Carl Fallberg - Early Life

Early Life

Carl Robert Fallberg was born in Cleveland, Tennessee on 11 September 1915 to Carl Fallberg (Sr.), and Gunhild Fallberg (née Söjostedt), who both taught music at the Centenary College Conservatory in Cleveland, Tennessee from 1910-1917. Carl was the middle child of three, with an older sister Lisa Lena "Dixie" and younger sister Elinor. The family moved to Chicago, and in 1931 when Carl was fourteen years old, his mother died, leaving Carl and his two sisters motherless for several years.

Carl attended Nicholas Senn High School in Chicago, Illinois. In 1934, Carl sent a letter with samples of his artwork to Disney asking for employment. Carl was offered a job and started to work for Disney Studios, which was then located at 2719 Hyperion Avenue in Hollywood, in 1935.

Carl and his sister Elinor lived in rooming house on Angus Street in then Hollywood, just a few blocks from the Hyperion Studios. It was there he meet his future wife, Becky Dorner, the daughter of the family who owned the rooming house. During WWII, his sister Elinor and his future wife Becky, worked at Disney Studios, while Carl was serving in the U.S. Marines at Quantico, Virginia as part of the Marine Corps film unit.

After the war, Becky and Carl were married in 1946 and had one child, Carla Fallberg. Becky continued to work for Disney Studios, eventually becoming the Manager of the Ink and Paint Department while Carl went on to work as a professional cartoonist freelancing for Disney, Hanna Barbera, and several other cartoon studios and comic book publishers.