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- Virginia Davis was born on December 31, 1918, in Kansas City, Missouri. Her father was a traveling furniture salesman and spent much time away from home. With her husband gone for weeks at a time, Margaret Davis, a housewife, focused all her attention on her daughter; she began taking Virginia to dancing lessons and modeling auditions when she was 2. A striking child with long curls, Virginia was soon appearing in advertisements that played between films in local theaters. She also entered Georgie Brown's Dramatic School in Kansas City, where she studied drama and dance. In the summer of 1923, 22-year-old Walt Disney, a struggling but ambitious director, saw Virginia in an advertisement in a Kansas City theater and immediately decided to hire her. He quickly contacted Margaret Davis, who was eager to advance her Virginia's career. Alice's Wonderland (1923), the first short film of the Alice series, was filmed at the Davis home in Kansas City; both Margaret Davis and Walt Disney made brief appearances (which marked Disney's first live appearance in one of his own cartoons). After filming, Disney returned to Hollywood and began to build his movie empire with only forty dollars and one short film starring little Virginia Davis. The Davis family soon followed Disney to Hollywood, although their daughter's career was not the only reason for the move; Virginia had suffered a pneumonia and other health problems, and her doctor told her parents that she would be healthier in a drier, warmer climate. Virginia signed her first contract with Disney for a salary of $100 a month, and she began filming the Alice shorts in Walt Disney's first studio, his uncle's garage. His brother Roy O. Disney was the cameraman, and the Disney family dog Peggy appeared in many of the films. The Alice shorts became very popular, providing Disney with his first national success. But as the series progressed, Disney became more interested in the animation aspect, which minimized Virginia's live-action role; she only made about thirteen of the Alice shorts before her contract was severed. She later auditioned for the role of voice of Snow White in Disney's film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), but she didn't get the role because her mother refused to accept the frugal salary. Virginia had some small roles in full-length films, including The Harvey Girls (1946), before she left acting to earn a degree from the New York School of Interior Design. She later became an editor for the 1950s magazine "Living for Young Homemakers," and in the 1960s, she began working for real estate agents in Connecticut and later California. In 1992, interest was renewed in the Alice series. Living in retirement in Montana, Virginia was suddenly overwhelmed by the number of fans seeking to honor her and the remarkable role she played in the birth of Walt Disney Studios. She was the guest of honor at the Pordonone Silent Film Festival in Italy in 1992, and she was inducted as a Disney Legend in 1998. Virginia also became very active in silent film festivals and events at Disneyland and Walt Disney World.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Snow4849
- SpouseRobert McGhee(1943 - 2002) (his death, 2 children)
- Daughter of actress Margaret Davis.
- Virginia was considered for the voice of Snow White in Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).
- Curt Rehfeld, her director in The Greater Glory (1926), once said that she possessed "the disposition of angel".
- She has appeared in two films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) & Pinocchio (1940).
- [on her career] To be part of all that majesty and animation history is just heartwarming for me and I really feel privileged to have been part of it. It makes me think that perhaps I did accomplish something that is indeed a part of Walt Disney's history.
- [on Walt Disney] Walt never had any ill feelings toward me. I could still continue to go out and see him. He'd always come up to me and put his arm around me and say, "How are you doing, Virginia?" I always had entrée to his office if I wanted to use it. We continued to be friends and after [Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)] he gave me a job. He taught me how to ink and paint and I also did some voices for a while.
- [on filming the "Alice" shorts] It was very informal. We used to have a lot of people gathered around. During the silent days we would have a lot of the curious children and the neighbors come around to watch what was going on. They would use some of the children in some of the scenes as they did in one of my favorites, Alice's Wild West Show (1924), where they were used as the audience. There was no Screen Actors Guild so there was no place to go if you needed somebody for a film. You just used whomever was around at the time.
- [on being hired by Walt Disney] Walt had always had the idea. Alice in Cartoonland was something he had been thinking of doing. I guess when he saw me he thought, "Here was a little girl who could do it". I think that's where it all started. He contacted my mother and pitched this idea about how great it would be for her little girl. Mother was open to suggestion so she said okay.
- [on her early career] My mother always had me practice whatever I was learning in dancing school every single afternoon. Even later in California after I'd come home from school I was still doing my dancing routines with the Victrola playing my music and the rug rolled up; and if I didn't do them well or correctly, I didn't get to go out to play until I did.
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