Walt Disney

Another long biography down, this one on Walt Disney by Neal Gabler.  Excellently written with an objective perspective.  Like so many successful Americans, Disney was entirely self-made, had a vision when he was young and stuck to it through many tribulations.  He created the quality short animation business, long-form animations, the mix of live action and animation, and full-length live action movies.  And then he had the idea for a new kind of amusement park. He became synonmous with clean, high-value entertainment that appealed to children and adults.  The Disney name is still iconic, although the Disney Corp has recently done everything it can to tarnish it with woke nonsense, excessively expensive entertainment and political fights.  It isn’t exactly child-friendly any more.

The biggest impression the biography made on me was once again seeing that highly successful person got there by insisting on quality, by sticking to what they thought was right, and fighting scrappily despite constant financial pressures.  Disney didn’t make a lot of money initially or even after a few successes.  He was constantly trying to invest to make the product better.  He was a hard person to work for; a taskmaster, a perfectionist, a second-guesser.  His brother Roy provided most of the business sense and discipline. But Walt took animation from a low-form of entertainment to one that could be moving and powerful, even educational.  During the second world war he did animations for training purposes and continued doing that work for private companies afterwards.  He produced animations and live action works that focused on nature, sparking greater interest from the American public.  He supported classical music and the arts and sought to the bring them to a wider audience.

He was the primary Disney storyteller, often creating themes of young women who showed strength and courage.  The underdog, the less-privileged, were his heroes in many cases.  His animated movies are still staples for children and grand-children–Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and others.  He made Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music.  He was early to see the promise of television and found that to be another outlet for his short and long animations and a variety program that included educational segments.  He tended to immerse himself in a new idea for long periods of time, and when it had begun to mature often moved on to the next idea.

And his last big idea was the new form of amusement park–first Disneyland, then Disney World.  He conceived of Disneyland as a reflection of America’s past, present and future, often viewed through a small-town lens.  But it was also an inspiration to imagining what could be–with tomorrowland and other exhibits.  The notion of charging for admission, but not each ride or attraction was important, as were developing hotels and other amenities around the parks.  He did not live to see the opening of Disney World, but Epcot, the experimental city was the part he was most excited about.

Disney was born in middle America and grew up and worked there until he moved to California where the movie entertainment industry was centered.  But he never lost those middle-American, small town values and his works became the epitome of those.  His life was cut short due to extensive cigarette smoking leading to lung cancer, as were so many from his generation.  A great loss, as undoubtedly a longer life would have produced even more innovation and success.  A long book but highly readable and I recommend it strongly.