 1972 to the position of Paint Lab supervisor. She was, then, the one and only person in the department to know the secret of making each paint and the film for which each one was made. Her expertise was offered to a new generation of artists working on classics, like The Fox and the Hound, The Black Cauldron, and The Great Mouse Detective.
She retired in 1984. A few weeks after her departure, Roberts and her colleague Al Jones set up a new association, The Disney Golden Ears Retirement Club, reserved for former employees of the company. Roberts was named a Disney Legend in 2000 and passed away on February 11, 2008.
==Filmography==
Year	Film 	Role
1940	Fantasia 	Ink and paint artist (uncredited)
1941	Dumbo 	Ink and paint artist (uncredited)
1942	Bambi 	Ink and paint artist (uncredited)
1942	Saludos Amigos 	Ink and paint (uncredited)
1944	The Three Caballeros 	Ink and paint (uncredited)
1946	Make Mine Music 	Ink and paint (uncredited)
1946	Song of the South 	Paint lab (uncredited)
1947	Fun and Fancy Free 	Ink and paint (uncredited)
1948	Melody Time 	Paint lab (uncredited)
1948	So Dear to My Heart 	Paint lab (uncredited)
1949	The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad	Paint lab (uncredited)
1950	Cinderella 	Paint lab (uncredited)
1951	Alice in Wonderland 	Paint lab (uncredited)
1953	Peter Pan 	Paint lab (uncredited)
1955	Lady and the Tramp 	Paint lab (uncredited)
1958	Paul Bunyan 	Paint lab (uncredited)
1959	Sleeping Beauty 	Paint lab (uncredited)
1960	Goliath II 	Paint lab (uncredited)
1961	One Hundred and One Dalmatians 	Paint lab (uncredited)
1961	The Saga of Windwagon Smith 	Paint lab (uncredited)
1962	A Symposium on Popular Songs 	Paint lab (uncredited)
1963	The Sword in the Stone 	Paint lab (uncredited)
1964	Mary Poppins 	Paint lab (uncredited)
1967	Scrooge McDuck and Money 	Paint lab (uncredited)
1967	The Jungle Book 	Paint lab (uncredited)
1970	Dad, Can I Borrow the Car? 	Paint lab (uncredited)
1970	The Aristocats 	Paint lab (uncredited)
1971	Bedknobs and Broomsticks 	Paint lab (uncredited)
1973	Robin Hood 	Paint lab (uncredited)
1977	The Rescuers 	Paint lab (uncredited)
1977	The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh	Paint lab (uncredited): "Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree""Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day""Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too"
1977	Pete's Dragon 	Paint lab (uncredited)
1978	The Small One 	Paint lab (uncredited)
1981	The Fox and the Hound 	Paint lab (uncredited)
1983	Mickey's Christmas Carol 	Paint lab (uncredited)
1985	The Black Cauldron 	Paint lab
1986	The Great Mouse Detective 	Paint lab (uncredited)
==Gallery==
Dodie Roberts at work.jpg|Roberts seen here, working in the paint lab during production of the The Rescuers.
Dodie Roberts in 2000.jpg|Roberts (far right) at the 2000 Disney Legends award ceremony.
==Trivia==
*At one time, three lab employees, including Dodie, were responsible for adding a single color to the mix, without knowing what the others were putting in. "It was a secret," she said. "They didn't want other Studios to know the formula, so only the supervisor of our department knew all of its ingredients."
*Upon her retirement, as a celebration of her career, a new shade, a shimmering purple, was specially created and named "Dodie 6".
==External links==
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*Chronique Disney - Dodie Roberts
*Dodie Roberts - d23
Category:Females
Category:1910s births
Category:2000s deaths
Category:Deceased
Category:People from Nebraska
Category:American people
Category:Disney Legends
Category:Artists
Category:Fantasia
Category:Dumbo
Category:Bambi
Category:Saludos Amigos
Category:The Three Caballeros
Category:Make Mine Music
Category:Song of the South
Category:Fun and Fancy Free
Category:Melody Time
Category:So Dear to My Heart
Category:The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
Category:Cinderella
Category:Alice in Wonderland
Category:Peter Pan
Category:Lady and the Tramp
Category:Sleeping Beauty
Category:Paul Bunyan
Category:Goliath II
Category:101 Dalmatians
Category:The Sword in the Stone
Category:Mary Poppins
Category:The Jungle Book
Category:The Aristocats
Category:Bedknobs and Broomsticks
Category:Robin Hood
Category:The Rescuers
Category:The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
Category:Pete's Dragon
Category:The Small One
Category:The Fox and the Hound
Category:Mickey's Christmas Carol
Category:The Black Cauldron
Category:The Great Mouse Detective
Category:Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color
Category:Walt Disney Animation Studios