Doris "Dodie" L. Roberts (née Saathoff) worked in Disney's Ink and Paint Department for 45 years, the last decade of which she was supervisor of the paint lab where she painted cels for feature films and shorts.
Roberts was born in Plainview, Nebraska. She graduated from Wilmington University in Delaware as a business major before heading to California for work at 20 and married Lyle Roberts. In 1939, a former classmate, who was working at Disney at the time, had invited her to visit and, on October 24 of that year, she joined the company as a runner delivering freshly mixed paint to inkers and painters. Before long, however, she was promoted to the task of creating colors and mixing the paints alongside Ruthie Tompson, Grace Bailey, and Becky Fellburg among others. "I love puzzles, and mixing paint was like putting together a puzzle," she said. "It was fascinating to create colors and to get them exact." Throughout the next several decades, Roberts' team became responsible for the manufacture of transparent colors to guarantee the magical effect of certain elements, such as fairy dust or even the halo of light surrounding the appearances of Cinderella's Godmother, the Three Good Fairies, Maleficent, and Merlin.
On September 24, 1961, Walt Disney paid tribute to Roberts and the ink department department in "An Adventure in Color/Mathmagicland", the first episode of his new show Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color. Broadcast on NBC, the program was the very first of its kind to be broadcast entirely in color. For the occasion, viewers were exceptionally allowed to enter what was presented as the Paint Lab.
Renowned for her talent in creating perfectly harmonious color palettes, Roberts was promoted in 1972 to the position of Paint Lab supervisor. She was, then, the one and only person in the department to know the secret of making each paint and the film for which each one was made. Her expertise was offered to a new generation of artists working on classics, like The Fox and the Hound, The Black Cauldron, and The Great Mouse Detective.
She retired in 1984. A few weeks after her departure, Roberts and her colleague Al Jones set up a new association, The Disney Golden Ears Retirement Club, reserved for former employees of the company. Roberts was named a Disney Legend in 2000 and passed away on February 11, 2008.
Filmography[]
| Year | Film | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1940 | Fantasia | Ink and paint artist (uncredited) |
| 1941 | Dumbo | Ink and paint artist (uncredited) |
| 1942 | Bambi | Ink and paint artist (uncredited) |
| 1942 | Saludos Amigos | Ink and paint (uncredited) |
| 1944 | The Three Caballeros | Ink and paint (uncredited) |
| 1946 | Make Mine Music | Ink and paint (uncredited) |
| 1946 | Song of the South | Paint lab (uncredited) |
| 1947 | Fun and Fancy Free | Ink and paint (uncredited) |
| 1948 | Melody Time | Paint lab (uncredited) |
| 1948 | So Dear to My Heart | Paint lab (uncredited) |
| 1949 | The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad | Paint lab (uncredited) |
| 1950 | Cinderella | Paint lab (uncredited) |
| 1951 | Alice in Wonderland | Paint lab (uncredited) |
| 1953 | Peter Pan | Paint lab (uncredited) |
| 1955 | Lady and the Tramp | Paint lab (uncredited) |
| 1958 | Paul Bunyan | Paint lab (uncredited) |
| 1959 | Sleeping Beauty | Paint lab (uncredited) |
| 1960 | Goliath II | Paint lab (uncredited) |
| 1961 | One Hundred and One Dalmatians | Paint lab (uncredited) |
| 1961 | The Saga of Windwagon Smith | Paint lab (uncredited) |
| 1962 | A Symposium on Popular Songs | Paint lab (uncredited) |
| 1963 | The Sword in the Stone | Paint lab (uncredited) |
| 1964 | Mary Poppins | Paint lab (uncredited) |
| 1967 | Scrooge McDuck and Money | Paint lab (uncredited) |
| 1967 | The Jungle Book | Paint lab (uncredited) |
| 1970 | Dad, Can I Borrow the Car? | Paint lab (uncredited) |
| 1970 | The Aristocats | Paint lab (uncredited) |
| 1971 | Bedknobs and Broomsticks | Paint lab (uncredited) |
| 1973 | Robin Hood | Paint lab (uncredited) |
| 1977 | The Rescuers | Paint lab (uncredited) |
| 1977 | The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh | Paint lab (uncredited): "Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree" "Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day" "Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too" |
| 1977 | Pete's Dragon | Paint lab (uncredited) |
| 1978 | The Small One | Paint lab (uncredited) |
| 1981 | The Fox and the Hound | Paint lab (uncredited) |
| 1983 | Mickey's Christmas Carol | Paint lab (uncredited) |
| 1985 | The Black Cauldron | Paint lab |
| 1986 | The Great Mouse Detective | Paint lab (uncredited) |
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- At one time, three lab employees, including Dodie, were responsible for adding a single color to the mix, without knowing what the others were putting in. "It was a secret," she said. "They didn't want other Studios to know the formula, so only the supervisor of our department knew all of its ingredients."
- Upon her retirement, as a celebration of her career, a new shade, a shimmering purple, was specially created and named "Dodie 6".
External links[]
Dodie Roberts on IMDb- Dodie Roberts at Find a Grave
- Chronique Disney - Dodie Roberts
- Dodie Roberts - d23
