Preston Erwin Blair (October 24, 1908 – April 19, 1995) was an American

character animator Adobe Character Animator is an Emmy Award-winning desktop application software product that combines real-time live motion-capture with a multi-track recording system to control layered 2D puppets based on an illustration drawn in Photoshop or Il ...

, best remembered for his work at

Walt Disney Productions The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

and the

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio was an American animation studio operated by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) during the Golden Age of American animation. Active from 1937 until 1957, the studio was responsible for producing animated shorts to a ...

. A native of

Redlands, California Redlands ( ) is a city in San Bernardino County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 73,168, up from 68,747 at the 2010 census. The city is located approximately west of Palm Springs and east of Lo ...

, Blair began his animation career in the early 1930s at the Romer Gray Studio due to the studio not keeping up with his salary, he moved to

Walter Lantz Productions Walter Lantz Productions was an American animation studio. It was in operation from 1928 to 1972 and was the principal supplier of animation for Universal Studios. The studio was originally formed as Universal Cartoon Studios on the initiative o ...

. He later moved over to

Charles Mintz Charles Bear Mintz (November 5, 1889 – December 30, 1939)''Social Security Death Index, 1935–2014''. Social Security Administration. was an American film producer and distributor who assumed control over Margaret J. Winkler's Winkler Pictu ...

Screen Gems Screen Gems is an American brand name used by Sony Pictures' Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group, a subsidiary of Japanese multinational conglomerate, Sony Group Corporation. It has served several different purposes for its parent ...

studio, and in the late 1930s moved over to the Disney studio. At Disney, Blair animated cartoon short subjects,

Mickey Mouse Mickey Mouse is an animated cartoon Character (arts), character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime mascot of The Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red sho ...

scenes in "''

The Sorcerer's Apprentice "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" (german: "Der Zauberlehrling", link=no, italic=no) is a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe written in 1797. The poem is a ballad in 14 stanzas. Story The poem begins as an old magician (fantasy), sorcerer departs his ...

''" section of ''

Fantasia Fantasia International Film Festival (also known as Fantasia-fest, FanTasia, and Fant-Asia) is a film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996. Regularly held in July of each year, it is valued by both hardcore ...

'' (1940), and the hippo-alligator dance in ''Fantasia's'' "''

Dance of the Hours ''Dance of the Hours'' (Italian: ') is a short ballet and is the act 3 finale of the opera '' La Gioconda'' composed by Amilcare Ponchielli. It depicts the hours of the day through solo and ensemble dances. The opera was first performed in 187 ...

''" sequence. He also did some work on

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

's ''

Pinocchio Pinocchio ( , ) is a fictional character and the protagonist of the children's novel ''The Adventures of Pinocchio'' (1883) by Italian writer Carlo Collodi of Florence, Tuscany. Pinocchio was carved by a woodcarver named Geppetto in a Tuscan vil ...

'' (1940) and ''

Bambi ''Bambi'' is a 1942 American animated drama film directed by David Hand (supervising a team of sequence directors), produced by Walt Disney and based on the 1923 book ''Bambi, a Life in the Woods'' by Austrian author and hunter Felix Salten. ...

'' (1942). Blair left Disney after the 1941 Disney animator's strike, and was hired to work for

Tex Avery Frederick Bean "Tex" Avery (February 26, 1908 – August 26, 1980) was an American animator, cartoonist, animation director, director, and voice actor. He was known for directing and producing animated cartoons during the golden age of American a ...

's unit at MGM. There, he became particularly known for animating the titular female character in ''

Red Hot Riding Hood ''Red Hot Riding Hood'' is an animated cartoon short subject, directed by Tex Avery and released with the movie ''Dr. Gillespie's Criminal Case'' on May 8, 1943, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In 1994, it was voted number 7 of The 50 Greatest Cartoons ...

''. "Red" later re-appeared in more Avery cartoons, including ''

Swing Shift Cinderella ''Swing Shift Cinderella'' is a 1945 MGM animated cartoon short subject directed by Tex Avery. The plot involves the Big Bad Wolf and Cinderella. Frank Graham voiced the wolf, and Sara Berner voiced both Cinderella and The Fairy Grandmother, wit ...

'', ''

Little Rural Riding Hood ''Little Rural Riding Hood'' is a 1949 MGM animated cartoon short subject directed by Tex Avery, conceived as a follow-up to his 1943 cartoon ''Red Hot Riding Hood''. In 1994, the cartoon was ranked in 23rd place of The 50 Greatest Cartoons. It is ...

'', ''

Uncle Tom's Cabana An uncle is usually defined as a male relative who is a sibling of a parent or married to a sibling of a parent. Uncles who are related by birth are second-degree relatives. The female counterpart of an uncle is an aunt, and the reciprocal rela ...

'' and the

Droopy Droopy is an animated character from the golden age of American animation. He is an anthropomorphic white Basset Hound with a droopy face; hence his name. He was created in 1943 by Tex Avery for theatrical cartoon shorts produced by the Metro-Go ...

cartoons ''

The Shooting of Dan McGoo ''The Shooting of Dan McGoo'' is a cartoon directed by Tex Avery and starring Frank Graham as the Wolf. Both Bill Thompson and Avery himself voiced the lead character Droopy. Sara Berner did the speaking voice of Lou, while her singing was provid ...

'' and ''

Wild and Woolfy ''Wild and Woolfy'' is a 1945 animated cartoon short, one of six cartoons in which Droopy was paired with a wolf as his acting partner. It is one of a very few cartoons in the series where Bill Thompson did not voice Droopy, instead Tex Avery hims ...

'', with animation by Blair. In the late 1940s, Blair teamed with Avery animator

Michael Lah Michael Richard Lah (September 1, 1912 – October 13, 1995) was an American animator of Slovene origin. He is best remembered for his work at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio, primarily as a member of Tex Avery's animation unit. He first ...

to direct several ''

Barney Bear ''Barney Bear'' is an American series of animated cartoon short subjects produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio. The title character is an anthropomorphic cartoon character, a sluggish, sleepy bear who often is in pursuit of nothing b ...

'' cartoons. Blair continued his career in animation into the 1960s, working on ''

The Flintstones ''The Flintstones'' is an American animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. The series takes place in a romanticized Stone Age setting and follows the activities of the titular family, the Flintstones, and their next-door neighb ...

'' at

Hanna-Barbera Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ) was an American animation studio and production company which was active from 1957 to 2001. It was founded on July 7, 1957, by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera following the decision of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to c ...

. He is better known, however, as an author of animation instructional books for

Walter Foster Publishing Walter Thomas Foster (1891–1981) was an American entrepreneur, artist, art instructor, writer, editor and publisher. The Walter Foster Publishing Company's line of low-cost art manuals were widely distributed to art stores, often displayed in a m ...

. His first book, ''Animation'', was published in 1948 and originally included images of the MGM & Disney cartoon characters he had animated, who were redrawn to obscure their origins in the second edition of the book. Blair would write many more animation how-to texts over the next forty years, culminating with ''Cartoon Animation'' (1994), a 224-page book which compiles most of the content from his previous books. A new edition of "Cartoon Animation" was published in November 2020 by Walter Foster Publishing, an imprint of The Quarto Group. Preston Blair was the brother of artist Lee Everett Blair and the brother-in-law of artist and designer

Mary Blair Mary Blair (born Mary Browne Robinson; October 21, 1911 – July 26, 1978) was an American people, American artist, animator, and designer. She was prominent in producing art and animation for The Walt Disney Company, drawing concept art for s ...

. He died on April 19, 1995.

References

External links

* * 1908 births 1995 deaths Animators from California American animated film directors Chouinard Art Institute alumni People from Redlands, California Walt Disney Animation Studios people Hanna-Barbera people Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio people {{US-animator-stub