Art director Bruce Bushman (born Francis X. Bruce Bushman) was born in
New Jersey in 1911, the son of silent-film star
Francis X. Bushman. He was raised in
Baltimore, Maryland, and later moved to Los Angeles, California, where
he attended UCLA and the prestigious Chouinard Art Institute. In 1936
he was hired by Walt Disney Studios as a layout artist, but eventually
worked his way up to art director; among the projects he worked on was
Fantasia (1940). He married Mary Ena
Cousineau, a fellow Disney employee, in 1945 and they had two children.
In 1953 Bushman was assigned to help in the development of Disney's
signature theme park, Disneyland. He helped to design Tomorrowland and
Fantasyland--he designed the Fantasyland Castle, among other
things--and the overall layout of the park itself. At the same time he
worked as a sketch artist on the Disney film
20000 Meilen unter dem Meer (1954).
After he finished with those projects, he was assigned as the Art
Director for a new TV show Disney was developing:
The Mickey Mouse Club (1955).
He designed the look of the show and created the famous Mickey Mouse
Club logo and the logos for all the T-shirts and caps for the
The Adventures of Spin and Marty (1955)
series. For "The Mickey Mouse Club" he also designed the shows's sets
and props, including the famous clubhouse used for "Anything Can Happen
Day".
Bushman left Disney in late 1959 or early 1960--sources differ--and
went to work for producer Ivan Tors, where he
worked as art director on three of Tors' series:
Abenteuer unter Wasser (1958),
Bat Masterson (1958) and
Mein Freund Ben (1967). After leaving
Tors he went to Hanna-Barbera Productions as a layout artist, working
on such series as
Jonny Quest (1964),
Die Jetsons (1962) and
Familie Feuerstein (1960).
He died in Los Angeles on February 15, 1972, at the age of 60.
