Until recently, even the best animation histories tended to approach the silent era in the same manner one handles a chain letter—reluctantly and quickly. The exceptions are no less than gemlike1, and particularly scarce in the case of Walt Disney Studios.
The fact that the studio remains a living corporate entity may have been a factor in the segmentation of its financially precarious first decade from the rest of the canon. Discussions of Disney history tend to fast-forward directly to Steamboat Willie, the first talking cartoon, in 1928. The most vivid testimony of the collective indifference to silent animation came about in 1985 when Disney’s first studio, his Uncle Robert’s garage, and the veritable site of the birth of Walt Disney Productions, was offered for sale with no takers. Rejected by the Smithsonian Institution (the same year Fonzie’s black leather jacket was accepted) the structure faced demolition when Glendale, California, saved it. It reportedly remains in crates awaiting reconstruction in a suitable setting.
The previous lack of interest in Disney’s early years may also lie with the fact that accurate information was scarce andthefilms unavailable. Reliable data was elusive,followingthe extremely casual operation of the infant Disney organization. Money was scarce, often borrowed from friends and relatives; records were seldom kept; and deals routinely were made on handshakes. Then there was the fate of the films themselves. Believed to have no value after initial release, they were discarded or allowed to deteriorate. Following Mark Twain’s definition of a classic, Disney’s silents were highly respected without ever having been viewed.
Not only has accurate information been slow to assemble, but Disney’s ongoing self-generating mythology and tendency to romanticize events provided few hard facts to work from. Neatly exorcising the first decade of his career, Disney often illustrated his homespun origins by saying “It all began with a mouse.” Had he valued accuracy over a fairytale ending, he might have said, “It began with a little girl from Kansas City, Missouri, named Virginia Davis.”
Humans interacting with animated characters date back to Winsor McCay during the first decade of the century. By the mid ’20s, the most popular production on this theme was being produced by the Fleischer Brothers, Max and Dave, in their Out of the Inkwell series featuring animated characters in the real world. With recent financing having collapsed, a scant 40 dollars from bankruptcy and confident that a reversal of the Fleischers’ gimmick would be successful, in the summer of 1924 Walt Disney secured the services of a four-year-old Kansas City lass named Virginia Davis for a new series of films.
Running under the general title of Alice in Cartoonland, Disney’s films featured a real-life Alice interacting with animated characters in a cartoon universe. The series produced more than 50 films and successfully ran until 1927, providing Disney with his first, albeit modest, taste of national success. The Alice films served as a training ground for the ambitious producer-director, and though other little girls followed Virginia Davis, she remains the most readily identified with the role.
With the death of Rudolf Ising in 1992, Virginia Davis joins Walt’s widow as the sole surviving veterans of Walt Disney’s first successful studio in Los Angeles in 1924. She may very rightfully claim the distinction of being Disney Studio’s very first star as well as the oldest surviving employee. In a very real manner personally responsible for the birth of Disney studios, Virginia Davis was an active participant in the events that placed the fledgling director-producer on his path to film history. Nearly 70 years after her last Alice film, Virginia Davis became the subject of the most in-depth study of silent Disney animation ever undertaken: Russell Merritt and J.B. Kaufman’s excellent Walt in Cartoonland.
After years of research, Merritt and Kaufman gently lift the curtain of haze for a full and comprehensive view of Disney prehistory. With careful research and photographs from private collections, the authors have at last placed the Alice films in their proper historical context, and this reveals their true historical significance. Merritt and Kaufman correctly place Virgina Davis and the Alice pictures in their appropriate standing, allowing Davis to take her rightful position as grand marshal of the parade of Disney innovations along with Mickey Mouse, Flowers and Trees, The Old Mill, and Snow White. Semi-retired in Montana, Virginia Davis was caught off guard by her sudden and delayed placement into Disney history. Having left the film industry decades ago, she is now hailed as the first authentic star of Walt Disney Studios, and became a major draw at shows and conventions both in Europe and America.
In 1992 Virginia Davis-McGhee was the guest of honor at the Pordonone Silent Film Festival in Italy and continues to speak on and appear the subject of those earliest years with the Disney brothers. As the last accessible link to the those crucial early years, Virginia Davis-McGhee is somewhat overwhelmed by the three generations of fans eager to honor her. Active, lucid, and pleased to meet fans and well-wishers, those delightful ghosts from animation’s past could not have chosen a more charming and eloquent ambassador.
—John Province

John Province: Was any of your family involved in the entertainment business?
Virginia Davis-McGhee: Not at all. My father was a furniture salesman and on the road most of the time. My mother was a housewife. You have to remember that when salesmen were gone back then, it was no three-hour hop by plane. It was a long train trip or drive, and he would be gone for a couple of weeks at a time. Mother had time on her hands, and her little daughter, whom she babied and did a lot of things for, was sent to dancing school when she was two and-a-half years old.
Province: Was your mother eager for you to get into show business?
Davis-McGhee: She might have been ambitious as far as my career was concerned, but I was never aware of it. I don’t know because there really wasn’t that much show business at that time. She had time on her hands and I had long curls and I think someone had said I should get into modeling or something. There wasn’t the competition in the field that there is today. Somebody liked me and had me photographed for Warneker’s Bread and I did that. I did a Buttercup ad, too, where I was dressed up like a little buttercup. I went to Georgie Brown’s Dramatic School in Kansas City, Missouri, where they had dancing and dramatics. I was a good dancer and star of the Priests of Pallas Ball, a big social event. I came down from the very high ceiling on a wire and danced, so I had sort of been in show business all of my life. My mother always had me practice whatever I was learning in dancing school every single afternoon. Even later in California after I’d come home from school I was still doing my dancing routines with the Victrola playing my music and the rug rolled up; and if I didn’t do them well or correctly, I didn’t get to go out to play until I did. I quickly learned to do them the first time.
Province: Did your parents ever indicate that they were familiar with Disney’s theatrical commercials playing the Kansas City theatres at the time?
Davis-McGhee: These ads were run between the motion pictures that were playing so perhaps mother had seen his Laugh-O-Grams, but she didn’t know who Walt Disney was at the time. I’m sure he told them about it.
Province: So Walt Disney literally spotted you on the screen doing these bread advertisements and chose you as the lead for his films?
Davis-McGhee: Yes, he was at the theatre to see how his films, the Laugh-O-Grams, looked and saw me. Walt had always had the idea. Alice in Cartoonland was something he had been thinking of doing. I guess when he saw me he thought, “Here was a little girl who could do it.” I think that’s where it all started. He contacted my mother and pitched this idea about how great it would be for her little girl. Mother was open to suggestion so she said okay. The first one, Alice in Cartoonland, belonged to Winkler so it isn’t complete.
Province: That first Alice test film was actually filmed at your parents’ home?
Davis-McGhee: Yes, and if you see any histories of Disney films, they usually just show me standing at the door clapping my hands and him welcoming me in and showing me a cartoon drawing. My mother put me to bed and then we went into the dream sequence, which was when the cartoon began.
Province: How did you prepare for that first Alice film? Was it rehearsed?
Davis-McGhee: No. I just took Walt’s directions. He would say “Look frightened”, or “Sit down and pretend this or that”. It was always “let’s pretend.” Luckily I had a good imagination and took direction well so I was able to do what he wanted me to do. Since we were filming silents, he could talk to me while we were filming and that’s what he used to do. “Look there, oh who is that over there? Look and see!” That kind of thing. That’s how I took direction. We did clips; the camera was continuously running and he had a story in the back of his mind. There wasn’t anything that I would call real rehearsals. He might tell me the basic story and say “Then you run from this side to the other side and look at me.” When I did this the camera was running and that’s what I’d do, nothing like a rehearsal today. When directors direct children, they tell them stories. Even today they’ll tell them, “This is a sad time. You’ve lost your brother and you can’t find him.” They tell them the story before they emote to get them in the mood. This is nothing new as far as children are concerned. Even if children have lines today it’s the same thing. They’ll get them in the mood and then point to them when it’s time to say their lines.
Province: Jackie Coogan used to talk about Chaplin directing him the same way in The Kid.
Davis-McGhee: That’s the way they did it in those days. Jackie Coogan had “mood music” on the set as did the big stars well into the talkies.
Province: In later years Walt would actually act entire stories out for his animators. Did he ever do this with you for the Alice films?
Davis-McGhee: I don’t think so. He could maybe lead me into pretending that there was a big bear there or something like that, and that’s what he’d do. He would say, “Pretend there is a very big bear—look scared!” Walt did all of the directing and storylines.
Province: What was Walt like when the cameras were off? Did he kid around or play with you at all?
Davis-McGhee: A little, yes, but he and Roy were under a great deal of pressure deciding what se-quence to shoot next. We’d have our box lunches, but my mother used to keep me off to the side. She didn’t want me to get too tired or overexerted.
Province: Were you comfortable in front of the camera?
Davis-McGhee: Oh sure, there was no problem with me on that. I had been on stage doing the three dances that I did when I had personal appearances either in Kansas City or California. It was easy for me to feel at ease with whatever I was told to do.
Province: Did you consider that first Alice a one-time job or did Disney indicate that a series might result from it?
Davis-McGhee: He explained to my mother that he had this idea and he wanted to make a test film, and he would have to take it around to see if he could sell the idea. She was aware of that.
Province: Did you see the completed film after it was finished?
Davis-McGhee: I saw parts of it at the Disney Studio, but not until Pordonone did I see it all.
Province: What was the relation between your family and Walt Disney? Was it a business relationship or was he a close family friend?
Davis-McGhee: Yes, he was a very close friend. He borrowed my mother’s Tin Lizzie to court his wife.
Province: Lillian Bounds, who was his secretary, I believe.
Davis-McGhee: She also did some of the inking. She was one of two girls that came to work for him.
Province: Did they marry during your tenure as Alice? I was wondering if you attended their wedding?
Davis-McGhee: I don’t think so. I think they married shortly after I left.
Province: It’s amazing to reflect that the Disney empire as we know it today was basically begun on Walt venturing to Hollywood with 40 dollars and a can of film starring a four-year-old little girl.
Davis-McGhee: Well, his uncle was out there, so Walt had his food and a place to stay. He would get out there and hawk it as hard and often as he could. He did sell the idea, but the stipulation was that I was to be the little girl and they would not use anyone else at that time.
Province: Given that stipulation in his contract, have you ever speculated on how seriously film history would have been altered if your parents had not agreed to move to California so you could play Alice?
Davis-McGhee: I guess I haven’t. It’s not my nature to look back and say “What if?” It’s a good thought, though! I think though that Walt would have come up with something else because he was a very bright and ambitious man with a great imagination. It may not have happened quite as fast, but it would have eventually, I’m sure.
Province: In making the move to Hollywood, did your parents have faith in you, Walt Disney, or a little of both?
Davis-McGhee: There were two reasons we went to California. I’d had double pneumonia and almost died. The doctor told my mother that I would be better off in a drier climate. So I think when this all came up, it was another incentive that brought us to California, rather than, “Oh heck, let’s just take a chance and go on out.” It was, “Virginia could do this, and you, Jeff, can sell from there” since he was a traveling salesman, and healthwise it would be better for me. It was a combination of factors.
Province: Your photographs of the first Disney studio indicate that it was really a small storefront operation.
Davis-McGhee: Well, there was no studio, really. It was actually just his uncle’s garage in which he worked.
Province: The whole flavor of those early days makes it appear very homespun. Walt’s working in Uncle Robert’s garage; brother Roy is the cameraman, and I believe he even used the family dog in some films.
Davis-McGhee: Yes, that was Peggy. It really wasn’t a family enterprise as much as it was he didn’t have any money to hire a dog. If you’ll take a look at some of the films such as Alice and the Dogcatcher, you’ll see the dog in the back. Walt would be inspired by what was around, and here was this nice police dog that I liked very much. He would spin his stories around what was available.
Province: What was the atmosphere like when you were shooting the Alice films? The photographs look very casual and relaxed.
Davis-McGhee: It was very informal. We used to have a lot of people gathered around. During the silent days we would have a lot of the curious children and the neighbors come around to watch what was going on. They would use some of the children in some of the scenes as they did in one of my favorites—Alice’s Wild West Show, where they were used as the audience. There was no Screen Actors Guild so there was no place to go if you needed somebody for a film. You just used whomever was around at the time.
Province: Your co-star, so to speak, was a big black cat who was unnamed during your tenure but was later named Julius. He bore a striking resemblance to Felix the Cat.
Davis-McGhee: Well, there again—who knows which came first? Mickey, of course, bears a great resemblance to Oswald the Rabbit. It all evolved, like putting it into a big machine and mixing it up and seeing what comes out. That’s how Walt got the idea for the Alice cartoons. He did the reverse of what the Fleischers were doing.
Province: Some of the films resemble Hal Roach’s Little Rascals where you’re the leader of a collection of neighborhood kids. Was Disney borrowing that theme?
Davis-McGhee: They were either at the same time or perhaps a film or two before. I don’t know who copied whom. When Charles Mintz got into it, he wanted to get away from the live action and concentrate on the cartoons. Even after I left they wanted more and more of the pictures to be cartoons—gags, gags, gags. Most of the girls who followed me just stood there and waved their arms and jumped up and down rather than having to do any emoting to follow the storylines.
Province: Did you make promotional appearances in connection with the Alice films?
Davis-McGhee: Oh yes. I used to makepersonal appearance at the children’s matinees. I still have some of the old handbills that say “Little Virginia Davis starring in the Alice comediesin Person” [laughs]. I would perform and later on made some appearances at the Hollywood Bowl. I’d make appearances for the children and I made appearances for the Shriners too.
Province: You were four or five years old at that time. How did you deal with all of this attention and all the fuss being made over you?
Davis-McGhee: It wasn’t that big of an autographing thing. Of course I couldn’t write. My mother was a very level-headed woman. She was not a stage mother. She would whoosh me out of the way and take me home. She was very down-to-earth and always followed through with discipline. I don’t want to give the impression that I was mistreated or anything like that because I wasn’t.
Province: Did you attend school while filming?
Davis-McGhee: No, I didn’t start school until I was seven. My mother read to me a lot and educated me in other ways.
Province: How often did you report to the lot for filming?
Davis-McGhee: I think it was once or twice a week. It wasn’t very much, and I think this is why later when the contract came up for renewal Mintz didn’t want to pay me on a monthly basis. He was more sold on the cartoon gags rather than the human interaction.
Province: My talks with Disney animators indicate that Walt had difficulty praising people to their face. Was this true in your case? Did he ever tell you how much he liked your work?
Davis-McGhee: Why yes, of course he did. He was always very very kind to me. I wrote him when I was in high school, just before Snow White came up, saying that I’d like to see him again. He wrote back and said “Nice of you to remember me.” I just sold all of those letters. Most of them were auctioned off.
Province: One of your films, Alice the Peacemaker, was unusual in that rather than filming you, photographs of you in motion were actually cut out and glued to the cells.
Davis-McGhee: They only did that in one scene where I ran. I remember that in one picture where I would run and spread my legs like the animated animals as though they were sailing through the air, and they did use photographs for that, yes. They took the pictures against the whitedrop and then inserted them in those spots and you can certainly see where they were inserted.
Province: Your arrival in Hollywood actually preceded that of Ub Iwerks, who was Disney’s creative right arm. Did you know him well?
Davis-McGhee: My father went back to Kansas City and Ub Iwerks drove out to California with him. I remember his name, but I can’t remember exactly which one he was if I saw a picture of him at that time. On one of the films we had a scene with several men and it wouldn’t surprise me if one of them was Ub Iwerks. They photographed the animators too, or whomever was around, a friend or an uncle.
Province: Did you ever have the opportunity to watch Walt Disney or any of the other artists do any drawing for the films?
Davis-McGhee: No, I didn’t get a chance to see any of that until years later when I was a teenager and worked at the studio on Hyperion. I was going to do the live-action and the speaking voice of Snow White, and for all intents and purposes was Snow White until time for contracts and terms to be decided. I’d actually tested for it in the costume and wig, but I turned it down when salary and the terms came up. The salary was not acceptable. Roy was always kind of tight on money because they worked on a shoestring on so many things until they became very successful. The reason my mother took me out of it after the fourteenth Alice picture was that when my contract came up, they didn’t want to put me under another contract as such. They wanted to pay me for each day where perhaps I would be photographed for two or three different stories. The contract was for three years and written so that I couldn’t do anything else. I would be under an exclusive contract for whenever they wanted me and at their beck and call for one day. It was the same contract they offered me when I was supposed to play Snow White. They wanted to have me under contract for three or four years to do the speaking parts and the live action during its making, but I would only be paid for the days I actually worked. The salary was not acceptable and Mother said no.
Province: What had been the terms of your first contract for the Alice films?
Davis-McGhee: It was about a 100 dollars a month. I have a copy of the original letter; I can check to find out exactly how much, but I think that was the amount. The second picture was for 20 dollars more or something like that. Very little money really, but in those days money went a lot farther.
Province: Do you think Walt was really having money problems or trying to take advantage of you?
Davis-McGhee: He was having money problems because Mintz kept cutting his budgets and making him deliver the films in shorter periods of time. After Mintz married Mrs. Winkler, he took over the distribution business and she really didn’t have too much to do with it any more. Mintz had a big ego and wanted things his way. He really did do Disney dirt.
Province: When these unacceptable contract renewal terms were laid out, your mother wrote to Charles Mintz in New York. Did she receive an answer from him?
Davis-McGhee: He threatened to replace me if I wouldn’t appear under the new terms of the contact. He wrote that he still wanted me, but under his terms. All of the the time he had someone else, perhaps a relative, in mind, and Mother would not accept his terms.
Province: As I’m sure you’re aware, Mintz later cheated Disney out of Oswald the Rabbit and a bit later, Pat Sullivan who produced Felix the Cat was another one of his victims.
Davis-McGhee: That’s where (Julius) the cat in the Alice films came from. It’s an interesting story. He really wasn’t a very nice man. It’s too bad it happened but that’s the way it was then. It was the promoter who controlled everything.
Province: As a sidebar, Margaret Winkler just passed away a couple of years ago. She was well over 90.
Davis-McGhee: I didn’t know that. I would have loved to have contacted her.
Province: How did your parents feel about this development since they and Walt were so close?
Davis-McGhee: I think they were mostly upset with Mintz and they felt he was not being fair with anybody. He later intimated that there was a little friend of theirs that got into the films after I left. Whether that’s true or not I don’t know. He wanted someone a little more like Clara Bow and I had those long curls.
Province: Your Alice does look like a pint-sized Mary Pickford.
Davis-McGhee: That was the style at the time the films were done. But my mother certainly would have put me in a different dress and fixed me up if everything had been done correctly. I think Mother was smart enough though to realize that the live-action that Walt was doing was being put aside in favor of the cartoon gags, so it really wasn’t doing me any good.
Province: There were no ill feelings between you and Disney when you left?
Davis-McGhee: No, not at all. It was Mintz. Walt never had any ill feelings toward me. I could still continue to go out and see him. He’d always come up to me and put his arm around me and say, “How are you doing, Virginia?” I always had entree to his office if I wanted to use it. We continued to be friends and after Snow White he gave me a job. He taught me how to ink and paint and I also did some voices for a while.
Province: Did you apply at the studio for an ink-and-paint job?
Davis-McGhee: I received a call. It was one of those nice things that happened. Walt asked me if I would like to work at the studio. I told him I didn’t know anything about it. He said, “Well you can learn, c’mon.” I usually don’t publicize that because I was only there about six months. I learned how to paint and ink cells. I was just 16 and fresh out of high school. It was a great experience and fun to do.
Province: What Disney films did you do voice work on?
Davis-McGhee: I can still hear one of my voice tests for Snow White in the film. I also did some of the little boys’ voices in Pinocchio. Again, Walt always used people who happened to be around.
Province: The irony that Snow White was just released last week on videocassette is not lost on me. With 12 million units in advance sales, do you have any regrets that you did not do her voice for the film?
Davis-McGhee: Not really. I don’t think it did any of the people any good as far as a career was concerned. Most of the information as far as who did the voices was kept under wraps for a long time. It’s only been fairly recently that they’ve gotten any credit. My live-action was all photographed in one day. Russell Merritt says he’s seen it, but I haven’t.
Province: Do you recognize anything in Snow White animated from your live-action footage?
Davis-McGhee: A little dance step or two and a curtsy.
Province: Could you give a brief assessment of the Alices who followed you?
Davis-McGhee: Now do you expect me to say they were better or even badmouth some of them? Don’t you know that I was best! [laughs] In all honesty, they didn’t have all that much to do because the cartoon characters were taking over. The comedies started going downhill after Mintz began dictating to Disney and demanding more gags and more films for less money.
Province: A little girl named Dawn O’Day followed you as Alice and lasted only one film before moving on to other things.
Davis-McGhee: Yes, Dawn O’Day. She later changed her name to Anne Shirley and she just died about two months ago. When we were both 6 to 10 years of age we used to compete for a lot of the same roles because we were close to the same age. We both appeared in Mervyn LeRoy’s Three On A Match.
Province: Did you ever discuss your tenures with Disney?
Davis-McGhee: No, we never talked about it. [Years later] we’d go on casting interviews and play mental games while waiting our turn, tic tac toe and the like.
Province: The third Alice, Margie Gay, appeared as an extra in one of your films, is that correct?
Davis-McGhee: No. I never knew her. That was the little girl who came from left field someplace. I think she’s the one that Mintz wanted. She was his niece or something, but I’m not sure. Margie was cute in her little Clara Bow haircut, but all she really had to do was clap her hands, put her hands on her hips and jump up and down.
Province: Has anyone ever given any thought to organizing an Alice reunion? It would be interesting to see what has become of not only Margie Gay but the little girl who closed the Alice series, Lois Hardwicke.
Davis-McGhee: Lois Hardwicke did a couple of Alice comedies. She was a lot older, about 11 years old, and had a lot more training. You can tell if you look at the photographs that she would always have her knee bent to make herself seem shorter. You catch those things, they’re all tricks of the trade. She was very good. I saw the one where she did the little sailor dance, but it was too late, too short-lived. Only about eight bars, if you know anything about music.
Province: Do you remember the last time you spoke to Walt Disney?
Davis-McGhee: I think I was 18 or 19, when I was called in to do voice tests for Alice in Wonderland.
Province: The animated version of Alice was being worked on some in the late ’30s, but the film but wasn’t finished and released until the ’50s.
Davis-McGhee: Well Walt, bless him, always thought of me. I had played Alice in Wonderland at the Pasadena Playhouse and was the type with my long blond hair and manners, but terms were still the problem.
Province: It’s interesting that your trails seemed to continue to cross over the years.
Davis-McGhee: It never got cold, and he’d continue to think of me every time he needed a young lady. During the training sessions at the studio they show the Alice comedies, so everyone who has worked for Disney saw them and knew who I was. When I appeared at Disneyland they made up a nice little picture of “then and now.” People would come up to have it signed and they’d look at the picture and the date and couldn’t believe it was the same person!
Province: Your last Alice film was made in 1924. Do all of your Disney films survive?
Davis-McGhee: Yes, but I don’t think Disney has them all, but they did show all of them at Pordonone and in some of the museums over there. It was interesting to watch them with the lines in Dutch and in different languages. I was hoping to get a copy of several of them but didn’t succeed. We donated the four or five that we had. My father had them stored in their little tin cases for I don’t know how long and some of them were just powder. In 1975 I came back to California from back east and gave them to the studio with the understanding that I would get a copy.
Province: Do you have any theories why until now, the Alice films have been so neglected in Disney history? Even in the best histories, they’re touched upon almost parenthetically.
Davis-McGhee: They were kept under wraps. There weren’t too many of them and they were very slowly gathered together from archives. You have to remember how big it was with Mickey Mouse. As Walt said, it really did all begin with Mickey Mouse and the attention to his abilities. Russell Merritt and J. B. Kaufman were not responsible, but I think brought this to light. There wasn’t too much in any of the books; even the first one, the big white reference book, The Art of Walt Disney only had a couple of pages. I think it may be because they didn’t continue on and grow and grow and take off from there, but Alice was where Walt Disney learned and polished his craft.
Province: Also financially. Your films saved Disney from bankruptcy and were the first ones he did that made any money.
Davis-McGhee: Yes, but not very much. I think he got a thousand dollars per film or something like that. A lot of those gags are still used today as you well know; the business of the animal’s tale being wound up like a crank and things like that.
Province: Do you have a relationship with the Disney organization today?
Davis-McGhee: I don’t have a contract or anything like that. This has all sort of crept up on me. Actually through the Disneyana Fair or through the book, or word of mouth or something. It’s been since 1992 that this has mushroomed.
Province: Mrs. Disney is still living. Do you have any plans to contact her?
Davis-McGhee: No, and that’s something I would love to do but I haven’t been able to. I would like to very much. It’s something we could probably do if I worked at it, but I’m not a pusher. I’m very happy to appear at the Disneyana conventions. I first appeared at the second one. They didn’t know about me during the first; also the third convention at Disneyworld in 1994, I’m appearing at the one in Anaheim in February of 1995, and again at Disneyland. That’s all I know about so far. The interesting part is to meet the people and give autographs because I just thoroughly eat that up. There’s just something about the Disney atmosphere that is young at heart, and makes everyone, including me, a child again.
Province: Could we talk about the recent sale of your Walt Disney letters? These were the handwritten letters by Walt to your mother inviting you to come to Hollywood to play Alice?
Davis-McGhee: Yes, original letters, handwritten just after Winkler agreed to distribute the Alice Comedies. Walt didn’t have a typewriter at the time. I sold three to a man named Phil Spears. He is a collector of autographs. I met him through one of the little fan shows. I asked if anybody knew anyone who dealt in autographs and that I might have some letters I would like to sell. Someone must have contacted him because he called me. I sold my originals; I’d held on to them for years. He in turn sold one to another collector who who auctioned it off with a poster in London. One of them is reprinted in the Merritt book and that is the one that sold at Christie’s for somewhere between $19,000 and $20,000. I also had three original posters and I sold him two of them. I kept one for myself. The posters sold for something like $40,000. Phil kept the letter Walt wrote that says, “I have the contract confirmed and we are ready to go into production.” That’s the real beginning. He says he’ll never part with it. The reason I did was that I began to think, I’m getting older and could keel over at any time. My daughters wouldn’t know what to do with them.
Province: How are you dealing with the passage of 70 years, then being proclaimed as Walt Disney’s very first star?
Davis-McGhee: It’s been a long time coming! [laughs] It’s the truth and it’s nice to be finally recognized, and of course it’s great for my ego! I just feel privileged to part of the whole. When you think how it began with a movie viewing and a little test film, and cartoons and everything. I really think Walt was a great man and one of a kind. To be part of all that majesty and animation history is just heartwarming for me and I really feel privileged to have been part of it. Even now, it’s heartwarming. It makes me think that perhaps I did accomplish something that is indeed a part of Walt Disney’s history. It makes me very happy!