Unfrozen Walt Disney Urban Legends

[Tuckerfan]

I checked snopes before I posted this, and didn’t find anything. I’d be interested in hearing if any of these things are actually true (or if anyone else has heard of them). One is that Walt was a “butt man” and that he insisted the butts of cartoon characters look “just so” before he’d allow them to be released. Supposedly, this was the inspiration for the cartoon featuring bears picking up trash and bumping butts. The next is that Walt was a cokehead and this caused the company problems which shooting Fantasia, because Walt was so whacked out on coke. Third is that when Walt died, they found one of the largest collections of bestiality porn in his personal effects. Finally, he was accused of molesting children, but managed to buy his way out of it. I’m willing to bet that all of these are false, but then again, Walt could be one weird dude. (See Cecil’s column on Walt for the details.)

[Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor]

Tuck–is somebody posting under your name?

This is totally unlike your writing style.

[Tuckerfan]

What? Thread title too witty?

[Harmonious_Discord]

@Tuckerfan

What? Thread title too witty?

Nothing with an engine mentioned.

[garygnu]

I was able to find a snopes article addressing the cocaine issue. You may not have found it because it’s listed under the films rather than the special Walt page.
Most drug rumors arose when 60’s and 70’s kids discovered how freakin’ trippy Fanasia and Alice were (not to mention the Pink Elephants and Heffalumps and Woozles).

A Google search on the bestiality subject came back with numerous references to the high number of animals and anthropomorphic animal characters in Disney animated films, with any possible sexuality being evidence of Walt’s tendancies.

Him being anal about the quality of the butts is slightly more believable, but only because anatomy is very important in animation, and a sequence featuring bouncing butts would have to be scrutinized just as much as anything else, but makes for a funny anecdote if you get to say “Hee, hee… Walt Disney just told me my butts didn’t look good enough.”

[mobo85]

“The Walt Disney Company of today frightens and confuses me…”- Unfrozen Walt Disney

[ASAKMOTSD]

@mobo85

“The Walt Disney Company of today frightens and confuses me…”- Unfrozen Walt Disney

“Get back in the cryo-tank now, Walt” – Steve Jobs

[NDP]

@ASAKMOTSD

“Get back in the cryo-tank now, Walt” – Steve Jobs

“Only if you stop making me share it with Ted Williams!” - Walt.

[VernWinterbottom]

“Mr. Disney, stop looking at my butt” -Ted

[BrainGlutton]

The true facts of Disney’s life are bad enough. The piece of shit was a union-buster. I have more respect for child molesters.

[Least_Original_User_Name_Ever]

@Harmonious Discord

Nothing with an engine mentioned.

No, he mentioned the cocaine.

…and the dumper. It’s a power source, don’tchaknow?

Edited to Add: “And we are…WYLD STALLYNS!” air guitar -Ted

[Johnny_L.A]

Disney On Ice

[FriarTed]

Removed messsage

[Walloon]

@BrainGlutton

The true facts of Disney’s life are bad enough. The piece of shit was a union-buster. I have more respect for child molesters.

That article in The Hollywood Reporter didn’t bother to check its facts. It says,

according to cartoonist Tom Sito, president emeritus of IATSE Local 839, when 1937’s “Snow White” became a blockbuster, grossing four times more than any other film in the year of its release, “most artists received no extra money or bonuses for their pains, and no screen credit was allowed except Walt Disney’s.”

In fact, the on-screen credits to Snow White credited the supervising director, all five of the sequence directors, two of the four assistant directors, eight writers, 10 art directors, three composers, the lyricist, all four supervising animators, 24 of the 34 animators, two character designers, seven background artists, and the Brothers Grimm.

Curiously, those who are not in the on-screen credits are the vocal performers: Adriana Caselotti as Snow White, Lucille LaVerne as the Wicked Queen, Moroni Olsen as the Magic Mirror, etc.

[mobo85]

@Walloon

That article in The Hollywood Reporter didn’t bother to check its facts. It says, In fact, the on-screen credits to Snow White credited the supervising director, all five of the sequence directors, two of the four assistant directors, eight writers, 10 art directors, three composers, the lyricist, all four supervising animators, 24 of the 34 animators, two character designers, seven background artists, and the Brothers Grimm.

Which must have been satisfying for the animators, seeing as up until that point, the only name which appeared on the shorts was Walt Disney’s. (By the 1950s, the animators and staff of the shorts did eventually get credited. It’s interesting how representation and unions and want of recognition have changed the credits for all sorts of films, not just animation- from the days in which only the producer or studio head got his name on the film, to nowadays, when practically everybody gets screen credit. In the case of Pixar, you literally only have to be born during production and you’ll get your name on the film.)

[garygnu]

Don’t forget that the entire concept of screen credits was only a few years old at the time of Snow White, and it wasn’t clear what amount of work (and at what position) was worthy of a screen credit in an animated film, as it was the first feature-length one.

[Walloon]

@garygnu

Don’t forget that the entire concept of screen credits was only a few years old at the time of Snow White

You haven’t seen a lot of old movies, have you?

[garygnu]

I mean movies were only invented a few decades before.

[JohnT]

@BrainGlutton

The true facts of Disney’s life are bad enough. The piece of shit was a union-buster. I have more respect for child molesters.

Is it too much to ask you to read your own cites?

On May 28, 1941, the animators banded together and decided to strike, and when Disney drove to work the next day, he found picketers surrounding his studio.

Like so many other strikes, this one started out lightheartedly and then changed direction. Initially, it was friendly enough that strikers came to picket dressed as characters from the French Revolution, with a mock guillotine in hand. But that might have disguised just how serious the animators were.

Yale University professor Michael Denning, author of “The Cultural Front: The Laboring of American Culture in the 20th Century,” recalls one organizer telling him how “he used to have meetings with the cartoonists and could never tell what they were thinking until the end, (when) he’d pick up scraps of paper they had drawn on – and then, from the sketches, he could figure out if he had gotten across to them.”

Things became so ugly that once, when Babbitt saw Disney driving into work and shouted, “Shame on you,” the studio topper leaped from his car, and the two men had to be pulled apart before a brawl ensued. Another time, Lockheed mechanics were brought in with wrenches to protect the picketers when word spread that thugs had been hired to beat them up.

Eventually, Disney had to capitulate: The two sides reached an agreement, and staffers returned to work when the company agreed to recognize the jurisdiction of the guild.

[Walloon]

It should also be pointed out that the Union leadership did not take a vote of its members before calling the strike. Of the more than 700 Disney artists and assistants coming under that jurisdiction, 293 went on strike, while 417 remained at work.

Before the strike was called, Disney said in a memo to company employees,

The Company recognizes the right of employees to organize and join in any labor organization of their choosing, and the Company does not intend to interfere with that right. However, the law clearly provides that matters of this sort should be done off the employer’s premises and on the employees’ own time, and in such a manner as not to interfere with production. . .