Remembering Disney’s First Star, Virginia Davis
1918 – 2009
At only 4-years-old, Virginia Davis lit up the screen in Walt Disney’s “Alice’s Wonderland.” This was the first in a series of “Alice Comedies” that Disney made while in Kansas City and California. When Walt moved to California to continue the series, he insisted that Virginia and her family join him to continue the series.
From 1923 to 1924, they made 13 “Alice Comedies” together starting with “Alice’s Day at Sea” and eventually ending with “Alice Hunting in Africa.” These successful comedies helped start the Disney Company, and paved the way for future Disney projects and characters such as Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Mickey Mouse, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” etc.
Virginia’s experiences at Walt Disney Studios didn’t end with the “Alice Comedies.” Walt tried to recruit her as Snow White’s live-action reference model, and she dearly wanted to work on that project. She eventually had to turn the deal down and the live-action reference role went to Marge Champion. But Walt didn’t give up. A few years later, he hired Virginia to do some voice work for “Pinocchio,” and gave her a try-out in the studio’s ink and paint department.
In the late 1930s to early 1940s, Virginia began to lose interest in the Hollywood life. After putting in her last performance in the 1946 MGM musical, “The Harvy Girls,” Miss Davis and her husband, Navy aviator Robert McGhee, left show business for good.
Robert and Virginia were married for 59 years, had two daughters, Margaret Sufke of Boise, IA and Laurieanne Zanderbergen, as well as three grandchildren, Krisitanne Barron, Nicole and Juliette Zanderbergen.
Over the past 20 plus years, Virginia has made numerous appearances at Disneyana events, as well as 2 visits to help out Thank You Walt Disney. In 2005, she was invited to a Thank You Walt Disney fundraiser, and it was the first time she had returned to Kansas City since she left at the age of 4. This past May, at the age of 90, she returned to Kansas City for one of her final public appearances. To a packed room, she recalled stories of working with Walt. She jitterbugged, she reenacted her favorite episode of the “Alice Comedies,” where she was a cowgirl, and she strode around the room with her hands at her hips ready to draw her pistols at a moment’s notice. She had the audience laughing, applauding, and hanging onto every word. She may have left show business over 60 years ago, but show business never left her. She is truly missed, and will forever be known as Walt’s very first star.
The entire Thank You Walt Disney, Inc. staff wishes to extend its condolences to the friends and family of Virginia Davis during their time of sorrow.
