ABSTRACT
In the 1940s, the surrealist artist Salvador Dali was hired by Walt Disney to illustrate a new generation of experimental cartoons. Dali leapt into his job with exuberance at Disney's Burbank studios; the improbability of the historical moment was captured in a photograph taken in Disney's backyard, with Dali primly seated upon Walt's 1/8-scale model train, hands crossed in his lap, a look of knowing satisfaction on his face (Marling 1997: 40–1). His Disney career lasted fifteen seconds. Dali was promptly fired after the studios received the first animated frames of Technicolor melting watches, broken statuary, and figures metamorphosing into turtles, ants, and dandelion puffs.
