A Brief Intro to Roy Williams: ‘300 Pounds of Pixie Dust’
Roy Williams was born on July 30, 1907 in Colville, WA, but grew up in Los Angeles, CA. While attending high school, he learned to make people laugh with the outrageous cartoons he sketched. After high school he was offered a sports scholarship to the University of Southern California, but instead applied for a job at the up-and-coming Walt Disney Studios – and was personally hired by Walt.
Roy Williams started his career at The Walt Disney Studios as an artist. He quickly moved to the story department after presenting a Donald Duck gag to Walt. In the gag, Donald swallowed a magnet and attracted every metal object imaginable. Walt was so impressed with Roy’s unbridled imagination that he tripled his salary.
Long-time Disney director Jack Kinney described Williams as a “hot-headed unpredictable bastard”, but admired his talent, saying that he could “sit down and grunt out a few pounds of gags as if it were nothing”.
Walt’s nephew, Roy E. Disney, once recalled, “Roy was amazing. You’d ask him for gags for a situation and he’d give you literally hundreds of them.”
When Walt Disney decided to try his hand at the emerging medium of television, he personally cast Roy, who he once described as “300 pounds of walking pixie dust”, in a new role.
As Roy later recalled, “Walt was in my office when suddenly, he looked up at me and said, ‘Say, you’re fat and funny looking. I’m going to put you on the ‘Mickey Mouse Club’ and call you the Big Mooseketeer!’”
Roy, with his impish grin, became an instant favorite with children around the world, as well as the kids in the cast. Mouseketeer Doreen Tracy would later say that they all ‘loved him since he was so playful and protective.’
Not content to simply contribute in front of the camera, Roy would also create one of the key pieces of ‘branding’ for the show – and later Disney as a whole. Inspired by a gag in the 1929 Mickey Mouse short ‘The Karnival Kid’ where Mickey quickly tips his ears like a hat to Minnie, Roy came up with the idea for the black Mouse Ears caps that the cast would wear. Disney would sell two million Mouse Ears within the first three months of the show’s debut.
I just want to repeat that last amazing factoid: Roy Williams invented Mouse Ears!
Roy Williams stayed on ‘The Mickey Mouse Club’ for four seasons, yet continued to work for the Disney organization until his retirement. Throughout his years at the Mouse House, Williams also produced one-panel gag cartoons for The New Yorker, Saturday Evening Post, and many other magazines.
Roy died of a heart attack on November 7, 1976.
Roy dedicated his book, ‘The Secret World of Roy Williams’ (1957) “To the man who has meant the most to me in faith and inspiration: Walt Disney, whose patience and guidance through a lifetime of association are in greatest degree imaginable responsible for the best of Roy Williams.”
Note: THIS TEXT NOT MINE. I simply edited it all together. It is made up of various articles and tributes to Roy Williams by D23.com Jim Hill Media and Wikipedia.
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