I recently learned of the passing of my friend and
colleague, Ginny Tyler. Ginny and I shared our love for Disney. And I always
regarded her as a true talent as well as one of the chief Mouseketeers much
like the original head mouse, Jimmie Dodd.
Back in the 1960s, Ginny performed live segments from
Disneyland during the re-edited and repackaged syndication run of the original
Mickey Mouse Club. It was during this time she became known as the Disneyland Storyteller and was even praised by Walt Disney for her fine work. Ginny Tyler
would later work for us in Disney’s animation department, but I’ll get to that
later.
Ginny Tyler (1925 – 2012)
After the sad passing of Walt Disney in 1966, I left the
studio to launch my own production company in Los Angeles. It was called
Vignette Films, Inc. and we began by producing educational media for the school
systems in California and across the country. However, we still had our love
for popular media so we partnered with another Hollywood production company to
produce a TV pilot we would call “The Hazzards of Helen.”
As you can probably guess, the series would be a send-up of
those old “Perils of Pauline” serials and Ginny Tyler would star as
our damsel-in-distress. Of course, the evil villain continually attempts to
dispatch our heroine but the plucky Helen always escapes and lives to survive
another day. The always-perky Ginny Tyler was perfectly cast as Helen. Oddly
enough our show was produced in live-action and not animation. However I did
design and animate a quirky cartoony opening title sequence. The rinky-tink
piano music that played over the title evoked the turn-of-the-century
Nickelodeon.
I had only seen Ginny Tyler on the Disney television shows,
so you can imagine how thrilled I was when I found out she was going to star in
our pilot. Our first meeting took place in our Los Angeles office one late
Saturday afternoon. Perfect for kid shows, Ginny Tyler was not exactly the kid
she appeared to be on television. However, her youthful appearance made her
perfect for the Mickey Mouse Club, and she attributed her “lack of
aging” to her Native American blood.
Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved
Ginny Tyler proved she could do more than just on-camera
performances. She was a narrator on Disneyland Records and even did character
voices for us in Disney feature animated films. Some of Ginny’s finest voice
work can be heard in Walt Disney’s “The Sword in the Stone” where she
played two delightful amorous female squirrels. Later in the “Jolly
Holiday” sequence of “Mary Poppins,” Ginny Tyler sang for several
of the barnyard animals I had the pleasure of working on.
Ginny Tyler was named a Disney Legend in 2006. However, this
was back in the day when the Disney Company kept their Legend Ceremony a pretty
private affair and it was not open to the public or even most Disney employees.
When I finally heard of Ginny Tyler’s induction into the Disney Legends she had
already returned to her home in the Seattle area and I never saw her again.
What I do have are the many memories of our time together at
the Walt Disney Company and some really silly cartoons drawn by legendary
Disney cartoonist Roy Williams. One of my favorite gags by the Master
Cartoonist is Ginny Tyler taking a cast member break at a local bar. The chief
Mouseketeer is wearing her Mickey Mouse cap and on her shirt for all to see is
her name. Only this time around, cartoonist, Roy Williams has shortened her
name to read “GIN.”
Did you enjoy today’s tribute to Ginny Tyler? If so, this late
Disney Legend is just one of the fascinating folks that Floyd Norman has worked
over the 40+ years that he’s been in animation. Which is why this industry
veteran has so many great anecdotes to share in the books that he’s written.
Speaking of which: Floyd’s most recent effort – “Disk
Drive: Animated Humor in the Digital Age” – is available for purchase
through blurb.com. Mr. Norman’s original collection of cartoons and stories —
“Faster! Cheaper! The Flip Side of the Art of Animation” – is still
for sale over at John Cawley’s Cataroo. And if you still haven’t had your fill
of Floyd at this point, feel free to move on over to Mr. Fun. Which is where
Mr. Norman posts his musings when he’s not writing for JHM.