Monday, April 11, 2011

Tales of D Wing -- Part I

.... Or: Life in the animation building of Walt Disney Productions in the 1950s and beyond ...

TAG Interview with Bud Hester

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Find all TAG Interviews on the TAG website at this link

Harry "Bud" Hester was a Korean war veteran with a background in commercial art and engineering when he was hired by Disney in 1954. On a recent Spring day at his home in the forests of the San Bernadino Mountains, he recounted his years working with the Nine Old Men, and what made that time so memorable.

Mr. Hester in the forested highlands of the San Bernadino Mountains.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is so great!!!

Steve Hulett said...

Glad you like it.

We aim to please. Sometimes our aim is better than other times.

Narutaki said...

Thanks for this, Bud tells some great stories! I noticed in the second part he mentions quitting Disney, is the reason known? Or did he not what to talk about it?

Steve Hulett said...

Disney was in a slow period after "Sleeping Beauty" (lots of staff was laid off), and Bud made an agreement with management to leave the studio for a year to animate for Bob Clampett's Snowball Productions on the cartoon version of "Beany and Cecil."

He left again in the late seventies to become Business Agent for the Animation Guild. I understand that Disney invited him back at the end of his guild tenure, but Mr. Hester elected to retire.

Floyd Norman said...

I'm willing to bet few people know that Bud Hester played a lawyer in a live-action movie we produced back in the seventies. The scenes were shot in a Burbank court room, and Bud played hooky from Disney to shoot the scenes.

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