'Grandma Duck' - 'County Fair' (Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #131, 1951).
Bob Moore was a U.S. animator, who worked for Walter Lantz and the Walt Disney Studios, notably at Disney's Publicity Art Department (1950-1983). Between 1947 and 1948, he drew comics for Lev Gleason Publishing, and between 1950 and 1952, he was an artist of Disney comics for Dell/Western Publishing. Moore is additionally notable for designing Sam, the official mascot of the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, California.
Early life
Robert C. Moore was born in 1920 in California. His father worked as a violinist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, providing background music to several early Disney cartoons, like 'Steamboat Willie' (1928) and 'Plane Crazy' (1928). Moore briefly attended art classes at the Chouinard Institute (nowadays the California Institute of the Arts) in Los Angeles.
Animation
Moore's animation career started at the animation studio of Walter Lantz. It took until 1940, before Moore was accepted by the Disney Studios. He assisted Walt Kelly, working on the animated features 'Fantasia' (1940) and 'Dumbo' (1941). He subsequently joined the studio's Story Department, writing gags for 'The Reluctant Dragon' (1941), 'The Three Caballeros' (1944) and 'Melody Time' (1948). One notable scene he contributed to is the 'Blame It on the Samba' sequence in 'The Three Caballeros'. During World War II, Moore fulfilled his military service by contributing to military propaganda films, made by commission of the U.S. government.
Introduction story to the November 1951 comic book 'Walt Disney's Duck Album'.
Disney Publicity Art Department
In late 1948, Moore joined Disney's Publicity Art Department. Under the guidance of Hank Porter, he designed posters, livened up the pages of illustrated books, Christmas cards, logos and other promotional material. When Porter left the department in 1950, Moore was promoted to art director. He was one of the few artists allowed to sign his work, though he also put Disney's signature on a lot of other merchandising. Moore designed mural paintings with Disney characters for three Walt Disney Elementary Schools in Tullytown, Pennsylvania, in Marceline, Missouri and in Anaheim, California. In 1968, he also made the Walt Disney commemorative postage stamp. Moore remained head of Disney's publicity art department until his retirement in 1983.
Disney comics
During his animation years, Bob Moore drew filler humor comics for comic books by Lev Gleason Publishing (1947-1948). Between 1950 and 1952, Moore also drew for the Disney comic books published by Dell Comics/Western Publishing. He illustrated mainly 'Donald Duck' stories for Walt Disney's Christmas Parade and the Four Color Comics title, but he also did some story work with 'Grandma Duck' and 'Little Bad Wolf'. In addition, Moore drew for the Little Golden Books picture book series in 1952-1953.
Sam the Eagle
Bob Moore retired in 1983, but went out in style. He and a team of 30 artists designed the official mascot of the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Originally, California's state animal - the Golden Bear - was considered, but it was eventually decided that it was too close to the previous Olympic mascot, Misha the Bear, from the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow. After toying with the idea of palm trees, cactuses, bisons, snakes and turtles, Moore and his team combined two U.S. symbols, the bald eagle and Uncle Sam, into a high hat wearing eagle: Sam the Eagle. The choice for this animal might have been obvious, since the Walt Disney Company already used an anthropomorphic patriotic eagle named Sam for the 'America Sings' attraction in Disneyland, Anaheim (1974-1988). For this same reason, there was no concern of getting into legal trouble with another patriotic anthropomorphic U.S. eagle character: Sam the Eagle, from Jim Henson's 'The Muppets', since the Disneyland eagle was created first.
Final years and death
In 1996, Moore received a Disney Legend Award, in gratitude for everything he did for the company. A special kind of red paint used by Disney animators has also been named after him. Bob Moore passed away in 2001 in Koloa, Hawaii. He was 81 years old.
Donald Duck meets Peter Pan (Peter Pan Treasure Chest, 1953).