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An Escapader, by definition, is a man who gets the most out of life and, in doing so, contributes in large measure to the happiness of his fellow man. Some Escapaders possess this faculty to agreater extent than others, and we take great pleasure in introducing to our readers one who has developed it to the highest degree.

Meet Ward Kimball: artist, bandleader, airplane pilot, husband and father, motion picture producer, director and writer; raconteur, genial host and hobbyist extraordinary.

At the Walt Disney Studios in California's San Fernando Valley, Ward occupies a position in the rarified upper-wheel atmosphere. He currently is production head of what is called on the lot the "space unit," concerned with the making of science films for the highly successful TV feature, "Disneyland," which he also directs and has a hand in writing. During his twenty-one years with Walt Disney, Ward has risen from animator to supervising animator, to writer-director, to producer-writer-director, Among other things, he directed the Academy Award-winning cartoon (the first in CinemaScope) "Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom," which also received the highest award for cartoons at the Cannes Film Festival in 1953.

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But, most important of all, Ward has mastered the art of living. And it is to Ward Kimball as a master of this most demanding of all arts that Escapade awards its first Escapader cum laude gold key, There will be other such presentations from time to time, but we feel that Ward Kimball is worthy of being the first.