Davis and her husband, who died in 2000, were popular speakers at Disney-sponsored events around the country. She was particularly proud of having selected a young Bob Mackie to design a dress for Jayne Mansfield for a gala supporting Chouinard Art Institute. Davis played an important role in many careers. She later joked that she’d gone directly from designing costumes for “sweet little children” to ones for “dirty old men.” Alice Davis designed and supervised the creation of the pirates’ costumes as well as those of other fanciful characters. Davis also designed costumes for another Disney attraction her husband oversaw at the World’s Fair, the “Carousel of Progress,” sponsored by General Electric, which later was transferred to Disneyland as well.Įven as “Small World” was making its debut at Disneyland, work was under way on the “Pirates of the Caribbean” ride, for which Marc Davis was a lead designer, creating the drawings that depicted the humorous scenes visitors see in the attraction. The ride was transferred to Disneyland in 1966 and has been one of the most popular attractions there ever since. Davis designed more than 300 costumes for the ride’s audio animatronic dolls representing children from all over the world. Davis and her husband collaborated with the late Mary Blair, a renowned inspirational artist for Disney who conceived the “Small World” ride, to create it for the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair. Her husband, who designed and animated such classic characters as Tinker Bell and Cruella de Vil, was named a “Disney Legend” in 1989. It was placed beside a window honoring her late husband, Marc Davis, one of the famous “Nine Old Men” of Disney animation and an early “Imagineer” who oversaw the creation of some of the amusement parks’ best-loved attractions. Davis was heralded as its most famous costumer in 2012, when a commemorative window in her honor was installed on a storefront along Disneyland’s Main Street. She was 93.Ī pioneer at WED Enterprises, now known as Walt Disney Imagineering, the company’s center for the creation of three-dimensional entertainment, Mrs. Davis, whose delightfully detailed and meticulously researched costume designs for the landmark “It’s a Small World” and “Pirates of Caribbean” rides at Disneyland died peacefully surrounded by family and friends on Novemat her Los Angeles home.

Disney animations