Routinely, we cover people here who go on the schedule with a whispered prayer that they will live until I get to them. Alice Estes Davis was born in 1929. She’s been on the schedule for some time now, and I’m pleased to say that she remains qualifying. Not least because she’s a connection to a history we don’t talk much about. She does have an IMDb page—and I’ve written about some people who don’t—but most of her place in popular culture won’t be there, because a lot of her work was with the theme park. And, of course, IMDb isn’t the greatest source for a lot of behind-the-scenes people. Costuming is one of those places.

She is one of the women whose attempt at education was dampened by the end of World War II—she applied at the prestigious Chouinard Art Institute, and there was a two-year waiting list to get into animation. She agreed to be in the very next department that had an opening, and not terribly surprisingly that was costume design. However, she met Marc Davis, who agreed to let her attend one of his classes, even though it was full, provided she was basically his teacher’s aide for the class. This friendship would later bloom, and they were married from 1956 to his death in 2000.

After graduation, she went to work at the Beverly Vogue & Lingerie House. Her skills were such that she quickly became head of the design department. And then in the mid-’50s, Marc called her—before, I’m quite sure, they were married—and asked her to make a costume for Helene Stanley, the motion model for Princess Aurora, so the animators could tell how fabric moved as she moved. This would be her first job for Disney; it would certainly not be her last. By 1960, Walt had hired her.

About all the IMDb page for her lists is that first job, designing costumes for Toby Tyler or Ten Weeks at the Circus. She worked on other Disney television shows, however, and nobody seems inclined to tell me which ones. I will say, however, that a lot of the costuming of the Disney shows of the era is underrated, and she deserves to be known for that at least as much as doing all the costumes for it’s a small world and the Pirates of the Caribbean. And she was firm that those costumes had to be made properly, because it was cheaper to do all the necessary interfacing and things than to replace the costumes all the time.

She is, yes, still alive, one of the few people from that era of Disney who is. Of course she is a Disney Legend; it would be just wrong if she weren’t. And her late husband is as well, ditto. But even more delightfully, the creative team behind Up interviewed the oldest people they knew about growing old, and she’s one of the people who helped contribute to the film. She’s thanked in the credits; that, at least, made it to her IMDb page.

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