I just happened upon this letter (on Flickr) to Miss Mary Ford from Walt Disney Productions in 1938. The guy found it amongst his deceased grandmother's things. I did a little Googling of it and found it had been blogged quite a bit last year.
(Click to enlarge)"Women do not do any of the creative work in connection with preparing the cartoons for the screen, as that work is performed entirely by young men. For this reason girls are not considered for the training school."
I have two observations:
1. How did Mary Cleane get HER job there?
2. I love how Mary's signature is next to the picture of the witch.
If you do a little digging, you start to see a pattern:
History: Disney's Artist Tryout Book
Disney, 1939: "Girls are not considered for the training school"
Disney Organizational Chart - 1943
Then just when you thought it couldn't have been any more sexist back then... I find this Employee Manual circa 1943 entitled: The Ropes At Disney
Actual excerpts:
No gals in the "Penthouse Club" - Does this make any sense? Oh well, at least they had sexy waitresses in the staff restaurant.
Although I don't get this picture (Who's being saved here?), we do see that Disney illustrators paid very close attention to detail... especially in their drawings of bums (which you'll notice the guy is looking right at).
If you thought he was looking at her bum again in this picture... No, he's interested in buying bonds.I'm starting to wonder if maybe Miss Mary Ford simply didn't look good in a red sweater.
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