Disney Honors ‘Alice,’ Its Earliest Star

All her life, 11-year-old Kristianne Zandbergen has struggled to convince friends that her grandmother is a Disney star--the studio’s most important star, in fact.

“I try to tell them and they say, ‘Yeah, sure,’ ” Kristianne said.

But on Friday the Corona sixth-grader got all the proof she needs as her grandmother, Virginia Davis, was singled out as a bona fide Disney legend in ceremonies marking the studio’s 75th anniversary.

Davis, 79, was praised for her starring role in the “Alice” films, the innovative combination live-action and animation comedy series that in 1923 launched fledgling cartoonist Walt Disney’s career and began what is now the Disney Studios.

“Walt said it all started with a mouse, but that wasn’t quite true. It started with a girl named Alice,” Disney Co. Vice Chairman Roy E. Disney told a crowd gathered at the company’s Burbank headquarters to commemorate the anniversary.

Davis was a precocious 4-year-old with blond ringlets when Disney rented a vacant lot at Hollywood Boulevard and Vermont Avenue and filmed her against a backdrop formed by a white cloth draped over a billboard.

She still had a twinkle in her eye Friday as she stood next to Disney stars Kurt Russell, Hayley Mills and Dick Van Dyke and placed her handprints in a clay mold that will be turned into a bronze plaque at the Disney headquarters.

“It’s about time, isn’t it?” Davis said in a loud stage whisper.

Russell, Mills, Van Dyke and actresses Glynis Johns and Kathryn Beaumont were among 19 former Disney employees saluted along with Davis. Also on hand to receive Disney “Legend” trophies were studio accountant Don Escen, composer Buddy Baker, cameraman Paul Kenworthy, director Larry Lansburgh and film editors Norman Palmer and Lloyd Richardson.

Known for its careful record keeping and colorful archives, the Disney Co. for the last 10 years has annually honored veteran employees by proclaiming them studio legends. Previous winners have included actors Fred MacMurray, Annette Funicello, Fess Parker, Angela Lansbury and Dean Jones as well as nearly 100 behind-the-scenes studio workers.

On Friday, studio archivist Dave Smith pulled Davis’ original Oct. 16, 1923, “Alice” contract out of the files and pointed to Walt Disney’s signature on the bottom.

“This is the contract that started the company,” Smith said.

Other Disney old-timers--including animators from the 1930s and ‘40s--said Davis is the only person still alive who actually witnessed the start of the real Disney legend.

“This company is evolving and changing, but it doesn’t forget its roots,” said Jack Lindquist, a Newport Beach resident who recently retired as president of Disneyland.

Although Davis was too young to sign that first contract, she remembers filming the first 13 episodes of the “Alice” series--which was produced five years before Disney’s Mickey Mouse character made its debut in the “Steamboat Willie” cartoon.

Then 21, Walt Disney was “long on creativity but low on cash,” even borrowing Davis’ mother’s car when he dated his future wife, according to Davis.

As she grew older, Davis did voice-over work on “Pinocchio” and worked briefly in Disney’s ink and paint department. She was later an interior decorator and decorating magazine editor in New York and a real estate agent in Irvine. These days she is retired and lives near Boise, Idaho.

“I’m still alive and kicking,” Davis said with a laugh after using a stick to sign her name in the clay mold above her handprints.

Kristianne, whose mother, Laurieanne Zandbergen, allowed her to play hooky from school to watch Friday’s ceremony, agreed with that assessment.

She’ll have quite a tale to tell Monday when she returns to class, Kristianne said.

An old-fashioned Disney True-Life Adventure Story.