Hal Adelquist(1914-1981)
- Production Manager
- Writer
- Animation Department
Born in Utah in 1914, Hal Adelquist moved to Los Angeles with his
family when he was approximately six years old. In 1933, in the depths
of the Depression, he went to work for Walt Disney Studios in a variety
of positions, from the Personnel Office to the Story Department to the
Production Department. He worked on
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
as an assistant director, although uncredited, and eventually became
head of the Story Department. In 1955, when
Walt Disney was developing
The Mickey Mouse Club (1955),
he assigned Adelquist to be the liaison between series producer
Bill Walsh and the show's other
department heads (casting, guest stars, story development, etc.),
basically functioning as the show's production supervisor. He left the
show after the first season and was assigned to produce the live shows
for the Mickey Mouse Club Circus at Disneyland. Unfortunately the
Circus was not a hit with Disneyland patrons. Aparently the pressures
from putting on a large and complicated live show every day for the
Circus, only to see it fail, and his subsequent falling out of favor
with Walt Disney were more than Adelquist could handle, and according
to Disney employees Adelquist began to develop a drinking problem. He
subsequently resigned from the Disney organization, but when he asked
to be re-instated some time later, Walt Disney refused to re-hire him.
There's no record of his ever having worked in the entertainment
industry after that. He died in Long Beach, California, on March 26,
1981.
