After some long nights of research for this blog series, I struggled with which woman to write a full post about for series celebrating Women’s History Month since there are so many influential women of the Disney Company. I recall back in November of 2022 the passing of Disney Legend Alice Davis and I thought what better way to honor her memory than to write my next post in this series about her. Women are sometimes shadowed by their significant others but with Alice, I feel her and Marc Davis shined brighter together.
Alice Estes was born on March 26, 1929 in Escalon, California. After moving to Los Angeles at the age of 4, she was enrolled in kindergarten a year early and won the all-city painting competition for children in the Los Angeles school system with her picture of a women in a pink dress. Alice’s mother was also an artist. In an interview with D23 in 2016 she spoke about her mother saving pennies for over a month to be able to afford to take her to see Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs on her eighth birthday.
Alice launched her career in the fashion world by designing women’s lingerie and undergarments for the Beverly Vogue & Lingerie House in Los Angeles. She was quickly promoted to the head designer. As she progressed in her design career, she designed two lines of fashion lingerie and earned the reputation as an expert pattern maker and the ultimate authority on uses of fabrics.
One day in the mid-1950s, she received a request from her former animation instructor Marc Davis for a costume designed and created for dancer Helene Stanley to wear for live-action reference footage to inspire his animation of the lead character Briar Rose (Princess Aurora) in Sleeping beauty. Marc wanted to see how the skirt had flowed and bunch while the actress was moving around in order to draft an accurate representation in the animation for the film. During this time, the two became quite close and would eventually marry in June of 1956.
This would be her first job for the Walt Disney Company and would then lead Walt Disney to hire her to design costumes for Disney’s live action 1960 feature film Toby Tyler. She would also aid in the design of costumes for many other Disney television shows.
In 1962, Walt Disney enlisted Alice to contribute her artistic skills to the attraction It’s a Small World for the 1964-1965 New York’s world’s Fair. Alice collaborated with then art designer and later Disney Legend, Mary Blair on the attraction. Alice researched, designed and supervised the creation of more than 150 highly detailed costumes for the Audio-Animatronics children of the world. Alice researched all the different represented cultures and regions and translated the attire customs for the attraction. During her time working on the attraction, she formulated costuming procedures, set up a manufacturing base and developed quality control refurbishing techniques, which would establish the standards for three-dimensional characters in rides and shows created by Walt Disney Imagineering. These systems and techniques are still used today by Imagineers and maintenance staff at Disney theme parks worldwide. When asked about working as an Imagineer she fondly said “this was the best job I ever had, because there were no class distinctions. Everybody had a job to do. None of us had tittles. We all went by first names. And we all worked for the same thing: putting on the best show possible.”
In 1965, she translated the pirates’ attire from Marc Davis’s original drawings of the “shiver-me-timbers” cast and crew into clothing designs and patterns for all of the costumes featured in Pirates of the Caribbean. She created 47 different 17th and 18th century period specific costumes with the “Disney Flair” of course. A few days before Walt Disney’s death he went to visit Alice to see The Auctioneer pirate in full dress. Walt Disney would never had the chance to see the other pirates before his passing. The attraction opened in 1967 and is a Disney favorite attraction to this day. Alice would also contribute her artistic abilities to the General Electric’s Carousel of Progress and the Flight to the Moon attractions.
In 1978, Alice and her husband Marc retired from the Walt Disney Company. She would still consult with the company for several projects. She would also make appearances at Disney-related events and fan meet-and-greets. Alice and Marc lived out their retirement in their home in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles. They were married for 44 years before Marc’s death in 2000. After Marc’s death, Alice continued to consult for the company and remained a frequent face at so many Disney events.
In 1997, she received the Disneyana Fan Club Disney Legend Award. In 2004, she inducted into the Disney Legends for Imahineering. On May 10, 2012 she was honored with a window on main Street, U.S.A in Disneyland next to her husband’s window. The window reads “Small World Costume Co./Alice Davis/Seamstress to the Stars.” Sadly, Alice passed away on November 3, 2022 at the age of 93.
Alice was a pioneer and inspiration to so many who may not even have known exactly who she was. So many have been inspired to create or become artists from her contributions to the Disneyland park. She rolled with the punches at an early age and found a way to channel her artistic abilities through costume designs. She broke through the glass ceiling to become a true inspiration to us all.
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