Meet Tissa David, a Hungarian animator who started working in New York in 1955. At a time when June Cleaver epitomized the American housewife, women in the animation studio were seen as little else than ink-and-paint girls. Of course there were exceptions in the fields of concept design and a couple assistants here and there, but by and large, animation coast to coast was entirely a boys' club. This is news to no one, but what's interesting is to look at the industry, specifically in New York, and see what it's like for women today, compared to David's recollections.

"You know, it's very funny," says David, who recently worked on Michael Sporn's acclaimed The Man Who Walked Between the Towers "Ollie Johnston once asked me, 'How do you do that?' I said, 'I used to be a young girl at one time.' Because a man can never ever really animate a female character that's a girl, a woman."

David worked at UPA as Grim Natwick's sole assistant before joining the Hubley studios in 1960 as an animator. She was the only woman that she knew in the entire field. "In the early '60's, there was no place for a woman. Once I called the secretary of the union, and she said 'the men are complaining that you are animating.' John Hubley didn't care, not in the slightest."