Bianca Majolie

Bianca Majolie was the first woman to work in Disney’s Story Department. Born in Rome, Italy in 1900, Majolie came to the United States as an exchange student and attended McKinley High School in Chicago. A young Walt Disney also attended McKinley. After studying at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Leonardo da Vinci School of Art in New York, Majolie worked as a freelance artist on fashion assignments that took her to places like Florence and Paris. In 1934, Majolie submitted a letter to Disney expressing interest in working for his animation department. The two held lunch at the Tam O’Shanter Inn where based on the strength of her samples of “Stella”, he hired her to serve in the story department.