Talk:Walt Disney

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[edit] comment header goes hear

This article is clearly unbalanced, there is a lot more to Walt Disney than 'his legacy' or Mickey Mouse. He created a segment of an industry that profits from selling to children, and very acutely targeted selling at that. This should be discussed in much greater detail. His impact on American society is greatly understated, or at least, it is cast in the best possible light. Who wrote this article? It is partisan!

[edit] Infomercial?

H

The tone of this page seems wrong. It's a bit like a Disney infomercial. Also, the first paragraph seems to assume that the reader already knows who Walt Disney is, and I think that's an incorrect assumption in an encyclopedia. --Pinkunicorn

Agreed. Not in any position to do anything about it though. :-(. --drj

besides being gracious to Disney, it also violates being unfinished to let others add. I'd like to add a few things, but its gonna be hella hard without rewriting. ? Factually however, very informative. Alan D

I've taken out the worst and most sugary sentences, corrected a few myths and I think the addition to the first sentence livens it up. TwoOneTwo

I can't say that the new first sentence makes it any better. You still have the same problem as before of assuming I know stuff that I don't. Even if it is correct, I think the first paragraph should be something more informative than that. As long as the first sentence doesn't mention cartoons, it seems weird to me. --Pinkunicorn

I think your comment, "union-busting communist-hating untalented artist," whatever its degree of accuracy, was in extremely poor taste, not to mention contrary to the neutral point of view. All the facts you wish to convey can be fairly conveyed--without engaging in partisan propaganda. I'm fully willing to admit that the article in its original form was probably a bit non-neutral, looking at it again. But I think it's really important that we don't go so far in the opposite direction. --Larry Sanger

Why poor taste? True is true, even it rather baldly put.

But historically it certainly is not true.

Disney was no fan of unions but he would not be considered a "union buster" and did not practice many of the extreme strong armed anti-union tactics employed by big business in the 40s and 50s. Disney resented the notion that he didn't treat his employees fairly, when in fact, Disney Studios was then considered to be the cream of the crop of all the animation studios. Disney constantly strove to improve conditions for his studio artists and quality of their work environment. Unfortunately, there was still pay and incentive inequities within the system. Starting employees were making pennies in comparison to lead animators, who enjoyed an almost country club atmoshere (in fact, top animators actually enjoyed a private club at the studio). This is where the union came in, to correct the inequities and to provide collective bargaining power for all employees at Disney. And when the strike began things got angry very quickly. Disney took the strike very personally, especially when the anti-Disney signs and chanting began. He very quickly, dropped out of the negotiations picture and turned them over to Roy Disney, who in turn hired a very tough minded union negotiator; meanwhile Disney went on travel to South America for most of the strike period. To make a long story short, Disney studios met the union demands and has stayed a union operation- unopposed for its history. Disney, on the other hand grew to resent (and probably hate) the unions that created the strike and the inevitable "separation" that grew between Disney and his artists, and always kept a sharp eye out on the unions growing power.

And yes, as did most of the studio heads did in the 50's , Disney gave names of suspected "communist" members, by naming union representatives . Here, is where he finally got back at the unions who attacked his studio. Disney stongly believed in the strength of the free enterprise system; felt that unions were out to destroy it, and believed that communists were the driving force behind this movement- this is my opinion.

Finally , as far as being an "untalented artist", it should be noted that Disney never claimed to be a talented artist, only an artist; and within the world of commercial art was considered to be capable and talented. Although, in terms of animation, he could never match the sheer output of Ub Iwerks and other young artists at the time. Disney recognized this, and soon focused his efforts on project and story development and running the business side of the company. And as a business, Disney nutured the art of animation, recognized talent and rewarded artists for their efforts more than any studio during the golden age of animation. He also took enormous financial risks to push the art of animation and movies far beyond what other studios were willing to financially commit. Today, he is considered a visionary as a result of the achievments Disney and his dedicated staff of artists and engineers accomplished. He later showed this same commitment with the vision and the development of Disneyland. (C Brown July 2006)

Buena Vista was formed in 1953 (and put out its first film in November 1953), yet in the article there is a piece which suggests it came about in the late 1920s-early 1930s - what distribution company was this?

I've tried to take out some of the sugar, but it still needs a considerable cleanup. Whomever keeps writing from a fan's perspective, please go read about the neutral point of view. Disney did some great things, but his commercial, artistic (and possibly personal) track record had a number of blots in it, and they should be acknowledged. --Robert Merkel

Someone screwed up the format of this article with some careless editing and hence rendered the revision diff quite unreadable. In the chaos, the information I added about Fairyland in Oakland California was removed. I believe it is relevant information because if Fairyland was a storybook theme park which Disneyland based on, then Disneyland cannot be claimed as the first theme park!!! See the history at http://www.fairyland.org .

who took out: When Charles Mintz raided Disney's animation studio and stole the rights to their character Oswald the Rabbit, Ub was the only associate to remain with ... etc. Cause that part seemed rather important...

Anton Pieck's theme park De Efteling in the Netherlands was built in 1952 and according to [1] (Dutch), Walt Disney even visited it regularly to get inspiration for his theme park.
Of course, I am not entirely sure what, say, the difference is between a theme park and an amusement park. Perhaps somebody could write the definitions for several such entries, so that we can make a more valid decision on which was first.--user:Branko
OK, that source about Disney visiting the Efteling has it wrong, according to [2] (also Dutch). This new source says that it is an urban legend that Disney visited the Efteling, which may have come into existance because an Efteling director said that Disney may have been in the Efteling once on his European travels, in which he checked out European amusement parks. Comment by AJS, a recent visitor to Efteling. It is obvious to me that "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Small World" were both strongly influenced by 2 attractions at Efteling.
The same article says that Disney was impressed with Tivoli in Copenhagen and also named Madurodam in The Hague. The article even quotes former Disney CEO Michael Eisner on this.
The article even states that Disney's park was by no means the first of its kind in the world, but does not give any further evidence for this: the author clearly assumes this fact to be a given.--user:Branko
There is no evidence that Walt Disney ever went to de Efteling. I believe that the two attractions which are similar to "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "it's a small world" -- "Fata Morgana" and "Carnival Festival" respectively -- were influenced by the Disneyland rides, not the other way around. ridetheory

Did disney animate any of his own cartoons after he formed his own company? steamboat willy was done by Iwerks. I don't know, butI don't think he animated ANY of them... --alan D

He stoped acting as animator on 1924.But he did animate one more film."The Skeleton Dance"-1929, the first of the Silly Symphonies.
I don't think that's correct. Skeleton Dance was almost entirely the work of Ub Iwerks, suggested by an idea by composer Carl Stalling. Walt only directed one cartoon in later years, "The Midas Touch," (sorry, can't remember the year -- mid 1930s it must have been). It was so badly received by audiences that he never directed again. ridetheory

I moved the copyright issues to Walt Disney Company. Walt died 30 years ago, and it current copyright issues probably belong in an article about his company rather than on an article about him. Also a lot of this article needs to get refactored. Details on EPCOT and Walt Disney World probably should go there.

I propose breaking up the article into Walt Disney, the man who founded the enterprise -- and Disney, the corporation which owns ABC, Touchstone, Mirimax, etc. I daresay the company has taken on a life of its own, with Michael Eisner at the helm, in the years the death of the company's founder. --Ed Poor

[edit] Snow White - the first?

This article states that "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, released in 1937, was Disney's and the world's first feature-length animated film." But the article on animation history says that "The first animated feature-length film was El Apóstol (1917)". There is an error somewhere. My guess is that Snow White was the first American feature-length animated film. Are there anybody who can clarify this and make the appropriate changes? (OuroborosSlayer)

It's not even the first American one. Max Fleischer made some educational features in the 1920s that were around 50% animated. "First American animated feature film in full color" is correct. I will change it. --b. Touch 22:34, 1 Dec 2004 (UTC)yyyyyyy

[edit] Animator?

Shouldn't the statement that Disney was an "animator" be removed?

He was an animator until 1924. --b. Touch 18:10, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Cleanup request and accuracy concerns

This article needs a SERIOUS rewrite. Besides being factually incorrect in a number of places, its prose is not encyclopediaic at all, and it also needs to be compacted.

What needs to be done is to create an article for the Walt Disney animation studio and reverse merge the bulk of that part of this article into that article (and also integrate what is now at Walt Disney Feature Animation and set up a redirect), and to make sure this article is primarily about Walt Disney the person, and not the studio, because trying to cover both in one article makes for, as exists now, something truly unwieldy.

I am presently starting on both articles now. We can work on them here until they are both completed, because it will take a while to complete both.:

  • Walt Disney/temp
  • Walt Disney animation studio/temp

--b. Touch 18:38, 11 Feb 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Mickey Rooney

I removed this:

The name itself came from an occasion when a young Mickey Rooney walked into Disney's office whilst on a visit; Disney showed Rooney some pictures of Mortimer Mouse (as he was called at the time), and it occurred to him that the name Mickey would have a better ring to it.

...because it's not true. When Mickey Mouse was created in early 1928, Mickey Rooney wasn't even "Mickey Rooney": he was Joe Yule, Jr. playing "Mickey McGuire" in the Mickey McGuire series. Rooney's claim of Walt naming Mickey is only supported by his words: pratically every book written on Walt Disney and/or Mickey Mouse identifies Lillian as the one who came up with the name "Mickey".

A Google search finds this article, which makes the supposition obviously false, as Walt didn't work at Warner Bros..

--b. Touch 00:41, 12 Feb 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Question

can we say Walter Elias "Walt" Disney instead of Walter Elias Disney, commonly known as Walt Disney? --b. Touch 20:00, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC)

[edit] List of shorts

I removed the list of shorts from this article. This information is still available in the history, and should be included in a list of Disney animated shorts, which is a somewhat necessary article. --b. Touch 02:12, 19 Mar 2005 (UTC)

[edit] List of Disney animated features

There is no reason to place a link to the List of Disney animated features at the top of this page. Stop doing this. --b. Touch 04:16, 22 Mar 2005 (UTC)

famious

[edit] Ethnicity of Disney

Got a question for the Disney experts (as in the man, not the company) here. I've got another article here on Wikipedia that claims that Walt Disney was of Hispanic descent. Can anyone confirm or deny this for me so I can resolve this? As far as I know, he's roughly of Irish liniage. Thanks.--Mitsukai 17:06, 14 July 2005 (UTC)

According to Bob Thomas's Walt Disney: An American Original, Disney's ancestors were French, who moved to England about 900 years ago. The name Disney comes from the French town, Isigny-sur-Mer, which became d'Isigny, and was then Anglicised to Disney. The family moved to Ireland, and in 1834 Arundel Elias Disney and his brother Robert sailed from Liverpool with their families to America. Elias's son Keppel had a son called Elias also, who became the father to Walter Elias Disney. Thats the best I can do.--Speedway 18:17, July 14, 2005 (UTC)

More than enough. Near as I can tell, the Hispanic reference comes from his mother (Flora Call)'s side, but I can't confirm if she was of Hispanic lineage or not. I think there's enough doubt about it, however, that I can safely remove it. Thanks again.--Mitsukai 18:50, 14 July 2005 (UTC)

That's based on old rumors that Walt and Roy Disney were either born in Spain and adopted by the Disneys, or that they were the children of Elias Disney and the family maid (!). Both are untrue, as far as we know. --FuriousFreddy 00:45, 8 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Urban legends

I think this part should be removed, for several reasons:

  • They are only legends.
  • it is most probably a copyvio, copied from www.snopes.com
  • A link to www.snopes.com would be enough, in the external links section.

Please comment here - if most agree, I'll remove the Lengend section in a week or so, unless someone else does it first.

--Janke | Talk 20:03, 6 August 2005 (UTC)

I agree—a debunking of the cryogenics myth and a link to Snopes should be sufficient. tregoweth 19:39, August 7, 2005 (UTC)
Hmm...a lot of people would expect ot see them here...although, at the same time, they are a bit superfluous. I say tackle three of the big ones (the cryogenics one in particular) and refer the reader to a Snopes link for the rest. --FuriousFreddy 00:43, 8 August 2005 (UTC)

You guys have got to be kidding me. This article is incomplete without all the fantastic rumors and urban legends. There needs to be section about him being a Nazi sympathizers, birth in Spain, and being frozen, along with evidence both for and against. That's why I came to this page but it was strangely missing. I bet there's some Disney lawyers who visit the wikipedia Disney page 3 times a day making sure no one puts up anything that deviates from the official line. I smell a rat! Someone deleted *this* comment a day after I posted it. See French version of wikipeadia, the truth is out there. Please do not delete. Thank You. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.134.181.209 (talk • contribs) .

Please sign your posts on talk pages. As for your comments, why stop with the Walt Disney article? If we include urban legends here, why not include them on every article on a subject that has urban legends surrounding it? The answer is, of course, that Wikipedia is not an indiscriminate collection of information, and that (copious) other sources debunk urban legends better than we ever could. If you want factual information on Walt Disney, this is the article for you. If you want rumors and urban legends, you should go to http://www.snopes.com/ . Powers 13:09, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] How about this:

We remove the subcategory completely, and put it in the "Trivia" section, like this:

  • A number of rumors have been attributed to Walt Disney:
"Walt Disney was an illegitimate child."
"Walt Disney received a dishonorable discharge from the military during World War I."
"Disney had his body frozen and became a cryonics patient after his death."
These are all untrue. Widely spread and retold, they have become urban legends.

If there's no strong opposition, I'll do it. --Janke | Talk 07:56, 8 August 2005 (UTC)

PS. Should the snopes link go to the entire Disney legends index, or just to Wal'ts personal index? --Janke | Talk 08:31, 8 August 2005 (UTC)


OK, since no-one opposed, I'll cut down the legends stuff, and put it in trivia. --Janke | Talk 06:36, 12 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Urban legends tend to grow... again!

Let's keep down the Urban legends to just a few, please. (And only to those available/"confirmable" at the Snopes sites.) Otherwise this section may again grow uncontrollably. Thanks! --Janke | Talk 06:44, 25 August 2005 (UTC)


[edit] "Disney's Folly": Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

The reference link to Donald Graham goes to the wrong Donald Graham. Disney did not enlist the help of the Washington Post guy who wasn't born yet ... I took the link off. That's all I edited.

[edit] Cricket?

Anybody else heard Walt was a cricket fan? An anon. poster insists on re-inserting this in trivia. Trivia should be closely watched IMHO - too much fluff, as it is. It could grow uncontrollably. --Janke | Talk 06:08:10, 2005-08-28 (UTC)

This is a small tidbit about Walt that I came across. Quite a few Americans tend to forget that people in America for a good period of time played cricket more than they played baseball. It just so happens that Walt was one of those who enjoyed cricket. It isn't that exciting, that's why it's trivia... but important trivia to anyone who likes cricket and find it interesting that Walt was a follower (and Wikipedia has a big cricket portal). I've added a Internet reference, but I'm sure if you're not satisfied you can find others - if you delete it again I'll register :) -- Anonymous 18:48:00, 2005-08-28 (AEST)
Walt Disney and cricket
The reference you provided appears to be a trivia list about a cricket player. I can't accept this as a reference about Walt Disney. Please furnish something better, thanks! And yes, it would be a good idea to register. Then we could discuss this on our talk pages. --Janke | Talk 15:25:52, 2005-08-28 (UTC)
I have removed the cricket entry again. You had earlier also inserted "although Walt was said to have mentioned Donald Duck in 1931, it may have been that Walt had named Donald Duck in anticipation of Bradman scoring a duck." - this nonsense made me seriously doubt the entire cricket entry. Google gives only two references for Disney and the Hollywood cricket Club, and both are trivia pages about a player named Donald Bradman. Not trustworthy about Disney. Disney played polo--Janke | Talk 05:51:04, 2005-08-29 (UTC).
No-one suggested Walt *played* cricket - he was a member of the Hollywood Cricket Club, not a player. I'll go away and find book references if a URL isn't good enough for you, and I'll register another time - and just because something is incredible doesn't necessarily make it nonsense, thankyou! -- Anonymous 21:34 AEST
Yes please, a book reference would be good. If you find one, I won't oppose inserting cricket into Walt's list of hobbies. But you have to admit it sounds nonsensical that Walt named Donald Duck anticipating something that might happen in the future? That's how I read your entry - and that's what I opposed. I found this on the web, at [3]:
... all sorts of stories coming out of the woodwork about Don Bradman now that
he is dead. The best was in a newspaper here in Tassie which said that
Donald Duck was named for the fact that in an exhibition match in the USA
Don Bradman scored a duck.!!!!! Apparently not realising that Donald Duck is
a bloody duck.!!!!! I mean if that's not drawing a rather long bow, I don't
know what is. You can bet there will be a lot more stories yet.

The answer to that post was:

I'm not sure if you are serious? ...... Or joking? ......

And yes, please, do register. I can't send these messages straight to you, since your IP address keeps changing. --Janke | Talk 13:14:41, 2005-08-29 (UTC)

[edit] The tone of some of this entry is very creepy

From the "Testimony before Congress" section:

Walt Disney testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee, and he named several of his employees as Communist sympathizers... Despite his motivations, the fact remains that several of Disney's employees were said to be Communist sympathizers."

WHAT??

Unless you happen to be an iron-fisted Stalinist dictator, you simply cannot justify a witch-hunt like this by claiming "the fact remains that rumours existed."

This whole page desperately needs a rewrite, preferably this time by someone who is not in the employ of this disney corporation. (Anon IP address)

  • I removed the last "creepy" sentence. "...were said to" doesn't prove it. The fact of the testimony itself is well documented, so let's leave that... --Janke | Talk 14:26, 14 September 2005 (UTC)
    • I've now read the entire testimony, Walt only named one employee, David Hilberman, a communist. The other people named in the testimony were union bosses. --Janke | Talk 20:10, 1 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Trivia

Should we cut down on this? It's more than a screenful now? BTW, Disney as informant - is that documented anywhere else than in "Dark Prince"? If not, it might be removed, too. --Janke | Talk 17:08, 4 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] High school?

Did Walt Disney graduate from high school or not? This article claims he did, but a Google search turns up countless articles saying he didn't; they say he only attended one year of high school, then left. One site does say he eventually received an honorary diploma from his high school—at age 58. What's the truth? Does he go in Category:High school dropouts or not? -Silence 08:35, 30 October 2005 (UTC)

I found he that he didn't graduate high school either because he joined the Red Cross so he can serve in WWI. He lied about his age.- User:Azn_Clayjar 21 March 2006

[edit] Characters by Walt Disney

Mickey Mouse is a happy mouse who is inlove with Minnie Mouse. Mickey wears red trousers with yellow buttons. He also has white shoes and white gloves. His eyes are big and he is a very famous character that Walt Disney created. This was not what Mickey mouse was like first though. He was actually going to be called Mortemor Mouse, and be a droopy, sarcastic mouse. Not at all like Mickey. It was Walt Disney's wife that suggested a happier younger mouse, who should be called Mickey.

Minnie Mouse is Mickey Mouse's love. She wears high heels, a yellow hat with a flower, and a polka-dotted dress. She to, like Mickey, wears White Gloves.

Goofy Goof is a dog. He is a friend of Mickey. He has a girlfriend who is a cow. He is not as bright as Mickey. Goofy has one son- Max Goof.

Donald Duck is a white duck. He wears a blue sailors suit with white buttons. He is a jealous and proud one who always likes to win or take things without working for them. He has the most rellatives, for he has three nephwes and is related to Mr. Scrooge (a very rich duck). Donald usually gets into the most trouble.

Pluto is Mickey's dog. His body is orange and his tail is black. He has had problems from little critters to sweaters.

Daisy Duck is Donald Duck's love. Minnie and Daisy are best friends just like Donald and Mickey. Daisy has a sweet, loving nature not so much like Donald.She has 3 nieces April, May and June Duck who are all girlfriends to Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck( Donald's cousins). Pete is Mickey's arch-enemy and is always trying to make things harder for Mickey.

[edit] Flip the Frog newspaper clipping

Doesn't this better belong in the Ub Iwerks article, rather than here? It's been on and off for some time now. Consensus? --Janke | Talk 21:03, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

  • I think it's important to point out that Mickey Mouse and Oswald the Rabbit were the creation of Ub Iwerks, since the vast majority of people still believe in was Walt Disney who, in reality, could not draw. (comment by anon IP)
    • That's a popular misconception - Disney could draw! He drew many of the Laugh-O-grams himself, and if you look at them today, they're as good as anything from that time, i.e. early 20s. However, Iwerks and others drew better, and that's the reason Disney stopped drawing himself. Furthermore, I was referring ONLY to the image, not to the text! This article is about Disney, and while it indeed is very important to mention Iwerks in context, the major info about him (especially pictures), should be in the Iwerks article. --Janke | Talk 10:05, 11 December 2005 (UTC)
  • Both Walt and Ub contributed to the creation of Mickey. I edited the text to confirm with most biographies, and uploaded a screenshot of The Steamboat Willie title card. -- Janke | Talk 08:08, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Chicago Arts Institute?

This doesn't make sense! He moved to Kansas City… and still attended the Chicago Arts Institute? One hell of a commute, wouldn't you say? —Mproud 10:15, 23 February 2006 (UTC)


[edit] When did father die?

This article says Elias Disney died when he was 37 and Walt was seven. The article on Elias Disney says he he was born in 1859 (so he would have been 37 before Walt was even born) and died in 1941. OK, which is it?


[edit] Anti-semitic

I was wondering...was Walt Disney anti-semitic? I've heard that it was pretty well known that he hated Jews and that may have sponsored the rumour that he had Nazi-sympathies. It may be untrue that if one is anti-semetic, they are also Nazi's, but was he even anti-semitic?

Historically, Disney was in a constant struggle for survival against the major studios. Warner Brothers, Paramount, Fox, Columbia, Universal and MGM were all primarily ran and owned by Jewish principles, who controlled the vast majority of theatrical distribution of films and most of the talent in Hollywood(Check out the book, "An Empire of their Own", by Neal Gabler). Disney also lost his first cartoon character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit to Universal and most of his artists left to work for Universal. So I'd imagine there had to be some animosity towards these powerful studios and with that "some" anti-semitic resentment. The only anti-semitic reference I've ever seen was a quote made when one of Disney's artists left to work for Universal and Disney supposedly made an anti-semitic remark towards the Universal ownership to the artist when he tendered his resignation, this I believe was in Gabler's book. But in terms of being anti-semitic or hating the Jewish race as a whole this is unfounded. (C.Brown July 2006)

Is this something worth adding to the bio...because Disney corp. is a powerful company and i doubt they want rumours on his bio...that..and well...if it's true...I'm sure they'd rather not have it up here...and we all know what that means....more sabotage of wikipedia.

I also heard that he was extremely prejudiced against blacks, and refused to hire any for as long as he ran Disney studios. Can anyone verify if this is true?--Paradigm 15:51, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

Not true... check out Floyd Norman, a very talented black artist who went to work for Disney, I believe in the mid 50s as an animator. Mr. Norman continues to work today, most recently with PIXAR. He has created a series of incredibly funny books which document his years in animation at Disney and in the animation industry, under the title "Faster! Cheaper!". (C. Brown July 2006)

  • To the starter of this talk section: I don't know where you would hear he had Nazi sympathies. Disney made anti-Nazi cartoons during WWII, that ridiculed Hitler, as well as Hirohito and Mussolini. The one I've seen, Der Führer's Face, is actually pretty funny. --Lyght 03:43, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
  • An anonymous user continues to erase charges of anti-semitism - the charges from Disney employees DID exist and you'll see that the text makes no judgement on them. Before this user came along it was widely agreed they should stay. Thoughts? --Viledandy 10:45, 14 August 2006 (UTC)
    • The notion that people felt Disney was anti-semitic because of his hatred of unions sounds logical, especially since the unions widely spread this notion during the bitter strike and Disney's subsequent congressional statements against the unions. But the validity and addition to this history is not based on fact but rather rumours from distractors. Myself, I do not work for Disney, I am not a strong fan of Disney but I have extensively studied the growth and history of the Hollywood and New York film studio systems; and its interesting to recognize that Disney is the only film company to have survived intact from the golden era of cinema. (C. Brown August 2006)
    • Not sure what you're looking for. We have an unregistered user removing sourced text with no explanation. Usually that's considered "vandalism", although perhaps not vandalism obvious enough to save you from the 3RR should it come to that. If I see it removed, I'll probably revert it as well. Powers T 13:29, 14 August 2006 (UTC)
    • Ten dollars says that the people "anonymously" erasing texts are actually working for the Disney Corporation! LOL. It seems Wikipedia has earned a following...and Disney Corp. probably doesn't want "Song of the South" type references plaguing them. That, and there are some people who are just dillusionally fanaticaly about Disney products. God bless the marketing that makes this stuff a religion in its own right.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Persianlor (talk • contribs) .

[edit] Auteur

Is Walt Disney considered an Auteur? I know he isn't a director, but producers can auteurs too, like George Lucas, David O. Szelsnik (sp) and Jerry Bruckheimer. Someone with more expertise should put this in the article if he is an auteur. Karatloz 16:44, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] HUAC - Tone

Yes I agree that the tone is 'creepy'.

"His dislike and distrust of unions may have also led to his testimony, although like many in Hollywood who "named names", Disney may have been motivated by simple fear, either of Communist power in Hollywood, or of being blacklisted."

-Can euphemizing or whitewashing be considered a non-NPOV?

[edit] List of Walt Disney analogues in fiction?

Is there room somewhere in this article, or in a separate article, for a list of fictional characters based on Walt Disney? I can think of a few, but I'm sure there are many of them out there. Kaijan 00:32, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Too career-heavy

There's nothing here about Walt Disney the man, as opposed to Walt Disney the film producer. The categories list him as having had an OCD, yet there doesn't seem to be anything in the article itself about this. I think this would benefit from giving us an idea of who Walt Disney was, rather than simply what he did. --62.255.232.158 15:19, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Academy Awards

According to the article on Cedric Gibbons, Walt won 26 Academy Awards. Only two are currently mentioned in the article; a list should be added. --LostLeviathan 01:42, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Spanish

Walt Disney was born in Spain, no matter your yankee nationalism want to believe. I corrected this page, was no vandalism. If I miss any rule, i apologise, i'm new around here.

First of all, when changing the accepted status quo, it is customary to cite a source for your information. Secondly, Walt Disney was born in Chicago, Il (that's in the USA, not Spain), and was of Irish and German ancestry. From his official Biography:
  • The creator of Mickey Mouse and founder of the Disneyland® and Walt Disney World® Theme Parks was born in Chicago, Illinois, on December 5, 1901. His father, Elias Disney, was Irish-Canadian. His mother, Flora Call Disney, was of German-American descent. Walt was one of five children, four boys and a girl. --WilliamThweatt 17:03, 11 May 2006 (UTC)
Also see here. Sebastian Kessel Talk 18:55, 11 May 2006 (UTC)

It is my understanding that Walt Disney was not born in Chicago, Illinois. Walt Disney was born in Almeria Spain, his birth name was Jose Luis Girao. His parents emigrated to the United States when he was a small boy and they died soon after. He was adopted by Elias Disney of Chicago, Illinois. The source was The Miami Herald of Thursday, October 7, 1993, the Living Arts Section.

This is speculation and an urban myth. Read this article at Snopes. Kaijan 21:32, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

I have the clipping from the Miami Herald that states that Disney was born Jose Luis Girao in Almeria, Spain. The Snopes article that you references states that according to the legend Jose Luis was illegitmate and was adopted by Elias Disney in California. This source [4]states that the Girao family immigrated to Chicago together and both died leaving the two children orphaned where Jose Luis was adopted by Elias Disney. His mother was named Isabela Mendoza and not Senora Zamora. None of my sources have claimed that he was illegitimate, or that that his mother came to the United States alone, that she went to the West Coast or named Zamora, so of course the Snopes article disputes the legend, became it is disputing the wrong legend.

So you have one newspaper article that goes against fact. Just because it is in a newspaper does not mean it is true. Same urban legend, with the story changed around. --Lyght 15:08, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Bring WikiProject Disney to life!

Disney fans rejoince, WikiProject Disney has been propsed, just add your name to the category of intrrested Wikipedians to join here(it's at the bottom). Make sure to spread the word and bring the project to a goood start! Julz

what about his frozen head? i did'nt see a comment about it... —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 201.152.197.85 (talk • contribs) .

Last time I checked, a person's head is part of his body. Powers 13:52, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Walt's worst nightmare

According to a documentary on a french TV channel, it seems that Walt Disney's worst nightmare was "that one of his movies ended/failed in an art-and-essay cinemas". Approximative translation, because the source is not really clear.

It would be interesting to find and include the original words from Walt Disney, as it explains the creativity found in Fantasia and Alice, and in a lower level in most of his work. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 82.236.190.248 (talk • contribs) .

[edit] Testimony Before Congress

I have major problems with the last few lines in this section. The first questionable line, "Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that from 1941 until his death, he spied for the FBI on union activity in Hollywood, and illegally intimidated union activists" cites an FBI webpage containing seven multipage PDF files which document all dealings between the FBI and Walt Disney.

I reviewed all seven documents on the cited page and did not find any references to Disney's supposed spy status nor do any of the documents detail instances of "illegal intimidation of union activists." The FBI did seem to view Disney as an "asset" of some sort and this is interesting and relevant enough to include in a revision. At the very least, the citation in question needs to specify the specific document and page number where the FBI asserts Disney's spy status. I don't see any way to salvage the allegations of "illegal intimidation." If it's in the FBI document (or elsewhere) we need specific citations. Otherwise, it strikes me as a violation of POV.

Onto the next sentence. I don't see how the serious allegations of anti-semitism made in that sentence can be reconciled with the next sentence which indicates "there is absolutely no proof of this." If there is absolutely no proof of the allegations, why is the subject brought up in the first place? Additionally, the book cited by this sentence is Walt Disney: Hollywood's Dark Prince, a thoroughly discredited account of the supposed "dark side" of Walt Disney. This book does not meet the standard of a Reliable Source. Unless corroborating sources can be found, I don't see how this section can stay. --67.182.52.170 08:00, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

The FBI regarded Disney as an 'asset' precisely because he provided them with information re. his employees' union activities. The Thomas, Greene and Gabler Disney biographies are all clear that Disney was anti-union and saw union membership as a betrayal of his studio 'family' and a step towards communism. The Eliot book was cited because it cites, in detail, more FBI documents than any other biography. Labor unions are legal in the United States. Attempting to quash them is not. Nor is large-scale punishment of legitimately striking workers; many participants in the 1941 walk-out lost their jobs. Hilberman, Sorrell and Pomerance were branded as Communists, and their careers ruined. (No evidence has ever associated the strike with Communism.) This is intimidation.

The Eliot book does not claim Disney was a facist - it rightly lauds him for his Oscar-winning propaganda work during WWII. The book *does* say that many Disney employees believed Walt to be an anti-semite, some through very personal, eye-witness accounts. Disney's wiki makes no judgement on the truth of this. But the allegation existed, and it persists in popular culture. If anything, the wiki claims the charge was specious, an assumption or smear made due to the largely Jewish union membership.

Well-cited FOIA documents and a completely tangenital story (even the website linked above says Eliot contains many facts) do not add up to 'thoroughly discredited.'--Viledandy 00:53, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

If the Thomas, Greene and Gabler bios have information that is clearly not included in the FOIA documents cited, then they should be cited instead, with page numbers, preferably, so that they can be verified. Once again, the FBI document citation does not indicate specifically where, in hundreds of pages of HUAC testimony, Disneyland television scripts and correspondence, the FBI recruits Disney as a spy and sets him to "illegally intimidate" unions. I reviewed the all of the documents a couple of days ago and it simply isn't there. Accusations of intimidation are a blatant violation of WP:NPOV. As far as I know, Walt Disney was never implicated in any illegal activities relating to "intimidation". Once again, there need to be specific citations for unsubstantiated charges of this magnitude. I'm not saying they don't exist. I'm just saying that they aren't in the article as it stands.
The anti-semitism allegations do exist today in popular culture and I see no problem with addressing them, but the way they are currently presented, using weasel words and without specific citation to the sources Eliot relied upon, is unacceptable. (Page numbers would be nice.) When evaluating the accuracy of Marc Eliot's book, we should keep in mind that the man clearly had an ax to grind and was willing to publish a number of salacious and demonstrably false rumors about Disney. --Uncle Dick 02:03, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Cultural depictions of Walt Disney

I've started an approach that may apply to Wikipedia's Core Biography articles: creating a branching list page based on in popular culture information. I started that last year while I raised Joan of Arc to featured article when I created Cultural depictions of Joan of Arc, which has become a featured list. Recently I also created Cultural depictions of Alexander the Great out of material that had been deleted from the biography article. Since cultural references sometimes get deleted without discussion, I'd like to suggest this as a model for the editors here. Regards, Durova 15:53, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Vandalism

(from User:Dreyfus2006) This article has been vandalised. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 205.213.195.18 (talk • contribs) .

Can you be a little more specific? And why not fix it yourself? Powers T 15:12, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Vandalism: Date of high-school enrollment

There has been at least one edit [5] changing Disney's date of high school enrollment. I've been having trouble making sense of this page's history; could someone with access to a source change the date to the correct date, and add a citation? Thanks, -- Creidieki 18:03, 19 November 2006 (UTC)

I noticed that myself but couldn't find a source one way or the other. Powers T 16:06, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Possible Reference sources on the Internet

http://www.disneydreamer.com/walt/history.htm

The Lady and the Tramp 25th year DVD has extensive information on Walt Disney on the second disc of bonus features.

I will get back later to check on this and other information, there were some web-links to Chicago history that likely have added info. Have used this for Marshall Field's and Department Stores pages.

kidsheaven@gmail.com 02:49, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Need to add Disney's NYT Obituary

I see that Disney's article has been locked. Can someone please add to the references section?

Obituary, NY Times, December 16, 1966 Walt Disney, 65, Dies on Coast; Founded an Empire on a Mouse

68.228.70.223 12:28, 5 December 2006 (UTC) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.228.70.223 (talk) 12:27, 5 December 2006 (UTC).

Why, was it used as a reference for the article? Powers T 14:21, 7 December 2006 (UTC)
Your question is correct... it should be added as an *External Link*, not a reference. 68.228.70.223 14:59, 7 December 2006 (UTC)
OK, then my new question is what information does it add that isn't already available in the article? Powers T 21:21, 7 December 2006 (UTC)
Okay, you win. I didn't *analyze* it microscopically. Even though from the NYT, it's value is VERY unlikely to bring anything to the article, in the big scheme of things. With personal best wishes and good luck in finding treatment for your acute myopia. Sheesh.68.228.70.223 17:30, 8 December 2006 (UTC)
Considering I happen to be myopic, I really don't appreciate your sarcastic allusion to it. This is not supposed to be an argument, and I didn't intend it to be—thus, I'm not sure how I can be considered to have "won". All I did was ask a couple of questions regarding the content of the link you wished to add; should I instead have immediately sprang into action and added your link without question? My questions were perfectly in line with the Wikipedia policy on external links; we only add external links when they add information that isn't already in the article (more specifically, when they add information that shouldn't be in the article; if the information could be in the article, it should be added and the link should become a reference instead). I hope you understand why we're careful about putting in too many external links. I am in no way prejudiced against your suggestion; if the obituary has important information in it that we don't need to put in the article, then we absolutely should add it as a link, and if it has information that should be in the article but isn't, we need to add that information. Please help us improve the encyclopedia. Powers T 13:40, 11 December 2006 (UTC)
Myopia: I wasn't being sarcastic. Mine was a genuine wish.
External links: I can understand not adding willy-nilly frivolous external links of *questionable* quality or veracity; I don't think that the NYT has (yet) fallen into that category.
Improving the encyclopedia: The site has my absolute support. I wouldn't do ANYthing to deminish nor denigrate its content.
Your reluctance to include the EXTERNAL LINK to the 1966 NYT obituary into the Walt Disney article is not defensible.68.228.70.223 17:35, 11 December 2006 (UTC)
I'm not sure how you diagnosed my myopia over the Internet. I'm not suggesting that the New York Times is in any way of questionable quality or veracity; I'm simply asking whether it adds any new information that isn't already in the article. It's a simple question, but you haven't answered it yet. Powers T 14:17, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Ski Resorts

I'm considering removing the final sentence "There are plans for two more new ski resorts to open in 2008." I have seen absolutely no evidence, speculative or otherwise, to suggest that The Walt Disney Company currently expresses any interest in the winter industry. I have added a citation tag and will remove the sentence if no source is produced soon. Quinn 33 04:19, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

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