Floyd Norman, Disney’s First Black Illustrator, Creates on His Terms

His credits include The Sword and the Stone, Sleeping Beauty, and Toy Story 2. In-between years at Disney, he co-founded his own film production company, Vignette Films. There, he and his partners focused on stories about Black history, including filming the 1965 Watts riots. Norman’s life is the subject of the lively documentary, Floyd Norman: An Animated Life.

Here, at 85, Norman feels a sense of contentment: He has lived the life he wants to live (though he is not done yet, by any stretch). Imagine if years from now you could feel the same. It requires taking the long view, something we discuss with Norman who shares how we can approach creating over years, decades, and lifetimes.

Entering a new chapter of your life at 85, you continue to find fulfillment in what you do and make. What’s the secret?

Many years ago, this was back in the 1960s, I sat with my Disney colleague and friend Jim Fletcher. We were a couple of young kids looking off into the future and wondering if we would ever make it to age 60, 70, 80. That seems so far away when you're young, but before you know, the young man is now an old man. One of the things that is so wonderful about my life and career is that I made a decision to do the work I wanted to do. I live the life I want to live.

How have you taken the long view and thought about creating over a lifetime?

When you're building your career, you don't think about age. You're not even conscious that you've suddenly turned 30, 40, or 50 because your life is this continuum. You do what you do day-by-day.

Honestly, the thought of retirement never occurred to me until Disney brought it up. They brought it up when I turned 65, because 65 is retirement age. When they called me in and asked if I had considered retirement, I said, No, why would I consider retirement? They said, Well, because you just turned 65. And I said I wasn't even aware that I had turned 65.

Why did you never think about retiring?

I never gave a retirement a second thought because I had no plans to do something special when I retired. I was doing the very thing I wanted to do every day of my life. Why would you put off what you want to do? Why not simply do it every day of your life?

I chose to follow my dream. It’s as simple as that. Some people think that following their dream is not possible. They're told by their parents and grandparents that they have to prepare for your future. So they tend to think in very pragmatic terms, Okay, I gotta become a doctor, lawyer, or insurance salesman. Whereas artists are dreamers. My dream is creating great stuff, whatever that great stuff happens to be.

When you reflect upon your work, are you satisfied with what you’ve accomplished? 

Although I've lived a satisfying life and had a rewarding career, I've always felt that I had never quite achieved all that I wanted to achieve. I'm happy, but I'm not satisfied. This doesn't mean that I'm an ungrateful person or that I'm not thankful for what I have, not at all. It's simply that I wanted to do so much more. I've had a great life, but there's still so much more to do.

There's still time.

Yeah. That’s the advantage of being alive. As long as you're alive, you still have time.

What’s the most memorable risk you took?

My first big risk was leaving Disney. By 1966 I'd been with the studio over a decade. I made it all the way to the prestigious story department at the Walt Disney studio, a position many covet. Many people wanted to be able to meet one-on-one with Walt Disney, and I finally achieved that goal in 1966. I was in a very good place in my career, and I could have just cruised on to another 10 or 20 years in comfort at Disney. What did I do? I took this great job that I had gotten, and I went into my boss and said, “I'm leaving the studio.”

He thought I was nuts. I said there is so much more than I want to do. In order to do that, I have to leave. To push myself, to challenge myself, I've got to step out of my comfort zone and take a chance. That’s necessary if you're going to grow as a creator. You have to do what scares you. 

When you left Disney, you co-found Vignette Films, where you captured the Watts riots on a 16 mm Bolex camera you bought from Walt Disney’s nephew, Roy, for $250. What compelled you to tell that story?

My colleagues and I were young filmmakers, and we did it not because we had any particular Civil Rights agenda. We did not. Our focus was on building a film company. When the Watts Riot broke out in 1965, what this signaled for us was the opportunity to get out there and start making film. Again, we had no racial or social agenda. It's just that we knew something very important was happening in our city.

In some ways, going into the streets of Watts in 1965 was like going into a war zone. I remember seeing police officers in their patrol cars in fear. Police officers in fear, right? However, we were ambitious young men and, as young men tend to do, you ignore the danger. You don't think about the risk that you're taking or the danger you're putting yourself into. You think about what you want to accomplish. We had the opportunity to get film footage that would be historical.

The other thing that was significant was that the media was not there. The media was afraid to go into the war zone. The technology, back in the day, was different; TV cameras were cumbersome and awkward to move around.

But a couple of kids with handheld 16 mm cameras could be flexible. We could be on the move; we could be everywhere. We were able to go into the war zone and photograph what was happening. That’s what was eventually seen on nationwide television. We gave the nation a view of what was happening in Los Angeles.

How were you able to stay safe?

It should be obvious: the color of our skin. We knew the greatest protection we had was the color of our skin. We could wander into a mob of black protesters without fear for our lives. If we had been a white news crew, it would have been a different story.

You’re very active, from your work on Sesame Street to your appearance on Pawn Stars. What are you working on these days? And what’s next for you?

I'm always involved in one project or another, either on my own, or for the Walt Disney company—some that I can’t talk about, like a film that I am working on for Disney+. It will either debut on Disney+ later this year, or perhaps early next year.

I create art for fans and friends of Disney who write me and ask if I would do an original sketch of whatever character they're in love with. The requests come in daily. I'm also writing a screenplay for a film that my former Vignette Films partners and I would like to do that tells the story of what we did back in the 1960s. I’m trying to write that screenplay while juggling a number of other projects. I guess I could say I'm busier than ever.

You can watch Floyd’s life story here.

 Cover photo, Floyd Norman: An Animated Life.  Photo courtesy of Fiore Media Group, LLC

Matt McCue is the co-founder of Creative Factor. He lives in New York City, but is willing to travel long distances for a good meal.