Maurice Noble: A Journey of Loss and Redemption

The Ugly Duckling finds a Better Pond

MAURICE NOBLE

and the Folder of Discarded Treasure

MAURICE NOBLE LEAVES DISNEY

A few weeks after the Disney Strike was resolved, America entered

World War Two. Defeated at work for Disney, Maurice signed up for

the military and married his girlfriend Georgia who later bore him two

daughters. Maurice became a staff photographer in a Louisiana boot

camp, where one night during a Frank Capra movie, made a critical

appraisal of the film and mailed it to Capra in Hollywood.

Rookie Rhythm

Frank Capra responded by asking Maurice to move to

California and join his unit. He did, and Ted Geisel, the man

who later became Dr. Seuss, was his commanding officer.

It was also at this time when Maurice Noble started his

professional collaboration with director Chuck Jones who he

met during the Disney Strike.

 Noble worked on posters and booklets, and on a cartoon

series called 

Private Snafu

. The unit did the writing,

storyboards, and background designs; the cartoon production

was contracted out. Warner Bros. won the contract for 

Private

Snafu

, and the WB animation director Chuck Jones worked on

the series. Following the war Noble did freelance work in the

industry and then took a position doing art for a filmstrip

production company in St. Louis.

Free to design backgrounds as he wanted to, Jones quickly

embraced Noble’s abilities. The two collaborated on the

Private Snafu

 shorts, which showed a more experimental side

than Maurice was permitted to display at Disney.

Private Snafu

When World War Two ended, Maurice Noble found himself out of

a job. Shortly thereafter, he also found himself divorced from his

wife and permanently separated from his daughters Pamela and

Patricia. The loss of all three things at once propelled Maurice

into a state of depression which led him into mental hospital for

shock treatment, and later to the Lutheran Brotherhood in

St. Louis, Missouri where he worked on animated Christian films.

It was here he also met and married Tennessee Williams’

classmate Marjorie Phillips who brought joy back into his heart.

Maurice Noble remained in St. Louis until 1952. He was unhappy

at his work for the church. One day Noble received a telegram

from his colleague Chuck Jones who upon hearing Maurice

might be available asked him to move back to Los Angeles to

work in the animation unit he had assembled at Warner Bros.

Noble leaped at the chance, moved back to California and would

go on to become one of the most prominent art director/layout

artists working in Animation.

Chuck Jones’ film unit

DUCK! RABBIT, DUCK!

1953

BEWITCHED BUNNY

1954

SHEEP AHOY

1954

TOUCHÉ AND GO

1957

BOYHOOD DAZE

1957

WHAT’S OPERA, DOC?

1957

The Opening Sequence

that was cut from the beginning of:

WHAT’S OPERA, DOC?

HARE-WAY TO THE STARS

1958

ROBIN HOOD DAFFY

1958

HIGH NOTE

1960

TO BEEP OR NOT TO BEEP

1963

THE DOT AND THE LINE

1963

WARNER BROS. SHUTS DOWN

CHUCK JONES’ FILM UNIT

In 1958, Chuck Jones’ film unit for the 

Looney Tunes

 and 

Merrie

Melodies

 was closed down temporarily. Chuck Jones and Maurice

Noble moved over to Disney where the two would spend about six

months working on Disney’s feature film 

Sleeping Beauty

.

About the experience, Chuck Jones told me “I worked on 

Sleeping

Beauty

 for a short time, but the conditions were so completely different

that I went to Walt and told him there was only one job worth having at

Disney, and he had it.”

Warner Bros. Studio head Jack Warner recanted and brought the pair

back but in 1962 Warner closed the shop down permanently.