Career
Adelquist helped create the show with his ideas from early conception to being carried out in the first year, as well as handling many duties to see that the television series met production schedules. Adelquist also had served under Disney prior to the Mickey Mouse Club show as head assistant director on Disney"s "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." Adelquist started with Disney as an animator and later was promoted to "middle" management. Having served early in his career as an animator, he later had the task of working in the Personnel Department, and was later put in charge of the Story Department.
One of his more notable tasks was to serve as a liaison between Walt Disney and his famous "Nine Old Men" of animation.
lieutenant was later revealed by famous animator, Ward Kimball, in a 1980"s interview with Michael Barrier, that the animators had chosen Hal as their spokesperson, even though by position he was studio management. Adelquist was demoted to "talent scout" in 1956 after working tirelessly to get the Mickey Mouse Club show off the ground.
Shortly thereafter he resigned never to work at Disney again. Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination by Neal Gabler (page 94)
140 All-Time Must-See Movies for Film Lovers by John Howard Reid (page 206, cr: assistant director, Hal Adelquist, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs)
Funnybooks: The Improbable Glories of the Best American Comic Books by Michael Barrier (Page 373, Hal Adelquist memo to Walt Disney)
Walt Disney and Assorted Other Characters: An Unauthorized Account of the Early Years at Disney"s by Jack Kinney (Jack Kinney#cite note-2)
Hal Adelquist with Walt Disney photo (Getty Images Editorial Archive):.
