DISNEY

30 August 2001

“Like father, like son” 1



Walter Elias Disney was born in Chicago on December 5, 1901, the year in which the occupancy of the White

House passed to „that damned cowboy‟ the exuberant, ebullient Teddy Roosevelt. 2 On the surface, his early years

presented little that was particularly noteworthy. The events of his youth were fairly typical for a midwestern boy in

the 1900s, and seemingly they could have happened to anyone. 3 Named in honor of his father and the local Congre-

gational minister who baptized him, Walt was the fourth son of Elias and Flora [Call] Disney. 4 He had three older

brothers—Herbert (born December 8, 1893), Raymond (born December 30, 1890), and Roy (born June 24, 1893)—

and a younger sister, Ruth (born December 6, 1903). 5 But as so often is the case, Disney seems to have learned his

behavior from his father.6

Disney‟s father was an itinerant ne‟er-do-well.7 The impassively stern and excessively frugal Elias purchased a

farm in Marceline, [Missouri],8…[in] 1906,…when Walt was five years old.9 [Elias‟] brother, Robert, owned sever-

al hundred acres near Marceline, and several other relatives lived nearby. 10 Within a few months the two older

brothers, Herbert and Raymond, ran off back to Chicago and by all accounts never were brought back into Walt‟s

life or any of his business ventures. Meanwhile, the young Walt was enchanted by the farm, especially its animals,

both wild and domesticated, by the local railroad, and by the town of Marceline. 11

It has been assumed that Disney embraced the animals around the farm because of lack of companionship in his

family. The forbidding Elias was an active advocate of corporal punishment who never allowed his sons an allow-

ance or any type of plaything.i Roy was much older and too busy working on the farm, while mother Flora, ex-

hausted by chores and broken in spirit by her despotic husband, ii had no time for her young son [See especially Richard

Schickel, The Disney Version: The Life, Times, Art, and Commerce of Walt Disney (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1968), pp. 48-54; and Leo-

nard Mosley, Disney’s World (New York: Stein & Day, 1985), pp. 27-32]. Walt never learned to play the games of a boy; instead

he anthropomorphized pigs…and other creatures into his personal friends. iii His best “friend” was probably Porker,

the sow he would jump astride and ride.12 Walt later said:

I guess I really loved that pig. . . . She had an acute sense of fun and mischief. . . . Do you remember the

Foolish Pig in Three Little Pigs? Porker was the model for him [Leonard Mosley, Disney’s World (Lanham, MD: Scar-

13

borough House, 1990), p. 30].



Although Walt would later romanticize this period,…the times were actually brutally hard for the family. 14 Because

of his endless chores, Disney may have viewed the raw, natural earth as a challenge that drove him to tame, trans-

form, and order the land to create something productive and useful.

In the summer of 1910, with Walt on the threshold of his impressionable teens, the family moved to Kansas City.

Psychologically immured within his successive failures, father Elias became even more tyrannical, resulting in his

two sons contributing most of the work toward running his extensive newspaper route. Though Roy and Walt were

dragged out of their beds at 3:30 in the morning all year round to deliver newspapers, they received no wages or al-

lowances.15 [Walt] finally began ordering papers for himself, without his father‟s knowledge, in order to retain such

small earnings as he could make. He also got a job in a candy store during the noon recess from school—and appar-

ently kept it, too, secret from his father.16

Roy Disney recalled a story that his father once told him about his boyhood love for fiddle-playing. Be-

cause Elias‟s parents didn‟t approve, he had gone off into the woods and practiced and then sneaked into the

local dance hall to play with other local musicians. At some point his parents got wind of this, however, and

went to the dance hall themselves. “They found their son playing the fiddle, and Grandma went up and

grabbed it away from him and busted it to hell over his head, took him by the ear, and marched him home,”

Roy related. “The devil was in the fiddle, was their notion. Dancing was just evil.” However mortified Elias

must have been by this incident, he nonetheless carried many of the same attitudes into his own adulthood



i

[Often] parents were less interested in looking after children than in getting cheap labor to help them with their vast tracts of

land. In some cases children were exploited as badly in houses on the prairie as in the mills of the industrial East.

— Evelyn Toynton, Growing Up in America: 1830-1860 (Connecticut: Millbrook Press, 1995), p. 45.

ii

Mothers may be unable to protect children because they themselves are abused and intimidated by tyrannical and domineering

men.

— David Finkelhor, Sexual Interactions (Free Press, 1988), p. 59.

iii

This book is no place to go into the psychology of anthropomorphism.

— Adrian Bailey, Walt Disney’s World of Fantasy (New York: Everest House, 1982), p. 34.





1

[Roy Disney, interview by Richard Hubler, 17 Nov 1967, 2. See Bob Thomas, Walt Disney: An American Original (New York, 1976),

17

p. 32; and Walt Disney, interview by Peter Martin and Diane Disney Miller (1956) for the facts of Elias Disney‟s life].



Walt Disney‟s adolescent years were ruled by a repressive, increasingly cruel father who was incapable of love

and affection.18 He thought nothing of taking a switch to his boys to administer the “corrective” beatings that be-

came a part of their daily routine. At the slightest provocation, Elias Disney would march them to the woodshed and

dispense his brutal punishments.19 Elias‟s rigid self-righteousness, extreme conservatism,i and suppression of emo-

tion was mirrored in the strict moral climate of Kansas City during the years the Disneys lived there, 1910-17.20

Recreation Superintendent Fred McClure and Board of Public Welfare investigator Fred R. Johnson diligently regu-

lated all types of amusement to dispel any transgressions from a puritanical, sexually repressive policy of social con-

trol.21

In the fluid world of the early twentieth century, where social institutions and moral values were in a state of tran-

sition, however, Elias‟s worldview was becoming increasingly antiquated. It even encouraged certain self-

destructive tendencies. Walt came to believe that his father was deceived in his various business ventures, for in-

stance, because “he thought everyone was as honest as he was.” Elias‟s hidebound moralism led him to refuse to use

fertilizer on his crops, since “putting fertilizer on plants was like putting whiskey in a man—he felt better for a little

while, but then he was worse than before.” Such attitudes produced a kind of naiveté about the world, a characteris-

tic that stayed with Elias until late in life [Don Taylor, interview by David R. Smith, 6 Aug 1971, 2 ].

Not surprisingly, Elias‟s severe attitudes gave rise to a child-rearing philosophy of “spare the rod and spoil the

child.” 22

What the law regards as child abuse, some parents consider discipline. 23 Their dictum, “Spare the rod and

spoil the child,” may start out with good intentions; but often, that philosophy gets out of hand, and they

spank to an extreme. Children who have been treated harshly cannot help being affected by the hostile ac-

tions of their parents, and when they grow up and have their own children, they find it difficult to be tolerant;

so they respond by being aggressive. Studies by Dr. Shervert Frazier, a psychiatrist at Harvard Medical

School, found some years ago that repeated brutalization as a small child by parents or parent substitutes

turned up in the backgrounds of some people who later killed a relative or family member. ii Dr. Frazier also

found out several other things. One was that the murderers experienced long periods of loneliness during

childhood. Another was that they lacked the ability to play games. Moreover, the murderers had low feelings

of their worth and experienced a good deal of humiliation as children.

Other factors besides being abused as a child play a part, too. One is poor marital adjustment. According

to social-work specialists at the University of Texas at Austin, child abusers tend to be young parents with

marital problems who are psychologically immature [News release, University of Texas at Austin, 3 March 1980 ].24

In a landmark 1971 study of the personality characteristics of American priests, psychologist Eu-

gene Kennedy…noted that 57 percent of the 218 priests in his sample had not passed through all the

stages of growth leading to mature behavior and were somehow arrested in their psychological devel-

opment. He noted that their lack of maturity involved not just sexual feelings but a poor sense of per-

sonal identity and command of interpersonal relationships.25 [One result is that] Roman Catholic

priests in the United States are dying from AIDS-related illnesses at a rate four times higher than the

general population, and the cause is often concealed on their death certificates, The Kansas City Star

reported [30 January 2000].26 When priests [do] tell their superiors, the cases generally are handled

quietly.27

“I think this speaks to a failure on the part of the church,” said Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumble-

ton of the Archdiocese of Detroit. “Gay priests and heterosexual priests didn‟t know how to handle

their sexuality, their sexual drive. And so they would handle it in ways that were not healthy.” 28







i

He voted consistently for Eugene Debs and subscrived to the Appeal to Reason.

— Mike Wallace, Mickey Mouse History and Other Essays on American Memory (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996),

p. 136.

ii

Children will rise against parents and have them put to death. *

— Matthew 10.21-22 & Mark 13.12-13, The Bible, Revised Standard Version (New York: American Bible Society, 1970).

*

Jesus was a realist.

— Jesus, the realist; U.S. Catholic Church confronts sexual abuse scandal, Commonweal, 17 Dec 1993, 120(22).





2

The Rev. John Keenan, who runs Trinity House, an outpatient clinic in Chicago for priests, said he

believes most priests with AIDS contracted the disease through same-sex relations. He said he treated

one priest who had infected eight other priests.29

Priest sexual misconduct is a bigger problem than church leaders like to admit. Approximately

3,000 priests, or one in 15 nationwide, are probably guilty of misconduct. Neither clerical celibacy

nor gay priests are major causes of the problem;30…most abusers of boys and young men are in fact

married men.31 [But] pedophile priests…get more mercy from the courts than Protestant clergy and

much more than lay people.32 Allegations have been lodged against [more than] 400 priests since

1982.33 Instead of going to jail, most priests are sent to one of three church-run treatment centers in

the country.34 There is a vast backlog of…cases. Even where every attempt has been made to remove

guilty priests, more cases…surface.35

The medical literature suggests that during a “career” of abuse some victimizers may have as many

as 200 or even 300 victims. Others may have fewer victims.36 [While] fear ke[eps] victims of sex

abuse…from coming forward,37…abuse may…occur[] at such an early age that the memory is largely

sensory and precognitive.38 “The youngest homicide I ever had was only 54 days old. That little guy

was sexually assaulted and murdered by his father,” [recalled King County‟s Chief Medical Investiga-

tor, Jerry Webster].39

Pope John Paul II said in Denver in August [1993] that he shared the concerns of U.S. bishops for

the “pain and suffering” caused by the sexual sins of some priests.40 [On 11 March 2000, he] apolo-

gized for everything the Catholic Church has ever done. Among the wrongdoings specified by the

pope were the Church‟s shabby (and sometimes lethal) treatment of Jews and other ethnic groups, and

its position toward women, “who are all too often humiliated and emarginated.” Among the misdeeds

left unspecified were the Church‟s role in the freakish overpopulation of the planet, and the distended

anuses of all those alter boys.41

Alcohol or drug abuse is another consideration [Ibid.].42

Verbal abuse, rejection, or neglect can be just as devastating to a child as a blow. Dr. El Newberger, di-

rector of the Family Development Clinic at the Children‟s Hospital Medical Center in Boston,43… [stated]:

“Parents should never resort to physical force.i There are positive, loving ways to teach acceptable behavior.

Sparing the rod does not mean spoiling the child. We as a society can help prevent child abuse by rejecting

violence as a method for resolving human conflict. We have everything to gain by raising the next generation

in peace” [News release, Children‟s Hospital Medical Center, Boston, 20 April 1983 ].44

If you have a child (and it is naughty), do not strike it. In older times if a child was naughty the

parents did not strike it, but made the child fast. When he is quite hungry he will reflect upon his dis-

obedience. If you hit him you will merely put more naughtiness into him. It is also said that women

(mothers, etc.) should not lecture the children, that they merely make the children bad by admonishing

them. Thus it would be, those who admonish us declare. Likewise, if your husband says (scolds) any-

thing to the children, do not take their part for then they will become very bad indeed. That is why

you should not take their part.45 If you wish to take the children‟s part,…take good care of them and

think of the best means of letting your children get to know you. When you are bringing up children,

do not imagine that you are taking their part if you just speak about loving them. Let them see it for

themselves. Let them see (what love is) by seeing you give things away to the poor. Then they will

see your good deeds and then they will know whether you have been telling the truth or not. 46

He ran his household with an iron fist and did not shrink from imposing his authority by physical punishment. Old-

fashioned to the core, he disciplined all his children, particularly his youngest son.47 As a cousin said, “Elias was





i

Violence in America has hit children hard: In 1995, a child died of neglect or abuse every seven hours. *

— Marian Wright Edelman (Children‟s Defense Fund), in Michael Ryan, How to stand for children, The Seattle Times/Seattle

Post-Intelligencer, 9 Feb 1997, Parade, p. 8.

*

According to the 1995 Report of The United States Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect, at least 2,000 children each

year, more than five per day, die at the hands of parents or caretakers. And of those who do not die from abuse and neglect each

year, 18,000 children are left permanently disabled and 142,000 are seriously injured.

— Jan Collins Stucker and Jan L. Warner, Child-abuse statistics are astounding, Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service, 28 Aug

1995.





3

very strict with Walt, and he administered frequent beatings” [Martin/Miller interview, Reel 5, 41; and Alice Disney Allen, inter-

view by David R. Smith, 5 Oct 1972, notes].

Walt‟s encounter with his father‟s rigid moral and political principles triggered a highly ambivalent response.

Full of love and resentment in equal proportions, eager both to please and to escape Elias, the sensitive boy devel-

oped a deep-seated tension over paternal authority. In almost a literal sense, it haunted him. In his recurring night-

mare of forgetting to deliver some of the newspapers on his Kansas City route, his dad would “be waiting up at that

corner” to punish him for laxness. Ward Kimball, a Disney Studio animator and close friend, felt that his boss never

got over his father‟s strictness, which in Kimball‟s view negatively “influenced Walt‟s relation to other people.” Yet

Diane Miller recalled that her father talked of Elias “constantly” and often with great affection. He “loved his dad.

He thought he was tough . . . But he loved that old man” [Diane Disney Miller, interview by Richard Hubler, 11 June 1968, Reel

48, i

11, 22; and Ward Kimball, interview by Richard Hubler, 4 June 1968, 5 ].

This complex confrontation with Elias and his world surfaced again and again in Walt‟s psyche. Throughout his

life he was eager to discuss his father. On the one hand, his comments were filled with affection and admiration for

the old man‟s virtues—the commitment to his family‟s welfare, the gritty work ethic, the respect for education and

good citizenship. On the other hand, however, resentment of the elder Disney‟s authoritarianism would bubble out

with little prompting. Walt often told how Elias tried to force him to learn the fiddle so he would always be able to

earn some money as a musician. The boy had no talent for it; he had trouble with holding his right arm in the correct

position for bowing. But his father insisted, and “he used to slap the hell out of me to get that elbow down.” When

Walt helped with the carpentry as the family added space to their house, Elias frequently exploded. Walt recalled

this episode some forty years later: “My dad was an impatient person. But he knew what he wanted to do and ex-

pected you to know just what he wanted to do . . . [and if I faltered] he‟d get mad, you see. And he‟d start after me.

And my dad was the kind of guy who‟d pick up anything near him . . . He‟d pick up a saw and try to hit you with the

broad side of the saw. He‟d pick up a hammer, you know, and hit you with the handle.” The boy finally had enough

of such treatment and walked off the construction job in anger [ Martin/Miller interview, Reel 3, 61-62, 57].

Elias‟s physical intimidation seems to have left deep scars on his son‟s emotional makeup.49 Walt Disney… was

a bundle of contradictions.50 His personality is an enigma to anyone forced to rely on reminiscences and published

accounts. At times, Walt almost seems to have been a human Rorschach test: everyone who worked with him saw

something different in him.51 The personal Disney will always be difficult to define (he was „a very complicated

man‟, in his collaborators unanimous opinion). Some accused him of being a harsh speculator, or just a manager

unable to draw. With his employees, he was often impenetrable, distant and brusque, and considered those who left

or who opposed his will to be traitors.52

  



Like any farm boy, he had learned about sex at an early age. 53 Disney openly admitted that during his adolescent

years girls were of no interest; in fact they were simply a “nuisance.” He is reported to have commented, “I was

normal, but girls bored me. They still do. Their interests are just different” [ “Father Goose,” Time, 27 Dec 1954, 64, p. 44].

This attitude may well have been formed by the nearly total lack of affection in his family. Only with his brother

Roy is there any evidence of companionship and attachment.54

Roy Disney, eight years his senior, was his confidant and mentor.55 Often Walt would fall asleep huddled close

to his older brother, wondering aloud if the man who beat them could really be their father and why their mother

never stepped in to stop the abuse.56 “When we were kids,” Disney told one of his associates many years later, “Roy

and I slept in the same bed. I used to wet the bed and I‟ve been pissing up Roy‟s leg ever since.” 57

Other times, during the day, to see if [Walt] bore any resemblance to his mother, he would sneak into her bed-

room, put on her clothes and make up his face and then stand in front of the mirror. 58 There was no time for frivol-

ous attention to girls.59

Walt experienced genuine disillusionment during his Red Cross duty. When they disembarked in France, the

contingent of young ambulance drivers was indoctrinated about the danger of picking up venereal disease. “Those

horrible slides” made a strong impact on Disney, and prompted him to say even forty years later, “That‟s when you

begin to hate women” [Martin/Miller interview, Reel 4, 11, Reel 5, 31].60

Following…[his] brief stint…at the end of World War I, young Walt 61…met and began a collaboration…with

the shy…Ubbe Iwwerks, who at Disney‟s suggestion slightly shortened his name to Ub Iwerks. 62 The two eighteen-



i

Why can a period of our life be felt as very sad, and yet be sweet and beautiful in remembrance?

— Frederik van Eeden, “A Study of Dreams,” in Proceedings from Social Psychology Research, 1913, 26, in Charles T. Tart,

ed., Altered States of Consciousness, 3rd ed. (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1969, 1972, 1990), p. 181.





4

year-olds established Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists in January 1920 (the original name was Disney-Iwerks, but

they decided that sounded like an optical company).63 By working on…shorts, Disney learned the basic techniques

of moving pictures and animation.64 Within weeks of mastering the camera, Disney began making original animated

films in the family garage after work [at the Kansas City Film Ad Company]. 65 Eventually, Walt became convinced

he was good enough to compete with Kansas City Ad. Using the name “Laugh-O-Grams,” 66…a twenty-one-year-old

Walt, with Ub‟s approval, took the remaining assets of Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists and officially merged

them with Laugh-O-Grams.67 After completing a set of cartoons, he sold them to the Newman Theater under the title

of “Newman Laugh-O-Grams” [Katherine and Richard Greene, The Man Behind the Magic: The Story of Walt Disney (New York: Vik-

68

ing/Penguin, 1991), p. 35]. Unfortunately, in the middle of production, Disney completely ran out of money. When he

called Roy in California to describe his troubles, Roy told him, “Kid, I think you should get out of there” [ Bob Thomas,

69

Disney’s Art of Animation (New York: Hyperion, 1991), p. 34 ]. [Walt‟s] feelings of failure led him to borrow a page out of

Elias‟s manual of real life, and he decided to skip town.70, i

When Walt first came to Hollywood he had no intention of continuing to make animated cartoons. 71 Walt in-

tended to be a movie director in one of the big studios. It was only after his money ran out…that he was forced to

return to the one thing that previously had paid his bills.72 Walt had one…film, Alice’s Wonderland, and when he

sent it off to a cartoon distributor he was surprised to receive, in return, a contract for twelve more films. 73 [Ub was]

lured from Kansas City on the promise of a partnership, but as Dave Hand…put it, “They were partners, but Walt

was the boss.” 74 The two partners 75…[had produced] a steady stream of films with titles like [Alice and the Dog

Catcher,76] Alice and the Wild West Show, Alice Cans the Cannibals, Alice Chops the Suey, and Alice Foils the Pi-

rates.77 Although crude, the Alice films clearly revealed Disney‟s major talent, that is, his apt blending of live and

animated action and his uncanny ability to recognize and exploit the potential of a technological advance.

Roy‟s marriage to longtime sweetheart Edna Francis, and Walt‟s resultant loss of his roommate and cook, served

as the catalyst for Walt to look around for a wife. 78 At first, Walt simply refused to believe Roy would actually go

through with the wedding and break up the team—until Roy‟s childhood sweetheart, Edna Francis, arrived in Holly-

wood with her mother. He then took his brother‟s decision as an act of abandonment, convinced that nothing could

ever be the same between them. His rage manifested itself in a series of personal criticisms directed at his brother.

For the first time, he complained of Roy‟s general sloppiness around the apartment and constantly harped on him

about his lack of personal hygiene. His uncleanliness, Walt told him, was a sure sign of his godlessness.

Ironically, before Roy had broken the news of his impending marriage, cleanliness was not something for which

Walt had shown much of an affinity. He had thought nothing of lifting the lid off the corner garbage can, bending

over and putting his face into the trash. He would become fascinated by the patterns the crawling maggots ii made as

they swarmed over the rotted food. He would draw the designs onto a small pad to use in some future cartoon.

For a while, looking to avoid a sense of loneliness and loss, Walt even considered moving in with his animator,

Ub Iwerks. But he dropped this idea when he began spending greater amounts of time at Lillian Bounds‟ worksta-

tion in the painting department, volunteering tips on how to improve her inking. One night, while 79…working over-

time, he leaned over the desk as she was taking dictation and kissed her [ See Thomas, American Original, pp. 77-78; Diane

80

Miller and Lillian Disney, Martin/Miller interview, Reel 8, 44-49, 50-52, 65-67; and Lillian Disney, interview by Steven Watts, 18 Aug 1993 ].

The next day, he asked Roy, who managed their budding animation business, for a $120 advance—$40 to buy

the new suit he would need to wear at his wedding and the rest for a ring. Roy was so happy, he insisted they save

money and purchase the ring from the same illegal fence who had sold him Edna‟s. The next day, Walt proposed,

Lillian accepted, and they immediately set a date. 81, iii

In April 1925 she served as the maid of honor for Edna Francis when she wed Roy Disney, and a few months

later, on July 13, she and Walt were married at her brother‟s house in Lewiston, [Idaho] [ Ibid.].82 Her mother was the

only other member of either family to attend. Walt did not invite his parents…or Roy, whom he still resented for

marrying Edna. After the ceremony, the newlyweds boarded a train for Los Angeles.83



i

“Pa always had ants in his pants,” said Walt Disney‟s brother Roy about their father Elias Disney. “He could never stay in one

place long enough to warm a seat” [ Leonard Mosley, Disney’s World (Lanham, MD: Scarborough House, 1990), p. 24].

— Michael D. Cole, People to Know: Walt Disney: Creator of Mickey Mouse (Springfield, NJ: Enslow Publ., Inc., 1996), p. 9.

ii

Maggots pour digestive enzymes into soft tissue, breaking it down into a fluid that they then suck into their gut, absorbing the

nutrients.

— David C. Houston, To the vultures belong the spoils; In New World rain forests, scavenging specialists win the carrion

sweepstakes, Natural History, Sep 1994, 103(9), p. 36.

iii

“Walt always used to say I was such a bad secretary he had to marry me.”

— Lillian Disney, quoted in Amy Boothe Green and Howard E. Green, Remembering Walt: Favorite Memories of Walt Disney

(New York: Hyperion, 1999), p. 11.





5

Both Mosley and Schickel report that Disney developed a toothache on his wedding night aboard a Pullman train

and spent time not with his bride but with a porter polishing passengers‟ shoes [ Mosley, Disney’s World, 1985, p. 89; and

84

Schickel, Disney Version, p. 110]. Upon arriving in L.A., the honeymoon couple transferred to a steamer bound for Seat-

tle. It wasn‟t until they got to Washington that Walt relaxed enough to be able to consummate his marriage. But the

next day, he cut short their honeymoon, claiming an emergency at the studio required his immediate return.85

At about the same time as their marriages, Walt and Roy decided to draw out their meager savings to build a new,

spacious studio.86 When the facility was completed,87…he calmly informed him the name of the business was being

changed from the Disney Brothers Studios to the Walt Disney Studios, i claiming a single name was more appealing.

Roy shrugged his shoulders, his standard signature of wordless compliance. Unlike Walt, he had no taste for fame.88

It was from this point that Roy was forced to take a backseat while Walt took charge. 89





The Mouse ii



As a cartoon character, Mickey Mouse is approaching Social Security age. 90 As an expression, Mickey Mouse

remains as current as the news. But it has a different meaning from the one it had when the character was born. 91



Mickey Finn ( ) n. Slang. An alcoholic beverage that is surreptitiously altered to induce diarrhea or

stupefy, render unconscious or otherwise incapacitate the person who drinks it.iii [Origin unknown.]



Mickey Mouse adj. 1.a. Slang. Unimportant; trivial: “It’s a Mickey Mouse operation compared to what goes

on in Lyons or Paris” (Jack Higgins). b. Slang. Irritatingly petty: the school’s Mickey Mouse requirements

for graduation. 2. Slang. Intellectually unchallenging; simple: His Mickey Mouse assignments soon bored

the students. 3. Music. a. Blandly sentimental. Used of popular compositions and performers. b. Relating to

a soundtrack that accompanies the action in an unsubtle, melodramatic way suggestive of music written for

animated films [The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 3rd ed.].92 U.S. Military Slang. Anything

that is unnecessary or unimportant [The Barnhart Dictionary of New English].93

On a train trip from New York to Los Angeles, Walt reminisced about a pet mouse he had kept…and began to

sketch a perky rodent with pointed snout and round belly 94…he called Mortimer Mouse. Lillian made a face. “Not

Mortimer,” she said. “It‟s too formal. How about Mickey?” 95 According to Dave Iwerks, Ub‟s son,…when Walt

arrived back in Hollywood,…he had only the vaguest idea of a new character. He and Ub put their ideas down on

“character sheets.” Walt brought in his own proposed sketch of a mouse, which Iwerks rejected because it looked

too much like Walt. Walt then confessed he had indeed used his own face as a model. 96

Taking several drawings of Oswald Rabbit,iv Ub changed the ears a bit, rounded the eyes and turned him into

Mickey.97 Basically, ear shapes distinguished one round character from another; remove the pointed ears and add



i

In 1926, three years after launching Disney Brothers Studio, the company‟s name was changed to Walt Disney Studios. Later,

in 1929, the company became Walt Disney Productions.

— Ron Grover, The Disney Touch: Disney, ABC & the Quest for the World’s Greatest Media Empire, Revised ed. (Chicago,

Irwin Professional Publ., 1997), p. 2.

ii

Mickey Mouse . . . Mikki Hiiri . . . Miki Kuchi . . . Miguel Ratoncito . . . Topolino . . . Mikke Mus . . . Musse Pigg . . .

Camondongo Mickey . . . El Ratón Mickey . . . El Ratón Miguelito…[Michael Maus*…Michel Souris…Mikki Maus†… Michel

Souris‡…Mik-kii Ma-u-su§ ].

— David Bain and Bruce Harris, eds., Mickey Mouse: Fifty Happy Years (New York: Harmony Books, 1977), p. 7.

*

Richard Schickel, The Disney Version: The Life, Times, Art and Commerce of Walt Disney, 3rd ed. (Chicago: Elephant Paper-

backs, 1968, 1985, 1997), p. 166.

†

Herbert E. Nass, Esq., Wills of the Rich & Famous: A Fascinating Look at the Rich, Often Surprising Legacies of Yesterday’s

Celebrities (New York: Warner Books, 1991), p. 179.

‡

Douglass Gomery, “Disney‟s Business History: A Reinterpretation,” in Eric Smoodin, ed., Disney Discourse: Producing the

Magic Kingdom (New York: Routledge, 1994), p. 74.

§

Robert De Roos, “The Magic Worlds of Walt Disney,” National Geographic, Aug 1963, in Smoodin, Disney Discourse, p. 48.

iii

Make her drink a Mickey Finn.

— Charles Strouse (music) and Martin Charnin (lyrics), “It‟s The Hard-Knock Life,” Annie (Edwin H. Morris & Co. and Charles

Strouse, 1977), based on Little Orphan Annie.®

iv

There was nothing unique about Oswald the Rabbit. He was a typical cartoon character of the period, only recognizable as a

rabbit inasmuch as he was less like any other creature known to man.

— Robert D. Field, The Art of Walt Disney (New York: Macmillan Co., 1942), p. 30.





6

two oblong ones and Felix,98…the most popular toon star of the 1920s, 99…became…Oswald; substitute two round

circles, and Oswald begat…Mickey.

Walt knew instinctively…the tyranny of the circle.100 Walt grinned when he realized just how easy it was going

to be simply to steal a character like Oswald.101 And, having learned firsthand the way the movie business operated,

that was exactly what he did.102

In an almost arrogant fashion, Disney adopted, then reworked, some of the most endearing and classical

fairy tales of all time. “Grist for a mighty mill,” Schickel described it, “in the ineffable Hollywood term.”

Disney, Schickel said, treated these classics as “properties” to do with as the proprietor of the machine would

[Gary Kinnaman, Angels Dark and Light (Ann Arbor, MI: Vine Books, 1994), pp. 144-145].103

Plane Crazy i and Gallopin’ Gaucho, the first Mickey Mouse cartoons, appeared in 1928 to polite but unenthu-

siastic audiences.104 The problem was that they were silent movies.105 In late 1927, just before Mickey‟s debut, the

first talkie, The Jazz Singer, opened in New York. Disney immediately jumped on the new technologies for sound

effects and music.106, ii

Music is undoubtedly the most important addition…made to the picture. It can do more to bring a pro-

duction to life, to give it integrity, sytle, emphasis, meaning, and unity than any other single ingredient. 107

Music can build tension n commonplace scenes or ease it in ones that have become visually too frightening.108

A song that catches the exact mood or the sequence and expresses it in a fresh and memorable way will do

wonders for the film.109

Good sound effects will add life and excitement to a film, whereas drab, ordinary sounds will quicly drain

what life might be in the action.110 Many times it is necessary to run the recorded track through some of the

sound equipment, to reverberate it, or take out the lows, or speed it up, or combine it with other sounds.111

Occasionally the sound effects man is asked to come up with a sound for something that cannot possibly

make a sound of its own: for instance,112…the sound for a giant magnet. This actually was intended for a ride

at Walt Disney World, but Marc Davis, who had helped develop the ride, knew from his years of animation

training that the key factor in making the whole idea work was to have just the right sound. He called Jim

[Macdonald] out of retirement to find it. The fascinating thing is that Jim went right to objects that make no

sound! That is, no sound the human ear can detect. A heavy-duty soldering iron ooperating on 60 cycles held

close to the microphone gave off a very low, rhythmic hum. A de-magnetizer used for taking static electricity

out of scissors before cutting tape gave off another sound that barely could be recorded, and, finally, Jim got a

large cymbal and gently brushed a tiny piece of cotton against its edge. No sound could be detected on the

stage, but the tape machine was picking up strange vibrations. These three sounds were taken to the dubbing

panel in the theater, where the tracks were mixed and switched and altered, and raised in volume until the

sound could be heard by human ears. It was a slow, pulsing, indefinable sound, and it started to make every-

one there sick.113 But Jim continued to play with his sounds, feeling like a mad inventor, until he had them at

the provocative stage just short of producing illness and just past recognition of it as a sound at all. It was

more of a feeling, and it felt like a magnet should sound!114

In March 1928, work began on Steamboat Willie,115, iii…[with] Disney himself serv[ing] as…the preadolescent,

high-pitched voice of Mickey;116…its creation shrouded in secrecy behind the closed doors of Iwerks‟ tiny office. A



i

[In Plane Crazy, Mickey Mouse] lecherously lusted after his girlfriend Minnie Mouse and refused to ease off when she rejected

his advances.

— Kathy Merlock Jackson, Walt Disney: A Bio-Bibliography (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1993), p. 16.

ii

Disney‟s approach to sound was as painstakingly precise as his approach to animation. He did not just want to add sound, as

was being done in some cartoons, he wanted to synchronize the sound with the action. But of course animated drawings don‟t

make any sound, so a method of synchronizing sound with the movements of animated characters had to be developed.

— David Tietyen, The Musical World of Walt Disney (Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard Publ., 1990), p. 13.

iii

The first recording session for Steamboat Willie was a disaster, because the conductor failed to appreciate the importance of

following to the letter the precise tempo markings, but once that was grasped, soundtrack and cartoon action fitted as snugly as a

Mickey glove.* Indeed, to this day the technique of precise co-ordination of musical soundtrack to the movement on the screen is

called, in movie slang, „Mickey Mousing.‟

— Neil Sinyard, The Best of Disney (New York: Portland House, 1988), p. 18.

*

Steamboat Willie was not the first cartoon with a soundtrack. The Fleischer brothers had made some experimental sound car-

toons a few years earlier, and at least one sound cartoon—Paul Terry‟s Aesop‟s Fable called Suppertime—had been released in

1928, shortly before Steamboat Willie. But as a contemporary review put it, Steamboat Willie was “the first animated cartoon





7

wall of distrust now stood between the soon-to-depart animators and those who had chosen to stay. Among those

who remained loyal, Walt trusted only Iwerks. With ever greater frequency, Iwerks was assigned to bring to ani-

mated life the characters Walt had in mind, a job that ultimately became the expression of what was truly the charac-

ter of Walt‟s mind.117

Steamboat Willie, inspired by the title of a recent Buster Keaton success Steamboat Bill, Jr.,118…premiered just

months before the economic collapse of the late twenties that signaled the onset of the Great Depression. 119 As the

Great Depression gripped the nation, Americans attended the movies in droves, finding in them escape and enjoy-

ment.120 Wall Street‟s tumble produced a resurgence of dozens of civic-minded organizations, supported by many in

the federal government who believed the country‟s financial decline was the inevitable result of its moral one. 121

In 1910, [Thomas Alva] Edison i formed the first motion picture alliance, which came to be known as the

“Trust.” It‟s purpose was to protect the public (and his own financial interests) from the kind of immoral

trash produced by what he termed the “Jewish profiteers,” who not only ran the 122…new century‟s first novel-

ty, street-corner nickelodeons, amusement parlors that first appeared on New York‟s Lower East

Side;123…but made their own movies to show in them.

The Trust was publicly dedicated to the preservation of the industry‟s moral integrity and privately de-

voted to protecting Edison‟s monopoly. Not only were nickelodeon operators and filmmakers denied mem-

bership in the Trust, but they were prevented from buying raw film stock and projection equipment, all of

which Edison held patents on and absolutely controlled.

In response, an independent group of mostly immigrant Jewish filmmakers, led by Carl Laemmle, formed

their own distribution organization, or exchange, as they called it. They organized an effective, if illegal, un-

derground to import foreign raw film stock and equipment that allowed them to keep making movies.

By 1912, the films of Laemmle and his partners had become more popular than those of the Trust. Edi-

son, frustrated by his inability to wipe out his competition, resorted to hiring goon squads. They smashed the

nickelodeon arcades and set block-long fires in the neighborhoods that housed them. All the while Edison

justified his actions in the name of preserving the nation‟s morals.

The mob tactics of the Trust caused the independents to put as much distance between themselves and

Edison as possible. One by one, they migrated west, until they reached California. 124 They put on the screen

what sold the most. The public was willing to pay to see films filled with sex and violence, and Hollywood

was more than happy to make them.

By the early twenties, all that remained of Edison‟s Trust was the issue it had raised regarding the moral

content of motion pictures. The federal government kept a close watch on Hollywood, the new capital of the

film industry, to make sure the movies it produced remained “socially acceptable.”

However, Hollywood‟s moguls had no idea what was meant by “socially acceptable” films. They didn‟t

know if their movies were moral or immoral and couldn‟t have cared less; 125…which, of course, was precisely

the problem.126 By 1924, there were those who were adamantly opposed to any sort of regulation of film.

Charlie Chaplin spoke for many that year when he came out against what he termed the [Motion Picture Pro-

ducers and Distributors of America‟s] brand of “Presbyterian censorship.”

Still, for the next several years, as the country prospered, the movie industry and the government coex-

isted in relative peace, until the financial collapse of Wall Street brought renewed pressure on the government

from the most powerful interests in the private sector to regulate the moral content of motion pictures. 127 In

1929, needing a “hot” issue to boost his newspapers‟ sagging circulations, William Randolph Hearst ran a se-



made especially for sound production, and as such it illustrates the perfection of synchronization that is possible when pictures

are constructed especially for sound accompaniment” [ Daily Review [New York], 19 Nov 1928].

— J. Michael Barrier, Building a Better Mouse: Fifty Years of Animation (Washington: Library of Congress, 1978), p. 4.

i

One distasteful episode in Edison‟s professional life: In 1888, he electrocuted dozens of cats and dogs by getting them to walk

onto a sheet of tin which was supplied with one thousand volts of electricity. He bought animals from schoolboys, no questions

asked, for twenty-five cents each—resulting in fewer pets in West Orange, New Jersey. It was part of Edison‟s scare campaign

against alternating current…which was being championed by a rival, George Westinghouse.…

Edison‟s lab helpfully volunteered to research how much current was needed to cause death in a human. He began zapping

calves and horses to death.… Despite Edison‟s tireless research, however, the electric chair that it inspired was anything but

painless and humane. When the authorities tried to “westinghouse” Charles McElvaine in 1892, he wouldn‟t die. He writhed in

pain as they jolted him first for twenty-two seconds, finally for seventy-two seconds, until smoke came from his head and body

and he finally died. The New York Times called it “an awful spectacle, far worse than hanging.”

— Jack Mingo, The Juicy Parts: Things Your History Teacher Never Told You About the 20th Century’s Most Famous People

(New York: Perigee, 1996), pp. 75, 76.





8

ries of editorials demanding the revival of federal censorship to regulate the growing immorality of motion

pictures. No friend of either Jews or the film industry, he considered newsreels, i shown in effect “free” along

with the features, a threat to his newspapers.

Hearst‟s campaign received much support in Congress, where the definition of movie morality had ex-

panded through the years to include not only sexual provocation but political subversion. 128 What Hollywood

desperately needed was a new hero who not only extolled the right virtues but understood what they were in

the first place. What Hollywood got, as if on cue, was Walt Disney‟s Steamboat Willie.129 There was a cer-

tain irony in this, since Disney appears to have shared…some of the anti-Semitism that was common to his

generation and place of origin. His studio was notably lacking in Jewish employees, and at least once he pre-

sented a fairly vicious caricature of the Jew on screen.130 [Walt] didn‟t trust Jews or blacks, equating both

groups with Communism.131 “Roosevelt called this the Century of the Common Man,” he told associates.

“Balls! It‟s the century of the Communist cutthroat, the fag, and the whore!” 132

Disney[‟s]…political conservatism 133—he supported Barry Goldwater ii in 1964 and contributed to the

campaign funds of several conservative Republican candidates for office,iii among them George Murphy and

Ronald Reagan 134, iv—was the result of a street fight. As he told it, his family was strongly Republican in its

leaning, while most of the neighborhood was persuaded toward the Democrats. One day on the way home

from school, he was ganged up on, beaten and forced to submit to what can be described only as a quasi-

sexual assault by some Democratic kids.135 From that day on, he had never been able even to rationally con-

sider the possibility of voting for anyone but a Republican.

What is odd about Disney‟s recital of the incident is that he had told his daughter that his father had been

a socialist.136 [But] even if his story were pure fantasy, it is an interesting one, expressing a need to create an

intense and deep-rooted emotional justification for his political views.137

The original Mickey was a rambunctious, even slightly sadistic fellow.v In a remarkable sequence, exploiting the

exciting new development of sound, Mickey and Minnie pummel, squeeze, and twist the animals on board to pro-

duce a rousing chorus of “Turkey in the Straw.” They honk a duck with a tight embrace, crank a goat‟s tail, tweak a

pig‟s nipples,vi bang a cow‟s teeth as a stand-in xylophone, and play bagpipe on her udder.138

The similarity of cow udders to human erogenous zones (female breasts in function, male genitalia in

body location) was capitalized upon often in…[early] cartoons. 139 Later, the Hays Office was to insist that





i

Mickey appeared opposite newsreels showing not only such domestic idols as Henry Ford, Joe DiMiggio, and Lou Gehrig, but

also such international celebrities as Madame Chiang Kai-shek. The mouse, then, acted as a constant element in two bills that

represented fictional China and the documentary one; thus, Mickey was at home on bills presenting all manners of heroes, cer-

tainly benefiting from their status but also undoubtedly contributing to it.

— Eric Smoodin, Animating Culture: Hollywood Cartoons from the Sound Era (Oxford: Roundhouse Publ., 1993), p. 67.

ii

Barry Goldwater may have been the father of modern conservatism, but…he was for gay rights and abortion rights and most

everything else opposed by the Christian Coalition wing of his party.

— Chuck Raasch (Gannett News Service), Though he lost in a landslide, „Goldwater‟s legacy is immense‟, The Seattle Times, 30

May 1998, 121(129), p. A3.

iii

Walt and Roy supported Richard Nixon* and other Red-hunters of the 1950s with campaign donations.

— Bob Thomas, Building a Company: Roy O. Disney and the Creation of an Entertainment Empire (New York: Hyperian,

1998), p. 267.

*

At Disneyworld [sic] in Florida,…President ["Tricky Dick" Nixon] told an audience of editors on national TV, “I am not a

crook."

— Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, All the President's Men (New York: Warner Paperback Library, 1974, 1975), p. 365.

iv

When the Screen Actors Guild‟s board of directors in 1981 refused to give then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan its lifetime

achievement award, it was primarily for the chief exec‟s anti-labor actions, but some members still had bitter feelings about his

anti-Communist stance and cooperation with the House Committee on Un-American Activities during the Blacklist.

— Ted Johnson, Little union unity on subject of Commies, Variety, 9-15 Sep 1996, 364(6), p. 124.

v

“The life and ventures of Mickey Mouse have been closely bound up with my own personal and professional life.”

— Walt Disney, quoted in Charles Solomon, The Disney That Never Was: The Stories and Art from Five Decades of Unpro-

duced Animation (New York: Hyperion, 1995), p. 31.

vi

A segment in which he plays the song by turning the mother pig over and poking her teats as if they were accordion buttons

was later cut…so the film would not offend anyone when it was shown on television.

— Karl F. Cohen, Forbidden Animation: Censored Cartoons and Blacklisted Animators in America (Jefferson, NC: McFarland

& Co., Inc., 1997), p. 10.





9

Disney cows be udderless and, indeed, it was actively suggested that they find some suitable form of appa-

rel.140

During the 1930s, Mickey was gradually relegated to the role of Mr. Niceguy. 141 Although he had started out as

a troublemaker with a mean streak, he was now settling into the role as the boy next door. Where he used to engage

in questionable antics, such as using a crane to pick Minnie up by her panties in Steamboat Willie, he was now ex-

pected to act with the moral integrity benefitting a symbol of America. 142 Christopher Finch, in his semiofficial pic-

torial history of Disney‟s work, comments: “The Mickey Mouse who hit the movie houses in the late twenties was

not quite the well-behaved character most of us are familiar with today. He was mischievous, to say the least, and

even displayed a streak of cruelty” [Christopher Finch, The art [sic] of Walt Disney (New York: H.N. Abrams, 1975)].143 Time

magazine in 1954 described the original rodent as “a skinny little squeaker with matchstick legs, shoe button eyes

and a long, pointy nose. His teeth were sharp and fierce when he laughed, more like a real mouse‟s than they are

today.” Mickey‟s disposition, too, matched his teeth; he was “cocky and cruel, at best a fresh and bratty kid, at worst

a diminutive and sadistic monster” [Schickel, Disney Version, p. 129]. Mickey not only became rounder i and cuter over

the years ii but also quickly became well-behaved,iii for Disney soon recognized that audiences were unwilling to ac-

accept a transgressive cartoon mouse-hero. Mickey should be on a pedestal; Donald Duck iv would soon become the

repository of mischief and anger.144

Q. Why were Donald Duck comic books once banned in Finland?

A. Authorities thought it unwise to show children a hero who ran around without any pants on. 145

The Chilean novelist Ariel Dorfman…criticized the Donald Duck cartoons set in foreign lands for their

disrespectful attitude toward the Third World. And Disney ha[s] been accused of promulgating loose morals:

according to the Wall Street Journal, a youth committee in Helsinki once persuaded the city council to cancel

library subscriptions to Donald Duck comics because Donald and Daisy were unmarried; because the paren-

tage of Hewey, Dewey, and Louie—the three mischievous nephews—was unknown;v and because Donald‟s

short sailor suit left his rear exposed. Even on the occasion of his birthday [9 June 1984], Donald Duck did

not escape criticism: That spring the National Coalition on Television Violence issued a report ranking his

cartoons among the most violent on television and singling out for special condemnation the frequent spank-

ings he administered to his nephews.146 “I was particularly disturbed by the Donald Duck and his nephews

cartoons which promote spanking as the appropriate and only way to discipline children,” wrote Thomas Ra-

decki, M.D.147

Donald Duck should be thankful he is…not a real bird at Walt Disney World‟s Island zoological

park. After a two-month investigation by the Florida game and freshwater commission, the state attor-

ney‟s office and the Federal Government…filed suit against the company and five employees for al-

leged cruelty to animals.148 Game officials, alerted to the situation…by an anonymous phone tip, were

horrified to discover 18 dehydrated black vultures and one carcass stuffed into a small airless shed

without adequate food or water; employees admitted that the shed once held more than 70 birds. 149

The company was charged with 16 counts of animal cruelty in 1989. 150 Among the charges: firing

rifles at hawks, beating vultures to death with sticks, and disturbing the nests and eggs of egrets.151





i

This baby roundness had a subliminal effect that made him appealing.

— John Cawley and Jim Korkis, Cartoon Superstars (Las Vegas, NV: Pioneer Book, Inc., 1990), p. 122.

ii

Mickey and Minnie Mouse of the 1930‟s have the look of pot-bellied rodents.… Early Mickey and Minnie Mouse are in direct

contrast to their latter day counter-parts who are pink faced, more humanoid, and minus the tail. The pie eyes were filled with

black circles.

— Michael Stern, Stern’s Guide to Disney Collectibles, 2nd series (Paducah, KY: Collector Books, 1991), p. 10.

iii

By 1940, the former tweaker of pig‟s nipples gets a kick in the ass for insubordination (as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice in Fanta-

sia). By 1953, his last cartoon, he has gone fishing and cannot even subdue a squirting clam.

— Stephen Jay Gould, The Panda’s Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History (New York: W.W. Norton, 1980), p. 98.

iv

Who were Donald‟s parents? No one even knows their names.

— Walt Disney’s The Life of Donald Duck (Bedford, MA: Applewood Books, 1941, 1994), p. 3.

v

Evidence that the kids have a father! “Dear Donald,” writes cousin Della (she was “Dumbella” in the film), “I am sending your

angel nephews Louie, Huey, and Dewey to stay with you while their father is in the hospital. A giant firecracker exploded under

his chair . . . the little darlings are so playful. . . .”

— Marcia Blitz, Donald Duck (New York: Harmony Books, 1979), p. 174.





10

A well-behaved and groomed mouse could not include comicality among his qualities. It was necessary to sur-

round him with less respectable co-stars, capable of producing laughter.152 But Mickey remained a large-eared alter-

ego of his creator, in voice, facial appearance, and most notably in subtle psychic traits. 153, i Like the man who

created him, Mickey had become more conservative, better behaved, no longer irascible. He was also less lov-

able.154

The indifference and violence of Walt‟s youth shaped the adult man whose only passion was ceaseless work and

who never stopped trying to create an idyllic, if illusory, eternal childhood free of anything threatening, including

forces that contribute to growth.155 In short, [h]e, like Mickey, never gr[e]w up although we, alas, do grow old. 156

Inevitably, it was Iwerks who would most feel the stings of the self-described King Bee‟s intense desire to take all of

the creative credit. More than once during the development of Mickey Mouse, Roy took Walt aside to urge him to

give proper credit to Iwerks.157

The character was always drawn by Ub Iwerks.158 For many years, the general moviegoing public was

under the impression that Walt Disney did all the work on his pictures. Unlike other animation studios, Dis-

ney films carried no screen credits.159 Walt Disney ceased doing any of the actual drawing for his films in

1924, instead concentrating on the production and business aspects of his enterprise. 160 Walt Disney is cre-

dited…as being the father of classic American animation, but the body of work created with this technique

was the business of entire studios of artists, filmmakers, businessmen, and technicians.161

By way of reply, Walt would angrily remind Roy that his job was just to watch the books.

And the situation didn‟t improve after November 18, 1928, when Steamboat Willie opened at the Colony Theater

as the curtain-raiser for the feature talkie Gang War.162, ii The overnight success of Mickey‟s debut turned Walt

Disney into Hollywood‟s newest boy wonder. The press elevated his singular achievement—making cartoons talk—

to those of Henry Ford iii and Charles Lindbergh.163, iv Mickey‟s soaring popularity,164…with a supporting cast that

included his girlfriend Minnie and his dog Pluto,165, v…eclipsed not only his closest animated rivals, Felix the Cat vi

and Oswald, but such human performers as Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, vii Al Jolson, and even the once untoucha-

ble Charlie Chaplin,166…one of the celebrities Walt Disney used to model the mouse.167



i

“Mickey‟s our problem child.”

— Walt Disney, quoted in Roy Pikard, The Hollywood Studios (London: Frederick Muller Ltd., 1978), p. 240; and in Blitz, Do-

nald Duck, p. 13.

ii

An individual film worked as part of a much larger system, one that included not only the entire bill but also, among other

things, the popular journalism that brought discussions of movies to the public. Further, in making use of this narrative system,

the cinema asserted the importance of the mode of representation (showing an entire bill of related films) rather than just the

object of representation (star, story, mise-en-scène, editing, etc.). By studying the entire bill, we can begin to construct a history

of going to the movies, and of what it must have been like to watch them.

— Smoodin, Animating Culture, p. 46.

iii

In July 1933 Ford was awarded the Nazi government‟s highest award—the Grand Cross of the German Eagle—which he chose

to receive in a low-key ceremony.… According to Trading with the Enemy by Charles Higham, “in 1940 Ford refused to build

aircraft engines for England and instead continued building trucks used by the German army. They also arranged to ship tires to

Germany despite shortages.” A German Ford plant publication read, “At the beginning of this year we vowed to give our best

and utmost for final victory, in unshakable faithfulness to our führer.”

— Mingo, Juicy Parts, p. 48.

iv

Lindbergh…felt, like the Nazis, that the [alleged] superiority of the northern European civilization was being threatened by

other races.

— Ibidem, p. 128.

v

You have to pity poor Pluto, unable to speak and therefore banished to a role of domesticated servitude.

— David Koenig, Mouse Under Glass: Secrets of Disney Animation & Theme Parks (Irvine, CA: Bonaventure Press, 1997), p.

108.

vi

“Felix the Cat / the wonderful, wonderful cat / whenever he gets in a fix he reaches into his bag of tricks” *

— Quoted in Anna Woolverton, Lift & separate (Pop Paralysis), The Stranger, 10-16 July 1997, 6(42), p. 56.

*

The mischievous and altogether complacent “Felix” created by Pat Sullivan…joined the armed forces. Since the malevolent

and unprovoked attack of December 7, 1941, on our beloved land, this capricious little fellow…turned grim and war-like without

losing his typically American sense of humor.

— Combat Insignia Stamps of the United States Army & Navy Air Corps, in War Insignia Stamp Album, Vol. 1-4, 1942-44 (Hol-

lywood: Postamp Publ. Co.).

vii

Harold Lloyd‟s production of My Favorite Spy,…according to the Post, served up the “combination of the interrupted-bridal-

night and trap-the-enemy-agents motifs.”

— Smoodin, Animating Culture, p. 69.





11

In 1931 and 1932, Mickey Mouse became a fixture in department stores across the country. Mickey Mouse

items began to be grouped together in toy departments, and given their own separate displays [ Letter from Carl Sollmann

to Roy O. Disney, Borgfelt Files, the Walt Disney Archives, 27 Aug 1931]. And Mickey Mouse became the prominent figure in

store windows targeted at the young consumer.168 The variety of toys and other merchandise licensed to carry the

image of Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters grew rapidly to almost incalculable proportions.169

From the birth of Mickey, the Walt Disney Studio stayed in high gear, producing along with the mouse cartoons i

toons i the Silly Symphonies, The Skeleton Dance, The Three Little Pigs, and many others.170

“These cartoons get their tremendous appeal from the perfect rhythm, in comedy tempo . . . It is not mere

synchronization; it is more than that; it is a rhythmic, swinging, lilting thing, with what musicians call the

proper accent-structure.” 171

As with the 1928 introduction of sound, it is difficult these days to appreciate what a novelty three-color Technicolor

was in 1932 172…[when] Technicolor began marketing a new color process, three-color Technicolor,173… which im-

proved upon their earlier two-strip process by adding a blue component to what had previously been only a red and

green system.174, ii Technicolor offered Walt Disney the exclusive rights to its three-color process for cartoons from

1932 to 1935.iii The first three-color Technicolor shorts to be produced and released were Disney‟s “Silly Sympho-

nies.” Disney won Academy Awards for both Flowers and Trees and The Three Little Pigs.175, iv

Shortly after The Three Little Pigs opened, the leaders of several Jewish organizations met with Disney to

express their concerns about a scene in which the Big Bad Wolf disguised himself as a Hebrew peddler to

trick one of the pigs into opening his door.v Although he agreed to remove the offensive scene—the peddler

in robe, beard, and glasses became a nondescript door-to-door salesman in future releases—Walt insisted to

friends that he hadn‟t intended anything more than a spoof of Carl Laemmle‟s many unsuccessful attempts to

blow down the Disney studio‟s house.176

A turning point in Mickey‟s career arrived in 1935 with the release of The Band Concert. It was the first full

color Mickey Mouse cartoon.177 In dozens of interviews, Walt never mentioned Iwerks‟ role. Instead, early on, he

began referring to Mickey as his “child.” 178, vi By denying Iwerks credit for his role in Mickey‟s birth, Walt may







i

Dressed in…red shorts and yellow shoes,…his trademark, Mickey Mouse…appear[ed] in three feature-length films and 120

cartoons, as well as dozens of TV shows and millions of T-shirts.

— Grover, Disney Touch, p. 2.

ii

The film stock was itself black and white; it was the filtering prism in the camera which allowed each strip to record only blue,

green, or red portions of the spectrum. In the lab the color matrices were struck from these black-and-white negatives via Tech-

nicolor‟s exclusive process. For more on the precess, see Bordwell, Staiger, Thompson, The Classical Hollywood Cinema (New

York: Columbia University Press, 1985), pp. 353-357.… should be noted that, unlike Technicolor‟s live-action cameras, Dis-

ney‟s color animation camera contained only one strip of film, but for each image three sequential, rather than simultaneous,

frames were exposed on the film stock. The red, green, and blue filters rotated in the camera and the lab separated them into the

three required matrices.… For more on Technicolor and Disney‟s early collaboration, see [Smoodin‟s] “A Studio Built of

Bricks: Disney and Technicolor,” Film Reader, 1985, 6, pp. 33-40.

— c.f. Smoodin, Disney Discourse, p. 240.

iii

However, when MGM requested the three strip process for their shorts, Disney agreed to limit the exclusive to one year rather

than incur the wrath of Louis B. Meyer.

— Richard W. Haines, Technicolor Movies: The History of Dye Transfer (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., Inc., 1993), p. 19.

iv

He and his work were honored with 39 Academy Awards, and hundreds of other awards and tributes.

— Mark Weber, Subverting the Disney legacy; How Michael Eisner has transformed the „Magic Kingdom‟ („Culture War‟ Pro-

file), The Journal of Historical Review (IHR.org), Sep/Oct 1998, 17(5).

v

A trick or a treat? When Mickey comes calling.

— Andrew Ross, The Celebration Chronicles: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Property Value in Disney’s New Town (New

York, Ballantine Books, 1999), p. 304.

vi

Mickey…weighs less than 14 lbs. Born infected with the AIDS virus, he was abandoned by his addict mother at birth. His

huge, watchful eyes seem to fill half his face; his legs dangle like matchsticks. For ten months after he was born, Mickey lan-

guished at a…hospital.

All you need is love, John Lennon promised. Sometimes that‟s true. Then again, there are children like Mickey who need

more.

— Richard Lacayo, Nobody‟s children; In the world of adoption, where healthy white infants are hotly pursued, a burgeoning

group of “special-needs” kids is left behind, Time, 9 Oct 1989, 134(15), p. 91.





12

have been displaying more than just excessive ego. He may actually have been trying to assuage any of the lingering

childhood fear and uncertainty he carried concerning his own heritage.

Back in 1918, when Walt had wanted to enlist in the military like his brother, the local recruiter, skeptical of his

age, asked to see his birth certificate. Walt wrote to Chicago‟s Cook County Hall of Records requesting a copy. A

week later, he received a document stating that the Hall of Records had no birth certificate for any Walt Disney born

on or around December 5, 1901.

Walt then wrote to his preacher, asking for any documents in the church that could verify his birth. The preacher

wrote back that to the best of his recollection, Walt had been born at home. Therefore, no hospital or church records

would exist. Walt wrote to the Department of Vital Statistics, whose response only added to the mystery—there was

an official record of birth for a “Walter Disney,” to one Elis [sic] and Flora Disney. However, that birth was record-

ed for January 8, 1891. If that were true, Walt would be 27 years old, which was, of course, impossible.

Finally, Walt asked his parents. When they couldn‟t produce the birth certificate, he showed them the informa-

tion he‟d received. His father insisted there was a terrible mistake. But all of this disturbed Walt, whose early fanta-

sies that Elias couldn‟t have been his father suddenly returned with a more ominous resonance. This doubt would eat

away at his soul the rest of his days and find its way into the themes of his greatest movies: the stepchild abandoned

in the woods in Snow White;i the puppet who longs to be Gepetto‟s real boy in Pinocchio;ii the little creature who

loses his mother in Bambi;iii the Sorcerer‟s apprentice in fearful servitude in Fantasia;iv the baby elephant separated

from his mother in Dumbo.v All have in common their main characters‟ quests to find their real parents. 179

Ub Iwerks left Disney in early 1930 to start his own studio 180…funded by Patrick Powers.181 [Walt] thought

about why Iwerks, the man he once considered his best friend, had betrayed him. The fact that he had claimed credit

for much of Iwerks‟ genius evidently didn‟t occur to him. As the time passed,…Walt‟s mood darkened. Unable to

sleep, he stared at the ceiling…until dawn. He skipped meals, preferring…scotch and soda while Lillian dined

alone.182 He stayed in his office most days, brooding silently as he looked out his window, unable to focus on any-

thing having to do with making movies. At night, he argued with Lillian over the slightest issues—what she made





i

Schlüchtern is a pause on the German Fairytale Road, which zigzags through the rolling green hills northeast of Frankfurt that

were home to the brothers Grimm, Snow White, Red Riding Hood and Repunzel.

— Sally Macdonald, To Germany; We‟ll come, but we have something to tell you, The Seattle Times/Seattle Post-Intelligence,

23 Aug 1998, 16(34), p. L1.

ii

Noted film reviewer Roger Ebert thinks Pinocchio is plausible to the average kid—unlike Disney‟s The Little Mermaid. “Kids

may not understand falling in love with a prince,” says Ebert in one of his reviews, “but they understand not listening to your

father and being a bad boy and running away and getting into trouble” [ Microsoft Cinemania ’95 (Redmond, WA: Microsoft, 1995),

compact disc].*

— Perucci Ferraiuolo, Disney and the Bible: A Scriptural Critique of the Magic Kingdom (Camp Hill, PA: Horizon Books,

1996), p. 23.

*

In Pinocchio, number of instance of violence or other unfavorable behavior, as cited by Playboy:

(a) 19. (b) 31. (c) 43.

— Disney Tragedy Trivia Quiz, in Koenig, Mouse Under Glass, p. 47.

iii

Walt Disney Pictures and its Touchstone sibling have made killing off their lovable…characters practically a house style.

— Bob Medich, „Bambi‟ syndrome (The Movie Monitor), Premiere, March 1990, 3(7), p. 22.

iv

The “sorcerer‟s apprentice,” first of all, does not encounter any different demands than those he would have met with following

the difficult path of art.… From beginning to end, moreover, the “sorcerer‟s apprentice” must get used to this rigor (supposing

that it does not correspond to his own most intimate imperative). Secrecy, in this realm where he ventures, is no less necessary to

his strange thought processes than it is to the transports of eroticism (the total world of myth, the world of being, is separated

from the disconnected world by those very limits that separate the sacred from the profane). “Secret society” is, in fact, the name

of the social reality composed of these processes. But this romantic expression must not be understood, as it ordinarily is, in the

vulgar sense of “conspiratorial society.” For the secret has to do with the constitutive reality of existence that is seductive, not

with some act that is contrary to the security of the State. Myth is born in ritual acts concealed from… society, but the violent

dynamic belonging to it has no other object than the return to a lost totality. Even if it is true that the repercussions are critical

and transform the face of the world,…its political repercussion can only be the result of existence. That such projects are vague

is…necessary.

— Georges Bataille, The sorcerer‟s apprentice, in Dennis Hollier, ed., and Betsy Wing, trans., The College of Sociology (1937-

39) (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1988), p. 23.

v

Former president Harry Truman…wisecracked to reporters that he took his wife on all the rides except Dumbo the Flying Ele-

phant, because of its Republican symbolism [ “Trumans Join Disneyland Fun,” Los Angeles Examiner, 3 Nov 1957].

— Steven Watts, The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1997), p.

388.





13

for dinner, if the sheets were changed, what she wore—after which he would lock himself in the study and weep un-

controllably.

At the age of 29, Walt felt more like 59. Undoubtedly, he had been left emotionally drained by the pressure to

save his company and Iwerks‟ defection. However, what finally pushed him over the edge was something altogether

different.183 Lillian insisted they start planning a family. It was a subject she raised often in their first five years of

marriage. But Walt, vehemently opposed to becoming a father, would point to the uncertainty of their finances as

the reason they shouldn‟t have children yet. This time, however, Lillian let Walt know that she felt at her age, 27, it

was time she had a baby, and no excuse was going to change her mind. But Walt had long believed he was physical-

ly incapable of impregnating a woman. Indeed, throughout their marriage, Lillian had insisted he submit to every

treatment available to increase what had been diagnosed as an unusually low sperm count.184 Disney submitted to

injections of liver extract directly into his thyroid gland and to having his genitals packed in ice for hours at a time. 185

Yet the doctors‟ reports made no mention—if they were even aware of his recurring impotence—that might have

anything to do with his “difficulties.”

Walt suffered a relapse of the impotency that had plagued him during their honeymoon. At Lillian‟s insistence,

he underwent a full medical workup. Recognizing the delicate state of his emotions, the doctor recommended imme-

diate hospitalization, a suggestion Lillian rejected. The only alternative, he said, was a complete break for her hus-

band from the pressures of the studio.186

Walt and Lillian embarked on a trip through the Americas. From there, they boarded a cruise ship bound for

Cuba, then Panama. After traversing the Panama Canal, Walt chartered a yacht for the return along the Pacific coast.

By the time they returned to Hollywood two months later, it seemed the “old” Walt was back. Indeed, his mood had

begun to noticeably shift during the long days at sea. He told Lillian he agreed they should try to have a baby—he

even publicly expressed his joy at the prospect of becoming a father, telling friends how much he hoped Lillian

would have a son.

And, in fact, one of the “treatments” apparently worked. Lillian got pregnant. As her delivery date neared, Walt

increased his already considerable drinking, his chronic cough worsened and his smoking increased to three packs a

day. In addition, his bouts with insomnia extended to weeks at a time, the facial tics and eye twitches he periodically

suffered returned with renewed intensity and he compulsively washed his hands several times an hour.

On December 19, 1933, Lillian gave birth to an eight-pound, two-ounce girl, whom the couple christened Diane

Marie Disney. When Lillian and her new baby were ready to leave the hospital, Walt surprised her by driving them

to their new home.187





“Snow White—Urgent: Don’t eat any apples.

Details to follow.” 188



In 1934,189…[Walt] set a meeting with Joseph Rosenberg, [United Artist‟s] financial advisor and studio liaison at

the Bank of America.190 The bank‟s chairman personally approved Rosenberg‟s recommendation to establish Dis-

ney‟s line of credit.

As a result, Walt was able to formally commence the studio‟s next major undertaking, a project he boasted to the

trades had never been attempted before in the entire history of film: a feature-length animated motion picture.191 In

the fall,…he brought his animators together and outlined the scenario of Snow White and the Seven

Dwarves,192…[which] became the biggest hit of 1938, earning $8 million upon initial release. For a brief time it

stood as the highest grossing film of all time. (Gone With the Wind took away that honor in 1939.)193

“Snow White” was not the first feature-length animated film, as has sometimes been claimed. That dis-

tinction belongs to Quirino Cristiani‟s “The Apostle” (Argentina, 1917). Lotte Reiniger had completed her

silhouette feature, “The Adventures of Prince Achmed,” in Germany in 1926. 194 But “Snow White” was the

first American feature; the first feature made by a studio, rather than an independent filmmaker; the first

Technicolor feature.195

Based on a well-known fairy tale, the story of Snow White,196…the little princess who runs away from her

wicked stepmother and seeks refuge with seven…men in a woodland cottage, 197…seemed…perfect…for a[n]…ani-

mated film.198

Animation is a complex thing. Sometimes it can get very dull. There are twenty-four frames a second in a

cartoon. One frame can take fifteen minutes to draw, and it appears on the screen for only a fraction of a







14

second.199 So to relieve the monotony, we‟d do things like, well, on Snow White we‟d draw porno things.

That happened all the time. Here was this beautiful, saccharine-sweet girl in the story, and after making so

many drawings of her during the day, our impulse was to draw her naked with one of the dwarfs standing

there with a giant erection. A lot of those drawings found their way out of the studio. During the war I think

every guy on the assembly line at Lockheed had a copy of a booklet somebody put together. It was called

Snow White and the Seven Truckdrivers. Snow White is sitting on a little chair with her dress up, and the

dwarves are all standing in a line with their cocks out. The cocks of the dwarves varied in size. Old Grumpy

had one that looked about three feet long.200 (Animators often drew…pornographic nudes—Fred Moore‟s

specialty.201, i)

Yet for all its winsomeness and charm, the…dwarves of Snow White are deeply rooted in mystic lore.202 In appear-

ance and feelings, they roughly resembled human beings. But magical powers endowed them with special skills and

wisdom far beyond those of human mortals. Inhabiting the dark and secret places of the earth, dwarves could appear

and disappear with bewildering rapidity.

These mischievous and sometimes malicious beings teased farm animals and abducted children ii and beautiful

maidens. They stole bread and corn. They became the omnipotent lords of the mine where they labored for…other

dwarves.

Mythology suggest that the kind of toiling dwarves depicted in Snow White either came to life as dark maggots

crawling from the decaying flesh of the slain giant Ymir or from the scarlet billows of the seas formed by the same

giant‟s blood [Marshall Cavendish, Man, Myth and Magic, Vol. 3, (New York: Marshall Cavendish, 1995), pp. 734-737].203

“The palpitating scene where the Wicked Witch iii tempts Snow White with the poisoned apple,iv and the penul-

timate drama of Snow White being awakened in her glass coffin by Prince Charming‟s kiss,” 204…[explained anima-

tor Fred Moore, is] “just too brilliant for words.” 205 Snow White‟s struggle against her frightful stepmother became

a vivid metaphor identifying the fears of a nation about to enter a world war where the dark forces of evil seemed to

threaten America‟s very existence.206, v

“I live with a genius,” Lillian Disney‟s…description of domestic life with her famous husband, was adver-

tised on the cover of McCall’s in February 1953. Right next to it sat another blaring headline, which created

a neat ideological tableau. The dramatic title of the second article, “Stalin and His Three Wives: A Private-

Life Exposé,” promised a lurid account of the evil Communist dictator‟s private licentiousness [ Lillian Disney, “I

207

Live with a Genius,” McCall’s, Feb 1953, pp. 38-41].







i

Everyone at the Studio wanted a Fred Moore drawing, especially a sketch of one of his girls—a charming little breed of females.



— Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation (New York: Hyperion, 1981), p. 121.

ii

The elves once took a child away from its mother, and left in its place a changeling with…staring eyes, who did nothing but eat

and drink.

— “The Elves (III),” Household Stories from the Collection of the Bros. Grimm, Lucy Crane, trans. (New York: Dover Publ.,

Inc., 1886, 1963), p. 174.

iii

The word “witch”…historically was used to designate wise women, herbalists, midwives, and other powerful women.

— Jennifer Baumgardner, Bold type: Witchy woman, Ms., March/April 1995, V(5), p. 73.

iv

Are you afraid of poison?*

— “Snow White,” Bros. Grimm, p. 219; see also “Little Snow White,” Grimm’s Fairy Tales (Chicago: Follett Publ. Co., 1968),

p. 233; “Snowdrop,” Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm (New York: Viking Press, 1979), p. 16; and “Snow-White and the Sev-

en Dwarves,” The Juniper Tree and Other Tales from Grimm, Randall Jarrell, trans., Vol. II (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux,

1973), p. 268.

*

In the Grimm version Snow White is a lot dumber, allowing the evil queen to attempt a hit three times!

— Melanie McFarland, Cartoon cover-ups; Today‟s animated films offer suger-coated versions of harsh fairy tales, The Seattle

Times, 16 Nov 1997, p. M1.

v

Even Steven Spielberg‟s Gremlins,* 1984, are entranced by „Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho.‟

— Sinyard, Best of Disney, p. 38.

*

Described as elves of bad luck, gremlins were blamed for the technical problems that vexed RAF pilots at the beginning of the

war.†

— Charles Solomon, Enchanted Drawings: The History of Animation, Revised ed. (New York: Wings Books, 1989, 1994), p. 127.

†

Once, like all pixies, the gremlins lived in hollow banks beside rivers and deep pools. Then some of them moved to crags near

the seashore and lived on pancakes made of yellow tide-foam [“Battle of Europe, It‟s Them,” Time, 14 Sep 1942, p. 37].

— Shale, Donald Duck Joins Up, p. 79.





15

[Walt] scheduled three i daily eight-hour shifts, so that production could continue around the clock, seven days a

week. He planned to remain at the studio for as much of that time as possible. Part of the reason he preferred his

office couch to his own bed was…the arrival of a second daughter, Sharon Mae.208, ii In 1936,…it was widely re-

ported that Lillian had given birth to a second child. Few people outside the immediate family ever had any personal

contact with Lillian and would therefore have no way of knowing she hadn‟t given birth. In truth, she hadn‟t even

been pregnant. The whole story was a lie intended to cover up the fact that the Disney‟s new baby was adopted.

Walt‟s inability to impregnate Lillian had pushed their tenuous relationship closer to the edge. Eventually, she

threatened to file for divorce. To save his marriage, Walt agreed to her ultimatum that they either adopt a baby or go

their separate ways. The act of adoption intensified Walt‟s childhood fear that he himself might have been secretly

adopted, made worse by Lillian‟s insistence they pretend the child was their own. 209

Sharon‟s arrival in his household made little impact on Walt, who 210…often, whether deliberately or not, pro-

fessed not to recognize her or remember her name. “Who‟s that?” he once loudly asked Lilly during [a church] ser-

vice, indicating Sharon singing hymns in the middle of the pew.

“Sharon! Your daughter!” she indignantly whispered back.211

  



In the 30s and 40s, animators…developed animated films in the form of full-length feature entertainment.212

While Disney was building up his empire, there was an attempt by Max and Dave Fleischer iii to reach a wide au-

dience with their own own full-length animated cartoons.213 With Gulliver’s Travels (1939) and Mr. Bug Goes to

Town (1940), the brothers attempted to carry their success over to feature films. 214 After receiving the commission

from Paramount to make a feature,215…Jonathan Swift‟s Gulliver’s Travels was not an inspired choice.216 Dave

Fleischer boasted in interviews that “ „Gulliver‟s Travels‟ contain no horror stuff—no evil spirits or creatures to scare

the youngsters. We‟ve profited by past screen fantasies which many parents refused to permit their children to see

for fear they‟d be scared to death”—a thinly veiled jab at the scarier scenes of the Wicked Witch in [Disney‟s]

“Snow White [and the Seven Dwarves]” that had alarmed some parents. One of the greatest weaknesses in the “Gul-

liver” script is the absence of real heroes and villains and, hence, of any substantial dramatic conflict.217

Villains are ususally the most fun of all characters to develop, because they make everything else happen.

They are the instigators, and, as Chaplin has pointed out, always more colorful than the hero. 218 Almost any

story becomes innocuous if all the evil is eliminated, but we do not necessarily gain strength merely by being

frightened. We try to find a character that will hold an audience and entertain an audience, even if it is a

chilling trype of entertainment.219

After the release of “Gulliver,” the Fleischer brothers were faced with the problem of keeping the newly ex-

panded staff occupied;220…the Fleischers [had also] managed to hire back some of their former animators who had

gone to work for Disney.221 They needed something to replace the Betty Boop series, which ended in 1939, and the

Color Classics, which finally limped to a halt the next year.222

In the early 1930s, the Fleischers and Paramount sought to construct a new star, Betty Boop, through female he-

terosexual desire tout court, without any connection to class issues, as in Disney films, and with barely any relation

to the cartoon narrative. Early in her career, Betty Boop functioned as much as a brand name as a performer.223 Two

of the most memorable Betty shorts are set to songs by Cab Calloway. In “Minnie the Moocher” (1932), Betty runs

away from home after a fight with her parents, who insist that she eat some noxious porridge. 224 “Snow White”

(1933), which uses only the barest bones of the original fairy tale, is even stranger than “Minnie the Moocher.” 225

“Snow White” iv is a bizarre film, but an enormously entertaining one that provides a textbook example of the



i

Good things always come in threes.

— “Cat and Mouse in Partnership,” Bros. Grimm, p. 38; see also “Cat and Mouse In Partnership,” Grimm’s Fairy Tales, p. 49.

ii

Of course, I know all about the bees and the birds. I even know about the genes and the chromosomes.

— Margaret Erskine, Case with Three Husbands (Toronto: Bantam Books, 1967, 1983), p. 96.

iii

During the twenties and early thirties, Fleischer had some of the most talented, and most promising, men in the animation field

working for him.

— Leonard Maltin, Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons, Revised ed. (New York: Plume, 1980,

1987), p. 83.

iv

In Snow White,…cocaine is referred to in the song “Saint James Infirmary Blues” sung by Cab Calloway. While the drug ref-

erences were simply a point of departure for clever surreal visuals and in no way supported drug use, it is hard to imagine films

like these being shown on television today execpt in a documentary about the evils of drugs.

— Cohen, Forbidden Animation, p. 14.





16

Fleischer studio‟s unique, utterly animated style. Every element in the frame moves—even normally inanimate

things, like the icicles that sing a greeting to Betty. Objects grow and shed limbs as needed; shapes casually meta-

morphose.226

Betty Boop dolls, soap, candy, scarves, tea sets, tablets, flipbooks, etc.,…appeared in stores. 227 There was even a

Betty Boop and Bimbo Club, although it failed to achieve the success of Disney‟s Mickey Mouse Club.228

By 1932, Mickey Mouse Clubs had over one million members across the United States. 229 The concept

was born in 1931, a few years after Mickey Mouse began to conquer the world with his cartoons and mer-

chandise. With the guidance of the Disneys—Walt and Roy—theater owners across the nation began orga-

nizing “Mickey Mouse Clubs.” 230 By 1937,…The Mouse had become something of a political figure. 231 All

over the world there were Mickey Mouse clubs,…whose members carried a Mickey Mouse emblem, took a

Mickey Mouse oath, sang a Mickey Mouse song and used a Mickey Mouse handshake.232

On October 3, 1955, “The Mickey Mouse Club” reached the air on ABC 233…[and] ran… through 1959.234

(When Annette [Funicello] grew too old for her ears i (and her sweaters) the Mickey Mouse Club was fi-

nished.235) Before long, children all over America were singing the show‟s familiar theme: “Who‟s the leader

of the club that‟s made for you and me? M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E” [Thomas, American Original, p. 275].236 It

was an immediate hit in the ratings,237…[but] unlike its newfangled successors—“Sesame Street” and the

“Electric Company”—the Mouse Club did not attempt to teach mechanical skills like reading, writing, and

spelling. The educational emphasis …was morality, as Walt Disney and those who worked for him, perceived

it. What the Club wanted to instill was nothing less than a philosophy of life. 238

“Careerism,” which means, in essence, the desire to be, rather than a desire to do,239…may be ob-

served, in embryo, at the service academies, where…careers have their start. Taking in young men

and women at an age when their characters cannot have fully formed, deliberately intending (as no

private college does) to reshape their personalities, the academies most often succeed in imbuing their

graduates with the passion to worship what Maureen Mylander…called the “God of Class Standing”

[Maureen Mylander, The Generals: Making It Military Style (New York: Dial, 1974), p. 45].240

In this light, the “Mickey Mouse Club” was no less an important instrument of national policy than the fla-

grant propaganda ii of Pravda.241

The latest incarnation of „The Mickey Mouse Club,‟ which ended a seven-year run in 1996, was a step-

ping stone for [“The Mice” 242] on their way to larger careers in the latter stages of the 1990s. Among those

who were once Mouseketeers are Keri Russell of „Felicity,‟ singer Britney Spears, Ryan Gosling of „Young

Hercules,‟ and Justin Timberlake and JC Chasez of the singing group „N Sync. 243

Unhappily, Betty fell victim to the smarmy Production Code of the mid-1930, said to have been adopted in re-

sponse to the success of Mae West, another sexy Paramount star. A collar, sleeves and a demurely lowered hemline

were added to Betty‟s short, strapless dress; the garter vanished from her leg. The irresistible flapper became a res-

pectable bachelorette/hausfrau.244

Attempts were made at pairing Betty with various characters from newspaper strips, 245…[but] none of them

worked well enough to warrant a…film. By the time the series ended in 1939, nothing remained of Betty‟s risqué

élan. Since the early 1980s, Ms. Boop has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity, but the vision of the character is de-

rived from her earlier, frisky phase, rather than the later, domestic one.

One comic strip character made his debut in a Betty Boop film became the star of his own cartoon series. Popeye

made his first appearance on the screen in 1933, when he joined Betty for a hula in “Popeye the Sailor.” 246 The

animation of the Popeye films is more solid and less plastic than that in the Betty shorts, although Olive‟s limbs often

seem as rubbery as anything in “Minnie the Moocher.” (Chuck Jones remarked that anyone who made love to Olive





i

Whenever a Mouseketeer lost a pair of ears, Disney took fifty dollars out of the kid‟s next paycheck.

— Smoodin, Disney Discourse, p. 1.

ii

The word “propaganda” is difficult to define precisely,k though any definition, writes the editor of Language In Uniform: A

Reader on Propaganda, should contain the key words “emotion” and “persuasion” [ Nick Aaron Ford, Language In Uniform: A Read-

er on Propaganda (New York: Odyssey Press, 1967)]. Activity is demanded; if propaganda does not result in some action, then it is

not successful.… Propaganda also carries with it the idea of group activity. Individuals do not seem to propagandize; govern-

ments and organizations (such as movie studios) do.

— Richard Shale, Donald Duck Joins Up: The Walt Disney Studio During World War II (Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press,

1976, 1982), p. 12.





17

would have a hard time getting untangled.) Quirks in the designs of the characters, such as Popeye‟s prognathous

jaw and outsized forearms, did not lend themselves to realistic animation. The artists continued to fill the screen

with motion.247 The Popeye cartoons proved so successful that by 1938 some polls showed the Sailor Man had be-

come more popular than Mickey Mouse.248

During 1940-41, they created three new cartoon series, none of which proved particularly successful. 249 Dave

Fleischer [later] insisted that he had been reluctant to embark on their next series, [Superman].250

  



On December 5, 1936, Disney‟s thirty-fifth birthday, at Roy‟s urging the studio‟s animators gave a party for

Walt. It was held after hours in the studio‟s soundstage.251 To protest being forced to pay homage, a couple of the

animators got together and made a reel of the studio‟s world-famous mouse “consummating” his relationship with

Minnie,i their pointed metaphor for the way they felt they were being treated by Disney expressed in the act Mickey

performed on his girlfriend. When the lights came up, Walt stood, applauded, praised the footage, and asked which

talented animators were responsible for such fine work. The men responsible quickly raised their hands, and the

smile immediately fell from Disney‟s face. “You‟re fired,” he said to them, and left the party without saying another

word.

After that, the staff kept their socializing to a minimum, wary of the tightening grip of what some staffers now

referred to as “Waltalitarianism,” fearing a single misinterpreted word to anyone could result in immediate termina-

tion.252 When someone did, on occasion, slip in Walt‟s presence and use a four-letter word 253—“even so much as a

damn or hell,” [said Mousketeer Cubby O‟Brien] 254—in mixed company, the result was always immediate dismissal,

no matter what type of professional inconvenience the firing caused.255 Disney [also] enforced a stringent dress code

at his studio and anyone breaking it was subject to immediate dismissal.256 He was easily irritated and short-

tempered; he could be brusque with associates.257

Disney had no idea that his employees were unhappy. He considered them to be like members of his family and

couldn‟t fathom that they could be unhappy with his management style and the studio‟s low pay structure. 258

The pressure to complete his film and assume the role of real-life father again caused Walt‟s nervous condition to

flare up. His facial tics returned worse than ever,259…his hair started falling out in clumps,260…and his smoking,

which he‟d reduced, went back up to three packs a day. 261 His trademark hacking cough seemed more prevalent.262

Seeing Disney light one [Chesterfield 263] cigarette from another while emitting a hacking cough, [Ward Kimball]

confronted him: “I used to say to him, „Walt, why don‟t you give up smoking?‟ He‟d always answer, „A guy has to

have one vice, doesn‟t he?‟ ” The animator also revealed the guarded secret that by the late 1940s Disney had begun

drinking rather heavily after the workday had ended. At the studio, he reported, “Starting at five o‟clock every day, a

lot of people would say, „I‟ve got to get to Walt before he uncorks the bottle, because you can‟t really get the deci-

sion you want‟ ” after that time. Nor did Kimball shy away from discussing topics that others would never have

mentioned. While Disney‟s affinity of outhouse humor had never been a secret, Kimball noticed that this tendency

seemed to come from a peculiar preoccupation with excrement and defecation. In typically unvarnished language, he

said that Disney would “often talk about turds . . . He‟d go on and on, and you kind of looked at him and wondered,

when is he going to get to the punch line? There wasn‟t any punch line . . . Instead of considering defecation a nor-

mal biological function and a private matter better left undiscussed, he saw nothing wrong with talking about it for

half an hour.” Kimball was also fascinated by another notable Disney trait—an aversion to sexuality. He noticed

that his boss always steered away from anything smacking of sex, whether it was dirty jokes, romantic scenarios in

his films, or flirting. Both of these characteristics, Kimball concluded after many conversations and a good deal of

thought, were psychological “hang ups . . . [which were] a rebellion against the dominating moralism of his parents,

while his aversion to sex represented its internalization. Moreover, Kimball believed, both were ways to keep people

at a distance, the former through embarrassment and the latter through avoidance of any kind of intimate relationship

[Ward Kimball, “The Wonderful World of Walt Disney,” in Walter Wagner, ed., You Must Remember This (New York: G.P. Putnam‟s Sons,

264

1975), pp. 278, 270; and Kimball, Hubler interview, 24-25, 41, 9-13].

The failure of his home life may explain why Walt took it so personally whenever his studio “children” misbe-

haved. One such incident occurred upon Snow White’s 265…premiere[] in Hollywood on 21 December 1937. 266 As a



i

Minnie Mouse did not add blouses and dresses to her wardrobe until 1940 or 1941, but her anatomy was so plain that it would

be misleading to say she was seen “topless.” In some of Minnie‟s early films (ca. 1929) Ub Iwerks placed two circles where

breasts might be on a mouse-woman. They look like two large white circles on a black shirt. For the next decade her upper torso

was solid black, just like Mickey‟s body.

— Cohen, Forbidden Animation, p. 24.





18

way to express his thanks to the staff for all their hard work, Walt offered a free thank-you weekend at Narco Lake in

Northern California. Every employee who had worked on the film was invited.267 What…took place… closely re-

sembled a Roman orgy. After nearly four years of high-pressure performance, the mostly single young men and

women were ready to release a little steam.268 Under the full moon, passions unbridled as quickly as belts and

buckles could be undone. By midnight, models, inkers, painters, secretaries and assistants eagerly hopped among the

tents and cabins of one animator after another, until by dawn, most everyone wound up the night with a naked group

skinny-dip.269 “Everybody got drunk” [Disney animator, quoted in Mosley, Disney’s World, 1985, p. 166].270

Walt was outraged. Early Saturday morning, without saying a word, he packed his car and, with Lillian and

children in tow, drove back to Los Angeles. He never again made any reference to the incident at Narco Lake, and

nobody ever dared bring it up in his presence.271 He planned dozens of dismissals,…[but] Roy convinced him that

…the studio couldn‟t afford to lose that many animators.272





“Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?”



As the twenties dissolved into the thirties,273…organized labor had begun the movement to unionize Hollywood‟s

workers. Organized crime, attracted to the film industry‟s high cash flow, wanted a piece of the American dream as

well. Ironically, because of Disney‟s great popularity and presumed wealth, coupled with his independent and there-

fore vulnerable status, both the unions and the mob placed his studio among their prime targets. Before long, like a

couple of big bad wolves, they too would come huffing and puffing, to blow down Disney‟s door. 274, i

The two things Disney shared with the Major Hollywood studios were his assumption he could arbitrarily bend

the rules of employment, including the temporary suspension of salary payouts, and, not surprisingly, his resolute

opposition to unionism, a growing problem of the industry. 275 Roy E. Disney, Walt‟s nephew, once asked Bill Peet,

a longtime Disney employee, how the studio managed to secure and keep so many talented artists in the 1930s. The

irascible old story man gave him a mischievous look, narrowed his eyes, and graveled a one-word answer: “Pover-

ty.” 276

The onset of the Depression had revitalized Hollywood labor‟s interest in formal organization. As early as 1927,

Louis B. Mayer had sensed the potential threat of the labor unions. 277 Mayer‟s Academy of Motion Picture Arts and

Sciences…was…less interested in increasing salaries and improving working conditions than establishing a united

management front. So much so that in 1931…the heads of the major studios imposed an industry-wide 50 percent

pay cut on all salaried writers. Similar reductions for actors, directors, technicians, and laborers soon followed. 278

At approximately the same time, Chicago‟s notorious Al Capone tried to establish his own beachhead in Holly-

wood. Capone had long admired the exploits of his “cousin,” Charles “Lucky” Luciano, who along with Benjamin

“Bugsy” Siegel and Meyer Lansky had effectively infiltrated every economic strata working in Hollywood.279

Meyer Lansky was a thinking man‟s mobster, the “accountant for the mob.” Able to remember masses of

complex numbers—without committing them to paper—built a reputation for himself as untouchable by the

law.280 And perhaps Lansky deserves this treatment, as a true American legend.281, ii On the Lower East Side

of Manhattan,282…he learn[ed] the art of gambling and team[ed] up with his brawny counterpart “Lucky” Lu-

ciano.283 Lansky, according to gangland folklore, was also the inventor of money laundering.284

I was appalled at what I discovered when I availed myself of the Freedom of Information Act and

reviewed transcripts of numerous tapped phone conversations [Albert] Einstein had with actress Mary

Astor and with organized crime potentate Meyer Lansky. These tapes, made in the 1930s with an

electronic bug placed in the Princeton phone booth from which Einstein did all his “extracurricular”

business, reveal an Einstein who was tyrannical, sadistic and venal, a cutthroat, ferociously vindictive

intellectual parasite who blithely stole credit for the work of others.285







i

Nibble, nibble, like a mouse, / who is nibbling at my house?

— “Hansel and Grethel,” Bros. Grimm, p. 89; see also “Hansel and Gretel,” Juniper Tree, Vol. I, p. 160.

ii

On first blush it made no sense that Meyer Lansky—who controlled a vast international empire of banks, gambling casinos, and

an international narcotics smuggling network, and whose political partners included presidents, vice presidents and members of

congress—would devote so much attention and money to the governorship of Washington, even if his son did live in the state.

— William J. Chambliss, On the Take: From Petty Crooks to Presidents, 2nd ed. (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press,

1978, 1988), p. 152.





19

In addition, John Rosselli, a former protégé of the Chicago kingpin, had established a major Los Angeles-based

gambling network.

Capone‟s many mob operations included the formation of a nationwide bootlegging network whose best and most

profitable market was Hollywood.286 Capone planned to use his trademark methods of muscle and, if necessary,

murder to take over one or more studios. However, before he had a chance to make his move, he was arrested and

convicted of income-tax evasion,i which effectively ended his grand strategy to dominate Hollywood.

While Capone was in prison, Frank Nitti took over his turf. Nitti, like his predecessor, believed the mob‟s future

lay in Hollywood. However, his plan was far more subtle, built upon a strategy of infiltrating the film industry‟s

unions. To that end he enlisted the special services of his old friend and mob associate, one time hit man Willie Bi-

off.

Bioff‟s most recent specialty was the intimidation of local Chicago theater and nightclub owners who failed to

accommodate mob-controlled unions. Along with his partner George Browne, the head of the Chicago local union

of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), Bioff and Browne were “made” as a reward

for helping Nitti and the mob gain a stranglehold on every theater and nightclub in Chicago.

Then, as if on cue, the Majors‟ 1931 imposition of across-the-board salary reductions caused the Hollywood local

branch of IATSE to threaten retaliation with a formal industry-wide job action. In response Nitti promptly dis-

patched Browne and Bioff to Hollywood.ii It didn‟t seem to bother anyone that Browne, Bioff, and Nitti, like Ca-

pone, Siegel, Luciano, Meyer, and Rosselli before them, not only were known to be members of organized crime but

made no secret of their association. The heads of studios welcomed anyone to their side in the ongoing battle to

keep salaries and benefits as low as possible.iii And Frank Nitti promised Hollywood‟s leaders Browne and Bioff

would do just that.

While the Majors and the mob together worked to oppose unions and industry laborers, the Disney studio re-

mained, for the moment, out of this particular confrontation. Walt‟s troubles were far more fundamental than the

distribution of profits. Profits were something to which he aspired. 287

The solution to Walt‟s difficulties came from 288…the merchandising of Mickey Mouse;289…before long he was

the merchandising king of America.290 [But] even the influx of money from the merchandising proved insufficient to

offset operating expenses. To meet the rapidly growing payroll and the escalating costs involved with the production

of quality animation, it soon became necessary to put the studio through yet another belt-tightening. Never wanting

to appear the bad guy, Walt charged his resident attorney, Gunther Lessing, with explaining the economic facts of

life to the staff.291 One of Lessing‟s primary “Laws of the Jungle” was an allegiance to the politics of opportunism:

the principle of personal gain over political idealism.292

In 1940, just a year after Walt and Roy had triumphantly moved into their new Burbank studios, dubbed “The

House That Snow White Built,” their staff formally sought affiliation with the newly formed independent Animators

Guild. Outraged, Walt turned to…Gunther Lessing.293 Years before, Walt had accompanied Lessing to American

Nazi party meetings and rallies.294, iv

Since 1933 Hitler had become the principal target of Soviet Russia. The Bolsheviks, fearing German mil-

itary power, desperately attempted to enlist the support of the noncommunist world against the Nazis. 295

Fascism, the communists shouted, represented a danger to everybody, communist and noncommunist. All

must work together.296

It was in Manchuria that Hitlerism was born.297 In analyzing the origins of the German form of

fascism, [Erich] Fromm described the powerlessness experienced especially by the middle class after

World War I and after the depression of 1929. “The vast majority of the population was seized with



i

Capone was convicted in 1930 of not paying taxes due on $1 million.

— Gay Nemeti (Knight-Ridder Newspapers), Many have learned their lesson: It doesn‟t pay to mess with the IRS, The Seattle

Times, 14 April 1998, p. E2.

ii

Willie Bioff and George Browne…didn‟t like upstarts such as the Screen Cartoonists Guild operating outside their control.

— Jack Kinney, Walt Disney and Assorted Other Characters: An Unauthorized Account of the Early Years at Disney’s (New

York: Harmony Books, 1988), p. 138.

iii

Motion picture executives received services in return for their large payments to Browne, Bioff, and the Nitti syndicate.

— Denise Hartsough, “Crime Pays: The Studios‟ Labor Deals in the 1930s,” in Velvet Light Trap, March 1989, 23, in Janet

Staiger, ed., The Studio System (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1995), p. 239.

iv

[FBI Agent Jack Levine] found pervasive discrimination [within the FBI], including a supervisor who said there was nothing

subversive about the American Nazi Party, because “all they are against is Jews.”

— Anthony Summers, Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover (NewYork:G.P. Putnam‟s Sons, 1993), p. 57.





20

the feeling of individual insignificance and powerlessness which [is] described as typical for monopo-

listic capitalism in general” [Erich Fromm, Escape from freedom (New York: Rinehart & Co., Inc., 1941)]. This

class was not only economically, but also psychologically, insecure; it had lost its previous centers of

authority.298 Many thousands of Americans joined the communist movement during these early days

of the fight against fascism.299



[But] in August, 1939, the entire world was shocked: Hitler and Stalin had signed a “nonaggression” pact!

Here was Moscow making an agreement with that “Fascist beast,” Hitler, whom it had denounced in bitter

terms.300

Obviously Hitler had to be dealt with i—black Americans felt the need to fight him as passionately as

whites—but anyone with eyes, ears, and a sense of justice knew that segregation at home was also an evil that

had to [be] wiped out.ii Yet the country seemed oblivious to this obvious truth.301

The Hitler party is a party of imperialists, and of the most rapacious and predatory imperialists in

the world at that.302 Hitlerian racism…thrusts “its organic roots into the productive water of the deep

Christian lake” [Georges Bataille, Hitler and the Teutonic Order, 24 Jan 1939].303 It is essential to criticize false

ideologies. Poisonous weeds must be uprooted. We allow poisonous weeds to grow in order to edu-

cate the masses by negative examples, to root out the poisonous weeds and use them for fertilizers.304

Weeds growing in our grass is to be expected,305…[but] weeds that have gone to seed should be put

near the center of 306…a good active compost pile 307…where the heat is most intense,308…allow[ing]

the pile to “thermal kill” the weed seeds.309 While cognizance of the dangers posed by the invaders is

relatively recent, the aliens‟ presence among us is decidedly old;310…the war against pests is a con-

tinuing one that man must fight to ensure his survival.311

According to one of [Disney‟s] animators, Arthur Babbitt,312…“In the immediate years before we entered the

war, there was a small but fiercely loyal, I suppose legal, following of the Nazi party. You could buy a copy of Mein

Kampf iii on any newsstand in Hollywood. Nobody asked me to go to any meetings, but I did, out of curiosity.313 On

more than one occasion, I observed Walt Disney and Gunther Lessing there, along with a lot of other prominent Na-

zi-afflicted [sic] Hollywood personalities. Disney was going to meetings all the time. I was invited to the homes of

several prominent actors and musicians, all of whom were actively working for the American Nazi party.” 314

In the middle of the 1930s,…[Walt‟s] political simplicity caused him to make the most remarkable state-

ments. In what appears to have been a speech that was adapted as a magazine article in 1933, Disney‟s com-

ments on the world political scene make amazing reading. In it he promised that Mickey Mouse would never

do anything to hurt or frighten a child—already a few earnest souls were decrying the violence of his adven-

tures—and then went on to point out quite sensibly that The Mouse was not a creation aimed specifically at

children.315 “The Mickey audience is made up of parts of people; of that deathless, precious, ageless, abso-

lutely primitive remnant of something in every world-wracked human being.” 316

However, there were still some people who had somehow resisted The Mouse‟s charm, which grieved

Disney. “Mr. A. Hitler, the Nazi old thing, says Mickey‟s silly. Imagine that! Well, Mickey is going to save



i

One former army associate claimed that, in the army, Hitler was never promoted past lance corporal because of alleged pederas-

tic practices. He also claimed that while in Munich, Hitler was guilty of offenses under Article 175 of the German military code

which deals with pederasty.

— Mingo, Juicy Parts, p. 174.

ii

During the 1970s Congress launched the first systematic investigation into America‟s intelligence community, including the

FBI. The disturbing FBI abuses of power unearthed by these investigations—dubbed the “Hoover horrors” by some of the

press—prompted the Justice Department to open its own investigation into the Hoover FBI‟s private war against [Martin Luther

King, Jr.]

— Gerald D. McKnight, The Last Crusade: Martin Luther King, Jr., the FBI, and the Poor People’s Campaign (Boulder, CO:

Westview Press, 1998), p. 5.

iii

As [Henry] Ford stirred up a furor in the United States, he excited a fürhrer in Germany. Ford was already greatly admired by

the German people because of his industrial innovations, and, for Adolph Hitler, his anti-Semitism added to his allure. Ford is

the only American praised in Hitler‟s Mein Kampf,* and portions of it were lifted directly from Ford‟s Dearborn Independent

articles.

— Mingo, Juicy Parts, p. 47.

*

[The] second edition substitutes „only very few‟ for „a single great man, Ford.‟

— cf. Adolph Hitler, Mein Kampf, Ralph Manheim, trans. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1925, 1999), p. 639





21

Mr. A. Hitler from drowning or something some day. Just wait and see if he doesn‟t. Then won‟t Mr. A. Hit-

ler be ashamed!” i

So much for geopolitics as viewed from Disney‟s land.ii (What Hitler‟s propagandists had actually said

was that The Mouse was “the most miserable ideal ever revealed . . . mice are dirty.” 317, iii Although Hitler

could not stand Mickey Mouse,iv Mussolini loved him—as did their great foe F.D. Roosevelt.)318

As part of Lessing‟s antiunion activities, he persuaded Walt to become an official Hollywood informant for the

FBI.v Walt, however, was no stranger to J. Edgar Hoover—the director had made many previous attempts to recruit

cruit the budding studio lord. Back on July 16, 1936, Hoover had sent him a letter that ended with the paragraph: “I

am indeed pleased that we can be of service to you in affording you a means of absolute identity throughout your

lifetime . . .”

On November 10, 1940, Walt struck the following deal: In exchange for the bureau‟s continuing assistance in her

personal search to find out the truth of his parentage, Walt agreed to assist in Hoover‟s crusade against the spread of

communism in Hollywood by becoming an official informant for the FBI. Ironically, just months after Walt struck

the deal, Elias passed away.319 Elias Disney died a rather lonely old man. His wife succumbed to a terrible accident

in 1938—a new gas furnace malfunctioned, sending deadly fumes throughout the Los Angeles house given to them

by their two moviemaking sons—and he never recovered.320 When Elias himself died, in 1941, Walt received a tele-

gram while he was in South America on an extended business trip. After a moment of hesitation, he decided not to

return for the funeral [Martin/Miller interview, Reel 11, 15; and William Cattrell, interview with Steven Watts, 19 Aug 1993 ].321

  



Disney tried [another full-length animated adventure]…with Fantasia, a project which not only received enorm-

ous critical acclaim but also gave Walt his first taste of public rage and controversy. 322 Music purists were out-

raged,323…and some family and church groups worried that…[it might] even promote black magic. 324 In an extraor-

dinary vitriolic review, Dorothy Thompson of the New York Herald wrote: “Nazism is the abuse of power, the per-

verted betrayal of the best instincts, the genius of a race turned into black magical destruction, and so is „Fan-

tasia.‟ ” 325

Fantasia is scientifically engineered to induce sleep.326 Various fairies and wood nymphs yawn.

Dinosaurs yawn. Mickey yawns. The Sorcerer yawns. A cherub yawns. Ostriches yawn. A hippo

yawns twice. From The Nutcracker Suite’s drowsy-eyed fish to Chernobog‟s big stretch after a hard

day of demonizing, it‟s one character after another waking up and going back to sleep again. 327

After the film‟s 1969 rerelease proved a cult hit among college-age kids looking for a hallucino-

genic experience,328…psychedelic posters and other ad materials…called it “The Ultimate Experi-

ence,” while the promotional kit quoted one underground review: “Disney‟s Fantasia: A Head Clas-

sic: Representation of sound as color does resemble tripping on STD, LSD, THC and various other

letters in the alphabet.” 329







i

Ironically, “Mickey Mouse” was the secret password for D-Day.

— Cawley and Korkis, Cartoon Superstars, p. 127.

ii

When it comes to diplomacy, Mickey believes in realpolitik.*

— Peter Schweizer and Rochelle Schweizer, Disney: The Mouse Betrayed; Greed, Corruption, and Children at Risk (Wash-

ington, D.C.: Regnery Publ., Inc., 1998), p. 258.

*

realpolitik…: politics based on practical and material factors rather than on theoretical or ethical objectives.

— Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary (Springfield, MA: G. & C. Merriam Co., 1977).

iii

“Mickey is a clean mouse,” Walt Disney liked to say, but these days not everyone thinks so.

— Carl Hiaasen, Team Rodent: How Disney Devours the World (New York: Ballantine Books, 1998), p. 12.

iv

“Why are the blonde youth of Germany wearing the emblem of this vile scum, Mickey Mouse?” *

— Adolph Hitler, quoted in Thomas, Building a Company, p. 84.

*

“Down with Mickey Mickey Mouse! Wear the Swastika Cross!”

— Nazi propagandists (Hitler) quoted in “Maus II” by Art Spiegelman, in Jack Rosenthal, Mickey Mousing, The New York

Times Magazine, 2 Aug 1998, CXLI(49,046), p. 12; See also The Living Age (Boston), Oct 1931, p. 183, in Shale, Donald Duck

Joins Up, p. 12.

v

Under Lessing‟s tutelage, Disney discovered how the passions and power of political activism could be used as weapons for

personal gain. And later on, for revenge.

— Marc Eliot, Walt Disney: Hollywood’s Dark Prince (New York: Carol Publ., 1993), p. 121.





22

On May 28, 1941, the Screen Cartoonists Guild, Local 852, affiliated with the International Brotherhood of Pain-

ters, Paperhangers, and Decorators of America (a branch of the AFL) struck at the Disney Studio.330 On May 29,…a

picket line appeared at the studio,331…[with] some five hundred picketers.332 The strike was bitter and acrimonious,

shattering the benign image the Disney Studio had presented the world.333 Cries of „fink,‟ „scab,‟ and other epithets

were hurled against nonstrikers, who retaliated by calling strikers „Commies.‟ It was a mess . . . Long friendships

between „ins‟ and „outs‟ were destroyed. The hostility was brutal. Strikers let air out of tires or took screwdrivers

and scratched the cars as they drove through the gate. There were fights—even some shots were fired” [Johnston inter-

view; Jack Hannah, interview by David R. Smith, 8 July 1975, note to p. 29; and Jack Kinney, Walt Disney and Assorted Other Characters: An

334

Unauthorized Account of the Early Years at Disney’s (New York: Harmony Books, 1988), pp. 137-138]. A nonstriker reportedly

poured a circle off gasoline around a group of strikers and threatened to drop a lighted cigarette on it. 335

A photograph showed striking cartoonists carrying placards ranging from the purely informative—“Disney Stu-

dio On Strike”—to the more creative—“1 Genius against 1200 Guinea Pigs.” 336 Former Disney animator, story

writer, and director Jack Kinney has written that “Gunther Lessing…was hung in effigy.” 337 A group of shirtless,

hooded male strikers paraded with a guillotine and a dummy made up to resemble Gunther Lessing, Disney‟s hated

studio attorney. In a parody of the French Revolution, according to one observer, the gleeful dissidents “kept cutting

Gunther Lessing‟s head off over and over.” 338 There was a mass exodus of talent.339

Disney was shocked. He decided that Communists had infiltrated his studio and were attempting to take over the

industry.340 He took photos of those who marched in the picket line…and turned the photos over to the FBI and the

House Un-American Activities Committee.341 (He subsequently appeared before the House Committee on Un-

American Activities and denounced [the Cartoonists Guild representative Herb] Sorrell and layout artist Dave Hil-

berman.342)

Disney wasn‟t above intimidating the union bosses and their rank and file animators. 343 In response to the strike,

Walt offered a twenty-six page reply, saying in part:

This business is ready to go ahead. Don‟t forget this—it‟s the law of the universe that the strong shall survive

and the weak must fall by the way; and I don‟t give a [expletive deleted] what idealistic plan is cooked up,

nothing can change that [Richard Holliss and Brian Sibley, The Disney Studio Story (New York: Crown Publ., 1988), pp. 43-

344

44].



According to the leader of the strikers, Walt hired about fifty private police to stand guard at the studio gate and

rough up anyone who harassed strike-breakers.i After several shoving incidents, the Burbank police ordered this

force inside the studio fence to avoid further violence.345

Disney‟s animators…sa[id] that Walt Disney was authoritarian and played favorites.346 He allegedly called a

press conference and publicly auditioned his loyal band of ever-faithful females who worked for the studio. In one

of the most bizarre moments of his career,ii Disney encouraged his girls to show up in skimpy bathing suits for his

personal perusal. On that day dozens of the studio‟s hopeful “Hollywood honeys” displayed their charms to their

leering boss and equally leering press [Marc Eliot, Walt Disney: Hollywood’s Dark Prince (New York: Carol Publ., 1993), p. 139].347

On June 20,…Disney‟s The Reluctant Dragon,348…a collection of shorts strung together to make a feature,349

…premiered at the Pantages Theater. The strikers, angered by the film‟s depiction of life at the studio as one big

happy family, turned out en masse to picket the opening, carrying derisive signs and posters. The strike had caused

Walt‟s chronic nervous condition to erupt once again, reducing him to a walking collection of tics and phobias. His

hand-washing alone became so obsessive he sometimes visited his private studio bathroom as often as 30 times an



i

[When Henry] Ford‟s workers pressed for unionization, which Ford decided was some sort of Jewish takeover plot,…he fought

back by hiring a band of thugs known as the Ford Service.… Anyone caught doing “wrong,” such as talking to union organizers,

was beaten and fired.*

— Mingo, Juicy Parts, p. 48.

*

The German Freikorpsmen…were officers who refused to disarm after World War I, but instead returned to Germany and orga-

nized private armies to battle the rebellious working class of their own nation. They went on, in the thirties, to become the core

of Hitler‟s SA and, in some cases, key functionaries in the Third Reich.

— Barbara Ehrenreich, The Worst Years of Our Lives: Irreverent Notes from a Decade of Greed (New York: Pantheon Books,

1981, 1990), p. 252.

ii

Career stems from the French word carriere (“road or racecourse”). As a noun it means “a fast course” or one‟s lifework (the

“course” it takes). As a verb career means “to rush along at high speed,” as on a racecourse.

When a car on that racecourse enters a curve, however, it may start to careen. This term derives from carina (Latin for “keel

of a ship”).… As a verb careen means “to lean or tilt.”

— The Verbal Edge®, Reader’s Digest, Sep 1996, 149(893), p. 13.





23

hour. His temper grew shorter, and his willingness to reason with the strikers evaporated. Spontaneous outbursts

continued to punctuate his meetings. At home, screaming matches with Lillian could be heard by passersby and

neighbors.350

Jack Kinney, who remained at the Burbank studio to work on Dumbo, has written that “during the strike negotia-

tions, the studio decided that it would be best to get Walt out of town [ Kinney, Assorted Other Characters, p. 139].351 Fru-

strated and angry and unwilling to compromise, Walt accepted the U.S. government‟s invitation for a goodwill tour

of South America,352…hop[ing] it would offset some bad PR Walt had been getting. 353 He took along animators and

story men, and the trip resulted in two lively features, Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros.354, i

When Walt Disney came back from South America, the strike had been settled by government conciliation which

made the studio a union shop.355 He became…furious.356 Bitterness remained on both sides, and the intimacy and

trust Walt had shared with his animators was gone forever.

On the afternoon of December 7, 1941, a few hours after the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor, the United

States Army moved into the Disney Studio. For eight months, it was used as a supply depot. 357

Those who opposed the country‟s involvement in the war ii—as did Walt—were thought to be sympathetic to the

Axis powers.iii There were even those who began seeing “secret signals” in Walt‟s work, including a swastika in the

final panel of a June 16, 1940, Mickey Mouse newspaper comic strip.358

“It‟s not subliminal iv when in The Little Mermaid, a minister gets an erection while presiding over a wed-

ding ceremony,” [Robert Knight, director of the Cultural Studies for the Family Research Councils], says.

“It‟s right there in living color. And all one has to do is look at the jacket. The castle in the background con-

tains a large phallus—much too realistic for anything subliminal. As a matter of fact, Disney has redesigned

that cover” [Robert Knight, Family Research Council, 1996, interview on file with Perucci Ferraiuolo].359 A woman from the

Midwest even went after Disney, claiming the image traumatized her children.360

Another Disney film, [Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, also] got this sort of treatment.361 As first anima-

ted,…Betty Boop…dropped her top in one frame, supposedly done as an homage to her creator, Max Flei-

scher, who was notorious for sneaking X-rated shots into some Betty Boop cartoons.362, v As Baby Herman

storms off the set in disgust, he walks under a woman‟s dress. In the home video or laser disc version, we can

see that his hand goes up under the dress as he passes. When he emerges, a finger is extended as he brings his

hand down. He has a wicked smile on his face, and his tongue hangs out, suggesting the dirty old baby is

quite pleased with himself.363 Mischievous animators [also]…dropped in a few frames of Jessica topless—

too fast to be perceived by viewers but nonetheless visible if the film was slowed down. 364 Most sensational

was a sequence in which Jessica is thrown from a cab. During a twirl, her skirt hikes up, revealing…that

she‟s not wearing any underwear.365 (The Hidden Image Craze was born.366, vi)

Further reports say that in The Lion King,vii…as Simba plops down on the ground, rising wisps of dust

swirl around and are said to form the letters S-E-X.367 [Some] also claim to have found a hidden verbal mes-



i

We‟re three caballeros / Three gay caballeros / They say we are birds of a feather /…“Ay, caramba!”

— “We‟re Three Caballeros,” title song, in Julianne Burton-Carvagal, “ „Surprise Package‟: Looking Southward with Disney,” in

Smoodin, Disney Discourse, p. 131.

ii

Round-the-clock marchers picketed the White House, urging that the United States stay out of the European war. The picketers

were suddenly disbanded on June 21, 1941.… The next day…the Germans attacked Soviet Russia.

— Hoover, Masters of Deceit, p. 73.

iii

After Pearl Harbor, memories of [Charles Lindberg‟s] obdurate opposition to American intervention in the war against Hitler

caused millions to see him as a Nazi,…a defeatist, perhaps even a traitor.

— Geoffrey C. Ward, Fallen eagle; A big biography and a daughter‟s memoir look to the roots of Charles Lindberg‟s difficult

personality, The New York Times, 27 Sep 1998, CXLVIII(51,293), p. 14.

iv

As if the shape of [Mickey‟s] ears weren‟t subliminal advertising enough.

— Dished by the Mouse (Insult of the Week), Entertainment Weekly, 11 Sep 1998, 449, p. 137.

v

For connoisseurs of censored images, the laser disc…includes a scence cut from the video release of the film, showing a frame

of Betty Boop with bare breasts.

— Cohen, Forbidden Animation, p. 112.

vi

Baptists are always on the lookout for hidden messages and filthy subliminal images in Disney cartoons. These same upright

citizens no doubt spend thousands of hours every year sifting through kinky websites for drawings done by artists affiliated with

Disney.

— Dan Savage, Sexy mamas, kiddie porn (Savage Love), The Stranger, 29 June - 5 July 2000, 9(41), p. 85.

vii

In The Lion King, number of major characters who violently attack their co-stars:

(a) 7. (b) 9. (c) 11.





24

sage in Alladin[‟s] [side audio channels]: Just before the hero whisks Princess Jasmine onto his magic carpet,

he supposedly murmurs, “Good teenagers, take off your clothes.” (Most people, though, simply hear the

words “Scat, good tiger, take off and go.”)368, i

Asked if animators try to get away with including subtle extras, one said, “Whenever we can.” 369, ii

[Some] Disney animators…say there are some hidden images that do make their way into animated films.370

Tom Sito, a straight-talking animator,371…[said] he‟s a bit surprised about the controversy over “hidden im-

ages” in The Lion King. The scene he thought would draw the most objection from critics was not the one

with a subliminal message in the clouds, but a later scene in which the cubs Simba and Nala play together.

“He‟s basically straddling her, if you know what I mean.” 372

Knight quotes a Disney spokesperson who admits, “Yes, we‟ve made sure…[characters] were sexua-

lized.” Knight adds:

There‟s really no reason to do that in a movie for children, but Disney knows that pubescent kids start

noticing that kind of stuff. And I do see it as part of a larger agenda. 373 That agenda is the sexualiza-

tion of…children [Ibid.].374, iii

Sexually laced, suggestive, subliminal and/or morally questionable animated features like The Lion King,

Alladin, The Little Mermaid and others have virtually ripped the heart out of the once-lauded Magic King-

dom. To many, the Disney corporation became “the mouse that roared,” but with new and astounding revela-

tions about the…Disney attitude, it appears that Uncle Walt‟s family haven has become troubled with an

agenda that includes sexual immorality…[and] violence.375

Soon after Walt‟s departure, Roy agreed to submit to binding arbitration. 376 When news of the settlement

reached Walt in South America, he became…furious.377

Shortly after his return from South America, Walt received a call from Hoover regarding a secret journey recent-

ly completed by a contingency of agents to a remote village on the southern tip of Spain. There, Hoover told Walt,

the bureau had traced the origins of the woman who might well have been Walt‟s actual mother. This news, coming

when it did, finally and completely unnerved Walt.

The previous winter—the same year Walt became an official FBI informant—two well-dressed Americans in

wide-brimmed hats and pin-striped suits had gone on a mission to Mojacar on the Mediterranean coast. Upon arriv-

al, they asked Jacinto Alarcon, the mayor of the village, for assistance in locating the town priest. Their stated objec-

tive: to obtain a baptismal certificate for a baby born in or around 1890 to one Señora Isabelle Zamora.

According to Barcelonan journalist Paco Flores, the son of Mojacar‟s official archivist, the two men were from

the FBI.378 “The story is told that at the end of the past century there lived here a very attractive washerwoman

called Isabelle Zamora Ascensio, known to the villagers as as La Bitcha. She was very popular with the men of the

village and became pregnant by one.

“It is believed that the father of Señora Zamora‟s baby was the already married Dr. José Guirao, who conducted

the boy‟s christening himself, naming him José Guirao as well. Dr. Guirao died shortly after the birth of his son,

after which Señora Zamora decided to leave Spain and journey by boat to America.” 379

According to Barcelonan historian Carlos Almendros, who spent 10 years researching the family origins of Walt

Disney, Zamora arrived on the East Coast and then journeyed to California, where she was eventually taken in by

Franciscan missionaries. In 1890, Elias Disney took leave of his wife and children, this time to take part in the

second wave of the California gold rush. Failing to find his fortune, Elias returned home in 1891. His arrival oc-

curred only weeks before the unexplained listing of the birth of “Walter Disney” in the records of the Illinois De-

partment of Vital Statistics.





— Disney Tragedy Trivia Quiz, in Koenig, Mouse Under Glass, p. 47.

i

New lyrics [to the opening song] appeared in the videocassette release of Alladin.

— Henry A. Giroux, The Mouse that Roared: Disney and the End of Innocence (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publ., Inc.,

1999), p. 105.

ii

[Reverend Donald] Wildmon claims that [in Clock Cleaners] Donald [Duck] says, “Fuck you” to the clock when it comes to

life and begins to taunt him.

— Cohen, Forbidden Animation, p. 114.

iii

Jack Zipers, a leading theorist on fairy tales, claims that Disney‟s animated films reproduce “a type of gender stereotyping . . .

that has an adverse effect on children, in contrast to what parents think. . . . Parents think they‟re essentially harmless—and

they‟re not harmless” [June Casagrande, “The Disney Agenda,” Creative Loafing, 17-23 March 1994, pp. 6-7].

— Ibidem, p. 103.





25

Elias‟ journey to California places him there at exactly the time of Zamora‟s arrival. One unproven theory posits

that Elias, who fancied himself a ladies‟ man, began an affair with Zamora. Because he was prominent in the funda-

mentalist church, divorcing Flora, the mother of his three children, was impossible. Instead, he brought Zamora back

to Chicago, where he supported her until his preacher, perhaps discovering Elias‟ indiscretion, expelled him from the

church in Missouri. This would explain Elias‟ sudden uprooting of his family to the Midwest.

As for the 10-year age discrepancy, midwifes are known to be careless about paperwork, and the official record

could be inaccurate. Furthermore, the page in which the entry appears could have been recopied and erroneously

reentered in the 1891 sequence.

Whatever the case, someone else besides Walt gave credence to the fears he‟d held for so long about his paren-

tage. In 1966, one year after Walt‟s death, another contingency of investigators came to Mojacar in search of any

documents linking Isabel Zamora Ascensio to Walt Disney. Most locals believe this team actually came from the

Disney studio and that they finally did uncover the boy‟s long-missing baptismal certificate to prove that her son by

the doctor, Jose Guirao, was not Walt—and to ensure no “outside” claims could be made by Zamora‟s descendants

against the estate of Walt Disney.380





“When You Wish Upon a Star”



Disney did not prosper during the Second World War; 381…the outbreak of the war in Europe cut off Disney‟s

highly profitable foreign market.382 During the war years, Disney turned to making war films for the Department of

Defense.383

The animated training film, pioneered by Max Fleischer during World War I, played a vital role in the

education of the men and women in the various branches of the armed services. Animated shorts were often a

more effective means of instruction than live-action films or illustrated lectures, because the trainees watched

them more attentively.384

The studio produced Chicken Little, an anti-Nazi film showing the evils of mass hysteria; Education for Death, de-

picting how German youth were converted into Nazis; and Defense Against Invasion, promoting immunization

against disease.385 [Victory Through Air Power] expounded the strategic bombing theories of Major Alexander de

Seversky.386 The plot of Der Fuehrer’s Face i focuses on [Donald Duck‟s] miserable existence as a Nazi.387 The

film was translated into several languages, and copies were dropped behind German lines.388 In Donald Gets

Drafted,…he went through the…harrowing experiences with which millions of men could sympathize. There on the

screen was Donald Duck submitting to an assembly line physical, getting measured for an ill-fitting uniform, quiver-

ing before a monster of a drill instructor, and marching until his feet were ready to fall off. 389

Disney‟s World War II propaganda films are never shown [on television]. Disney refuses to let the public

see these films with strong anti-German and anti-Japanese messages. The Spirit of ’43, Education for Death:

The Making of a Nazi (1943), Victory Through Air Power (1943), Reason and Emotion (1943) and other

films from the period are important historical documents. While they are not appropriate as family entertain-

ment, they do belong on shows covering the history of the war. They are remarkable and and powerful films

and capture the patriotic zeal of the United States during a time of crises. 390

So vital was the Disney war work that drafted employees were sent back to the studio in uniform to resume their

work.391 One area of the war effort for which Walt Disney got little publicity and credit at home was nevertheless a

tremendous morale-builder in the battle zone. It was the role of Disney artists in creating insignias for military

units.392 Soldiers carried the cartoon-figure emblems of his creations on their uniforms and their war planes. 393 The

use of corps insignia was originated through the necessity of distinguishing planes at times of poor visibility. Later,

it developed that pride in organization, or the Spirit of the Corps, was equal in importance to the necessity of identi-

fication.394

Although the Walt Disney Studios ha[d] been deluged with requests for insignia from fighting organizations

seeking whimsical interpretation of their military functions, the first isolated request, and the one which started “the





i

Realizing that the whole country was singing what Oscar Hammerstein II called “the great psychological song of the war,” Dis-

ney executives changed the title from Donald Duck In Nutzi Land to Der Fuehrer’s Face.

— Shale, Donald Duck Joins Up, p. 63.





26

rain,” arrived from Cadet Stanley in June of 1939, who was then stationed with the “Fighting Seven” squadron of the

new navy carrier U.S.S. Wasp at San Diego, California.

Then, in March 1940, request Number Two came from Lieutenant E. S. Caldwell of the office of the Chief of

Naval Operations in Washington. The first American motor torpedo boats, known as the “mosquito fleet,” were in

need of insignia. The request was honored,…and a nasty looking mosquito riding on a torpedo soon adorned the

hull of each of the tiny craft. One of these stunned the Japanese Fleet as it rode off Formosa in the early weeks of the

war following the attack on Pearl Harbor and buzzed away unseathed leaving destruction and consternation in its

wake.395

In the 1940s military propaganda, the film bill constructed a space where much might be displayed, but

only one thing, finally, was on view: a national consensus accepting hardship and responsibility in order to

achieve an American-made peace. To control this view, the Screen Magazine appealed to two forms of pow-

er: that of medicine and science, and that of a controlling male gaze. Both together constituted systems of

rank, hierarchy, collective good, and discipline, and also informed audiences how to think about class, gend-

er, religion, technology, leisure, and home.

While rarely thematic—that is, covering a single issue—the magazines used the various combinations of

newsreel, special segment, and cartoon to fix attention on one of several core issues. Some of the magazines

constructed a scientific discourse that assured audiences of both the benevolence of the United States gov-

ernment and the superiority of its technology. Others insisted that biology determined behavior, making the

military hierarchy seem natural and therefore beyond questioning.396 Mainstream magazines like Popular

Science and The Saturday Review 397…disseminated instructions for the proper attitudes toward such issues as

gender, race, class, and labor.

The Walt Disney thereby created varied only slightly from journal to journal, from Time magazine, for in-

stance, to Business Week. But the private discourse about Disney, produced by the United States government,

demonstrated all of the contradictions inherent in the government‟s project of promoting capitalism and de-

mocracy at home and abroad. State Department documents detail Disney‟s work for the U.S. government in

South America during the 1940s, as a representative of the Good Neighbor policy and of North American in-

dustry. But it was largely this progovernment work in South America and the increase in the global influence

of the Disney product that made the FBI cautiously suspicious of the cartoon producer.398

The powerful influence of the Cold War pervaded…the Disney Studio in the 1950s. 399 It was a time of fear and

suspicion,…loyalty oaths and anti-communism crusaders.400 J. Edgar Hoover,…[who had] provided a spoken prolo-

gue to Spy Smasher (1942),401…[was] eager to pursue his red-hunting expeditions…[by] cultivat[ing] many figures

in Hollywood. In 1954, according to a memo in Disney‟s FBI file, the entertainer offered the agency “complete

access to the facilities to Disneyland for use in connection with official matters and for recreational purposes.” 402

The head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation a Disney fan? To be sure. But Hoover was more. 403

“J. Edgar Hoover‟s name is a stain on the [FBI Headquarters] building,” [Senator Harry Reid] said

[3 February 1998] from the Senate floor. “No other public official did so much to undermine civil li-

berties as did J. Edgar Hoover.” 404 Thousands of American citizens were persecuted by the FBI, di-

rectly or indirectly, while Edgar fostered the notion that the Communists were somehow responsible

for all manner of American social problems—from changing sexual standards to juvenile delinquen-

cy.405

He was reportedly Disney‟s boss. Disney had been among the earliest and most forceful of the film commu-

nity‟s anti-communists,406…us[ing] the Red Scare 407—the witch hunts led by Senator Joseph McCarthy (R.,

Wis.)408, i—to break the cartoonists union, a collaborator in what became the Hollywood Blacklist. 409

Nationally, the purge began in Hollywood, when the House Un-American Activities Committee [HUAC]

staged its assault on the film industry.410, ii The hearings were a circus, with throngs of giggling women mob-



i

Today “McCarthyism” is a word in the dictionary: “the use of indiscriminate, often unfounded accusations, sensationalism,

inquisitorial investigative methods.”

— Anthony Summers, Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover (New York: G.P. Putnam‟s Sons, 1993), p.

178.

ii

The committee was not a court of law, but a government body with its own set of rules. Members were not required to show a

witness the evidence against him, or to prove that heir accusations were grounded in fact.

— Cohen, Forbidden Animation, p. 166.





27

bing “friendly” witnesses, such as Gary Cooper, Robert Taylor and Walt Disney, who testified that Commun-

ists at his studio were trying to use Mickey Mouse to spread Communist propaganda. 411 In his testimo-

ny,…Disney discusse[d] the effect that he believe[d] communists…had on his employees, who had recently

unionized and gone on strike:412…“It was a Communist group trying to take over my artists and they did take

them over” [House Committee on Un-American Activities, Hearings Regarding the Communist Infiltration of the Motion Picture

413

Industry, 80th Congress, 1st session (Washington, 1947), 282. Disney testified on 24 Oct 1947 ].

“Unfriendly” witnesses and those who opposed the hearings, such as John Huston, Katharine Hepburn,

Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart, were vilified. The Hollywood Ten, a group of artists who refused on

principle to say whether they had ever been members of the Communist Party, were jailed for contempt of

Congress. They would emerge to find their careers ruined, because, to butter up the committee, Hollywood‟s

film bosses had declared them “blacklisted.” 414

The blacklist made all too literal the cliché about the authorless anonymity of the average Hollywood film.

After the first HUAC hearing (in 1947) and particularly after the first trials (in 1951) a number of film-makers

were forced to work anonymously.415

For its part, the FBI approved Disney as a “SAC contact,” a largely honorary designation given to friendly com-

munity leaders who were willing to talk with the agency‟s special agent in charge for their region [ Walt Disney‟s FBI file:

416

see document 94-4-4667-2 (16 Dec 1954) for information on Disney‟s designation as an SAC contact].



“People come up to me and say, „How dare you say those terrible things about Uncle Walt?‟ ” says [car-

toonist and producer Bill] Melendez.417 “But he was a real rat. He sold out.” 418 From October, 1940, [Dis-

ney] had been a loyal and dedicated domestic spy for [Hoover‟s] FBI [ Eliot, Dark Prince, p. 169].419

Hoover sent Disney a formal letter of congratulations in 1956 after he received the Milestone Award from the

Screen Producers Guild, and Disney replied with a note of thanks. There was little additional contact until 1961,

when the agent in charge of the FBI‟s Los Angeles office presented Disney with a copy of Hoover‟s book, Masters

of Deceit [Disney‟s file: see 94-4-4667-6 (9 Nov 1956) and 54-4-4667-7 (26 Nov 1954) for Hoover and Disney‟s exchange of letters on the

420

Milestone Award].



Masters of Deceit was not written by Edgar, nor was it his idea. The book grew out of a suggestion by

Assistant Director William Sullivan, was written by four or five Bureau agents assigned to the job and was

“polished up” by Fern Stukenbroeker, an agent with a Ph.D. who worked in Crime Records. 421 Masters of

Deceit was published in 1958 by Henry Holt, a publishing firm owned by Clinton Murchison, the Texas oil-

man who put Hoover and Tolson up each summer at his hotel in La Jolla, [California].422 Even though the

book was written on government time by government employees, Hoover and his associates split the money

among themselves.423 The book‟s actual writers made nothing, which certainly bothered their boss, William

C. Sullivan, who later said, “We used to joke at the bureau, „Masters of Deceit, written by the Master of De-

ceit who never even read it.‟ ” 424

The filmmaker posted a brief letter of appreciation to Hoover, in which he expressed his “appreciation as a citizen

for what you have done and the fight which you are continually waging for the protection of our way of life.” 425

For decades, despite evidence that was obvious to everybody else, Hoover claimed there was no such

thing as “organized crime.” He refused to allow the FBI‟s resources to be used to fight the Mob, instead

going after “communists” and petty criminals. Why? According to author Anthony Summers in Official and

Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover, it was because the Mob had very explicit photos of Hoover

and [Clyde] Tolson having sex,i and information about an arrest of Hoover in New Orleans on a morals

charge in the 1920s.426 The conflicting pressures of dealing with his sexual confusion in private while postur-

ing as J. Edgar Hoover, masculine, all-American hero, in public would eventually drive the F.B.I. director to

seek medical help.427 [Though when] police investigated a child porn and gay-teen prostitution ring in Los

Angeles in 1969, at a time when Hoover and Tolson were visiting the area on another of their “inspection

tours,” 428…the cops were surprised to hear from several different teen boys that they had been picked up by

Hoover and Tolson in an FBI limousine. According to one fifteen-year-old, Hoover lectured him about his

long hair before having sex with him. Fifteen men were indicted in that investigation, but not Hoover, Tol-

son, or any of the ring‟s other celebrity clients.429



i

In an unheard-of three years, Tolson advanced all the way to assistant director.

— Mingo, Juicy Parts, p. 216.





28

To this day, there is a general dislike of Hoover within the homosexual (male and female) population,…

the common perception being that he and Tolson were “hypocritical” in this regard [ Leigh W. Rutledge, The Gay

Book of Lists (Boston: Alyson Publ., 1987), pp. 48-49; Dennis Altman, The Homosexualization of America (Boston: Beacon Press,

1982), p. 130; Vern L. Bullough, Homosexuality: A History (New York: Garland STPM Press, 1979), p. 139; Austin American States-

man, 24 Sep 1989, p. A6; and Richard Gid Powers, Secrecy and Power: The Life of J. Edgar Hoover (New York: Free Press, 1987), p.

430

172]. From 1953 to his death in 1972 he personally directed an illegal nationwide surveillance program of

homosexual rights groups [Austin American Statesman, 24 Sep 1989, p. A6],431…[though] a number of Hoover‟s

friends were also homosexual, most notably the late Roy Cohn [Sidney Zion, The Autobiography of Roy Cohn (Secau-

cus, NJ: Lyle Stuart, Inc.), pp. 9, 11-12; and Ovid Demaris, The Director: An Oral Biography of J. Edgar Hoover (New York: Harper‟s

432

Magazine Press, 1975), p. 159].



But Disney‟s sympathy for Hoover‟s anticommunism did not keep the FBI from circulating in-house memos casting

a suspicious eye on his attendance at…gatherings hosted by leftist groups under surveillance in the 1940s [ Disney‟s

file: see 62-60527-25 (26 July 1951), 62-68527-42803 (May 10, 1955), and 62-102561-58 (14 Dec 1956) for the FBI‟s concern about Disney‟s

433

attendance at leftist gatherings in the 1940s].



For the FBI, surveillance meant targeting an individual and then keeping tabs on his/her activities. In the

process of collecting this information, however, the FBI also gathered intelligence on everyone who came in-

to contact with the surveillance suspect [John T. Elliff, “The Scope and Basis of FBI Data Collection,” in Stephen Gillers and

434

Pat Watters, eds., Investigating the FBI (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1973), p. 258 ].



Justice may be blind, but she has very sophisticated listening devices.435, i Having the feeling that

you‟re “being watched” is very common among cartoon characters!436, ii In the past no government

had the power to keep its citizens under constant surveillance,437…[but] the government‟s ears are

bigger than ever.438 You can‟t even have a conversation without wondering who‟s listening:439 …you

never know who might be watching.440 BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU.441 Big Broth-

er…doesn‟t just come in the form of a totalitarian state, it also comes with a smiley face. 442 When pol-

itics is cloaked in the image of innocence, there is more at stake than simple deception.443

Hoover authorized the promiscuous use of wiretaps around the country.444 Since Hoover ran the FBI like his

own private fiefdom within the executive branch, operationally the director was accountable to no one in the

chain of command but himself.445 However, whenever he had to give testimony in front of Congress, he

would have all but one—the tap on the Communist Party headquarters—turned off for the day so he could

truthfully testify that the FBI was doing no illegal wiretapping.446

Nor did it keep Disney from satirizing the agency as bureaucratic bunglers in his films That Darn Cat and Moon

Pilot in the 1960s [Walt Disney‟s FBI file: see documents 94-4-4667-3 (16 March 1956), 94-4667-13 (17 April 1957), and 94-4-4667-20

447

(22 Oct 1957) on the FBI‟s annoyance with That Darn Cat and Moon Pilot].



That Darn Cat! iii…makes the most out of every situation.448 In the story, adapted from the book “Under-

cover Cat” iv by the Gordons, a slippery Siamese named D.C.…picks up the only clue. 449 Since D.C. can‟t tell

the F.B.I. where he‟s been,450…the Federal Security agent places a transmitter “bug” under D.C.‟s collar.451

The FBI [wa]s ready to give up,452…but like Wile E. Coyote in his cartoon war with the Roadrunner, the po-

lice ke[pt] looking for the Acme box containing the magic solution. 453 (A couple of FBI men [we]re depicted



i

In 1985,…American officials belatedly discovered tens of thousands of microscopic listening devices embedded in [the] con-

crete walls…[of] the chancery building of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.

— Alessandra Stanley (The New York Times), Embassy‟s walls with ears to be rebuilt, The Seattle Times, 4 May 1997, 15(18), p.

A5.

ii

‟Toons, however, have the ability to conjure up “doppelgängers,” temporary, mentally protected doubles that do their most

dangerous stunts.

— Koenig, Mouse Under Glass, p. 179.

iii

Working on the ‟97 Disney remake of the studio‟s mid-‟60s Hayley Mills kitty comedy, “That Darn Cat,” was a toxic expe-

rience. “Why in the hell am I doing this?” [Christina] Ricci remembered thinking to herself at the time. “I hate this.… I was so

miserable doing that movie,” she moaned during a…visit to Seattle.… (She‟s so not-proud of “Cat” that she leaves it off her

resume.)

— Soren Andersen, Grown-up Ricci drops sweetheart role in „The Opposite Sex,‟ [Tacoma] News Tribune, 12 June 1998,

116(64), SoundLife, p. 12.

iv

The Curse of Cats. Legend has it that Walt Disney hated cats.

— Koenig, Mouse Under Glass, p. 108.





29

as inept buffoons. After Hoover personally intervened, Walt changed the script of the movie so that the FBI

agent…was made a generic government security agent instead.454) [Moon Pilot’s] nonsense involves the

United States space program 455…[and a] mysterious girl who turns out to be an alien.456 The FBI and the air

force clash head on, with endless confusion about what should be kept secret from whom, and who is in

charge of what.457 (The attentive viewer will note that the federal agents portrayed in this film are not from

the FBI.458)

Many of Disney‟s…[productions] contained interesting commentaries.459 Mickey’s Orphans (1931), for

instance, opened with a mysterious hooded feline figure leaving a basket of kittens on the protagonist‟s

porch.460 Moving Day (1936) followed the adventures of Disney‟s animated characters when they were

evicted from their home by the sheriff because of nonpayment of rent. 461 Who Killed Cock Robin? (1935)

burlesqued corrupt public authority.462 The Spider and the Fly (1931)…revolves around…a large, devouring

spider and a collection of flies who resist their fate.i As the spider moves in to wreak havoc, the diminutive

flies fight back in highly imaginative ways.463 The darkly sadistic movie The Mad Doctor (1933) focuses on

the potential horror of science and technology as it exposes a crazy physician who performs medical experi-

ments by using a power saw to gather body parts from victims. 464 Moreover, the plot line of The Absent-

Minded Professor is very reminiscent of…wartime experience…—the hasty night flight to Washington by the

simple, rustic inventor who comes bearing a creation of priceless worth to his government; the rebuff of man

and work by uncomprehending bureaucrats, and finally the triumphant moment when the true value of his

creation is incontrovertibly proved and the former skeptics tumble over themselves to do him honor.465





“Nightmare on Main Street” 466



As 1948 began,467…Rosenberg met with Walt and urged him to accept an offer by…Howard Hughes, ii who

wanted to buy the 16-millimeter nontheatrical, nonbroadcast rights of the Disney studio‟s entire back inventory for

classroom and community-organization rentals.

The tall, eccentric Texas billionaire had enjoyed moderate success as a producer of several features before aban-

doning Hollywood in the thirties to concentrate on aircraft production. In 1948, Hughes decided to reenter the mo-

tion picture business by purchasing a controlling interest in the RKO studio.468

The initial meeting between Hughes and Disney was quite friendly. The two had known each other casually for

many years, and while never close they shared a kinship based on their many similarities. Both were approximately

the same age; both were Middle Americans, Disney raised in Kansas, Hughes in Texas; and both headed large, com-

plex businesses. Both suffered from a variety of facial tics including, most noticeably, rapid eye-twitching; both

chain-smoked; and both were arch right-wingers who had taken active roles in the crusade against communism.

Disney found Hughes‟s offer,469…a million-dollar, interest-free loan,470…irresistible.471 With this new influx of

cash, Disney hoped to redirect his studio toward live-action features.

It had becoming [sic] increasingly clear to everyone, including Walt, that where once the Disney studio had been

the undisputed leader in its field, the cartoons of its competitors were now being hailed as the best in the business.

The smart-aleck cynicism of Warner Bros.‟s “Loony Tunes” iii not only borrowed Disney‟s original concept of “Silly

Symphonies” but modernized it. While the style of Disney‟s cartoons remained fixed in the chilly clasp of their pre-

war Fundamentalist vernacular, Warners‟s offered the kind of warm, streetwise Yiddish humor postwar America lo-

vingly embraced. “Loony Tunes” were clever social satires generously overlaid with sexual innuendo, its characters

always winking knowingly at the audience rather than innocently batting their eyes.

Bugs Bunny,iv Warners‟ number-one animated star, was a rabbit in the heat of his pubescence. Mickey‟s fun-

damental roundness—eyes, ears, face, body—recalled maternal security in the comfort of their breastlike shape. i In



i

Killing off a bunch of flies must have seemed like child‟s play to Walt.

— John Canemaker, Paper Dreams: The Art & Artists of Disney Storyboards (New York: Hyperion, 1999), p. 38.

ii

Hughes was unhappy about his homosexual leanings. Later in life he overcompensated for this with a domineering, “manly”

personality and a voracious pursuit of women, often several at the same time.

— Mingo, Juicy Parts, p. 262.

iii

Warner Bros. released forty “Loony Tunes” and “Merry Melodies” in 1940, thirty-one in 1950, and twenty in 1960 [ Ted Sennett,

Warner Brothers Presents (Secauucus, NJ: Castle Books, Inc., 1971), Appendix II].

— Smoodin, Animating Culture, p. 2.

iv

Porky Pig first appeared in November 1935, Elmer and Daffy Duck in 1937,…Bugs Bunny in 1938,…[and the Road Runner in

1948* ].†





30

contrast, Bugs‟s ears were phallic attitudinizers that never failed to rise to the occasion. In the years immediately

following the war, “Loony Tunes,” created by several former Disney staffers, most notably Fritz Freleng, far more

accurately reflected the mood of the country than “Silly Symphonies,” and as such became the most popular Ameri-

can theatrical cartoon shorts.

However, the success of “Loony Tunes” didn‟t seem to matter very much to Walt. In truth, he had lost interest in

animation.472 The engine of Walt‟s imagination now ran down a different track. 473 He enjoyed starting each day

alone in his office pouring over the trades‟ daily accounts of the latest HUAC hearings, dining while he did so on his

breakfast of choice: fresh doughnuts dunked in scotch. With the war over, the HUAC hearings 474—a red-hunting

group of buffoons, including proudly anti-Semitic John Rankin of Mississippi and John Wood, an active member of

the Ku Klux Klan 475—captivated the nation,…mak[ing] villains out of victims and heroes out of themselves.476 “It

was,” said George Reedy, covering the committee for the United Press, “the worst collection of people that have ever

been assembled in the entire history of American politics.” 477

On the days [Walt] didn‟t bother to go to the studio at all, he would arise early in the morning, usually before

seven, put on a pair of striped overalls and engineer‟s cap, and slip behind the controls of his beloved “Carolwood

Pacific” to steam around 478…his Holmby Hills backyard in West Los Angeles.479 One particular morning in the

spring of 1948,…he…tried to pull into focus an idea that had been on his mind. 480 What if he could actually re-

create the physical world of his idealized dream? Now, he told himself, that would be one hell of an amusement

park.481 (When Walt started planning his theme park, [Lillian] made a[] face. Amusement parks, she said, “are dirty,

and the people are nasty.” 482 Disneyland, [though],…was never meant to be an “amusement park.” 483)

The idea of Disneyland is a simple one. It will be a place for people to find happiness and knowledge.

It will be a place for parents and children to share pleasant times in each other‟s company; a place for

teachers and pupils to discover greater ways of understanding and education. Here the older generation can

recapture the nostalgia of days gone by, and the younger generation can savor the challenge of the future.

Here will be the wonders of Nature and Man for all to see and understand.

Disneyland will be based upon and dedicated to the ideals, the dreams and hard facts that have created

America. And it will be uniquely equipped to dramatize these dreams and facts and send them forth as a

source of courage and inspiration to all the world.484

After he had circled the house half a dozen times, lost in preoccupation, the “Carolwood Pacific” suddenly

jumped track, slammed into the side of a ninety-foot S-Shaped “tunnel” he had recently installed—which Lillian ap-

proved only after Walt convinced her it was really a disguised fallout shelter—and crashed through the living-room

wall of the house before finally coming to a halt.

Although Disney tried to blame the accident on the tunnel‟s poor sight lines, Lillian feared the real cause was

Walt‟s increasing dependency on sleeping pills.ii She knew he sometimes used them in place of tranquilizers and

washed them down with alcohol. His drinking now started first thing in the morning and continued steadily through-

out the day. She could always tell when he added pills to his liquid diet because they visibly affected his speech,

temperament, and motor skill.485

That June, Walt took the adolescent Sharon with him to Alaska. 486 He delighted in being both mother and father

to his adopted daughter on the trip, roles he assumed with a degree of enthusiasm nestled in the thin border that sepa-

rated his fantasies from his obsessions. He took special delight in bathing Sharon every night, iii combing her hair,

washing her underwear, carefully dressing her from head to toe before taking her out to restaurants, even following



— Ibidem, p. 14.

*

Koenig, Mouse Under Glass, p. 183.

†

Mel Blanc did the voices of Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, Tweetie Pie, Sylvester, Speedy Gonzalez and scores of others.

— John Halas, The Contemporary Animator (London: Focal Press, 1990), p. 62.

i

“The sexless sexiness of Disney‟s creations have always seemed to me queasy, perhaps in an all-American sense.”

— James Agee, quoted in Schickel, Disney Version, p. 275.

ii

Magical formulas to induce sleep were usually employed by those wishing to burglarize…[a] house. *

— Ferraiuolo, Disney and the Bible, p. 53.

*

Then…the old woman dropped some sleeping stuff into their wine.

— “The Robber Bridegroom,” Bros. Grimm, p. 177.

iii

Marc Eliot, in his 1993 book, “Walt Disney: America‟s [sic] Dark Prince,”…portray[ed] Disney as a raving alcoholic, incestual

father and Nazi.

— Greg Burkman (special to the Times), The man behind the magic; A balanced look at Walt Disney and how he delivered the

American dream, The Seattle Times, 11 Jan 1998, 16(2), p. M2.





31

her around as she sleepwalked,i a strange habit of hers which, rather than concerning Walt, openly fascinated, enter-

tained, and apparently inspired him. Sleepwalking soon became a running gag in Goofy cartoons, one of the few

personal “Disney” touches added to his late-1940s cartoons.487

Theatrical cartoons in general and Walt Disney‟s in particular have been implicated in a number of dis-

courses about power, behavior, and social control. A 1948 article in The Saturday Review of Literature

warned that in postwar cartoons, the once cute and fuzzy animals had become “masks for human characters so

violent and crude that they couldn‟t even be put on the screen in their natural form” [Raymond Spottiswoode,

488

“Children in Wonderland,” The Saturday Review, 13 Nov 1948, p. 5]. Beneath all the charm of the sweet little creatures

of Disney…lurks the law of the jungle: envy, ruthlessness, cruelty, terror, blackmail, exploitation of the

weak.489

Because of Roy‟s unwillingness to support Disneyland Park with studio funds, Walt financed his newly created

WED Enterprises in 1952.490 Disney put together a secret team, from those he considered his most talented art direc-

tors, that included Richard Irvine, Harper Goff, Bill Martin, Bud Washo, Herb Ryman, and Marvin A. Davis. They

set up operation in an abandoned warehouse in Glendale, which Walt believed no outsider could penetrate. There

they worked with Walt on the design of the park‟s layout. As his general director for the project, Disney recruited

C.V. Wood, the former head of the Stanford Research Institute. 491

Disney and his crew established some basic criteria for the design of Disneyland: a single entrance/492…exit

[“Making Money in „Never-Never‟ Land,” Florida Trend, Dec 1981];493…a coherent, orderly, sequenced layout within which

elements would complement each other rather than compete for attention; wide leisurely walkways; extensive

landscaping; plenty of food and entertainment; attractions unique to Disney; and efficient, high-capacity operations;

and a large…staff.494

Disney‟s production of the animated film Peter Pan (1953) probably sowed some seeds for the design of

Disneyland. Perpetual boy Peter‟s mystical Never Never Land is an isolated island where no one grows up

and where one adventure leads into the next.495 The fact is [though], as [John Ronald Reuel] Tolkien re-

lated,…children are never meant to be Peter Pan; they are meant to grow up, not necessarily thereby losing

their innocence and wonder but in danger mainly from grown-ups, from people into whose charge they are

delivered. This is an awful, inescapable fact.496

Children were once birds and they lived in a big park on Bird Island. People who wanted children

wrote a letter to the raven Solomon, expressing their wishes, and the raven Solomon sent them a little

bird which on the way changed into a little boy or girl. This was how Peter Pan obtained his parents.

He lay in a cradle with feather bedding, his parents and relatives admired, caressed, and amused him.

It was nice, warm, and cosy. But when evening came and the tall, dark shadows of trees on Bird Isl-

and were outlined outside the window, uneasiness and longing overcame him. One time he overheard

his parents wondering what he‟d become when he grew up. The thought that at some time he‟d be-

come a grownup, that he‟d wear stiff clothes which would constrain his body, spectacles, and whiskers

like his father, that he‟d walk around with a cane and a briefcase, that like his father he‟d carry out

numerous funny, useless acts and utter thousands of meaningless and pointless phrases, horrified him

so much that he decided to run away and go back to Bird Island, so as never to grow up. 497 Imme-

diately after his disappearance, his parents sent an order for another child and it was already occupying

Peter‟s place.498

There is little doubt that the popularity of fairies in Disney films has changed public attitudes about

them.499 Disney used so many fairy-like creatures in his films, characters that so closely resemble the mystic

myth of fairies that the coincidence cannot be ignored or easily explained away. And since fairies also took

on the properties and personalities of witches, especially concerning levitation and methods of flight ii —and



i

Many sleep experts believe sleepwalking and sleeptalking are related to night terrors…and bedwetting since they all occur dur-

ing the same sleep transition.

— Judith Palfrey, M.D., Irving Schulman, M.D., Samuel L. Katz, M.D., and Maria I. New, M.D., eds., The Disney Encyclopedia

of Baby and Child Care, Vol II: A to Z Encyclopedia of Child Health and Illness (New York: Hyperion, 1995), p. 238.

ii

There is some evidence that atropine—one of the chief active ingredients in hemlock, foxglove, deadly nightshade, and jimson

weed—induces the illusion of flying; and indeed such plants seem to have been the principal constituents of the unguents self-

administered to the genital mucosa by witches in the Middle Ages—who, rather than actually flying,…were in fact atropine trip-

ping.





32

Disney films were big on witches i—it is conceivable that a more malevolent force was at play in the strategy

and concept of his films.500

Fairies, not unlike Tink,501…as Pan called her…in the original play (not created by Disney),502…were

thought to have existed since ancient times when they were said to have visited and negatively affected new-

born babies in their cradles.503, ii

They have a more than fleeting interest in fertility and are extremely friendly toward lovers. They consid-

er themselves brimming with wisdom, but they are self-indulgent in the extreme. They will steal babies from

their cradles, replacing them with animal-like creatures. All the while they masquerade as angelic helpers,

do-gooders and beautiful rays of light [Holliss and Sibley, Studio Story, p. 64].504 [But] in explaining who angels re-

ally are and what they do, author Terry Law…effectively dispel[s] several myths…about angels: 505

Michael, the only [angel] specifically called “archangel” in the Bible, apparently has an assignment as

a military leader. This probably makes him head of the warrior angels. Michael stands up for God‟s

people and opposes God‟s enemies, but always under the authority of God. Gabriel, whom most

people believe is an archangel, although he is never called that in the Bible, is God‟s leading or high-

est-ranking messenger [Terry Law, The Truth about Angels (Orlando, FL: Creation House, 1994), pp. 117-121].506

One reviewer implied that Disney was little more than a copycat animator. “Having mutilated „Alice in

Wonderland,‟ he now murders „Peter Pan,‟ and I hate the assumed innocence with which he does it”

507, iii

id.].



With the design plans underway, Disneyland became an obsession to which Disney devoted nearly all of his at-

tention.508 Initial funds were obtained by leasing agreements with…corporations and refreshment purveyors, 509

…[and Disney] turned to television for both financial sponsorship and promotion. Spurned by both CBS and NBC,

Disney found the fledgling American Broadcasting Company more receptive, especially to his promise to produce a

weekly hour-long television program for seven years, titled “Disneyland,” in return for ABC‟s financial investment

in the park.510, iv (The ABC network was the original partner in Disneyland, underwriting part of its cost in exchange

for one-third ownership of the park—later purchased back by Disney—and the weekly television show. Ironically

enough, in 1995 the Disney company acquired ABC.)511

The summer of 1954 saw the uprooting of orange trees…in Anaheim, [California], and in the fall…“Disney-

land” v hit the airwaves and promptly climbed to the top of the Nielsen ratings. Construction took place inside a

permanent [twelve- to 20-foot-high earthen berm512] built to isolate the park from intrusions from the outside world

and to seal in a world of controlled illusion, fantasy, and perfectly engineered harmony; 513…where electronics, plas-

tics, and psychology are harnessed for…escape from the fetters of adulthood. 514 He also made the city agree that no

high-rises could ever be built that could be seen from inside the park. 515

Opening day, 17 July 1955,516…televised live on ABC in an unprecedented broadcast hosted by three of Walt‟s

old-guard conservative Hollywood allies: Robert Cummings, Art Linkletter, and Ronald Reagan, 517…was far from

carefree and controlled.518 Unlike the perfect control and organization later evident in the Disney parks, the birth of

Disneyland was chaotic.519 One journalist bemoaned the collapse of his own fantasies: “Walt‟s dream is a nightmare

. . .” [Randy Bright, Disneyland, Inside Story (New York: Abrams, 1987), pp. 104-107].520 Marc Eliot, Walt Disney‟s biographer,

recalls that the…opening…was such a disaster that veteran Disney staff afterwards referred to it as “Black Sun-

day.” 521



— Carl Sagan, The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence (New York: Ballantine Books,

1977), p. 214.

i

If it looks like a pirate or a witch,…you‟re probably pretty close to Disneyland.

— P.S. (Across the Nation/Daily Briefing), The Seattle Times, 8 Sep 1998, 121(215), p. A6.

ii

Guest: “How many times does Tinker Bell go down in a night?” [Interview with Robby Beeman, who says he was fired for responding,

“I didn‟t know she was that kind of girl.” ]

— David Koenig, More Mouse Tales: A Closer Peek Backstage at Disneyland (Irvine, CA: Bonaventure Press, 1999), p. 153.

iii

The ultimate Disney brat,…one suspects he may have done away with his parents himself.

— Koenig, Mouse Under Glass, p. 159.

iv

“There were only three stations in those days, two in some cities.”

— Dick Clark, quoted on “Later,” NBC, 9 March 2000.

v

Disneyland, hosted by…Walt Disney,…certif[ied] that we were a fun-loving, innocent people who deserved to be on top of the

world.

— Todd Gitlin, The Twilight of Common Dreams: Why America is Wracked by Culture Wars (New York: Metropolitan Books,

1995), p. 64.





33

But Disney learned quickly from those early problems.522 Outsiders who had been contracted to provide security,

crowd control, operation of parking lots, and custodial services were found not to have the proper…attitude toward

the Disneyland guests.523, i All were soon replaced with staff hired by the park and trained in “Disneyland Universi-

ty.” 524

The freshmen hosts and hostesses first enroll in Walt Disney Tradition I, a complete orientation on the

philosophy and history of Disney family entertainment. Disney University calls it “attitudinizing,” old-timers

call it “brainwash ii at the Mouse House.” 525 Even after graduation from the U of D, the standards are con-

stantly drilled into the troops through counseling and supervision.526

Known in the ineffable jargon of the park as “people specialists,”…[staff] train[]…in the modern American arts

forms…of the frozen smile and the canned answer delivered with enough spontaneity to make it seem unpro-

grammed:527, iii

The Disney hospitality voice is a formidable thing; the unstoppable friendliness of its tenor, pitch, and intona-

tion is designed to disarm the skepticism of everyone it encounters. Finely calibrated at Disney Universi-

ty,…this voice is the official greeter of consumer capitalist America, as distinctly authoritative a form of Eng-

lish speech as the pukka curtness of a British colonial administrator might have been for an earlier time. 528

As a result, the people specialists tend to present a rather standardized appearance.529

Disney Corporate Culture ( ) n. Of or pertaining to the Disney organization,

as a: philosophy underlying all business decisions; b: the commitment of top leadership and management to

that philosophy; c: the actions taken by individual cast members that reinforce that image [ Adapted from John Van

Maanen, “The Smile Factory: Work at Disneyland,” in Peter J. Frost, Larry F. Moore, Meryl Reis Louis, Craig C. Lundberg, and Joanne

530

Martin, eds., Reframing Organizational Culture (Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1991), pp. 67, 65 ].



Even the cops at Disneyland are a new breed—generally moonlighting as schoolteachers, with physical-education

instructors predominant among them.531, iv

Disneyland‟s shaky start was fleeting,532…[but] with phenomenal success it mirror[ed] the desires of its “guests”

regarding the shape of the future.533 On 1 May 1987 guest number 242,831,300 entered the gates of a Disney park,

thus matching total park attendance with the population of the United States.534 By 1990, 35 years after its opening,

Disneyland Park retain[ed] its stellar position as the second top attraction in terms of attendance in the United States,

drawing over 14 million visitors.535, v

Disneyland Park is a prototypical theme park, where control is the overriding element not only in the design but

in the experiencing of the park. Total control of space, movement, and mood create a succession of visual stereo-

types so profound in effect that they quickly achieve the status of national popular images.536

Control has been the signature ingredient of all the company‟s phenomenally successful them parks; every

thrill, every gasp, every…“surprise” was the product of clockwork orchestration. 537 Captivation is the mis-

sion of a Disney film, a Disney theme park, a Disney merchandise store, a Disney anything.538





i

At Disneyland and Disneyworld [sic], every person who comes onto the property (the “set”) is called a guest. Moreover, should

you ever write the word at Disney, heaven help you if you don‟t capitalize the G.

— Tom Peters and Nancy Austin, A Passion for Excellence: The Leadership Difference (New York: Warner Books, 1986), p. 47.

ii

The word derives from two Chinese words meaning “to wash the brain” and implies the use of physical and/or psycholocigcal

duress.

— Brainwashing, in James P. Chaplin, Dictionary of Psychology, Revised ed. (New York: Laurel, 1968, 1975).

iii

Ulitmately…speech issue[s] from the larynx without involving the higher brain centers at all.

— George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair), Nineteen Eighty-Four (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1949, 1992), Appendix: “The Prin-

ciples of Newspeak,” p. 322.

iv

It‟s Mickey Mouse on steroids.

— Stephen M. Fjellman, Vinyl Leaves: Walt Disney World and America (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1992), p. 394.

v

The old woman, although her behavior was so kind, was a wicked witch, who lay in wait for children, and had built the little

house on purpose to entice them.

— “Hansel and Grethel,” Household Stories from the Collection of the Bros. Grimm, Lucy Crane, trans. (New York: Dover

Publ., Inc., 1886, 1963), p. 90; see also “Hansel and Gretel,” Grimm’s Fairy Tales, p. 145; “Hansel and Gretel,” Brothers

Grimm, p. 24; and “Hansel and Gretel,” The Juniper Tree and Other Tales from Grimm, Randall Jarrell, trans., Vol. I (New

York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1973), p. 161.





34

There is one basic product which is never stocked in the Disney store: parents. 539, i Rather than

undermining unchallenged patriarchal authority, this ommission reinforces it. 540, ii Disney‟s is a un-

iverse of uncles and grand-uncles, nephews and cousins; the male-female relationship is that of eternal

fiancés.541

Charm, captivate, and conquer—that‟s how the empire advances.542 “Arrogant, demanding, aloof, confident,

efficient, powerful, successful and profitable…describe Disney,” [reported Prince County executive Jim Mul-

len in Public Management].543

The ultimate exercise of power is, [of course],…the ability to control, at the most fundamental lev-

el, the future lives of unborn generations by engineering their biological life process in advance, mak-

ing them a partial hostage of their own architecturally designed blueprints. I use the word “partial”

because, like many others, I believe that environment is a major contributing factor in determining

one‟s life course. It is also true, however, that one‟s genetic makeup plays a role in helping to shape

one‟s destiny. Genetic engineering, then, represents the power of authorship, albeit limited authorship.

Being able to engineer even minor changes in the physical and behavioral characteristics of future

generations represents a new era in human history.544 Genetic testing will become the future standard

of medical care. Life insurers will also need access to genetic information if the insurance industry is

to survive intact and if coverage is to remain affordable. 545 What bothers…civil libertarians…is the

potential for abuse of genetic information and the adequacy of current privacy safeguards. 546 Human

genetic engineering raises the very real spectre of a distopian future where the haves and the have-nots

are increasingly divided and separated by genetic endowment, genetic discrimination is widely prac-

ticed, and traditional notions of democracy and equality give way to the creation of a genetocracy

based on one‟s “genetic qualifications.” 547

As Disneyland took shape during the Eisenhower fifties, Disney‟s Norman Rockwell view of history…was de-

signed to soothe park visitors by leaping across two world wars and a depression to more distant and hazy times.

Colonial America, the American West, and the turn-of-the-century Victorian echoes of Main Street USA were meant

to tap nostalgia and sneak past whaetever grim realities attended these times and places.

The phrase “Disney realism” was meant to be ironic, although it is not so in a simple way.548 A Disney “imagi-

neer” iii…explains how the process works: “What we created is a „Disney Realism,‟ sort of utopian in nature, where

we program out all the negative, unwanted elements and program in the positive elements” [The Disney Theme Show:

549

From Disneyland to Walt Disney World, A Pocket History of the First Twenty Years (Walt Disney Productions, 1976), I, p. 31 ]. Disney

550, iv

people clearly know they were not telling the truth. The Disney people do not consider this retrospective tidying

up an abuse of the past—they freely and disarmingly admit its falsification,551…but they also insist they are bringing

out deeper truths.552

When it was new in the late 1950s, observers as varied as Vice President Richard Nixon and science fiction writ-

er Ray Bradbury praised its meticulous design as the way society ought to be—a contrast to the spontaneous sprawl

of southern California and the untidiness of eastern cities.553 Tourists at Disneyland [are] greeted by a huge sign



i

Mr. and Mrs. Mouse are dead.

— Tamara Paris, Last Days; The week in review, The Stranger, 11-17 May 2000, 9(34), p. 7.

ii

See Para leer al Pato Donald (Valparaiso: Ediciones Univeritarias, 1971), translated into English by David Kunzle with the

added subtitle Imperialist Ideology in the Disney Comic (New York: International General, 1975), Chapter 1, “Uncle, Buy me a

Contraceptive,” especially pp. 33-34. Other writers have also noted the gender imbalance. Richard Schickel, in The Disney Ver-

sion,…notes “the absense of the mother,” “a theme that is implicit in almost all the Disney features.”

— cf. Smoodin, Disney Discourse, p. 243.

iii

“Imagineering” * is the company‟s practice of combining technical know-how with creative ideas to develop new rides, servic-

es, and even places.

— Douglas Frantz and Catherine Collins, Celebration, U.S.A.: Living in Disney’s Brave New Town (New York: Henry Holt &

Co.: Marian Wood, 1999), p. 51.

*

Like Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, Imagineering has become a purely Disney word.

— Disney Imagineers, Walt Disney Imagineering: A Behind the Dreams Look at Making the Magic Real (New York: Hyperion,

1996), p. 11.

iv

To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it

becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality

and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies—all this is indispensably necessary.

— Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, p. 223.





35

proclaiming the…theme park “The Happiest Place on Earth.” 554 As the familiar saying goes, “You come to Dis-

neyland, you check your brain at the gate.” 555

Everything about the park, including the behavior of the “guests,” is engineered to promote a spirit of optimism, a

belief in progressive improvement toward perfection. Elements within the park achieve mythic, religious signific-

ance as treasured icons protecting us against infusion or assault by evil in any form, including our own faults. Be-

ginning with the assassination of John Kennedy in 1963, events have continually cast doubt on America‟s faith in its

providential role as the leader in the quest toward the perfectibility of man. Individually, Americans have been faced

with progressively worsening social and urban problems, a government lacking moral integrity, a chaotic and com-

petitive working world, and the severing of the family unit. Paradoxically, self-doubt and loss of faith have not ren-

dered Disneyland obsolete but have instead engendered the sanctification of the park as a Mecca, a holy city, where

the values of hope, goodness, perfection, and order are protected and can be instilled in its guest pilgrims. Disney

management is aware of the park‟s power to transmit confidence. John Hench, reflecting on his 50-year career with

Disney, has stated, “Actually, what we‟re selling throughout the Park is reassurance. We offer adventures in which

you survive a kind of personal challenge. . . . We let your survival instincts triumph over adversity. A trip to Dis-

neyland is an exercise in reassurance about oneself and one‟s ability to maybe even handle the real challenges of

life” [Bright, Disneyland, p. 237].556

It is amazingly easy to lose a child (or two) at the theme park, 557…[but] lost children do not usually pose

much of a problem.558 The security forces inside the park are far more careful than the happy appearance of

things indicates.559

By the entry through the railroad station, guests are transported to Main Street, U.S.A., an ideal midwestern town

at the turn of the [twentieth] century. Of all the Disneyland attractions, Main Street has generated the most com-

ment.560

In the summer of 1955,…[Walt] moved into an apartment directly above the fire station adjacent to Main

Street‟s City Hall. At times, he loved to walk along Main Street, talk with the visitors and tousle the hair of

the children. However, he passed most days locked inside the apartment, where he would often stand by the

window with tears streaming down his face as people walked the boulevard of his dreams.

After a while, the apartment became the source of unfounded rumors among employees of the park that

later spread back to Burbank—that it was Walt‟s new love nest for endless assignations with lady friends.

The lavender, red and pink flocked wallpaper, offset by thick red rugs and Victorian furniture, gave the im-

pression of nothing so much as the anteroom of a New Orleans whorehouse.

That wasn‟t, however, what Walt had had in mind. The faux gas lamps, thick upholstery, heavy drapes,

china trinkets, windup phonograph and working fireplace were all exact duplicates, as he remembered them,

of the living room of the Disney family farmhouse in Marceline. 561, i

The obviousness of false fronts,ii the inability to explore interiors beyond the commercial stores located on the

ground floors within the facade result in an atmosphere of theater, a feeling of presence within a movie set. The visi-

tor is obliged to move in one direction.562 While Disney embraced the totality of planning and the creation of perva-

sive visual symbols,…he chose to glorify the ordinary, small-town origins of the common citizen rather than to con-

trive an aristocratic, elegant realm suitable for a ruling class.563 But just like Chicago‟s White City iii in the [nine-





i

“Walt was looking out the window of his apartment, when he saw an employee from Adventureland cross Main Street in Tahi-

tian costume; he got right on the phone! He didn‟t want the illusion of Main Street U.S.A. spoiled.”

— Dick van Dyke, quoted in Green and Green, Remembering Disney, p. 158.

ii

We are convinced that we don‟t want to know what goes on behind the scenes. That would spoil the magic.

— Fjellman, Vinyl Leaves, p. 158.

iii

The [World‟s Columbian Exposition (i.e., White Ctiy)] was pointedly elitist in concept and execution, and its presentation of

the “City Beautiful” was illusory and temporary. As Frederick Douglass charged, it was indeed a “whited sepulcher” that ignored

the realities of urban poverty and the treatment of nonwhite races in America [Frederick Douglass, Introduction to Ida B. Wells,

ed., The Reason Why the Colored American is Not in the World’s Columbian Exposition (Chicago: Ida B. Wells, 1893), p. 4]. It

presented blacks and American Indians as quasi-ethnological entertainment or as product advertisements, as in the case of Aunt

Jemima, who first appeared at the exposition. Although it may have built a utopian city, it was designed to promote responses on

emotional and visual levels; it was not a city to be lived in and used. Built as a celebration of capitalist enterprise, the very exis-

tence of the grand White City seemed to be a justification for ignoring the horrible effects of capitalism, that is, the growing

number of people living in poverty, unemployment, and the spread of slums in urban areas.





36

teenth] century, the darkest aspect of Main Street is its enshrinement of Anglo-American imagery to the total exclu-

sion of immigrant and ethnic infusions. Main Street, U.S.A., exudes prosperity, shuns pluralism, and is haven for

white America. It has a railroad, an emporium, and a city hall, but no church or school. The values depicted are

those of civil rule and commercialism, not spiritual aspiration, mental enrichment, or personal growth. It is a popular

culture sanitized of its most creative and energetic elements, static in time, and reserved for the financially comforta-

ble. America‟s prejudices and monetary ambitions are endorsed and encouraged.

Once the central plaza at the end of Main Street is reached,564…people on foot…[are] drawn…[to] Sleeping

Beauty‟s Castle—the likes of which has seldom been seen in any Midwestern town.565

Disney…again proved that he could promote Satanism, witchcraft and demonic mythology as well as an-

yone with another of his fairy tale adaptions—Sleeping Beauty,i a reluctant heroine who lies in enchanted

sleep for a century until her prince arrives and revives her with a kiss. 566 The strength of the story lay in its

romance, but [there is]…little romance in a stranger kissing a coma victim.567

It would be important to keep people moving in the park, and Disney had an expression which voiced his philos-

ophy in this regard: “You‟ve got to have a wiene at the end of every street” 568—“weenie”…[being] the term he al-

ways used to describe something that attracted and held the interest of his visitors. 569 A visitor…follow[ing] a

clockwise route from this central feature…find[s] himself, first of all, in Adventureland, next in Frontierland, then in

Fantasyland, and finally in Tomorrowland ii (other possibilities, such as Holiday Land and Lilliputian Land, were

considered, then abandoned). Each of these areas would have a specific atmosphere appropriate to its name. 570 The

individual adventures, such as the “Jungle Cruise,” “Tom Sawyer Island,” “Snow White‟s Adventures,” the “Subma-

rine Voyage,” and the “Haunted Mansion,” offer escapism from the ordinary.571 It can be suggested that the adven-

tures, within which each rider is placed in a conveyance, either a boat or a cab, and transported on an… established

route, are a form of manipulation that eliminates individuality and spontaneity. Riders calmly surrender their free-

dom, however, because they are constantly stimulated without the necessity for thinking, acting, or making choic-

es.572

Much of Disneyland‟s technological wonder emanates from Disney‟s pioneering work in audioanimatronics.573

The new Audio-Animatronics system was introduced discreetly in a Disneyland attraction known as “The Enchanted

Tiki Room,” where audiences group themselves around a bunch of handsomely feathered birds, [flowers, and Tiki-

god statues 574]…in a small jungle setting,…sing[ing] and tell[ing] jokes.575 When the musical-comedy revue reaches

its peak, the celebration is suddenly halted by a violent thunderstorm unleashed by angered… gods.576 In the newest

version of this long-lived attraction, the familiar Audio-Animatronics cast of singing birds is joined by the feathered

stars of recent Disney animated features.577 It‟s a fantasy and the question of how it works is really quite insignifi-

cant, since the effect is not an especially arresting one.578

Technicians at Disneyland…[also] created extremely life-like computer-controlled humanoids capable of moving

their arms and legs, grimacing, smiling, glowering, simulating fear, joy and a wide range of other emotions. Built of





— Judith A. Adams, The American Amusement Park Industry: A History of Technology and Thrills (Boston: Twayne Publ.,

1991), p. 20.

i

And a rumor went abroad in all that country of the beautiful sleeping Rosamond, for so was the princess called. *

— “The Sleeping Beauty,” Bros. Grimm, p. 206.

*

The famous Charles Perrault version, published in 1697, has…the Prince‟s cannibal of a mother…long[ing] to dine on the flesh

of Beauty.

— McFarland, Cartoon cover-ups, p. M1.

ii

In 1955, Walt Disney opened Tomorrowland. This was a futuristic them park that had—along with a monorail and space

rides—an 80-foot, needle-nosed rocket called the Moonliner as its centerpiece. Taller than the Sleeping Beauty Castle, the

Moonliner was a dream model of a future commercial rocket that would transport businessmen and rich tourists to the moon in

the distant year of 1986. For the sake of verisimilitude, the Moonliner also had a TWA logo on its side. But the most intriguing

thing about this massive rocket was its likeness to a V2 rocket, which was no accident—Disney‟s Moonliner was designed by

[Nazi] Wernher von Braun. Ten years after the war ended, von Braun was not only an American citizen and a scientist working

for the army, but also a consultant for Disney.

During this time, von Braun also appeared, with a slide rule in his pocket, on Disney‟s popular TV show Man in Space.

With his good looks, perfect phrases like “castles in the air” (which he used to describe a rotating space station), and his total,

pure commitment to space travel, von Braun won the hearts of millioins of Americans. Indeed, only a consummate charmer

could obscure such an ugly past and successfully reinvent himself as a visionary.

— Charles Mudede, Blast off! How Nazis, rockets, and Disney gave birth to Seattle‟s pointiest landmark, The Stranger, 23-29

Aug 2001, 10(49), p. 14.





37

clear plastic that, according to one reporter, “does everything but bleed,” 579…“imagineers” discovered, quite by ac-

cident,…[that] the plastic…skin…excretes oils just as the human skin does:580

“Duraflex has a consistency much like human skin,” [Imagineer Wathel] Rogers said. “It flexes as well as

compresses. Rubber, for example, will flex, but won‟t compress correctly for our needs.” 581

The robots chase girls, play music, fire pistols, and so closely resemble human forms that visitors routinely shriek

with fear, flinch and otherwise react as though they were dealing with real human beings. The purposes to which

these robots are put may seem trivial, but the technology on which they are based is highly sophisticated. 582

The sophisticated tape technique that forms the basis for its highest development was perfected as a means of

controlling the launching of space rockets. But there is no record that Disney, the Goldwater Republican, hesitated

to use such government-sponsored research for his own ends any more than he hesitated to use tax advantages to his

own ends. If anything, he probably saw it as some sort of compensation for the spiritual discomfort big government

caused him. Certainly, the irony of putting space-age technology to use in an amusement park is not much stressed

by Disney‟s people. Indeed, to them there is a certain implicit fitness about this meeting and mingling of the great

forces of the age, Disneyism and electronic scientism.583 Even his use of the technique to create mechanical men to

serve as guides to exhibitions was somehow acceptable. They were only a little more than disconcerting than a hu-

man guide who has been brainwashed and programmed by a corporate training program and whose manner and re-

sponse to stimuli is therefore almost as routinized as that of a robot.584

“But how does a human being react to a stimulus?” 585

[John Broadus] Watson believed that “In a system of psychology completely worked out, given the

stimuli the response can be predicted.” His ultimate goal was “to learn general and particular methods

by which I may control behavior.586 Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed and my own specif-

ic world to bring them up in and I‟ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any

type of specialist I might select—a doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even into a beggar-

man and thief,i regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations and race of his an-

cestors.” 587 He believed that “If psychology would follow the plan I suggest, the educator, the physi-

cian, the jurist and the business man could utilize our data in a practical way” [ John Broadus Watson, “Psy-

chology as the Behaviorist Views It,” Psychological Review, 1913, 20, pp. 158-177 (Herrnstein and Boring, Excerpt No.

588

94)].



“I think of a child‟s mind as a blank book. During the first years of his life, much will be written on the pag-

es. The quality of that writing will affect his life profoundly.” 589

In recent years Team Rodent has become even less bashful and more technologically advanced at superimposing

its own recreation-based reality. Disney-brand fun needs a script, and a script needs performing, and a performance

needs a stage. No one is fussier about the production details than Team Rodent. 590, ii

It is time for our symbols of technology to change—to catch up with the quickening changes in technolo-

gy, itself.591 To most people, the term technology conjures up images of smoky steel mills or clanking ma-

chines. Perhaps the classic symbol of technology is still the assembly line created by Henry Ford…a century

ago and made into a potent social icon by Charlie Chaplin in Modern Times. This symbol, however, has al-

ways been inadequate, indeed, misleading, for technology has always been more than factories and ma-

chines.592 Technology includes techniques, as well as the machines that may or may not be necessary to apply

them. It includes ways to make chemical reactions occur, ways to breed fish, plant forests, light theaters,

count votes or teach history.

The old symbols of technology are even more misleading today, when the most advanced technological

processes are carried out far from assembly lines or open hearths. Indeed, in electronics, in space technology,

in most of the new industries, relative silence and clean surroundings are characteristic—even sometimes es-



i

Studies show the teen criminals of tomorrow are “literally being manufactured, programmed, hardwired to behave in a certain

way.”

— Lori Montgomery, Young lawbreakers likely to become older criminals, Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service, 10 April 1996.

ii

“Nazis, as we know, were obsessed with lists and inventories of everything.”

— Hector Feliciano (author of The Lost Museum: The Nazi Conspiracy to Steal the World’s Greatest Works of Art), quoted in

Mark D. Fefer, Inside this building is a painting that was stolen from a Jewish family by the Nazis; Why won‟t SAM give it

back?, Seattle Weekly, 3 Sep 1998, 23(35), p. 26.





38

sential. And the assembly line—the organization of armies of men to carry out simple repetitive functions—

is an anachronism.593 In the technological systems of tomorrow—fast, fluid and self-regulating—machines

will deal with the flow of physical materials; men with the flow of information and insight. Machines will in-

creasingly perform the routine tasks; men the intellectual and creative tasks. Machines and men both…will

be…linked together by amazingly sensitive, near-instantaneous communications. Human work will move out

of the factory and mass office into the community and home.594

Comparing Disneyland to Las Vegas, [Julian Halevy] analyzed their effect in intellectual terms: “Both these insti-

tutions exist for the relief of tension and boredom, as tranquilizers for social anxiety, and . . . both provide fantasy

experiences in which not-so-secret longings are pseudo-satisfied. Their huge profits and mushrooming growth sug-

gests that as conformity and adjustment become more rigidly imposed on the American scene, the drift to fantasy

release will become a flight” [Julian Halevy, “Disneyland and Las Vegas,” Nation, 7 June 1958, 186, pp. 511, 513 ].595

Richard Schickel, in The Disney Version, recognized the manipulative aspects of Disneyland. “The trick is not to

harass the visitor into spending but rather relax him to the point where the inner guardians of his frugality are lulled

into semiconsciousness. It works.” Schickel is also disturbed by the all-American, conservative, standardized look

of the attendants and the early practice of barring entrance to long-haired youths or anyone dressed in an eccentric

manner. These practices demonstrate “corporate fear” of minority subculture groups and a “maniacal desire to keep

the eccentricities of individualized expression . . . away from its door.” But Schickel finds much to admire in Dis-

ney‟s marvel. The sanitation effort is unparalleled, with no apparent regard for the profit margin. 596 And there is

always a small discovery, a surprise around every bend.597

There are a dozen or more images of Mickey Mouse hidden in the details! They‟re called “hidden Mick-

eys.” 598 According to the cast members, the hidden Mickeys started out as an inside joke by the Imagineers.

In their designs and construction work, they would „hide‟ Mickeys where they could be seen just as plain as

the nose on your face, if you knew where to look.599 But no one kept track of them all.600

Schickel explains Disney‟s ability to understand the needs of the common person: “What the average, middle-

class American wants and has always wanted of art and of the objects he mistakes for art, is the fake alligator that

thrills but never threatens, that may be appreciated for the cleverness with which it approximates the real thing but

that carries no psychological or poetic overtones. . . . You carry away not some dark phantom that may rise up

someday to haunt you but an appreciation of the special-effects man‟s skill” [Schickel, Disney Version, pp. 317, 319, 320,

322, 330-331].

The dream, then, of Disneyland Park is escapism from problems, responsibilities, and the threats of reality. 601 As

Sergei Eisenstein said in a commentary on Disney‟s films, Disney “bestows . . . precisely obliviousness, an instant of

complete and total release from everything connected with the suffering caused by the social conditions” [ Jay Leyda,

602

ed., Eisenstein on Disney (London: Methuen, 1988), p. 8 ]. As John Bright perceptively notes, it is “a little like Christianity

without Christ” [John Bright, “California Revolution 6: Disney‟s Fantasy Empire,” Nation, 6 March 1967, 204, p. 299 ].603

Another factor influencing Disneyland‟s success was the post-World War II baby boom. Between 1940 and

1965 the number of children under 15 years of age increased from just under 33 million to over 59 million, an in-

crease of nearly 80 percent.

The tremendous augmentation of disposable personal income between 1940 and 1970 was, perhaps, as much a

contributing factor to Disneyland‟s success as the population boost. 604 While population, especially the number of

children, began to decrease dramatically after 1960, enhanced growth in disposable income made significantly more

funds available to smaller families for leisure activities. Disneyland Park has never been adversely affected by the

decrease in children after the boom of the 1950s because its strongest appeal is to adults rather than children. Adult

admissions consistently outnumber those for children at a ratio of four to one, and 50 percent of the guests are repea-

ters [Kevin Wallace, “The Engineering of Ease,” New Yorker, 7 Sep 1963, 39, p. 106].

In part to celebrate the 35th anniversary of Disneyland, Walt Disney Company announced…a billion-dollar ex-

pansion of the Southern California attraction. Calling the 1990s the “Disney Decade,” Michael Eisner…detailed

plans, including the addition of two new theme areas, Hollywoodland and Mickey‟s Starland; a total rehabilitation of

Tomorrowland,i with a network of skyways making possible a second-story level; and many new attractions: a

“Young Indiana Jones Adventure,” a “Little Mermaid” ride, an “Alien Encounter” ride, a “Dick Tracy‟s Crime Stop-

pers” attraction, a “Toontown Trolley” simulator ride, a “Baby Herman‟s Runaway Baby Buggy” ride, and a “Great



i

Tomorrowland is rapidly becoming Yesterday Land.

— David E. Sarna and George J. Febish, Mickey Mouse and Microsoft, Datamation, 15 June 1995, 41(11), p. 24(2).





39

Movie Ride.” New live shows are in the works based on the Muppets, for which Disney acquired the character

rights in 1989, and on the Dick Tracy comic-book personalities [Linda Deckard, “New, $1 Billion Attraction Slated for Southern

605

California,” Amusement Business, 22 Jan 1990, 1, pp. 27-28].

“Disneyland celebrated its 40th anniversary by burying a time capsule,” reports Jay Leno. “They say it will be

dug up in 50 years—or when the last person in line at Space Mountain gets to the front, whichever comes first.” 606

(You can‟t ride Space Mountain without standing in line.607) The company is gung-ho on anniversaries, these being

splendid occasions for inviting battalions of reporters…for weekends of high-end gluttony and mooching.608 Dis-

ney‟s publicists 609…angl[e] for positive press coverage, and that‟s usually what they get. For every snarky jab in the

Los Angeles Times or the Washington Post, Disney enjoys miles of glowering favorable column-inches in smaller

hometown newspapers, which in the aggregate are read by far more Americans. 610





“It’s a Small World After All”



The success of Disneyland…persuaded Disney that a second park was desirable.611 In the summer of 1964

agents for Walt Disney began quietly to purchase parcels of swamp land and citrus groves in central Florida on the

outskirts of the then small city of Orlando.612 In a calculated ploy to keep land prices at bargain levels and to secure

vast amounts of acreage, Disney‟s agents bought the parcels in small pieces under a variety of holding companies

with names like “Tomahawk” and “Compass East” [Paul Goldberger, “Mickey Mouse Teaches the Architects,” The New York Times

613

Magazine, 22 Oct 1972, p. 96]. Some thought it was Howard Hughes; others,614…the U.S. government,… behind the

massive land acquisition not far from the existing Cape Canaveral complex. By October 1965 Disney‟s agents had

secured 27,443 acres, nearly 43 square miles, at a total cost of just over $5 million or about $200 an acre. 615 [The]

Reedy Creek [Improvement District] takes in all the land purchased by Walt‟s secret agents.616 Its borders contain

two shell municipalities, Lake Buena Vista and Bay Lake.617

Disney had been frustrated by the lack of space at the comparatively tiny 165-acre Disneyland Park tract,

which, although originally ringed by orange groves, soon became surrounded by 618…[souvenir kiosks, cut-

rate car rental lots,619] fast-food enterprises, freeways, and tacky suburban development.620 “Then come the

T-shirt shops and reptile petting zoos,” [says Robert Walters, executive director of Protect Historic Ameri-

ca].621

“Believe me,” [Walt] said, “if I ever build another Disneyland, I would make sure I could control the class

and the theme of the enterprises around it.” 622 To insure against a similar encroachment at the Florida site,

Disney planned a massive tract that would serve as a natural buffer against other commercial interests and de-

velopment.623 [But] the cattle ranches, orange groves, and cypress stands of old Orlando rapidly gave way to

an execrable panorama of suburban blight.624

“My concern is the things that follow Disney. The cheap motels,i the hookers, the wall-to-wall neon,”

[says a Middleburg, Virginia, merchant].625

“If you have a Disney-clad employee going to 7-Eleven for a six-pack of beer, it deflates the value of the

Disney image,” said Dan Head, who worked at Disneyland in a train conductor‟s outfit.626

Citizens of central Florida became alerted to Disney sponsorship of the land purchases in Orange and Osceola

counties when Orlando Sentinal reporter Emily Bavar,…in 1965, asked Walt if he was buying land in Florida for an

eastern park. Disney protested too much, citing detailed reasons why central Florida was unsuitable for a theme

park, including the rainy climate, the swamplands, the humidity, and transportation inadequacies. Bavar realized that

Disney could not be such an expert on the area unless he had intensely studied and surveyed it. 627 The secret was

revealed, but well after Disney had acquired the vast tract. On 15 November 1965, 628…“D” Day for

do,629…Florida governor Haydon Burns publicly confirmed plans for the building of Walt Disney World Resort (of-

ficially named “Walt Disney World Resort, near Orlando, Florida” ii) [Mosley, Disney’s World, 1985, pp. 281-282].630 The

Walt Disney World complex,631…by securing an agreement with the state of Florida to develop and control…its own

43-square-mile fiefdom where every element is controlled and manipulated by corporate leadership,632…operates



i

The word “mo-tel,” it is thought, was coined as early as 1926.… As late as 1940, J. Edgar Hoover…put the nation on alert that

motels were “camps of crime” and “dens of vice and corruption.”

— Daniel Yergin, The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991), p. 551.

ii

“Walt Disney World is not in Orlando?” asked a surprised Samuel Lin.… “I did not know that.”

— Orlando seeks a home for gift rock (special to the Times), The New York Times, 14 May 1983, CXXXII(45,678), p. I:6.





40

much like an independent state—the Vatican City of leisure and entertainment.633 “The Vatican with mouse ears,”

says Richard Foglesong, a Rollins College professor and longtime Disney watcher. 634 Never before or since has such

outlandish dominion been given to a private corporation. Disney runs its own utilities. It administers its own plan-

ning and zoning. It maintains its own fire department.i It even has the authority to levy taxes.635, ii This postindu-

strial infrastructure operates outside of the jurisdiction of municipal and regional laws regarding zoning, traffic, de-

velopment, power, and waste.636

Walt Disney World‟s rise from the Florida swamps would be an unprecedented engineering feat. 637 Just to stabil-

ize the building sites, the Disney engineers had to drain off the swamp water, develop a system of canals for conti-

nuous drainage, dredge out the unstable muck that seeps into…[underground] caverns, pump off all the water and

muck to an offsite area, then bring in stable, nonindigenous material to compress into the sinkholes and shape the

area to the contours specified by the designers.638

Florida‟s heartland is dapple with lovely tree-lined lakes, but the waters are often tea-colored from cypress bark.

For postcard purposes, tea-colored water was deemed unsuitable for Disney World‟s centerpiece, Bay Lake, so in the

early 1970s Team Rodent sprang into action—yanking out cypresses, draining the lake, scraping out the bottom

muck, replacing it with imported sand, then refilling the crater.639

(Bay Lake fantasy: sneak in one night and dump a truckload of hungry bull gators in that lovely deep-blue

water.640 My conscience is all that‟s stopping me iii—the Magic Kingdom is not a safe place;…the alligators

would be systematically hunted down and…worse.)641

The Magic Kingdom that guests see above-pavement is actually the second and third stories.642 Underneath is a

massive tunnel.643, iv “Now that‟s pretty massive,” said Mort [Vandeleur, a former Disneyland and Disney World

cast member].644 “Other things are less massive but equally important—like trash cans.v You‟ll see right away that

many trash cans are custom[ized].645 I don‟t know exactly what all this cost, but someone once told me Disney has

some very expensive trash cans. The important thing, though, is that the trash cans are just one way that everything

walks the talk.” 646

Disney seems to be the sole player in its industry that has figured out how to keep a theme park sparkling clean.

It turns out that the obvious is not so obvious—and it‟s a hell of a lot harder to do than we ever imagined!647 While

Disney pollution standards are generally responsive to the protection of the environment, the sheer volume of water

needs and waste disposal have an enormous impact on Florida ecosystems. 648 The solid waste disposal system is



i

In a class on sexual harassment attended by the firefighters at EPCOT in 1990 or 1991, Sandi Adams (a Disney employee)

brought up the subject of “sphincter viewing.”… These attacks didn‟t occur quietly in the dark corners of the Disney firehouse.

Instead, they took place in open areas. Sometimes they were even announced in advance over the public address system.…

You would think that numerous cases of sexual abuse reported by half-a-dozen employees would warrant action by manage-

ment at the the “happiest place on earth.” You would be wrong.… To date, no one has been punished for these attacks. Instead,

several of the most persistent perpetrators have been promoted.

— Schweizer and Schweizer, Mouse Betrayed, pp. 121, 130, 132.

ii

The maxim, cujus est solum, ejus est usque ad coelum et ad infernos, [is] sometimes translated as “he who had the soil, has it

even to the sky and the lowest depths.” *

— Lief H. Carter, J.D., Ph.D., Reason in Law, 3rd ed. (Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman/Little, Brown College Division, 1988), p.

126.

*

“Man marks the earth with ruin—his control stops with the shore.”

— Lord Byron, quoted in Kim Jacklin, Cinderella Cracked (Salt Lake City, UT: Northwest Publ., Inc., 1995), p. 3.

iii

In a grisly and tragic…event, a 3-year-old Florida boy was killed by an alligator.*

— Stadmueller, Wildness holds its own, p. B7.

*

His was the seventh death in more than 220 documented alligator attacks on humans since 1948.

— Mike Clary (Los Angeles Times), Crocodile fears have no merit, experts say; Gators‟ less-aggressive cousins back in Florida,

The Seattle Times, 7 Sep 1997, p. A8.

iv

Almost all of the workings of Disney World are hidden from the spectator, much as productive forces are concealed in the im-

age of the commodity. Miles of underground corridors—“utilidors” in Disney parlance—transport workers, supplies, utilities,

and telecommunications to the various parts of the “Total Vacation Kingdom.” Staff cafeterias, laundries and dry cleaners, cos-

tume and dressing rooms, and storage facilities are…located underground throughout the site. Pneumatic tubes “whisk refuse

away like magic” to compactors. Service roads are concealed behind berms. On-site jet generators and solar collectors power

the entire park. Nurseries and greenhouses propagate a quarter of a million species of flora.

— Alexander Wilson, “The Betrayal of the Future: Walt Disney‟s EPCOT Center,” in Smoodin, Disney Discourse, p. 119.

v

Please Waste—words on [Walt Disney World] trash bins.

— Fjellman, Vinyl Leaves, p. 151.





41

perhaps the most technologically intriguing utility system within Walt Disney World. The first application of the

Automatic Vacuum Collection (AVAC) system… was installed in a Swedish hospital in 1961. The Disney AVAC

system is the largest in the world and the first installed in the United States. AVAC transfers garbage from charging

stations down into vertical storage sectors above discharge valves. When activated, the discharge valves drop the

waste into vacuum tubes, which whisk the garbage by means of a high-velocity air stream to the central collection

compacting plant. The air flow along the tubes reaches a velocity of approximately 60 miles per hour. Once at the

compactor, the trash is pressed into parcels, which are then transferred to Disney incinerators 649…which s[it] like

evil Baal in a dark corner.650 The AVAC system is designed to process three tons of refuse per hour [Arthur C. Bravo,

“Environmental Systems at Walt Disney World,” Journal of the Environmental Engineering Division: Proceedings of the American Society of

651

Civil Engineers, Dec 1975, 101(EE6), pp. 887-895]. Once collected, this solid waste material is trucked to a wet-area land-

fill outside Reedy Creek boundaries under a program conducted for the Environmental Protection Agency [ See “World

652

of Make-Believe Is Also Technological Innovator,” National Engineer, May 1983].

Florida‟s starstruck lawmakers 653…also gave Disney‟s puppet government the authority to build its own interna-

tional airport and even a nuclear power plant.654, i Walt Disney believed that nuclear power would play a role in ad-

advancing society, and he sought permission to build a nuclear reactor.655 In 1967, shortly after Disney‟s death, the

Florida Legislature passed a law granting the Disney Company the right to experiment with nuclear fission [ Robert

656

Johnson and John Wark, “The Startling Fact,” New Florida, Sep 1981, p. 302].



With our atomic projects we found ourselves deep in the field of nuclear physics. Of course, we don‟t

pretend to be scientists—we are story tellers. But we combine the tools of our trade with knowledge of ex-

perts. We even created a new Science Department at the studio to handle projects of this kind.657

As George Orwell once observed, “so long as a machine is there, one is under an obligation to use it.”

And so Disney‟s “imagineers” could not resist taking the logical next step.658, ii The unit had an eccentric re-

search-and-development division that toiled in secrecy on all manner of ideas, from the notion of developing

a potato chip shaped like Mickey Mouse to figuring out how to launch a giant billboard into geosynchronous

orbit with the earth. Another proposal was to project Mickey‟s image onto the moon—using a laser powerful

enough and bright enough to do the job. A former scientist in the division says the Imagineers actually got

access to secret military laser technology to see if it could do the trick.659

Getting access to military secrets wasn‟t unusual, though. Disney was the first non-NASA contractor to

gain access to the agency‟s database. And an insider says Disney frequently made extravagant requests of

other companies—asking them to develop technologies or loan machinery with no quid pro quo. “My boss

would say, „Tell them we‟re Disney.‟ [He] expected them to give us half a million dollars‟ worth of equip-

ment. We just took advantage of them in any way we could. What they got in return was a „whiff of the

mouse,‟ ” says the former employee.660

Reedy Creek is further empowered to have cemeteries, schools, a police department, and a criminal justice sys-

tem.661, iii The Orlando business community, as well as disinterested observers, view Mickey Mouse as a sharp-

toothed, gluttonous rat.662

Disney conceived Walt Disney World to be much more than an East Coast Disneyland. This time he would

create a complete vacationland.663 When most people think of Walt Disney World, they think of the Magic King-

dom.664 Spread over 30,000…acres, Orlando‟s Disney complex ha[s]…separate theme parks. 665 The Magic King-

dom is…part of the [27,433 666]-acre Vacation Kingdom that is Walt Disney World…—a massive develpment that

also includes (as of the end of 1990) EPCOT Center; the Disney-MGM Studios; River Country; Discovery Island;

Fort Wilderness; Wald Disney Shopping Village; Pleasure Island; Typhoon Lagoon; the Contemporary, Polynesian,

Grand Floridian, Caribbean Beach, Swan, Dolphin, Yacht Club, Beach Club, and Port Orleans Resort Hotels; and

three man-made lakes, a wildlife preserve, and thousands of acres of undeveloped scrub and swamp. 667

Walt‟s most cherished dream, the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT), i was actually the

visionary core of his eastern project.668 As he originally proposed it in 1966,…Epcot would have been a utopian

i

Danger is foremost in our minds when we think of atomic radiation.

— Heinz Haber, The Walt Disney Story of Our Friend the Atom (New York: Dell, 1956), p. 120.

ii

Think what a profit-hungry company could do if it developed and secretly spread some new disease for which it alone had the

cure. Even a mild, coldlike ailment could create a massive market for the appropriate, monopolistically controlled cure.

— Alvin Toffler, The Third Wave (Toronto: Bantam Books, 1982), p. 147.

iii

“There is no Constitution at Disney[],” [retired police officer Marilyn] Dortch said [a Disney] security supervisor told her.

“We have our own laws.”

— American Civil Liberties Union, Mickey Mouse laws in the Magic Kingdom, ACLU News Wire (ACLU.org), 7 Nov 1996.





42

small city…where Disney employees could live, work, play, and serve as guinea pigs. 669 Walt explained and record-

ed his concept in October, 1966:

Epcot will be an experimental prototype community of tomorrow that will take its cue from the new ideas and

new technologies that are…emerging from the creative centers of American industry. It will be a community

of tomorrow that will never be completed, but will always be introducing and testing and demonstrating new

materials and systems. And Epcot will be a showcase to the world for the ingenuity and imagination of

American free enterprise.670

An amusement park would just be one element in this world of illusion and dreams of tomorrow.671 In a film

made…in 1966, Disney outlined his eccentric and worrisom vision of the future:

EPCOT will be an eperimental city that would incorporate the best ideas of industry, government, and aca-

demia worldwide, a city that caters to the people as a service function. It will be a planned, controlled com-

munity, a showcase for American industry and research, schools, cultural and educational opportunities. In

EPCOT there will be no slum areas because we won‟t let them develop. There will be no landowners and

therefore no voting control. People will rent houses instead of buying them, and at modest rentals. There will

be no retirees; everyone must be employeed. One of the requirements is that people who live in EPCOT must

help to keep it alive [Quoted in Barbara Smalley, “EPCOT: Disney‟s Dream Come True,” Express, April 1983, p. 41].672

But on 15 December 1966, Walt Disney died of lung cancer, just six months before the first earth-moving

equipment arrived at the shores of Bay Lake.673 News of Walt‟s death made headlines around the world. Tributes

poured in from all over the world.674 Governor-elect Ronald Reagan said, “There just aren‟t any words to express

my personal grief. The world is a poorer place now.” 675 Hoover ordered Disney‟s name deleted from the FBI‟s

records as an active SAC Contact.676 The day after Walt died, Woolie Reitherman said, “From this day on it will

never be like it was, but only as each person remembers it;” 677…the death of Walt Disney…accentuated the general

public‟s feeling that an era had come to an end.678

Others would recall a very different Disney legacy.679 Many rank-and-file employees could not forget his radical,

right-wing anti-unionism. Others remembered his key role in bringing the House Un-American Activities Committee

crashing down on Hollywood‟s elite [Eliot, Dark Prince, p. 265].680 Animators like Art Babbitt, who went to the Su-

preme Court in a case against Disney,ii still rage over how they were treated.681

Walt‟s preoccupation with futuristic technologies at the time of his death has fueled speculation that he ar-

ranged to have his body, upon his death, preserved for possible future resuscitation by being frozen in a cryo-

genic facility.682, iii He hired researchers to look into the infant art of cryogenesis. 683 It was not until several

hours after his death that a public announcement was made stating that the body had already been cremated

and that there would be no funeral. Some veteran Disney staffers doubted that the ashes of their boss were

buried in Forest Lawn, in Glendale, California. Instead, they speculated, his body lies in a state of cryogene-

sis waiting medical science to catch up with Disney‟s faith in technology.684 Longtime associate Ward Kim-

ball has responded to rumors that Walt‟s body is frozen somewhere by commenting that “Walt was always in-

tensely interested in things scientific,iv and he, more than any person I knew, just might have been curious

enough to agree to such an experiment” [Mosley, Disney’s World, 1985, pp. 298-299].685, v Sick jokes about it perco-



i

Some people say its acronym stands for “Every Person Comes Out Tired.”

— Rena Bulkin, Frommer’s Comprehensive Travel Guide: Orlando ’95 (New York: Macmillan Travel, 1994), p. 166.

ii

They fired Art more than once, but he always got back in. He took his case all the way to the Supreme Court—and won a huge

settlement.

— Kinney, Assorted Other Characters, p. 139.

iii

One newspaper termed [cryogenesis] “the freeze-drying of the human cadaver after death, for eventual resusitation.”

— Leonard Mosley, Disney’s World (New York: Stein & Day, 1985), p 288.

iv

[Like] Hitler-funded eugenics.

— Mary Kaye Schilling, X-Files for beginners; The conspiracy—and its players—in a nutshell, Entertainment Weekly, 12 June

1998, p. 29.

v

There are, it turns out, two Walt Disneys.* First, there was the familiar mustacioed fellow we all know, the man we might call

“Original Walt.”… Original Walt died,…but in a way he did live on. As WED (Walter Elias Disney) Enterprises, Inc., he was

reincarnated as a corporation.

— Wallace, Mickey Mouse History, p. 134.

*

“One Walt Disney was trying to be five Walt Disneys.”

— Ward Kimball, quoted in Mosley, Disney’s World, p. 275.





43

lated through the studio for weeks after his death. One animator recalled a running gag at the time that freez-

ing was Walt‟s attempt to make himself a warmer human being.686

The Disney organization, led by Walt‟s brother Roy, was meticulously faithful to Walt‟s plans for the creation of

the Magic Kingdom and the initial resort areas. At the gala opening of Walt Disney World Resort on 23 October

1971,i…the whole Disney clan, led by Walt‟s widow, Lilly,ii strolled down the entrance to Cinderella‟s Castle.687

One of Disney‟s best animated fairy tales remains Cinderella,688…the first animated cartoon to enjoy

world-wide success, and for many people,…constitut[ing] one of the first film memories of the post-war pe-

riod, notably for those who were children when it came out.689 While there have been over 500 different ver-

sions of this fairy tale throughout the world, the most widely known and accepted version comes from a se-

venteenth-century French rendering.690

Succinctly, Cinderella is the story of a poor, downtrodden girl,iii who becomes the victim of a cruel step-

mother 691…and her two daughters, who make her slave for them while they live in luxury. iv But thanks to her

friendship with small animals, Cinderella endures her hardship with good temper. 692

Cinderella is a terrible role model for kids. She has no virtues at all. The only reason she ever got

anything is because she cried and her fairy godmother showed up and dressed her. Then she danced

with the prince once and married him. Oh, very smart, Cin. I always tell my foster kid, “You know,

they don‟t tell you what happens after she marries the prince. It gets worse.”

Cinderella should have gotten out of the house. She should have been a labor organizer. She

should have overthrown the monarchy instead of marrying into it.693

Untrue to the original ninth-century Chinese version, though, French author, Charles Perrault,694… came

up with the idea of the glass slipper, the pumpkin coach and the concept that Cinderella had to leave the ball

by midnight when her magic finery would revert to rags [Cavendish, Myth and Magic, p. 484].695 He also omitted

some of the important points found in the folk-tale versions.696 In the[] [Brothers Grimm] version,v first pub-

lished between 1812 and 1815, Cinderella‟s stepsisters are so desperate to marry the prince they hack off their

toes to fit into the slipper.697





i

A few weeks later, just five days before Christmas, Roy Disney—who had been looking forward to retirement—was dead.

— Christopher Finch, The Art of Walt Disney: From Mickey Mouse to the Magic Kingdoms (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc.,

1995), p. 406.

ii

Lillian Disney,*…a leading patron of the arts, died [16 December 1997] in Los Angeles after a stroke. She was 98.

— Passages, The Seattle Times, 18 Dec 1997, p. A8.

*

After Walt‟s death,…she married John Truyens,† a real estate developer who died in 1981.

— Mickey‟s mom: Lillian Disney was Walt‟s real-life love; Wife of entertainment mogul Walt Disney, People Weekly, 12 Jan

1998, 49(1), p. 117(1).

†

She certainly didn‟t waste any time getting remarried after Walt died.

— Ward Kimball, “The Wonderful World of Walt Disney,” in Walter Wagner, ed., You Must Remember This: Oral Reminis-

cences of the Real Hollywood (New York: G.P. Putnam‟s Sons, 1975), pp. 281-282.

iii

In the evenings…she had no bed to lie down on, but was obliged to rest on the hearth among the cinders. And as she always

looked dusty and dirty, [her step-sisters] named her Aschenputtel.

— “Aschenputtel,” Bros. Grimm, p. 119; see also “Ash Maiden,” Grimm’s Fairy Tales, p. 18.

iv

Stepfamilies are at much higher risk than are traditional families. For example, Dr. Martin Daly and Dr. Margo Wilson, evolu-

tionary psychologists at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, found that the rate of infanticide was 60 times as high and

sexual abuse was about eight times as high in stepfamilies as in biologically related families.*…

Dr. Stephen T. Emlen, an evolutionary biologist at Cornell University,…suggested, for example, that single parents emulate

female baboons, which do not accept a new male partner unless he demonstrates parenting skills.… He added, “An individual

with children should realize the need to look for different traits in a future mate. Qualities such as a demonstrable interest in

children, financial generosity and a willingness to become an active participant in a ready-made family come readily to mind.”

— Jane E. Brody, Genetic ties may be factor in violence in stepfamilies; Evolution is being cited to explain higher rates of infan-

ticide, The New York Times, 10 Feb 1998, CXKLVII(51,064), pp. B9, B12.

*

Children 4 years old or younger were 40 times more likely to suffer child abuse in families with a stepparent than in families

with both genetic parents present!

— John Alcock, Animal Behavior: An Evolutionary Approach, 5th ed. (Mass: Sinauer Associates, Inc., 1993), p. 568.

v

Although they are know as history‟s most prolific writers of fairy tales, brothers Jacob [Ludwig Karl] and Wilhelm [Karl]

Grimm were, more accurately, folk tale collectors, the first to compile and preserve on paper centuries of stories.

— Koenig, Mouse Under Glass, p. 25.





44

The Cinderella story is hardly a fairy tale.698 [Said Soviet feminist Elvira Novikova]: “The shame-

ful way our media still push the spiel about marriage being the only honorable state! They‟ve taken

two basic images of women in our folklore—the Cinderella sweetie pie who sacrifices her life to fami-

ly, and Baba Yaga,i the wise independent witch who lives alone in the forest and is doomed to soli-

tude. They ask us, „Who do you want to be, Snow White or Baba Yaga?‟ The honey who must run

around bringing man his slippers . . . that‟s the woman they‟re all pressing us to be, even after…years

of our being fully employed in the work force!

“You see,” she continued, “in this Amazonic experiment we‟ve had here since the war, very few

women got used to their independence; the majority deplored it and transferred their fear of being

alone onto their daughters. So we‟re still stuck with the great value of the male, who became so pre-

cious when there was such a dearth of them. If you have a phallus you‟re priceless, so men become

like . . . like clothes.” 699

Like Cinderella, women today are still waiting for something external to transform their lives. 700

Pioneer women, long touted as our feisty foremothers, were not, it turns out, as independent as they

might have been, in the inner, psychological sense. Like modern women, when their men were away

they were able to behave independently in order to survive, but they didn‟t particularly like it. They

were put off by demands of adult living. That, at least, is what a feminist history scholar, Julie Jeffrey,

discovered when she decided to investigate how those pioneer women actually felt about their lives.

One woman wrote in her diary at night (before blowing out the candle): “Allway beeing accostum to

have someone to depende on, it is quite new to attend to business transactions and it pesters me no

little.” Quoting extensively from letters and diaries, Jeffrey showed that the pioneer women were ea-

ger to return to the simple jobs of domesticity as soon as their husbands came home from slaying the

Indians. It was domesticity, says Jeffrey, disappointed, “that gave their lives meaning” [Julie Jeffrey,

701

Frontier Women (New York: Hill & Wang, 1979].



At about 180 feet, Cinderella Castle is nearly twice the height of Disneyland‟s Sleeping Beauty Castle. The castle

underneath the icing ii takes its inspiration not only from the architecture of 12th- and 13th-century France,…but also

also from the mad Bavarian King Ludwig‟s fortress at Neuschwanstein and designs prepared for Disney‟s 1950 ani-

mated feature Cinderella.

Unlike real European castles, this one is made of steel and fiberglass; in lieu of dungeons, it has service tunnels.

Its upper reaches contain security rooms; there‟s even an apartment originally meant for members of the Disney fam-

ily.702

In 1991 the company learned that one of its wardrobe assistants was spying on female performers at Cin-

derella‟s Castle. The young man would masturbate while surreptitiously videotaping the women as they

changed costumes.703, iii According to court records, the company deliberately didn‟t inform the women at the

the castle about the investigation, and in fact permitted the secret taping to continue. 704, iv Six female dancers

from the Kids of the Kingdom chorus later sued.705 They asserted that the dressing areas…had been plagued

by Peeping Toms,v…and that Disney had known about the problem.706 Harry Parsell, a former Disney securi-





i

Baba Yaga…[was] an unmarried, prescient, angry old witch, sometimes aided in her craft by a Rusalka, who is a symbol of

female wisdom at its most wrathful and punitive.

— Francine du Plessix Gray, Soviet Women: Walking the Tightrope (New York: Doubleday, 1989), p. 115.

ii

The royal blue turrets, gold spires, and glistening white towers…are visible once again, after having been covered up with ic-

ing…during Disney‟s 25th Anniversary celebration.

— Fodor‟s Travel, Fodor’s 99 Walt Disney World, Universal Studios and Orlando: Your Complete Guide to All the Magic (New

York: Fodor‟s Travel Publ., Inc., 1998), p. 35.

iii

(“So what‟ll it be today, Pocahontas or Cinderella underpants?”)

— Joanne Kaufman, Every evening; From a nightly ritual comes a deep affirmation, Parenting, in Reader’s Digest, May 1998,

152(913), p. 11.

iv

Police said…[a distraught woman] told them she “would rather have her baby dead than to be involved in pornography movies

produced by Disney.”

— Chuck Chynoweth, Phil Long, and Martin Mercer (Knight-Ridder Newspapers), Woman drops son out of speeding car, The

Seattle Times, 20 Feb 1998, 121(44), p. A8.

v

Disney will not release any data concerning how much of a problem it has with voyeurs. In the Walt Disney World manual, sex

crimes are prominent. Some believe it‟s evidence of how serious the problem really is. “Disney‟s problem goes much deeper





45

ty manager who spent twenty-one years with the company found “holes in the ceiling of women‟s [guest]

bathrooms.” 707 [Disney Security Officer James Hertogs] was unconcerned. “Boys will be boys,” he said.

“This has been going on at Disney for twenty years.” 708

Meanwhile the kids…were beginning to smell a rat. Or at least, a Mouse.709 As with other crimes, Disney

elected to keep it covered up,710…[and] by doing so there was the potentially serious risk of bodily harm to

the girls. “Voyeurism is a very serious crime,” says Bill Kelly, a[n]…FBI veteran who dealt with sex crimes.

“It can often escalate to more sex offenses.”

Professor Jack Enter agrees. “Seventy percent of rapists are voyeurs. People don‟t understand voyeur-

ism. It‟s about power, about viewing an unwilling participant. Disney still doesn‟t understand that.” 711

Disney acknowledged it didn‟t tell the performers they were being spied upon, but the company said it

acted properly. Moreover, the company preposterously claimed the dancers had no cause to sue, because

they had “a diminished expectation and . . . therefore knowingly assumed the risk of the matters alleged.”

In refusing to dismiss the lawsuit, the judge said ordinary citizens would find the company‟s conduct “out-

rageous.” On the eve of the trial, Disney‟s attorneys settled the case with the Kids of the Kingdom for an un-

disclosed sum.712

Although the corporation does not disclose the annual number of injuries to visitors,…between fif-

ty and one hundred personal injury lawsuits are filed against Disney each year [ These figures are found in

713

Anastasia Toufexis, “No Mickey Mousing Around,” Time, 11 March 1985, p. 54 ]. When presented with a law-

suit,…Disney is notoriously hard-nosed. Settlements are hard to come by. Disney lawyers press for

summary judgments [James Koslowski, “Walt‟s World in Litigation Land,” Parks and Recreations, Jan 1985, 20(1), pp.

28-33, 100]. If such attempts are denied or overruled, jury trials are overwhelmingly decided in Dis-

ney‟s favor [According to estimates by lawyers on both sides, Disney wins around 85 percent of jury trials. See Stephen

Adler, “Snow White for the Defense: Why Disney Doesn‟t Lose,” American Lawyer, March 1983]. Clean-cut, polite

Disney witnesses testify before juries made up of people already positively disposed toward Disney,

most of whom have had a good time at the parks and many of whom have friends and relatives who

are or have been Disney employees.714

Steven Adler explores the Disney mystique in…an article explaining why those who are injured at

Walt Disney World and sue rarely win.715 (Why? Because it‟s Disney.716) “The situation with Dis-

ney[], to put it bluntly, is that you can‟t sue God in heaven,” said the husband of [a] plaintiff. 717 As

one former Disney executive put it, “Mickey Mouse may be the soul of this company, but you‟ll find

the heart somewhere over in the legal department.” 718

Litigation and rotten publicity often go hand in hand, and Team Rodent is ever-wary of both. Several em-

ployees caught exposing themselves to tourists have been quietly fired but not turned over to the police.719

If you are the victim of a crime on Disney property—whether at the parks or in a hotel—and call

911, you would expect to be connected with law enforcement. But instead,…you are patched through

to Disney Security.720 The law does not require Disney to report crimes to the Sheriff‟s Office. 721

When it comes to reported cases, the only entity that is likely to know the real number is Disney itself,

and the Mouse won‟t share that information.722 And even when a sex crime is committed at Disney

and a child is involved, the Mouse shies away from calling law enforcement, particularly if a Disney

employee commits the crime.723

Goofy‟s gendarmes still do an impressive job keeping order, though. Every now and then reality in-

trudes—a shoplifter, a flasher,i a fistfight between tourists, an accidental fall, a fatal heart attack on the Space





than a few cases,” say Professor Jack Enter. “Ninety-nine percent of voyeur cases never get reported. The victims don‟t know

they are victims.”

— Schweizer and Schweizer, Mouse Betrayed, p. 116.

i

Disney—once a man, now an empire—made news…when pictures of women baring their breasts on the Splash Mountain ride

began appearing on the Internet.*

— Thomas Swick ([South Florida] Sun-Sentinel), Paths already trodden, The Seattle Times, 28 Dec 1997, p. I1.

*

More than a dozen photographs…have appeared…—leading some cheeky cyber-fans to christen the attraction “Flesh Moun-

tain.” †

— Marla Dickerson (Los Angeles Times), Women who bared breasts on Disney ride posted on Net, The Seattle Times, 11 Jan

1997, p. A2.





46

Mountain roller coaster. Such incidents are handled with astounding swiftness and discretion, the scene

usually cleared and back to normal within minutes. Team Rodent‟s crisis squads appear ready for every im-

aginable emergency.724

Remember I told you about how when I was in Disneyland a kid got their head pulled off i in the

“It‟s a Small World After All” ride? ii Well anyway—that was my one true-blue vacation: the day the

world got at least one head smaller. Anaheim is not too delightful as far as cities go, and our hotel was

as Mickey Mouse as is possible (but not in the Disneyland way of being Mickey Mouse). It had a sea-

green color scheme, with seashell-shaped baubles glued to the walls. Outside, there was an oil-slick

slithering across the swimming pool and probably a fair amount of pee iii in there too.725

[But] because of weak state laws and shoddy inspections, danger lurks at amusement parks. 726 Among the

millions of people who use Disneyland each year, at least 16 people have been hurt since 1985, nine in one

incident.727 Nine people reportedly have died in accidents at the park since 1955, 728… although that tally is

not confirmed by the park.729

Disney has been criticized in books and by some employees for failing to adequately maintain its equip-

ment—charges park officials deny.730 Accident[s]…raise[] questions about what role states should play in

regulating the safety of theme parks.731 Although it is home to some of the largest and most elaborate theme

parks in the country, California requires no saftey inspections.732 Florida officials…are [also] hands-off when

it comes to such behemoths as Walt Disney World.733 “State inspectors just aren‟t a fit for rides as complex

as ours,” says Greg Hale, safety director at Disney World, which has…employees whose…job is to ensure

that accidents don‟t happen.734 But [the National Association of Amusement Ride Safety Officials‟] president

Jim Barber says even big parks can make mistakes. “No matter how complex the rides, it‟s still a good idea

to have some agency that has oversight, somebody who can act as a second pair of eyes.” 735

At the federal level, there is no oversight of amusement parks.736 While the Consumer Product Safety

Commission (CPSC) has the authority to investigate accidents,…it doesn‟t regularly inspect …rides. Instead,

that responsibility falls to the states, where oversight is oftentimes iffy, sometimes worse.

“You have state health inspectors at these parks coming in to make sure the food is prepared properly, but

there‟s no one checking the rides that are hurling our kids over steel and concrete,” says Kathy Dresslar of the

Children‟s Advocacy Institute at the University of San Diego School of Law. 737 “It‟s outrageous,” Dresslar

says. “The parks say they‟re safe, but most of them don‟t release any statistics to prove it. 738 There is finan-

cial incentive for the parks to keep injuries a secret.” 739

Beyond safety inspections, advocates for more state and federal oversight argue that, without tighter scru-

tiny, it‟s too easy for parks to cover up or downplay accidents. They point to the case of safety advocate [Ka-

thy] Fackler‟s 5-year-old son…who had his foot partly torn off on the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad roller

coaster at Disneyland in 1998.

Fackler, [who founded SaferParks.org], says that when she tried to contact park employees and visitors to

thank them for saving her son‟s life, Disney officials blocked her. And when there was another accident at

Disneyland 10 months later, Disney made no mention of her son‟s ordeal, she says. News reports trumpeted

how it was the first serious accident at the park in four years.



†

By the 1990s, the company still seemed interested in constructing surveillance as entertainment, but with a much more limited

scope.

— Smoodin, Disney Discourse, p. 7.

i

As a kid on a small farm, my sisters and I once hatched an egg in a shoe-box incubator. After the chick dried off, I let the fluffy

little thing hop around the yard. When our dog Phoebe approached the chick, I saw only one pet meeting another—until Phoebe

promptly bit the chick‟s head off. Hopping and chirping meant “cute” to my instincts, but “snack” to Phoebe‟s, and I lacked the

wisdom to know the difference.

— Maria T. Stadmueller, Despite our best efforts, wildness holds its own (Letter-of-the-month award, May 1997), The Seattle

Times, 15 June 1997, p. B7.

ii

Disney trie[s] to dismiss…lawsuit[s] by claiming that a “head injury” is part of the “inherent risk” a Disney theme park visitor

must assume.

— Giroux, Mouse that Roared, p. 53.

iii

I‟m not the Little Mermaid, OK? The more I thought about the various bodily excretions being added to the soup, the harder it

got for me to imagine climbing…in.

— Jerry Large, A clean slate? It‟s tough with germs around, The Seattle Times/Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 2 Aug 1998, 16(31), p.

L4.





47

Fackler is calling on parks to release data on ride injuries. “In order to make informed choices, we need

information,” she says, noting that she might have been more cautious with her son at Disneyland if she had

known there had been previous accidents there.

Disneyland spokesman Ray Gomez won‟t comment on the Fackler accident, other than to say, “The issue

has been resolved.” 740

Still, Disney World has received unwelcome coverage of several mishaps the past two years. In August

[1999], the Orlando Sentinel reported that a 5-year-old boy broke his leg in a fall from Epcot‟s signature ride,

Spaceship Earth. In September 1998, the same newspaper said a 38-year-old Venezuelan doctor was

knocked unconscious while riding Disney‟s Space Mountain roller coaster.

That same month, a malfunction on Disney‟s Twilight Zone Tower of Terror attraction sent seven people

to the hospital with back and neck pains. Two bolts broke, sending the thrill ride‟s elevatorlike cars plunging

one floor before emergency brakes kicked in.

Disney spokeswoman Diane Ledder confirms the Tower of Terror incident but won‟t comment on the

other two accidents because they are “either in litigation or mediation.” Ledder also will not disclose how

many others have been injured. And the Reedy Creek Improvement District, the governmental body that

oversees fire and medical rescues in the Disney World area, offers little more.741 Details about injuries could

be found on ambulance reports, but Reedy Creek administrative director Mickey Shiver says those “are con-

fidential patient records and exempt from public records law.” 742 But privacy could be strained as media and

government officials begin investigating.743

[A 1998] Christmas Eve accident at Disneyland that killed a Duvall, [Washington], man and in-

jured his wife happened because a park employee misjudged how fast a ride was moving when she

lashed it to a dock, according to a coroner‟s report. 744 The accident, at 10 a.m. on Christmas Eve day,

was apparently triggered as the ship approached the dock after a routine voyage through the park‟s

Rivers of America ride.

A docking rope ripped the cleat—a metal, anvil-shaped device used to secure rope—from the bow

of the Columbia; it flew through the air, hitting the two tourists and entangling Disney employee

Christie Carpenter at dockside, Disneyland officials said.745 (The California Division of Occupational

Health and Safety (Cal/OSHA)…look[ed] into the accident, but only because the third victim was a

Disney employee.746)i

The slow-moving ride in Frontierland is modeled and named after the first U.S. ship to circumna-

vigate the globe, Disneyland spokesman John McClintock said [28 December 1998]. It is mounted on

a motorized track. An operator on board the vessel controls only its forward or reverse motion,

McClintock said.747

In a separate incident [the same day], a 4-year-old boy was listed in fair condition when he fell off

the carousel at Disneyland. He was hospitalized at [the University of California, Irvine], Medical Cen-

ter with a concussion.748, ii





“Mickey’s 10 Commandments.” 749, iii



You get an introduction to Waltology 101 iv as you listen to Tony Baxter, senior vice president at Walt Disney

Imagineering and executive director of Tomorrowland.750 “When Walt Disney created Tomorrowland,…he was



i

In the weeks surrounding the Columbia tragedy, the Disney executives behind the cutbacks all received big, fat promotions.…

The message was clear: public relations black eyes, unhappy customers, declining employee morale, none of it mattered as long

as profits and attendance remained strong [ Orange County Register, 12 Dec 1998 & 15 Jan 1999 ].

— Koenig, More Mouse Tales, p. 213.

ii

Ironically, the week after the…accident was Disneyland‟s most heavily attended week of the year.

— Op. cit.

iii

“Mickey Mouse Slouches* toward Bethlehem” by Sedulus in the New Republic looks at the practice of carefree idolatry in Walt

Disney World and considers it a result of a dysfunctional society.

— Jackson, Walt Disney, p. 203.

*

The Disney Co. is no slouch at public relation.

— Lisa Gubernick, The third battle of Bull Run, Forbes, 17 Oct 1994, 154(9), p. 67(4).

iv

Walt Disney never got a Ph.D., but he was, nevertheless, a passionate historian.

— Wallace, Mickey Mouse History, p. 134.





48

presenting it to a public that was kind of innocent and naive,” Baxter says. “The public was very open to an inno-

cent, dreamlike projection of the future.” 751

One insider says he left Disney after a collegue told him that his ideas for a pareticular exhibit were too

sophisticated. “He said, „Our guests are dumb as posts. They have to have the plots of [the Disney television

show] Blossom explained to them.‟ I realized the best I could aspire to was creating things for an audience

that was supposed to be „dumb as posts.‟ . . . They really had zero respect for the guests. Guests are stupid.

Guests are destructive. The only thing they liked about guests is that they have pockets of money.752

(Guests can be so gullible, they‟ll believe about anything employees tell them.753)

In autumn of 1971, as the great mousetrap sprung open in central Florida, many Americans were looking

for a Lancelot. “Sleepy” Orlando awoke to a country deeply divided. 754 “Make love, not war” slogans were

opposed by “America, love it or leave it.” In the middle were millions of confused people, threatened by

those who opposed the government but increasingly wondering as the body bags returned home if there were

not something fundamentally wrong going on.755

In 1974, Disney[] completely streamlined management, cutting back extensively on supervision.756

Supervisors evolved into paramilitary babysitters, who seemed to delight in catching someone messing

up.757 No matter what the situation, everything had to go SOP, Standard Operating Procedure. Any

violation, automatic reprimand.758 Management…hire[d] supervisors from within, usually selecting

the less educated “yes men.” Promotion began to be based on who you knew rather than what you

knew.759

This landmark amusement park has changed very little since 1968, two years after Disney‟s death, when it was

cloned from Disneyland in southern California.760 Many of the visitors to the Magic Kingdom—a remarkably order-

ly, clean and quiet lot—walk around with glazed eyes…[in a] trancelike state.761 Even more tranquilizing are the

interminable waits in lines that slowly, endlessly wind through intricate mazes.762 Visual distractions always sur-

round Disney lines.763 The long queuing apparatus, and thus a good deal of the emotional management of Disney

customers, depends on the efficiency of the loading and unloading process. 764 Visitors demonstrate their craving for

the Disney form of amusement with their dollars and their attendance. Furthermore, something in the Disney expe-

rience touches our general culture deeply. Disney‟s worlds reflect such diverse cultural phenomena as corporate

managerial structures;…an emphasis in general and professional education on visual learning and memorization ra-

ther than mental strategies demanding individual thought; an unquestioned dependence on and faith in technologies;

and a concerted detachment from social problems.

Despite these detractions, from the beginning Walt Disney World has lured tens of millions of visitors each year.

Its appeal is a blend of superb organization and absolute cleanliness (an average piece of trash in the street sits less

than four minutes before removal 765—“cast members” are everywhere ready to pounce on any bit of debris)766—

attractions that appeal to all age groups and employ leading-edge technologies; promotion of family togetherness

with ample distractions to avoid the squabbling bound to occur with prolonged contact;…the security of a lengthy

vacation without the necessity for planning or daily decision making;…and perhaps most important of all, reinforce-

ment of corporate American values of technological progress, consumption, and hierarchical managerial structures.

These values, evident in the Magic Kingdom, are most emphatically promulgated at EPCOT Center, the second ma-

jor attraction to rise in the Florida swamps.767

There is little doubt heads will roll at the Disney organization if the founding father ever returned and saw what

they did to his EPCOT dream.768 Epcot the utopian city of the future was transformed into Epcot the theme park. 769

Opening 1 October 1982 at a cost of $900 million, EPCOT Center barely resembles the Experimental Prototype

Community of Tomorrow envisioned by Walt Disney. Disney had begun to plan his visionary utopia in 1958 after

studying failed utopias and visiting several model cities around the world. 770 In a television film made in October

1966, just weeks before his death, Walt articulated his conception of a “special kind of new community” dedicated to

“finding solutions to the problems of our cities.” It would “always be in a state of becoming. It will never cease to

be a living blueprint of the future . . . that will take its cue from the new ideas and new technologies that are now

emerging from the creative centers of American industry. . . . EPCOT will be a showcase to the world for the inge-

nuity and imagination of American free enterprise” [Quoted in Richard R. Beard, Walt Disney’s EPCOT Center: Creating the New

771

World of Tomorrow (New York: Abrams, 1982), p. 13 ]. What emerged 16 years later…has no elements of community. Far

from becoming the twenty-first-century village Disney had envisioned, Epcot took on the attributes of a permanent

World‟s Fair.772







49

EPCOT Center has incorporated one major element of Walt‟s original vision: it is primarily a showcase for

American free enterprise and corporate culture. In a presentation to the Urban Land Institute in 1976, then-Disney

chairman and chief executive E. Cardon “Card” Walker outlined the essential industrial and corporate essence of

EPCOT as a “demonstration and proving ground for prototype concepts,” a place to test practical applications of

new technologies [Ibid., p. 29]. So,…a century after the World‟s Columbian Exposition, where Walt Disney‟s father

labored in its construction, Walt Disney World unveiled a permanent world‟s fair designed…to glorify and advertise

American technology and industry.773, i

EPCOT‟s limitation is that it presents what Michael L. Smith labels “decontextualized history” and “decon-

textualized technology” ii—reductions of reality to nostalgia and magic [Michael L. Smith, “Back to the Future: EPCOT, Came-

elot, and the History of Technology,” in Bruce Sinclair, ed., New Perspectives On Technology and American Culture (Philadelphia: American

774

Philosophical Society, 1986), p. 72]. Every portrayal is unceasingly soothing and limited to glimpses of the shiny surfac-

es of final products. There is no attempt to educate visitors about the intricate workings of new technologies nor to

portray their awe-inspiring scale and power in our society. To do so would be to intimidate rather than reassure.

Back in the beginning of the [twentieth] century, Dr. Martin Couney provided a much more immediate view of tech-

nology in his Premature Baby Incubators exhibit at Coney Island‟s Luna Park. To present at-risk infants, dependent

on complex technologies for their survival, would be unthinkable at EPCOT Center. The possibility of death, not to

mention the pain and vulnerability of imperfect infants,iii could never be allowed to intrude on Disney‟s “perfect,”

carefree world.775

This Vacation Kingdom is more than just a set of amusement parks: It is the major middle-class pilgrimage center

in the United States.776 For the latter part of the 20th century, Walt Disney World has replaced the religious shrine as

a pilgrimage center. Just as a journey to Mecca, Canterbury, Lourdes, or Rome represents a rite of passage iv that

sanctifies a pilgrim as a member of a holy community, a visit to Walt Disney World ratifies the values of corporate

culture and allows the 20th-century pilgrim to reaffirm faith to capitalist scriptures of progress through technology,

control through managerial hierarchy, and consumerism. Since most visitors belong to the management or technical

elite, the Walt Disney World experience is a self-affirming process that, in Mike Wallace‟s words, provided “reas-

surance to this class” and presents it “with its own pedigree.” The atmosphere of corporate achievement and total

control through management is a dream world for white-collar professionals and technocrats. Labor problems and

ecological and political considerations are nonexistent. It “ratifies their world” and presents them with comforting

stereotypes of corporate achievements [Mike Wallace, “Mickey Mouse: Portraying the Past at Disney World,” Radical History Review,

777

1985, 32, pp. 53, 51-52].



Disney, the bourgeoisie‟s eulogist and flattering mirror, has distorted history so that the dominant class

sees its rise as a natural, not social, phenomenon.778 The…bourgeoisie impose their self-vision upon all the

attitudes and aspirations of the other social sectors, at home and abroad. The utopic ideology of the tertiary

sector is used as an emotional projection, and is posed as the only possible future. Their historic supremacy

as a class is transposed to, and reflected in, the hierarchy established within the Disney universe. 779

The form and function of Walt Disney World is a borrowing from the spiritual pilgrimage center. In the postmo-

dern world, play, and leisure, the mythic values of the American dream, the cult of technology have replaced the arc-

haic rituals and scriptures of organized religion. Anthropologist Alexander Moore recognizes the traits that identify

Walt Disney World as the new Mecca: it is a “bounded place apart from ordinary settlement drawing pilgrims from



i

Technology…is used as a subterfuge to conceal the absence of real change. Conceived as a form of fashion,…technology is the

maid dressed up to look like a fashion model.

— Ariel Dorfman and Armand Matterlart, Paro leer al Pato Donald (Valparaiso: Ediciones Universitarins, 1971); How to Read

Donald Duck: Imperialist Ideology in the Disney Comic, David Kunzle, trans. (New York: International General, 1975, 1984,

1991), p. 81.

ii

By pulling meanings out of contexts and repackaging them in bounded informational packets, decontextualization makes it

difficult for people to maintain a coherent understanding about how things work. Meanings become all jumbled together.

— Fjellman, Vinyl Leaves, p. 31.

iii

My cousin got her eye popped out with the forceps when she was born, and the nurse just sort of went “Whoopsie!” and

popped it back in. You can‟t even tell it happened.

— Anna Wolverton, The odd eyeball (Pop Paralysis), The Stranger, 5-11 March 1998, 7(24), p. 63.

iv

Many writers have seen the pilgrimage as a “rite of passage,” embodying the three phases of separation, transition (or liminali-

ty), and reincorporation outlined in Arnold Van Gennep‟s classic work [ Arnold Van Gennep, Rites of Passage (Chicago: University of

Chicago Press, 1961].

— Fjellman, Vinyl Leaves, p. 221.





50

great distances”; the journey requires a “long separation from their ordinary lives”; the entrance into “sacred pre-

cincts” provides a “transition” experience that reaffirms or invigorates commitment to a prescribed set of values; and

pilgrims exercise a “fellowship with other pilgrims from widely scattered communities” [ Alexander Moore, “Walt Disney

World: Bounded Ritual Space and the Playful Pilgrimage Center,” Anthropological Quarterly, Oct 1980, 53, pp. 208-210]. While illusion,

magic, and technology reign in Walt Disney World instead of religious ritual and miracles, a mythic interpretation of

American history is a sanctified object of worship. American corporate technology and managerial control are self-

avowed saviors of the modern world. In each Walt Disney World attraction, pilgrims embark on a journey where

they encounter marvelous icons and symbols that sanctify cultural myths. The themes enshrined as myths are a pla-

cid, comfortable, small-town America of the 1890s; the inevitability of progress through technology; the efficacy of

the wilderness experience whether it be through tropical jungles, the American West, or outer space; the triumph of

technology over death and the natural world; and the “sainthood” of American cultural heroes such as Lincoln, Mark

Twain, Franklin, Davy Crockett, and Walt Disney. Margaret J. King agrees in her study of the values conveyed in

Disneyland and Walt Disney World. She sees each park as “a temple of consumption made possible by leisure, sur-

plus value, technology and consumerism . . . solidly based on the (American/Protestant) values of production: the

work ethic, exploration, faith in progress, industrial expansion, technological inventiveness, pragmatism, efficiency.”

The parks are “holy cities for the entire U.S., visited by pilgrims, in a constant festival state” [ Margaret J. King, “Disneyl-

and and Walt Disney World: Traditional Values in a futuristic Form,” Journal of Popular Culture, Summer 1981, 15, pp. 120-121]. Alexan-

der Moore sees the process of engagement with these myths to be a “ritual motion” [ Moore, “Walt Disney World,” p.

780

215]. American well-to-do pilgrims 781…are entertainingly reassured that the values of movement up to higher

income and elevated social class are sanctioned through ritual, and they are indoctrinated by means of an immersion

process in the ideals of corporate culture.

The perfect world of Disney has replaced the biblical Garden of Eden as the American vision of paradise. Even

Time magazine titled an article on the success of the Disney and other theme parks “If Heaven Ain‟t a Lot Like Dis-

ney.” i Richard Corliss, the author of the article, proclaimed that all the attractions in EPCOT Center “celebrate the

perfectibility of man through democracy and technology” [Richard Corliss, “If Heaven Ain‟t a Lot Like Disney,” Time, 16 June

1986, 127, pp. 80, 83 ]. The message of Walt Disney World, as historian of technology Elting Morison tells us, is “not to

worry” [Elting E. Morison, “What Went Wrong with Disney‟s World‟s Fair,” American Heritage, Dec 1983, 35, p. 78]. The limited view

through the rosy glass of the Disney cathedral proclaims that our machines have always done well and will soon do

better. Ever since the Puritan pilgrims founded America, the nation has been striving to create a perfect world, a

“City on a Hill.” Our mode of construction of such a splendid realm rapidly moved from spiritual grace to technolo-

gical know-how. Thus our Celestial City both in inspiration and in fact is Walt Disney World. The subordination of

the cultural dream to the reality of an enclosed world of illusion in the swamplands of Florida is indicative of a socie-

ty that systematically refuses to view itself in the glare of reality and continues to survive only by distorting or re-

pressing its collective memory within the glitz of illusory, decontextualized, selective Mickey Mouse history.782

But few people envision a utopia in which adults wear Mickey Mouse T-shirts. Beloved as it may be by the

masses,…the Walt Disney Company is widely distrusted and even despised by the intelligentsia, the very people who

could be expected to embrace a new utopian concept. To them, Disney is low-brow and omnivorous. Carl Hiaasen,

the popular chronicler of Florida public sociopathic behavior, is representative. In 1998, in a scathing pamphlet on

Disney called Team Rodent, he wrote: “Disney stands as by far the most powerful private entity in Florida. It goes

where it wants, does what it wants, gets what it wants. It‟s our exalted mother teat, and you can hear it sucking from

Tallahassee all the way to Key West.” 783









i

Could Jesus ever have taught people to accept oppression? All the prophets, including Jesus, were sent to root out injustice, *

but later, institutions arose that distorted the nature of religion.

— Imam Khomeini, Islam and Revolution (London: KPI, 1981), p. 341.

*

Disney spokesman Tom Deegan said the company has committed “additional resources to bolster security” at its theme parks

…in Tokyo, Paris, Florida and Southern California,…and that employees have been told “to be aware of changes in the work

environment and report any unusual circumstances.” †

— Michael Fleeman (Associated Press), Targets for terrorism: U.S. cultural symbols, The Seattle Times, 27 Aug 1998, 121(204),

p. A2.

†

Honey, I blew up the theme park.

— Imagineers, Disney Imagineering, p. 146.





51

A Pirate’s Life for Me i



For many the Magic Kingdom has become less a playground than a venerable institution, a sort of Childhood

National Park were forgotten dreams wait to be relived.784 Some attractions…inundate the senses with sights,

sounds, movement, and even smell.785 (There‟s Disney magic in the air.786) At Disneyland, theming is most success-

ful when the narratives are highly controlled and tightly organized, as they are in the park‟s most memorable ride:

“The Pirates of the Caribbean.” The ride commences as you board a pirate long-boat amidst and evening bayou set-

ting complete with fireflies and riverboat shacks.787

In the “Pirates of the Caribbean” attraction,788…you don‟t know where you are or how many corridors lie

ahead 789…[after] proceed[ing] through a long grottolike passageway to board a boat into a pitch-black cave.790 As

you board the boats,…a ghostly voice intones, “Dead men tell no tales.” 791 Elaborate scenery and hundreds of Au-

dioAnimatronic figures (including lifelike dogs, cats, chickens, pigs, and donkeys) depict a rambunctious pirate raid

on a Caribbean 792…village;793…loot[ing]…and rap[ing] its women, who enjoy the process because, it is explained,

they‟re all old maids.794 A sexist display of buxom women in bondage with a sign reading “Buy a Bride” ii is more

offensive than cute.795, iii (Disney delivers!796, iv) This is Disney magic at its best;797, v…it hooks us when we‟re little

and never lets go.798 The Pirates inspire great loyalty 799… [with] catchy music whose relentless yo-ho-ing can only

be eradicated by “It‟s a Small World.” 800, vi Finally, the ride reaches a manipulative end.801, vii Though the plot is

pretty bloodthirsty,… this…adventure may fire your imagination for the Florida Keys, …where such things used to

happen all the time.802

[In January 1997], the audio-animatrons in The Pirates of the Caribbean attraction were reprogrammed to

lust after food instead of women.803 Gluttony will replace lust.804, viii The boat cruise that includes scenes of

drinking, fighting, thieving buccaneers will no longer show the robotic pirates chasing terrified village mai-

dens for the sexist joy of it.

Instead, those maidens will be carrying trays of turkey and wine.805 It seems…the forces of political cor-

rectness have caught up to the aging…theme park,806…[but] the self-proclaimed Happiest Place on Earth still

has the power to offend.807

There is an old kinescope in the penny arcade on Main Street that serves up scenes that could reasonably

be described as child abuse.









i

Number of types of deviant behavior promoted by “Yo Ho (A Pirate‟s Life of Me),” the Pirates of the Caribbean theme song:

(a) 10. (b) 20. (c) 30.

— Disney Tragedy Trivia Quiz, in Koenig, Mouse Under Glass, p. 47.

ii

“When we consider a new product, we really study it—not just the surface area, but everything about it. And when we go into

that new project, we believe in it all the way.”

— Walt Disney, quoted in Imagineers, Disney Imagineering, p. 83.

iii

Cuteness is injected, conflict removed.

— Fjellman, Vinyl Leaves, p. 31.

iv

There have been waves of “new women” arriving on cue almost every decade for the last thirty years or so. *

— Ehrenreich, Worst Years, p. 121.

*

The quantity of twins is greater still.†

— Dorfman and Matterlart, How to Read Donald Duck, p. 34.

†

The Clonus Factor.‡

— Koenig, Mouse Under Glass, p. 108.

‡

“Honey, I Copied the Kids”

— Ferraiuolo, Disney and the Bible, p. 81.

v

That‟s because magic is spelled S-E-X.

— “Empty Next,” KSTW, 21 March 2000.

vi

Thanks to a repetitious, all-too-memorable theme song and simplistic animation, the once hypnotically charming attraction has,

for many, become a colorful new form of torture.

— Koenig, More Mouse Tales, p. 49.

vii

A strange, unidentifiable gas was wafting through the final section of the attraction,…[but] Disneyland never called the city

fire department‟s hazardous materials specialists.

— David Koenig, Mouse Tales: A Behind-the-Ears Look at Disneyland (Irvine, CA: Bonaventure Press, 1994), pp. 124, 125.

viii

?? USA Today?, widening seats due to widening butts





52

The so-called comedy revolves around a dad, a mom and a dummy portraying a child. Dad threatens to

brain the kid with a milk bottle; Mom intervenes. Dad tries to strangle the child; Mom intervenes. Dad

throws a loaf of bread at the child, which sticks to the child‟s head; Mom intervenes.

By comparison, the wenches on the pirate ride don‟t have it so terrible.

Well, maybe they do. Despite the modifications, the new Pirates of the Caribbean will still show brides

being auctioned like slaves to the highest bidders.808

(One very old experiential industry has traditionally operated covertly: prostitution. Many other il-

legal activities also fit within the experience industry. For the most part, however, all these reveal a

paucity of imagination and a lack of technical resources that will be remedied in the future. They are

trivial compared with possibilities in a society that will, by the year 2000 or sooner, be armed with ro-

bots, advanced computers, personality-altering drugs, brain-stimulating pleasure probes,i and similar

technological goodies.)

The diversity of novel experiences arrayed before the consumer will be the work of experience-

designers, who will be drawn from the ranks of the most creative people in society. The working mot-

to will be: “If you can‟t serve it up real, find a vicarious substitute. If you‟re good, the customer will

never know the difference!” This implied blurring of the line between the real and the unreal will con-

front the society with serious problems, but it will not prevent or even slow the emergence of the

“psyche-service industries” and “psych-corps.” Great globe-girdling syndicates will create super-

Disneylands of a variety, scale, scope, and emotional power that is hard for us to imagine.809

Like the company‟s theme parks, Disney‟s 810…much-bally-hooed (and much-delayed) entry into the cruise mar-

ket,811…leaves little to chance.812 The Disney Magic ii is truly a magnificent sight. It bears an unsettling resem-

blance to the Titanic, and that‟s no accident.813 Disney boss Michael Eisner wanted the ship to be reminiscent of

1930s luxury liners, so it‟s 100 feet longer than other new megaships and has a narrower profile. 814 The first thing

you see as you approach the Disney Magic…is a big statue of Goofy hanging over the rear of the ship, 815… swinging

from a boatswain‟s chair while pretending to paint.816 Etched into the steep prow is a portrait of that renowned mari-

ner, Mickey Mouse.817 Even the lifeboats [are] tricked out—painted bright yellow and styled to match the old ves-

sels depicted in Steamboat Willie.818, iii The red-white-and-black Disney ship ([“The Boss‟ colors” 819]), which had

its inaugural voyage [30 July 1998], is a $350 million bet that families will flock to cruising with the same gusto as,

for example, seniors.820

Stuck on a boat? With “Under the Sea” playing around the clock? 821 The prospect of being cooped up

…on a ship—even an 85,000 ton one powered by five 16-cylinder diesel engines (and pixie dust?)—sound[s]

like jail.822 (Did you know maritime laws still insulate cruise lines for malpractice of its ships‟ doctors? 823

Oddly, most attorneys say disposition of your case depends on a judge‟s mood, 824…[but] we may take small

comfort in this from Judge Dickerson: “Although consumer rights . . . have expanded in recent years,825…the

cruise industry remains to a large extent insulated from the modern liabilities and responsibilities that other

purveyors of travel services are required to bear.” 826)

“Disney is saying it‟s going to revolutionize family cruising. But the truth is, the revolution has already begun,”

says Mike Driscoll, editor of industry newsletter Cruise Week.827 Behind the trend: baby boomers who waited to

have kids and now want to take them along on vacation, as well as dual-income younger families.828



i

Unscrupulous governments—and there are many of them—with tools to control,…can imagine…implant[ing]…tiny electrodes

in the…brains of newborn children, electrodes capable of remote…stimulation.… This is a nightmarish vision. As in all such

technological nightmares, the principal task is to foresee what is possible; to educate the public in its use and misuse; and to pre-

vent its organizational, bureaucratic and governmental abuse.*

— Sagan, Dragons of Eden, pp. 213-214.

*

Kiddie Borgs: wired, drugged, and abused.

— Knute Berger, Generation Xterminate; New reasons to sleep uneasy, Seattle Weekly, 16 March 2000, 25(11), p. 9.

ii

Workers…came up with a new name for the Disney Magic: the Disney Tragic. Its sister ship, the Disney Wonder…was dubbed

the Disney Blunder.

— Kim Masters, The Keys to the Kingdom: How Michael Eisner Lost His Grip (New York: William Morrows, 2000), p. 393.

iii

Disney insisted that the lifeboats, which international maritime law dictates be orange, instead be painted gold—to match the

ship‟s color sceme. Disney won an exception: The boats are gold.

— Scott Kraft (Los Angeles Times), When you wish upon a ship. . .; Three nights aboard the new Disney Magic, The Seattle

Times/Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 11 Oct 1998, 16(39), p. K8.





53

“To ignore young families, with all their potential purchasing power, would be a dumb thing to do,” says Bob

Dickinson, president of Carnival Cruise Lines.i Morbidly, he notes that the older cruisers who long have made up

the bulk of passengers “do not have a lot of years of purchasing power left, to put it delicately.” 829

Disney…promises to take family cruising to another level.830 “The idea,” Disney Cruise Line president Art Rod-

ney says, “is for parents to get a vacation, too.”

It‟s a crucial point. Even Disney executives say the line‟s success could hinge on whether the experience is just

as fun and relaxing for parents as for kids.831 The size and positioning of the ship‟s three pools show its priorities.

The biggest, shaped like Mickey‟s head, is for kids only. Next is one for families, flanked by a teens-only coffee bar

and an arcade. Finally, there‟s the adults-only pool off to the side, where kids normally would be on other ships. 832

Even the lowly bathroom, always a sore point on ships, has been revolutionized. In an industry first, most cabins

have 833…side-by-side chrome and white-tiled bathrooms.834, ii Disney has also added space-consuming tubs, rare on

ships, so toddlers won‟t miss pre-bedtime baths.iii

Just don‟t expect too much Mickey Mouse.835 Mickey is there, but more subtly than at the Magic Kingdom.836

Few industry executives doubt Disney will succeed.837 (More than half of the line‟s cruise bookings are from

Disney regulars who have never been on a ship, says Judson Green, head of Disney‟s theme park division.) 838 The

70% of Americans who have been to a Disney theme part (and keep going back again and again) will find the Disney

Magic has all the elements that have made Disney‟s parks…meccas.839

Most powerful of the love stories that shadow that of young couples is our desire for technology. A mag-

nificent and invulnerable ship, beautiful and fast, is the object of desire, a ship of dreams: technology making

the new dreams possible. We know this love story well; in different forms it continues its hold on us. And

yet just beyond the usual articulation, there lies a collective fear that this romance—dazzling as it is—may be

doomed, and that our scientific venture could founder. The narratives of our relationships with technology

and with wealth are usually triumphant, their anxieties rarely made explicit; but under the surface, submerged

and silenced in darker waters of our consciousness, are stories of destruction and loss. With the knowledge

that the contemporaries of the Titanic’s passengers saw their confidence in scientific and materials progress

decay on the battlefields of W.W.I, and located as we are in history after another World War and a Cold War

in which technology assisted in vast destruction and created the possibility of human annihilation, there is no

reason to fear that the current technological revolution has disguised dangers.

So it is fitting and ironic that Titanic iv…speaks on one level to the fear that ill-used science, engaged to

capitalist greed, may sink us all.840 It makes explicit the unholy alliance between the idolatry, of the works of

our own hands, capitalism‟s fostering of greed, and patriarchy. Rose herself points out (in an unlikely histori-

cal anachronism) the phallic arrogance of the ship‟s dimensions, as she asks archly of Ismay, the director of

the White Lines Shipping company that built Titanic, if he has heard “Dr. Freud‟s” comments on men‟s con-

cern with size. Ismay, unenlightened by this interpretation, later urges the captain to make headlines by sail-

ing as fast as possible, the ship‟s speed then preventing its turning in time from the iceberg. Titanic as mo-

rality tale: are we going to fast? Do obstacles lurk beneath the surface? (Rorshach-like, we read our own

meanings into the causality of death. A fourteen-year-old patient, struggling with the effects of sexual

abuse,…thought the sinking was the lovers‟ fault—if the men in the crow‟s nest hadn‟t been watching Jack

and Rose embrace, they would have seen the iceberg in time.)841



i

For cruise ships, fire and water has become an increasingly dangerous mix.… Aboard Carnival Cruise Lines‟ Ecstasy, thick

black smoke billowing from its stern*…provided fuel for safety experts who have warned of the high potential for disaster at sea.

— Curtis Morgan, Fire at sea is cruise lines‟ nightmare, Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News, 20 July 1998.

*

“The major portion of the fire was confined to the aft deck docking or mooring area.”

— Jim Scheffer (National Transportation Safety Board), quoted in Dennis O‟Brien, Fire-damaged cruise ship to be repaired at

Newport News, Va., Shipyard, Knight-Ridder/Tribune Businees News, 23 July 1998.

ii

Because there are always a few readers who misinterpret things, I think I‟d better say that this does not mean it is OK to drink

from the toilet.

— Large, A clean slate?, p. L4.

iii

Older babies get very dirty in the course of a day, particularly once they start feeding themselves. It‟s usual for half their break-

fast to wind up in their hair and in other unusual places. This means that, in addition to changing the baby‟s clothes at least once

or twice a day, you‟ll need to give him a regular bath.

— Palfrey, Irving, Katz, and New, eds., Disney Encyclopedia, Vol I: Infant and Child Development—Birth to Age Six, p. 75.

iv

Inaugural cruises have their allure—the romance of a maiden voyage is undeniable. But…as with new hotels or new theme

parks, there is always a shake-down period for employees and equipment.

— Ship-launch delays snarl Disney and others, The Seattle Times/Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 11 Oct 1998, 16(39), p. K9.





54

Even port calls are scripted: “Islanders” on Disney‟s…Castaway Cay,842…billed as the company‟s “private Ba-

hamian island,” 843…were hired through casting calls.844 “Castaway Cay” is the newly Imagineered name for the [3-

by-2-mile,845 1,000 acre 846] island, but locals know it as Gorda Cay. It was a very busy place in the 1970s and

1980s, the main draw being a secluded and unpatrolled airfield, upon which many tons of…Quaaludes i…were

landed en route to the U.S. mainland.

During that era Gorda Cay fell under the control of an American smuggler named Frank Barber, 847…a nocturnal

enterprise that owed much of its success to Barber‟s recruitment and bribery of a U.S. drug enforcement agent named

Jeffrey Scharlatt.848 Shortly after their operation was exposed, a Commission of Inquiry convened in Nassau to in-

vestigate smuggling and corruption throughout the commonwealth; Gorda Cay was listed as one of the favorite sto-

povers for international dope runners.

The island‟s notoriety presented no serious public-relations hurdle for Disney, which merely changed the name

after buying the place.849 I‟ll bet a new past is being written for “Castaway Cay”—a past richly populated with con-

quistadors or perhaps shipwrecked pirates, whom Disney copywriters would regard as more colorful and less menac-

ing than modern smugglers of…bootleg methaqualone.850

  



On November 18, 1993, Bill Clinton made a special appearance at the Magic Kingdom in Disney World. It was

his day to be inducted into the popular Hall of Presidents attraction. Rising from a chair on stage, he slowly ap-

proached the lectern and proceeded to give a four-minute speech. Mind you, it was not the real Bill Clinton but an

audio-animatron.851 And it made Disney history. No sitting president had ever given a speech at the Hall of Presi-

dents.852 After the 1993 election, Michael Eisner,ii who contributed to the Clinton campaign and is active in the

Democratic Party, wrote the newly inaugurated president an invitation to join the Pantheon of Presidents. 853 Clinton

eagerly accepted.854

The Hall of Presidents is a mainstay of the Magic Kingdom‟s Liberty Square, representing the “idea” of America

on the eve of independence.855 Over the years, millions of schoolchildren and their parents have passed through the

attraction. As the curtain rises, the audience is faced by extraordinary robotic likenesses of all the American presi-

dents. Dressed in period costume, a spotlight shines on each leader as the roll is called. They sway back and forth,

turn from side to side, nod, and fidget.856 At the end of the presentation, Lincoln stands up iii and offers a dramatic

call for national unity.

“At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we ex-

pect some transatlantic giant to step across the ocean and crush us with a blow? No. All the armies of Europe, Asia,

and Africa combined could not by force take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge. At what

point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer: If it ever reach us, it must spring up among us. It

cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we ourselves must be its author—and its finisher. As a nation of

free men, we must live through all time or die by suicide.” 857

These days [Disney] houses a division dedicated to…bands that sing about suicide, Satan, 858 [rape, kill-

ing,859] and sex with the Virgin Mary.860 Suicide plays as prominent a role as Satan at Disney‟s “adult” la-

bel.861

Walt Disney Chairman Michael Eisner says charges that his company promotes an anti-Christian

agenda are “ridiculous.” 862 Disney issued a mild, two-sentence statement…after the Southern Baptist

Convention called for its 15.7 million members to boycott…[Disney] and all its products. 863 “There is

a lot of buzz about it,” said John Furia, a screenwriter and producer who teaches in the Cinema-





i

[The “date” rape drug Rohypnol has] been designated “the Quaalude of the ‟90s.”

— David E. Smith, M.D., Donald R. Wesson, M.D., and Sarah R. Calhoun, M.P.H., Rohypnol (flunitrazepam) fact sheet, Haight

Ashbury Free Clinics, Inc., 1997.

ii

Eisner has cultivated a public image of himself as friendly, trustworthy, and even boyish. But those who know him well regard

him as treacherous and Machiavellian. David Geffen, a fellow Hollywood mogul who has known Eisner well for years, said of

him in a 1995 interview: “Michael is a liar. And anyone who has dealt with him, genuinely dealt with him, knows he‟s a liar.”

— Weber, Disney legacy.

iii

The sheer energy locked up in the pneumatic and hydraulic systems of any audio-animatronics figure is considerable, and un-

less that energy can be precisely regulated the figure is apt to become violent. Before he was finally tamed, Mr. Lincoln smashed

his chair and threw mechanical fits that threatened the safety of the men working on him.

— Finch, Art of Walt, 1995, p. 420.





55

Television School of the University of Southern California. “But it strikes a lot of people as Don

Quixote-ish. Who‟s not going to let their children see Mickey Mouse?” 864

Such boycott efforts seem to have had little lasting impact…because Disney company products and

services are so widely available, often under non-Disney labels, because pre-Eisner Disney images are

still so beloved, and, more generally, because of public apathy.865

The Eisner-run Disney company has produced a number of anti-Arab motion pictures,866

…[and] in August 1996 the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee organized a dem-

onstration outside the Disney studios to protest the company‟s pattern of anti-Arab produc-

tions.867

A Hispanic media watchdog group…suspended its yearlong boycott of Walt Disney Co. 868

Since the boycott against Disney and its ABC network began in April [1997], the company has

hired or promoted…Hispanics into directorships or vice presidencies.869

Suicide looms so large in Disney‟s new music that [Hollywood Records‟ Bob] Pfeifer even signed a band

with the name in it. Like Humble Gods, Danzig, and NY Loose, The Suicide Machines‟ first major label deal

was with Disney.870

Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people aged fifteen to twenty-four. But if that

doesn‟t seem to Disney like a good reason not to glorify suicide to the same kids who grew up on Goofy, Do-

nald, and the Little Mermaid, then it probably should come as no surprise that Hollywood Records also cheer-

leeds for an even greater scourge of teen life today: Drugs. Besides shipping promotional bongs, i the com-

pany‟s bands sing about drugs.871

As it is in so many other ways, Disney is a special case when it comes to merchandizing.872

Though the new anti-drug campaign is the largest government merchandising effort in history, it‟s

hard to imagine how it will be heard above the din surrounding it. 873 At almost $400 million a year

(half public funds, half pro bono freebies from media participants),874…most of the first $90 million

installment will go 875…to Disney. The mouse will throw in some bonus public service announce-

ments on ABC, a Web site and, who knows, maybe an Epcot ride simulating the OD experience, in

exchange for a $50 million “multimedia, cross-property package.”

The idea of Disney being on the government dole is amusing enough, but it may also introduce a

new economic model to the long and tortured history of the drug war. ii Where once we had companies

that laundered drug money, now we have corporations synergizing anti-drug money.876

At least for decades that is what Mr. Lincoln said. When President Clinton was added with his unprecedented

speaking part, Lincoln‟s speech was rewritten to offer a new version of American history.877, iii The Lincoln speech

has shifted from a vaguely McCarthyite warning against the „danger within‟ to an acknowledgment of the centrality

of race in American history; and the Hall of Presidents program has shifted from a vaguely fascistic celebration of

presidential leadership to a challenge to visitors to consider the incompleteness of freedom in America today.” 878

OK,iv so much for the rides; sorry, we mean attractions. But Disneyland has always been more than a bunch of

rides.879 The Disney genius lies in making the wait part of the attraction. Oops . . . in the Magic Kingdom, it‟s

called the pre-show.880







i

Look at this…combination hooka and coffee-maker.

— Alladin.

ii

“We will look back on this era and the response to drugs in this country and think that was the worse thing that happened in the

McCarthy era. It is insanity run amok and there is not a sane voice in the federal government saying anything about it.”

— William J. Chambliss (Head of Criminology Department, Georgetown University), interview in Anthony Clarke, The Hemp

Revolution, videorecording, a Conscious Light production in association with Video Vision Productions (San Rafael, CA: Tara

Releasing, 1996).

iii

?? revisionist

iv

One of [Martin Van Buren‟s* ] nicknames was Old Kinderhook, which led to the…expression O.K.

— www.nscds.put.k12.il.us/nscds/us/apushist/vanburen/vanburen9.html, 14 April 2000.

*

Martin Van Buren was so corrupt that popular songs eulogized his willingness to sell anything he controlled for a price. As

president his control extended to the Department of Justice.

— Chambliss, On the Take, p. 201.





56

“Where’s Toiletland?” 881, i



Walt Disney‟s legend and lore, along with his penchant for perfection and cold, corporate behavior, [were]…

passed on to Michael Eisner.882 In [August] 1984, Disney‟s board ousted the hesitant Ron Miller, [Walt‟s son-in-

law], and brought in Michael Eisner as chairman and Frank Wells as president. 883

Eisner and Wells created an unhappy work force. In early 1985, after three months on the job, they had

fired more than four hundred studio employees, from painters to carpenters to assistant directors. Indeed,

during their first days on the job, they embarrassingly bungled a three week walkout by two thousand “cast

members” at Disneyland. This strike, complete with picketing covered extensively by TV news, saw workers

plead for a small raise. Eisner and Wells responded by hiring scabs as ticket takers, ride operators, and street

sweepers, and broke the strike. The new Disney management had proved that it could (and would) be tough

with anyone who tried to spoil their leap toward corporate glory.

Sometimes Michael Eisner and Frank Wells did not rise to the task in corporate negotiations with equals.

For example, when Eisner and Wells purchased the Wrather Corporation for its valuable land next to Dis-

neyland, they later had to admit that they were outmaneuvered, and paid millions more than they would have

liked. But their opponent in these negotiations is rarely mentioned. Bonita Granville Wrather, child star of

the 1930s, should be credited with taking the Disney boys for more than one hundred million dollars. The

mythology of the new Disney does not have women, particularly former child stars, outwit its male wizards.884

Roy E. Disney took control of the new board.885 Eisner then brought over Jeffrey Katzenberg from Paramount Pic-

tures. The two newcomers immediatedly went to work revamping the Disney studio‟s entire operation. 886 The latent

Disney studio… shed its exclusive family entertainment label (“G” rating) and establish[ed] itself as the leading pro-

duction-distribution company in the industry after its…acquistion of Miramax, 887…refashion[ing] Hollywood‟s most

culturally conservative and family-oriented studio into one of its most culturally seditious and anti-traditional. In

doing so, they betrayed the founder‟s legacy, degraded his values, and demeaned the company‟s defining spirit.

Under Eisner‟s direction, the Disney company has turned out motion pictures packed with graphic violence and

killing,…as well as rock music albums loaded with gross obscenities.888

Even Commentary, the magazine of the American Jewish Committee (March 1998), was moved to lament: “If the

old Disney tells us something inspiriting about who we were not so very long ago, the new and even more hugely

lucrative Disney is just another signpost marking our long, steep cultural descent.” 889

Eisner turned Disney into a money-making machine.890

The singular pursuit of money is something new at Disney. Walt Disney was like so many other success-

ful titans of business—Bill Gates,ii Sam Walton, etc.—in that he concentrated on creating quality products

and knew that if he succeeded the money would come later.891 “When you believe a thing, believe it implicit-

ly and unquestionably” [Walt Disney, in Walt Disney’s Famous Quotes, The Walt Disney Co., 1994, p. 43].892

The driving motive within the company now was no longer “What would Walt have done?” but “What will make a

profit for the company?” Now, money was money, and any way to squeeze it out was considered.893, iii In 1991,

Disney became the first entertainment-based corporation to be placed within the Dow Jones average, signaling the

economic community‟s conviction of the company‟s strength and longevity.

During these years, [Disney executives] did whatever they felt they could to pump up the strength of the compa-

ny, even if it seemingly flew in the face of the Disney image and reputation. 894 Undoubtedly [Eisner is] aware that

his empire is the subject of percolating distrust, hatred, and even fear.895 Some critics suggest that the Walt Disney

Company is tantamount to the “evil empire” [See, for instance, Ariel Dorfman and Armand Mattelart, How to Read Donald Duck,

David Kunzle, trans. (New York: International General, 1975); Matt Roth, “A Short History of Disney-Fascism,” Jump Cut, 1996, 40, pp. 15-20;



i

(Who knows, maybe there‟ll be another Bathroom of the Future.)

— Judy Wade, Sharon Gillenwater, and Stacy Ritz, Disneyland and Beyond: Southern California Family Attractions, 4th ed.

(Berkeley: Ulysses Press, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998), p. 59.

ii

Microsoft and Disney teaming up to test software?… “It‟s a hoax,” said Microsoft spokeswoman Heidi Rothauser.

— Disney-Gates chain letter? Don‟t believe it (Monday Memo), The Seattle Times, 31 Aug 1998, 121(207), p. E1.

iii

It may not be such a small world after all: Disneyland‟s Magic Kingdom has decided that 10-year-olds should be charged adult

admission prices.

Disneyland lowered its standard for adulthood…by two years, applying its…adult ticket price to visitors ages 10 and older.

The price previously started at age 12.

— Associated Press, Disneyland extends adult price, Yahoo! News (Yahoo.com), 12 April 2000.





57

Carl Hiaasen, Team Rodent: How Disney Devours the World (New York: Ballantine, 1998); and Peter and Rochell Schweizer, Disney: The

896

Mouse Betrayed: Greed, Corruption, and Children at Risk (Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 1998)]. Even [Fox Television‟s Barry Dil-

ler] began referring to the Walt Disney Company as “the Evil Empire.” 897, i

Eric Smoodin, editor of Disney Discouse, a book critical of Disney‟s role in American culture, argues that “Dis-

ney constructs childhood so as to make it entirely compatible with consumerism” [ Eric Smoodin, “How to Read Walt Dis-

ney,” in Smoodin, ed., Disney Discourse: Producing the Magic Kingdom (New York: Routledge, 1994), p. 18]. Even more disturbing is

the widespread belief that Disney‟s “innocence” renders it unaccountable for the way it shapes children‟s sense of

reality: its sanitized notions of identity, difference, and history in the seemingly apolitical cultural universe of the

“magic kingdom.” 898

[Disney World president Al Weiss] attributes the Mouse‟s continuing supremacy to its “emotional linkage” to

guests. “It‟s something that starts when they‟re very young and goes through their whole life cycle and all the stages

of their life.” 899 Disney World is the most-visited destination on the planet 900—draw[ing] more than 25 million

people, or one-tenth of the population of the United States, each year;901…kids who went there in the 1970s are

bringing their own kids today, perpetuating a brilliantly conceived cycle of acculturation. Every youngster who

loves a Disney theme park—and almost all of them do—represents a potential lifetime consumer of all things Dis-

ney, from stuffed animals to sitcoms, from Broadway musicals to…homes.902

Walt Disney once said, “I‟d love to be part of building a school of tomorrow” [ Donna Leinsing, “Building a

903

Community of Excellence,” National Forum: Phi Kappa Phi Journal, 1997, 77(1), p. 31 ]. [The Walt Disney Company]

904, ii

decided to build a new town, Celebration, …located just a few miles south of the Magic Kingdom, near…

Orlando.905 (Selling dream homes is not unlike selling dream vacations.906) The reason for Celebration lay

all around, though to call direct attention to this fact would be unneighborly. Playing to people‟s loathing for

the strip-mall landscape, its gaudy commercialism and plug-in housing tracts, was the best tactic for selling

this new town. Over time, the ads began to approximate the typical Florida developer‟s pitch,…but even then

you could still feel the subtle twist of the knife.907 In Disney culture, the community is not about self-rule but

about adhering to the rules laid down by a central authority and legitimated through an appeal to the rewards

of the marketplace, all of which have a Disney copyright.908

Celebration School iii was developed in collaboration with many of the nation‟s leading education visiona-

ries and institutions, and serves as a model for other school districts across the nation [ Pippin Ross, “Celebrating

909

Education,” Disney Magazine, Fall 1997, p. 84]. The school‟s apparent emphasis on technical over civic competen-

cies is, however, compatible with the pedagogical practices employeed by the Disney Corporation. iv Empha-

sizing the acquisition of skills over critical, ethical thinking, these educational sites produce students and

workers trained to adapt to the world rather than to shape it. Moreover, the town of Celebration might be ill

served by the production of a body of civic-minded youth, given the town‟s adherence to the principles of ob-



i

A Black Iron Prison. This is what the dream referred to as “the Empire.”… Everyone dwelt in it without realizing it. The

Black Iron Prison was their world.… The prison lay under attack. An organization of Christians, not regular Christians such as

those who attended church every Sunday and prayed, but secret Christians wearing light gray-colored robes, had started an as-

sault on the prison, and with success.… Everyone who had ever lived was literally surrounded by the iron walls of the prison;

they were all inside it and none of them knew it—except for the gray-robed secret Christians.

— Philip K. Dick, Valis (New York: Vintage Books, 1991), pp. 47, 48.

ii

Celebration is Disney‟s effort to generate small-town values in a carefully designed small-town atmosphere.… The architecture

of the homs [sic] is old-fashioned and many have porches to promote social interation.

— Douglas Frantz, Town that Disney built is hit by first violent crime, The New York Times, 13 Aug 1998, CXLVIII(51,248), p.

A10.

iii

Mi Kid iz a Honner Studant at Sellibration Skool. *

— Bumper Sticker, Summer 1998, in Ross, Celebration Chronicles, p. 144.

*

Textbooks today, many experts agree, are far easier to read, with simpler vocabulary and sentence structure, than they once

were.… In other words, textbooks have been “dumbed down.” The result, according to a wide-ranging group including teach-

ers, textbook salesmen, education researchers and government officials, is a more poorly educated student population.

Sue Fischer, president of the Association of Washington Educators of Talented and Gifted, says that during the past 15 years,

the reading level of texbooks has dropped by two grade levels. That is, what used to be third-grade material is now fifth-grade

material.

— Nancy Montgomery, Dumbed-down texts too easy, too simple, too boring, critics say, The Seattle Times, 3 March 1996, p.

A1.

iv

Teachers are called “learning leaders” and students are “learners.”

— Douglas Frantz, Trouble at the happiest school on Earth; Disney‟s brave new town, The New York Times, 1 Aug 1999,

CXLVIII(51,601), p. WK1.





58

edience, conformity, and passivity in the pursuit of the Disney utopia. 910 (Refusing to separate entertainment

from education, Disney challenged the assumption that entertainment has little educational value and is simp-

ly about leisure. For Walt Disney, education was not confined to schools but implicit in the broader realm of

popular culture and its own mechanisms for the production of knowledge and values.911)

With this strategy Disney will someday tap into the fortunes of every person on the planet, as it now does to every

American whether we know it or not.912 Like it or not, the policies and programs of companies DO influence your

society—and you—for good or ill.913 Today‟s autocrats are the megacorporations, and none exerts more influence

over our culture than Disney.914 Disney touches virtually every human being in America for profit. That is rapidly

becoming true as well in France, Spain, Germany, Japan, Great Britain, Australia, China, Mexico, Brazil, and Cana-

da.915

The company has a tremendous impact on the mindset and behavior of hundreds of millions around the

globe.916 Because Eisner and the others who run the motion picture and television industries are able to shape

the public‟s barely conscious basic assumptions about life and society, thereby profoundly influencing the

thinking and actions of millions, they wield greater power than even our elected lawmakers. 917 Precisely be-

cause [Disneyphiles] beguilingly pose as friends, they are more insidious, and ultimately more dangerous,

than even a military threat from a foreign power.

Eisner‟s transformation of Disney parallels, and contributes to, the cultural, social and political transfor-

mation of the United States as a whole. Like America‟s political leaders, Eisner and his Disney colleagues

reassuringly display familiar symbols and trademarks from an earlier era, exploiting reputations and good-will

painstakingly built up over decades. Those who patronize Disney are reassured that such beloved symbols as

Mickey Mouse and Snow White are still in place, just as millions of credulous Americans are reassured about

the future of the United States because such icons as the American flag and the US Constitution are still in

place. But in each case, the spirit that gave life to these venerable symbols has been driven out by a very dif-

ferent one—a spirit that has not yet dared to show its real face, or speak its real name. 918, i

Disney will devour the world the same way it devoured this country, starting first with the youth; 919… snag the child-

ren ii and everybody else follows—parents, politicians, even the press.920

The influence of Walt Disney is…inescapable. The images of his characters are all around us, 921…from Walt

Disney Pictures, [Touchstone Pictures, Hollywood Pictures, Miramax, and Caravan Pictures;922] from ABC, ESPN,

[Touchstone Television, Buena Vista Television,923] the Disney Channel, Arts and Entertainment, the History Chan-

nel, and Lifetime; from Siskel and Ebert, Regis and Kathie Lee, [Bill Nye, iii] and Monday Night Football; from…TV

stations,…AM radio stations, and…FM radio stations; from home videos, stage plays, music publishing, book pub-

lishing, [glossy consumer magazines (including Discover),924 and] daily newspapers; from the theme parks;…from

computer software, [Web sites,iv] toys, and merchandise; from baseball and hockey franchises; from hotels, real-

estate holdings, retail stores, shopping centers, housing developments, and…even a cruise line. 925



i

(Hastur the Unspeakable (He Who Must Not Be Named).… Any time the name “Hastur” is spoken, there is a…chance that

Hastur will hear and send…Byakhee to slay the speaker.)

— James M. Ward with Robert J. Kuntz, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Deities & Demigods, Lawrence Schick, ed. (TSR

Games, Original edition), Cthulhu Mythos (omitted in later editions), p. 45.

ii

Above the crib in little Shelby[‟s]…room…hangs a framed single-share certificate of Walt Disney Co. stock.*

— Dan Moreau, Getting kids hooked on stocks, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine, Aug 1995, 49(8), p. 73(3).

*

In the world‟s nurseries, the hand that rocks the cradle belongs to Disney.

— Time eds., Great People of the 20 Century (New York: Time Inc., 1996), p. 118.

iii

“ „Disney Presents Bill Nye the Science Guy‟ *…is written at the fourth-grade level because it‟s generally agreed that‟s the

oldest a person can be and be excited about science,” [Bill Nye] said.… “It turns out that over half our viewers are grownups.

So fourth grade isn‟t so bad for everyone.”

— Paul M. Eng, Cybergiant see the future—and it‟s Jack and Jill, Business Week, 14 April 1997, p. 44.

*

“Science Guy” Bill Nye is suing Disney. The TV personality says the company owes him more than $500,000 for using his

likeness on attractions at Epcot Center.

— People (Across the Nation/Daily Briefing), The Seattle Times, 20 Feb 2000, p. A6.

iv

Disney‟s Daily Blast is the Web‟s first subscription service targeted specifically at children. *

— Mike Langberg, Disney site treats kids to Daily Blast, San Jose Mercury News, 27 July 1997, p. 2E.

*

The site is featured on the Microsoft Network (MSN) and offers pre-teenagers programs such as stories, current events, games

and comic strips.

— Paul M. Eng, Cybergiant sees the future—and it‟s Jack and Jill, Business Week, 14 April 1997, p. 44.





59

Of course the tourists ke[ep] coming. Nothing short of flamethrowers w[ill] stop[] them. If anything is more

irresistible than Jesus, it‟s Mickey.926 (Who is more powerful—Disney or God? It‟s a tough call.927) [Disney]

change[d] how people…thought about money,928…the root of all evils.929, i Disney…dignified blind greed in…

state[s] pioneered by undignified greedheads.930, ii Bankers, lawyers, real-estate salesmen, hoteliers, restauranteurs,

farmers, citrus growers—everyone in Mickey‟s orb had to drastically recalibrate the concepts of growth. 931 Business

leaders (and therefore politicians)…watched and plotted with envy. Everyone conspired for a cut of the Disney ac-

tion.932 (Americans are among the most self-centered folks on Earth.933)

The end of the 1980s,934…a decade of greed,935…witnessed the phenomenal success of movie studio theme parks

with the opening of the Disney-MGM studios park.936 The MGM Studio Tour opened in 1989.937 (A syndicated TV

show, Ed McMahon‟s Star Search, is recorded at Disney-MGM before an audience made up of visitors to the stu-

dios.938) The company is also building a park adjacent to Disneyland called Disney‟s California Adventure.939 ?? In

typical fashion, Disney executives aren‟t revealing much about their plans.940

“Disney‟s ability to decimate you by acting in a predatory way is chilling,” [MCA‟s President Sid Shein-

berg] said in a memorable interview with the Orlando Sentinel. “Do you really want a little mouse to become

one large, ravenous rat?” 941

Eisner promised to “reinvent the Disney experience…worldwide.” 942 The 15th anniversary of 943…Tokyo Dis-

neyland, opened by the ancien regime [o]n [15 April] 1983,944…was marked in bronze with the unveiling of a statue

of Mickey Mouse hand in hand with Walt Disney.945, iii

In every Japanese bookstand and convenience store, pornographic magazines feature lewd photos of girls

in high-school sailor uniforms.946 In the video-game parlors of Japan, players…can strip the high-school uni-

form from a young teen until she is topless.947 On television, one of the most popular children‟s cartoon cha-

racters [wa]s “Sailor Moon,” a high-school girl in uniform who fights crime and inexplicably appears naked

in her bathtub during the ending credits.948 Clothing stores in Tokyo think nothing of displaying provocative

photographs of topless preteen girls in seductive, adult poses, and residential mailboxes get stuffed with ads

for sex services that are illustrated with graphic photos of high-school girls performing sex acts.949 It is open

to theory why Japanese men find very young girls sexually attractive. iv Experts on sexuality and women‟s

rights say that as women have begun to assert themselves, the traditional lack of equality between the sexes

has left men intimidated by strong women, and therefore more interested in young girls. 950 The less analytical

reason…men are fixated on young girls is that no one has stopped them.951

Disneyland is a potent and popular image [t]here. Disney characters have pitched countless Japanese products for

years.952 Mickey Mouse is such an omnipresent figure…that he is probably more recognizable to many Japanese

than the Emporer.953 Youths sport Mickey Mouse T-shirts, and Cinderella‟s castle has served as the model for do-

zens of so-called “love hotels,” where 954…couples go to for the privacy they cannot get in their crowded homes. 955

For many Japanese, Tokyo is no longer a place to move to in order to find jobs and get ahead in the world; instead,

Tokyo has become the largest theme park, visited by people from all over Japan for enjoyment, to have fun. Thus,





i

Which is worse: the evil you know, the evil you don‟t know, or the evil that‟s been around so long no one pays attention to it

anymore?

— Angela Gunn, Choose your evil (Kiss my ASCII), Seattle Weekly, 16 March 2000, 25(11), p. 19.

ii

A greedy man, even if he has much, still wishes to have more.

— “The Little Folks‟ Presents,” Grimm’s Fairy Tales, pp. 204-205.

iii

If a character can get a statue made of himself, imortality is his. Statue, Statute, Status, Static.

— Dorfman and Matterlart, How to Read Donald Duck, pp. 83-84.

iv

A tabloid newspaper reports that Japanese men would rather be shipwrecked on a deserted island with Attorney General Janet

Reno* than any other women. “That‟s just amazing,” Reno said,…laughing, when asked by a reporter for her reaction to the

article. The Weekly World News…said a recent survey of 12,500 Japanese men between the ages of 21 and 58 found that 78

percent picked Reno as their top choice when asked with whom they wanted to be stranded on an island.

— People (Across the Nation/Daily Briefing), The Seattle Times, 20 Nov 1997, p. A12.

*

Evil women in history: From Jezebel to Janet Reno.†

— “Bart‟s Girlfriend,” The Simpsons, FOX, 2F04, 11 June 1994.

†

We are living in a time of great federal corruption.… Since Reno serves at the pleasure of the president, you can draw your

own conclusions.

— Bill O‟Reilly (APBnews.com), Corruption in high places?, Yahoo! News (Yahoo.com), 31 May 2000.





60

the phrase “Tokyo Disneyland” needs to be understood in its double sense: a Disneyland in Tokyo and Tokyo as a

Disneyland.956

Spurned by the success of its Japanese venture, Walt Disney Company decided to develop EuroDisneyland, lo-

cated in Marne-la-Vallée, 20 miles east of Paris.957 Disneyland Paris ([formerly] called EuroDisney) opened…in the

spring of 1992.958 The wine-loving French resented Disney‟s no-alcohol policy, while employees balked at the com-

pany‟s famous Aryan-android dress code, which forbids makeup, nail polish, [flashy jewelry, blue jeans, 959 and] fa-

cial hair.960

Mickey Mouse can finally grow a mustache. The Walt Disney Co.…has relaxed rules that barred male

employees from growing facial hair.961 Walt Disney adopted its clean-cut code for Disneyland employees in

1957, requiring men to be clean shaven and to keep their hair short.

Though he sported a mustache himself,i the company‟s founder thought the prohibition was neces-

sary 962—reportedly because he did not want the “The Happiest Place on Earth” to turn into the “Hippiest

Place on Earth.” 963 (Employees who worked for the creative side of the company…were generally ex-

empt.964)

After surveying some park-goers, Disney Attractions President Paul Pressler apparently decided a well-

maintained mustache is acceptable enough for folks these days, especially in a tight job market; 965…[but] the

grooming code still looks down on more current facial expression—like piercings, goatees, unnatural dye

jobs, [sideburns], beards or a stunning set of muttonchops. 966

Disney‟s enforcement did spark some well-publicized battles over the years. After taking over operations

of Long Beach‟s Queen Mary in 1989, the company fired [four 967] crew members who reportedly refused to

cut off their mustaches.968

The appearance code was last revised in 1994, when female theme park workers were permitted to use eye

shadow and eyeliner and balding men were allowed to wear toupees. 969

Critics and commentators despaired that Disneyland Paris was a blight on native French culture, and the leftist news-

paper Libération harshly dubbed it “Mousewitz.” At one point the park was losing the equivalent of $1 million a

day, and was reported to be on the verge of closing.970 Today wine is served.971

Disney, hoping to expand operations into China,…tapped shill-for-hire Henry Kissinger to perform damage con-

trol in the wake of the release of Kundun, a Disney film highly critical of China‟s occupation of Tibet. 972 In late

1996, [China] sent the director of China‟s National Film Bureau, Liu Jianzhong, to Hollywood to warn Disney that

its business interests in China would be at risk if the film proceeded.973 Disney did not pull the plug on Kundun, but

the Mouse did look for other ways to appease Beijing:974…Chinese censorship and control.975

In December 1997,976…Business Week chose Disney‟s board of directors as the worst in America. The

reason: Many seemed to have been handpicked not so much for their business experience as for their loyalty

to the autocratic Eisner.977 Ruthless, [Eisner] rules Disney, and rules alone.978

In a…poll published in Esquire magazine, screenwriters dubbed Disney the studio they least like

to work for. Aljean Harmetz summarized the situation as follows: “Screenwriters are venomous about

the dumb Disney executives who treat you horribly and give you pages and pages of notes written in

Pidgin English” [Aljean Harmetz, “Glory and Humiliation in the Screen Trade: A $1,000,000 Insult Beats a $300,000 In-

sult Any Day,” Esquire, 1991, 116(1), p. 81 ]. John Gregory Dunne puts it even more succinctly: “I‟m not

going to pass judgment, but writers who have worked for Disney call it Mouschwitz” [John Gregory

979

Dunne, “Truth, Illusion and Very Good Insurance: I‟d Like to Thank the Members of the Academy . . . ” Ibid., p. 91].



[The following year], ABC News…nixed a 20/20 newsmagazine story critical of parent corporation Disney,

specifically its hiring and safety problems at the Disney World theme park in Orlando, Florida. The piece

[wa]s based on…[Peter and Rochelle Schweizer‟s] book Disney: The Mouse Betrayed.980 Penned for con-

servative Washington, D.C., publisher Regnery, the book alleges, among other things, that Disney World

doesn‟t do enough background checking to stop sex offenders from getting hired at the park. 981 The Disney-

critical work—which contains such chapters as “The Lyin‟ King” and “Mickey Mouse Justice”—also in-

cludes copies of sheriff‟s reports at the park regarding alleged pedophiles. It also describes a rampant Peep-



i

It was an old company joke that Walt Disney could not have been hired to work at Disneyland. Walt cursed vigorously, chain-

smoked,…dr[a]nk,…and wore a mustache.

— Taylor, Storming the Magic Kingdom, p. 25.





61

ing Tom problem.982 [Regnery Vice President Richard] Vigilante, who claimed he was told by producer

[Rhonda] Schwartz the segment would run as soon as the overscheduled 20/20 had room for it, said he began

to have doubts when the newsmag ran a segment about dogs on Prozac.983

([A cafe that] opened in the southern Chinese tourist town of Yangshuo 984…[has] a sign in the window [that] reads

Welcome to Mickey Mao’s.985)

The Walt Disney Company and the Hong Kong government announced…[2 November 1999 plans] to build a

theme park in this bustling financial hub, an agreement that would give Asia its second “Magic Kingdom.” 986 The

proposed Hong Kong Disneyland, a 126-hectare theme park development at the first phase, will be constructed at

Penny‟s Bay on Lantau Island, a main tourist route from the Hong Kong International Airport. 987

Hong Kong‟s reputation as a “must see” tourist destination is expected to be strengthened considerably with the

opening of a Disney theme park in 2005.988 Japanese characters are bigger hits than Mickey and Donald, but 989…

“Hong Kong Disneyland will no doubt enhance the international image of Hong Kong as a vibrant, cosmopolitan

city,”…[a Tourism Commission report] stressed.990

Director of the Guangzhou Tourism Bureau Lie Ping said: “The building of a Disneyland will not only boost

tourism in the [Hong Kong Special Administrative Region] but is also a [sic] good news for Guangzhou.” 991

“This will mark a new era for Hong Kong,” said government leader, Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa.992

“Hong Kong will have (Disneyland). It‟s a place where dreams are made,” [Vice-Premier Quan Qichen] said.993

One might argue that by now, Mickey and Minnie Mouse are not merely American but have become international

figures. Also Pinnochio, Cinderella, Dumbo.994

As Mr. Hiaasen describes in his book, the company‟s literal attempt to annex American history—by building a

theme park adjacent to Civil War battlefields in Virginia—went belly up after enormous protest.995 In November

1993, Disney executives unveiled plans for a Disney‟s America theme park in Haymarket, Virginia. Prince William

County officials welcomed this new proposal.996 For many months the Walt Disney Company ha[d] been anony-

mously snapping up property in the Piedmont, just as it did many years ago outside Orlando. 997 Although the nuc-

leus of Disney‟s “America Project” was to be six miles from the Civil War memorial, many Virginians felt it was

close enough to be a desecration. This time it wasn‟t Nature but American history that Disney sought to polish up

and market as a fun ride.998 Disney officials…said the park w[ould] feature exhibits making phenomena such as sla-

very, the Civil War and the Depression “fun and exciting for the whole family.” 999

During the Civil War, the battlefield of Monassas, Va., where Confederate General T.J. Jackson became known

as Stonewall and 28,000 fell, was described as “the very vortex of hell” by one soldier. Now Monassas, about 26

miles southwest of Washington, D.C., [wa]s the vortex of a bitter clash that[] turned into the biggest historic-pres-

ervation battle in the country.1000 Opponents said Monassas was no place for a massive theme park/golf resort/sub-

division.1001

Amid the controversy, president and chief operating officer Frank Wells died in a helicopter crash. [Jeff-

rey] Katzenberg wanted Wells‟ job, but Eisner wanted someone who would defer more easily as his second-

in-command. Katzenberg was squeezed out and later sued for $250 million. Eisner had quadruple bypass

surgery; employees throughout the company who weren‟t bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars in sala-

ry, bonuses and stock options, joked that the doctors went to operate on his heart, opened him up and couldn‟t

find one.1002

“Disney‟s America” implied ownership of the country‟s history, which only antagonized…critics. 1003 Respected

historians feared Disney would “commercialize what should be revered, and vulgarize what is noble in American

history.” 1004 The rape of Orlando was invoked constantly as a battle cry;1005…Mickey and Minnie…would be danc-

ing on the graves of Civil War heroes.1006

Minnie Mouse is one of the most popular characters at Disney World. But inside that costume,…Minnie

Mouse is often a man.1007 It seems that some gay male employees at Disney World i enjoy playing the femi-

nine mouse, flirting with and comically embarrassing male guests.1008 Nonetheless, the men leave with their

chests expanded, obviously taking the advances as flattery, not as sexual harassment.1009





i

There has always been a gay presence in the Magic Kingdom.*

— Schweizer and Schweizer, Mouse Betrayed, pp. 234-235.

*

Walt Disney World used to keep Gay Days in the closet,…[but] it‟s now as much a part of Disney as Mickey Mouse.

— Mike Schneider (Associated Press), Gay Days part of Disney landscape, Yahoo! News (Yahoo.com), 3 June 2000.





62

“Heeere, Lee-zard Lee-zard Lee-zard” 1010, i



“Mulan,” the 36th animated feature in the studio‟s history,1011…is Disney‟s first foray into Chinese culture.1012, ii

[It may also be] the studio‟s first animated feature…to use the words “cross-dresser” and “drag show,” or to feature

scenes of nose-picking and spitting.1013 [“Mulan,” the story] about a Chinese girl who dresses as a man and becomes

a war hero,1014…finished second to “The X-Files” at the box office.1015 She simply becomes one of the boys. But

lest the fantasy be taken too far, Disney reminds us at the conclusion of the film that Mulan is still just a girl in search

of a man, and as in so many other Disney animated films, Mulan becomes an exoticized version of the All-American

girl who manages to catch the most handsome boy on the block, square jaw and all.1016

Kids learn from Disney films,1017…[and] some research…indicate[s] that children try to imitate what they see.

According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, 74 percent of children say they want to copy what

they see in movies and on television programs.1018 [As a result], frantic parents are dragging their little girls into hair

salons 1019…[because the girls] hack off their own hair to be just like Mulan. 1020 (At least it‟s not as bad as when

little boys jumped off the roof.1021)

One cannot overstate Disney‟s reach, and there‟s no better example than Eisner‟s superhyped 101 Dalmatians.iii

As soon as word got out that Disney was producing a live-action remake of its popular 1961 feature-length cartoon,

puppy mills across America began breeding dalmatians like rats.1022, iv Once the movie opened, thousands upon

sands of parents went shopping for puppies to put under the Christmas tree for their small children.1023 Less than a

year after the film‟s release, animal shelters and Humane Societies got swamped with young dogs that had failed to

deliver the cuddliness promised by their big-screen counterparts.1024 In the movie, the Dalmatians are cute and fun.

But at home, they shed, tend to snap and bite, and do not particularly like children.1025 South Florida shelters re-

ported a 35 percent increase in the number of dalmatians, many of them facing a sad and predictable fate. The story

was the same all across the country.1026 The parents who dashed out to buy those dogs should have known better.1027

After [the] outcry from historians and preservationists sunk its plans for [the] history theme park outside Wash-

ington, D.C.,…the company was careful…to line up wide support for Animal Kingdom from some of the nation‟s

leading conservationists and zoologists.1028 In the spring of 1998, over the protests of antizoo activists, Walt Disney

World opened…Animal Kingdom,1029…the first major Disney World theme park in almost a decade. 1030

The 20,000-member Performing Animal Welfare Society…has called for a boycott.1031 People for the

Ethical Treatment of Animals has [also] called for a boycott,…sending letters to travel agents urging them not

to book tours.

Another group, the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida, planned to picket on opening day. Joe Taksel,

managing director for the Florida group, said Disney should give up on animals given its “pretty bad” record

and should spend money instead on conserving natural habitats.1032 “When it comes to animals,” says

[Taskel], “Disney should stick to Mickey Mouse.” 1033







i

?? “I‟m not a lizard, I‟m a dragon: I don‟t do that tongue thing.”

— Mulan.

ii

China‟s state-fun Xinhua news agency reported…that researchers have identified the hometown of the character portrayed in

…”Mulan,” a legendary female warrior.… Researchers believe that Mulan—whose surname was Wei—was born about 1,300

years ago in what today is central Henan province‟s Yucheng county, Xinhua siad.

— ?? Daily briefing, The Seattle Times, 25 Aug 1998, p. A12.

iii

The same folks who brought you 101 Dalmations, a movie featuring adorable puppies, also brought you Pulp Fiction, a movie

featuring junkies, hit men, and bondage freaks.*

— Hiaasen, Team Rodent, p. 12.

*

The same company that released the animated film Hercules, about a mythical strong man, distributed The House of Yes, a mov-

ie that boldly attempts to make incest look sexy.

— Schweizer and Schweizer, Mouse Betrayed, pp. 8-9.

iv

Davy Crockett…started a national craze among American children for coonskin caps. *

— Taylor, Storming the Magic Kingdom, p. 9.

*

Jack Russell terriers have become popular because of the television show “Frasier.” †

— Mireya Navarro (The New York Times), Movie fallout: Dalmatians now being abandoned, The Seattle Times, 14 Sep 1997, p.

A6.

†

Word from the Chihuahua breeders is their pups are on back order.

— L.M. Boyd, Mike mailway, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 21 Sep 1998, 135(226), p. E4.





63

“From Dinos to Rinos,” promised the advance press release. “This…fourth major theme park at Walt Disney

World Resorts sprawls across 500 acres reconfigured to look amazingly like animal reserves of Africa or Asia.” 1034

Billed by Disney as “five times bigger than the Magic Kingdom,” that figure includes many of the open-air animal

areas.1035 In other words, it‟s not as big as it sounds.1036

Typical Disney: Honey, I shrunk the Serengeti!

The new park offers the formulaic payload: fast-paced, telegenic, politically correct facsimiles of adventure. For

instance, visitors are educated about threatened wildlife on a…ride called Countdown to Extinction. Meanwhile, a

mock safari tracks ruthless elephant poachers through the bush 1037…[in] an 18-minute zip-by that gives your camera

little time to focus on anything moving faster than a rock.1038 The Conservation Station provides an education lite on

wildlife and rain forests and has an animal E.R. that shows surgeons at work on, say, a macaw‟s anus. 1039 The cen-

terpiece would be more than fifteen hundred real animals,i often with agendas of their own.1040 Rare and wonderful

creatures, native to far-off lands, will include elephants, hippos, rhinos, antelope, lions, gorillas and much more,

roaming freely 1041—unless Disney starts tranking them.1042

Live animals in theme parks, of course, have their drawbacks.1043 “Eventually, all of them will die,” says Jane

Ballentine, a spokeswoman for the American zoo and Aquarium Association. “Just like humans.” 1044

“This is not about fantasy,” says entertainment chief Doug May of the park‟s attractions. “This is a park about

reality.” 1045

When we saw that McDonald‟s was using its McRib sandwich to cross-promote Disney‟s Animal King-

dom, we thought, Isn‟t it odd to connect frolicking animals and a rib sandwich? R.J. Milano, an assistant

marketing V.P. at McDonald‟s, explained, “Animal Kingdom is very much a wild experience, and the McRib

is a wild taste that allows customers to experience the fun and magic of the Animal Kingdom without going to

Orlando.” Oh.1046

The least interesting thing about Disney‟s Animal Kingdom is its animals,1047…but are the animals safe?1048

Even before opening, [Disney]…had to deal with the public relations stain of… animal deaths, starting with a 6-year-

old female black rhino:1049

Rhinos browse on grasses, leaves, twigs, and shrubs, and they‟re not always well-mannered eaters. It was

conceivable that an exceptionally hungry animal could slurp down a twenty-one-inch branch without chewing

it. And that would have been the working theory about Disney‟s dead black rhinoceros, that it had ingested

the lethal stick from a pile of vegetation, cut for it as food by well-meaning handlers.

Except for one problem: The stick was found at the opposite end of the animal; specifically, in the last

segment of the long intestine, within an arm‟s reach of the rectum.1050 A person or persons unknown had sa-

vagely inserted the stick.1051 [But] there‟d be no need for a delicate inquiry as to who, if anyone, had so vi-

ciously violated the young pachyderm—whatever happened had taken place before the rhino arrived in Or-

lando.1052

Still, Team Rodent remained worried. No upbeat spin could be put on a story about an endangered crea-

ture expiring under mysterious circumstances on company property. With memories of the abused-buzzard

fiasco still tender, a wall of secrecy went up. Anyone with knowledge of the rhino‟s demise was instructed to

keep quiet.1053

[An] investigation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture into possible violations of the Animal Welfare Act came

after at least a dozen of the animals…died;1054…the causes of death ranged from illness to accidents.1055 A spokes-

man for the department, Jim Rogers, said the investigation was started after the agency received an anonymous tip,

but he would not say what they were looking for.1056 Disney… acknowledged that 12 animals—four cheetah cubs,ii

two rhinos, two hippos,1057…two Asian small-clawed otters,1058 …and two West African crown cranes that were ap-

parently hit by tour busses 1059—died at or en route to the $800 million theme park.1060 The cheetahs died of kidney



i

But all those critters generate a lot of animal waste. And…supply is outstripping the demand.… Disney, at one point, was even

giving away manure, under the cutesy name Pooh‟s Poop.

— A mountain grows in Orlando; Walt Disney World‟s Animal Kingdom produced 1,680 tons of animal wast during the past 18

months, Business Week, 1 March 1999, 3618, p. 8.

ii

Cheetahs today are outnumbered by their enemies, they are largely defenseless, and, where unprotected, they are likely headed

for extinction.… Slowly, inexorably, cheetahs have been exterminated from large portions of their former range in Africa and

the Middle East. Once plentiful in India, cheetahs have totally disappeared there, the victims of hunters and loss of habitat.

— George W. Frame and Lory Herbison Frame, Cheetahs: In a race for survival, National Geographic,May 1980, 157(5), p. 712.





64

failure consistent with exposure to ethylene glycol, a chemical used in antifreeze, and their deaths remain a mystery,

Disney officials said.1061 The Orlando Sentinel disclosed that 1062…thirty-one animals died in the months before the

park opened,…[including several gazelles, antelope, and]…two mole rats.1063

Disney dismissed the deaths as “to be expected” when you have 1,000 individuals in your care, an excuse I sus-

pect wouldn‟t fly with parents if the company ever opened a day-care center.1064, i Disney spokeswoman Diane

Ledder said the company publicized only the significant deaths. “We don‟t make a practice of informing the media

every time an animal dies at our facilities or by the same token when one is born,” Ledder said.1065 “It‟s not practi-

cal. Animals are born and they die. It‟s a fact of life.” 1066





“Father Knows Best”



Team Rodent knows the tolerance level of its audience because it raised its audience.1067 Disney helped create

our popular taste.1068 In many ways, Disney was a “Father Knows Best”-style husband.1069 [But] if Father Knows

Best, why is he so angry with Bud all the time? 1070

If father is so wonderful, why is his son angry? While life seems fine for Mom, Dad, ii Betty, and Kathy, there‟s

definitely something amiss with young Bud Anderson. Behind their veneer of middle-class perfection, might there

be something terribly wrong in this family? Could there be something innately wrong with the boy? There‟s a feel

to Bud that emanates through the screen. Subtle at first, he has an unmistakingly dark quality. It‟s perhaps most

apparent in his judgment. He seems to wander into trouble, and his way of communicating is at times sneeringly

provocative. On the surface, his manners appear to be fine—after all, he was well taught. However, he has a de-

vious quality that makes it apparent he can‟t be trusted. He‟s constantly choosing the wrong companions, making the

wrong decisions, and having to later confess and repent to his parents and others he‟s offended.

Bud appears to be holding something inside. We‟ll never know what‟s really going on, but there are dimensions

to this family that are not seen by the public. One clue is found in the way in which father and son interact. Jim is

angry and impatient with Bud. He often thinks the worst of him. Millions of people can identify with family se-

crets.iii Often even an extended family isn‟t aware of toxic dynamics at work. Everything appears to be normal and

healthy, but inside the intimacies of family life, unbridled anger and abusive manipulation are alive and at work.

While there is no compelling evidence that the Andersons are anything but an emotionally open, loving, and

healthy family, there is the matter with Bud and his unctuous personality. The family may be blind to it, but in their

midst is a young man with a flowering personality disorder, who‟s destined to rebel in dramatic and flamboyant ways

as a late teen. If and when that happens,1071…will they see it coming? Sadly, we‟ll never know.1072

“The days of Ward and June Cleaver are over!” 1073

  

1074

Lucky for Disney, UNICEF doesn‟t investigate hypocrisy. Those who track child labor sweatshops know the

Mouse is a prime exploiter. The face of Disney the manufacturer is not a pretty one.1075 (Sweatshops became big

news in 1996 when it was revealed that Kathie Lee Gifford‟s designer clothes company…us[ed] child labor at be-

low-subsistence wages.1076 The Giffords immediately became champions against child labor.1077)

At a Washington, D.C., press conference, a fifteen-year-old Honduran worker named Wendy Diaz told

reporters that she made $21 a week and suffered abuse at the hands of her bosses. 1078 Diaz‟s plight, however,

might have been worse. Had she been employed by a Disney licensee, she undoubtedly would have received



i

The Baby Care Center exemplifies Disney‟s utopian attention to detail.… Baby paraphernalia…are on sale here. There are also

special name tags for children—to wear in case one gets lost.*

— Fjellman, Vinyl Leaves, p. 173.

*

?? creme a la creme child-care

ii

Answering latter-day criticism that the show wasn‟t realistic, [Robert] Young said that adding a subplot about real-life crises

…“would have been like taking a beautiful painting and obliterating it with black paint.”

— Oscar Musibay (Associated Press), Actor Robert Young dies at 91; He was beloved for roles in „Father Knows Best‟ and as

„Marcus Welby‟, The Seattle Times, 22 July 1998, 121(174), p. A3.

iii

Most families have secrets, and surprisingly, adoption continues to be one of the most common. Under enlightened practices,

children are told about adoption more readily than in the past. But in the interest of protecting them, many parents keep adoptees

in the dark, setting them up for possible future shock.

— David Gelman and Debra Rosenberg, Family secrets; From hidden adoptions to hushed-up romances, that which you don‟t

know still has the power to hurt you, Newsweek, 24 Feb 1997, CXXIX(8), p. 28.





65

even lower pay under more dangerous working conditions. 1079 At four assembly factories owned by Disney

suppliers, workers toil in tropical heat to meet production quotas. 1080

Using children to make Disney toys i extends beyond [Haiti], Vietnam and China.1081 (China is an attractive

place for less-scrupulous companies to manufacture their products, says Simon Greenfield. 1082) Disney licensees…

use child labor to cut costs. The Eden Group, a Disney licensee in Thailand that produces a whole line of Disney

apparel called Mickey Mouse Americanwear, actually fired adult workers to bring on child laborers. 1083

From the employer‟s point of view, hiring children makes good economic sense. Children work for less money

than adults. They are submissive and unlikely to organize or protest.1084

Spencer Craig joined Disney in 1971 and worked in merchandising for most of this twenty-four-year ca-

reer, leaving in 1995.1085 “From a business standpoint it made sense to start using cheaper labor overseas and

to rely on licensees who would use it,” says Craig. “One of the decrees that came down beginning in 1984

[when Eisner came in] was that we were going to return twenty percent to shareholders. And we had to do

that. That might be okay from a total corporate outlook, but when you look at merchandising in particular,

that‟s pretty tough. It used to be that if you brought back a net 6 percent increase, you got promoted. That‟s

the real world of merchandising. For them to come in and say, „You‟re going to return twenty percent also,‟

it led us to use less scrupulous licensees and manufacturers. The profit motive drove it.”

Making a profit is, of course, what business is all about.1086 And that drive for profit has pushed the Mouse into the

arms of some pretty unsavory company.

For years Disney licensees were manufacturing in a country few Americans could locate on a map. Burma—also

known as Myanmar, the name given it by the ruling military junta—is a poverty-stricken nation.1087 Drug lords have

a special status in Burma. They are protected by the government.1088 The New York Times…editorialized: “For

sheer nastiness few governments compete with Burma‟s. It winks at heroin trafficking. It forces citizens to provide

slave labor.” In other words, it‟s a great place to make Mickey Mouse sweatshirts.1089 When human rights groups

and labor organizations first discovered that Disney had links to Burma, they immediately launched a protest cam-

paign.1090 Still, some Disney executives have not completely abandoned hopes for big profits in Burma.1091

Disney…seems less than interested in tackling the child labor problem. Retailers and manufacturers have been

asked by the U.S. Department of Labor to voluntarily pledge to monitor their contractors to make sure no child labor

is being used. Dozens of well-known companies have joined, including Abercrombie and Fitch, Guess, Lands‟ End,

Lerner New York, Levi Strauss, Liz Claiborne, Nordstrom, Patagonia, Victoria‟s Secret, the Limited, and others.

Disney has not.1092

[Said Senator Tom Harkin]: “The United States must not import any products made by child labor. Period.” 1093

In America it took decades for activists, such as Jane Addams, Jacob Riis, Samuel Gompers, photographer Lewis

Hine, and many, many others, to change the country‟s attitude about working children.1094 Finally a public outcry

pushed the United States government to adopt strong labor laws that would protect the nation‟s children.1095





“Soft people become hard criminals” 1096



You might think that if there were one single crime that Disney would work aggressively to counter it would be

child molestation. But you would be wrong.1097 Of all Disney‟s secrets, none is perhaps as dark and troubling as the

growing number of active pedophiles in and around the Magic Kingdom. “Disney is having more problems than

anyone else,” says [Detective Matt] Irwin, who has cracked several pedophile cases for the Sheriff‟s Department.1098

(He also handled the famous 1997 “baby Jasmine” case, in which a newborn was abandoned in a Magic Kingdom

bathroom.)1099









i

Any item associated with The Walt Disney Company or its affiliated operations, past or present, is considered to be Disneyana.*

— Tom Tumbusch, Tormart’s Illustrated Disneyana Catalog and Price Guide, Condensed Ed. (Dayton, OH: Tomart Publ.,

1989), p. 15.

*

Contrary to what most collectors of Disneyana believe, the history of Walt Disney character merchandise does not begin with

…Mickey Mouse.

— Cecil Munsey, Disneyana: Walt Disney Collectibles (New York: Hawthorne Books, Inc., 1974), p. 1.





66

The infant girl dubbed “Princess Jasmine” by nurses was in stable condition [10 November 1997], doing

well.1100 The girl apparently was only minutes old when found…in a [Tomorrowland] restroom. 1101 The ba-

by‟s head was above the water with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck.1102

Madona Arcelona, a 43-year-old woman from the Philippines who has eight other children, was identified

[5 February 1998] as the woman who abandoned the newborn girl. 1103 The identity of Jasmine‟s mother was

determined through a DNA match after some of Arcelona‟s relatives…came forward, police said. 1104

The baby…will live with Arcelona‟s sister-in-law and her husband in New Jersey, a judge ruled.1105 The

couple already have custody of the infant‟s 16-month-old sister.1106

While it‟s difficult to know just who is working at Disney, copies of the company‟s security records reveal that

numerous employees have arrests for a variety of sex crimes.1107 Even repeat sex-crime offenders with criminal

records have operated at Disney for years, apparently with the company‟s knowledge.1108 Security checks would

undoubtedly be a good idea since a surprising number of Disney employees have serious criminal records that are

either unknown or ignored by Disney management.1109

Detective Eric Fortinberry has a unique perspective on all of this, having both investigated sex crimes at Disney

and worked at the park itself. “They probably don‟t want the criminal checks because it would keep employees out

that normally would get through,” he says. And beyond security background checks, if Disney acted like any other

theme park in Central Florida and cooperated with local law enforcement efforts, this would most likely lead to more

arrests. Until it does the chances will remain quite low that these child molesters will be caught.1110

“When they advertise their attractions as a safe haven for children, the least they can do is make a minimal

effort to protect those children they are inviting onto their property,” [former Orange County, Florida, prose-

cutor] Michael Gibbons says. “Right now there are so many incentives for pedophiles to work at Dis-

ney.” 1111, i

“Disney World is the greatest attraction in the world for children and pedophiles,” says Professor Jack Enter, a

criminology expert at North Georgia College.1112 Disney is a magnet for pedophiles, who prowl in search of kids.

This is not a problem unique to Disney. Theme parks and many other businesses that attract kids also attract abusers.

1113, ii



The chance to work at Disney attracts people like John Mushacke. On March 15, 1995, Orange County Sheriff‟s

Deputies arrested the Disney employee on three felony charges: fondling a child, possession of child pornography,

and procuring child pornography.iii Mushacke was charged with fondling a thirteen-year-old girl repeatedly while he

worked at Disney. He pled guilty to five counts.1114, iv

[redacted]1115 [redacted]1116 [redacted]1117

Christopher Labor is a sexual predator who, as an anonymous Disney employee, used his Magic Kingdom con-

nection to entice young boys.1118 “He used Disney stuff to curry favor with [a] boy,” says Irwin. “He gave him hats,

T-shirts, and other paraphernalia. He used his employee card to buy the gifts at a discount. Disney gifts are good at

helping to gain trust.” 1119, v





i

[More than] one in three girls and one in five boys are sexually abused by age 16,…[and] fewer than 10 percent of child sexual

abuse cases are reported to authorities.*

— Vanessa Ho, Child molesters often know victims, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 22 Oct 1997, 134(253), p. B4.

*

Incest, sexual abuse, rape, dowry burnings, infanticide or beatings of girls and women by those closest to them are turning into

a global epidemic that too few countries are taking steps to curtail, a UN report said on [31 May 2000].

— Evelyn Leopold (Reuters), Violence against women becoming global epidemic—UN, Yahoo! News (Yahoo.com), 1 June 2000.

ii

Robert A. Kinnamen, 46,…the husband of [a] former Nike day-care director,…was arrested on child-pornography charges after

his wife brought his computer to a Nike technician for repairs and it was found to contiain at least 90 images depicting child sex.

— Man charged in child-porn case (Pacific Northwest), The Seattle Times, 14 April 1998, p. B2.

iii

Federal law defines the possession of child pornography as a crime of violence.

— Bloomberg News, Mistrial in Naughton sex case; But former Infoseek exec found guilty of possessing child porn, USA Today

(USAToday.com), 16 Dec 1999.

iv

Few cases go to trial. Most suspects are middle-income white males who cringe at the prospect of having their sexual fantasies

read aloud before a jury.

— Greg Miller (Los Angeles Times), Impact of Internet sex-predator stings questioned; Small percentage of victims meet mole-

sters online, The Seattle Times, 26 Sep 1999, p. A6.

v

Depending on their relationship to the children, molesters use a wide variety of tactics to lure children. A family member might

feign love and affection; a teacher, member of the clergy, police officer, or baby-sitter might use his or her position of authority;





67

The problem is that at…Disney there is, once again, a lot more concern with covering up the problem than with

protecting kids. One result is that some of Disney‟s pedophiles—unlike Labor, a transportation supervisor—are po-

sitioned in high-profile jobs dealing with children.1120

Victor Salva was said to be blessed “with a gift for getting inside the heads of children.” 1121 Although Disney

…herald[ed] its new director, the Mouse failed to mention that he was also a five-time felon.1122 Salva began his

filmmaking career directing short amateur movies in the San Francisco area.1123 [He] kept himself busy working

with children. He worked at a day-care center, was involved in Big Brothers programs, and even wrote children‟s

books.1124

In late October 1995 Disney‟s Hollywood Pictures was screening its new motion picture,1125…Powder, the story

of a misunderstood albino teenager.1126

Powder is eerily moving, with fine performances. Still, when colored by Salva‟s background, the talk of

loneliness and being misunderstood comes across as really creepy. 1127 You don‟t have to be aware that Salva

was convicted of molesting a boy…to sense the film‟s barely latent homoeroticism.1128

After the screening, as all the glitterati made their way out of the theater, 1129…Disney Studios Chairman [Joe] Roth

was confronted by disturbing placards. “Victor Salva: Writer, Director, Child Molester,” read one. “Support the

Victim, not the Victimizer,” read another.1130 The young…man leading protesters that night was Nathan Winters, a

one-time child actor who had been sexually abused by Victor Salva.1131

In 1988 [Salva] confessed to having had oral sex with 12-year-old…Winters.1132 Horrified, Rebecca [Winters,

Nathan‟s mother], immediately pulled Nathan from the movie. Francis Ford Coppola, however, was not sympathet-

ic. Coppola‟s company had a significant financial stake in the film, and according to Rebecca Winters, he threatened

to sue her for breach of contract unless she returned Nathan to the set at once. 1133 Winters contacted the police. De-

tectives interviewed Nathan, and, feeling they had sufficient probable cause, raided Salva‟s home. They found two

explicit videos and an album of still photos. One video had extensive footage of Salva and Nathan engaging in oral

sex. The other displayed young men taking showers. “We suspected there were other victims besides Nathan,” says

Sergeant Gary Primavera, who led the raid, “but we could never prove it.”

Salva eventually pled guilty to 1134…five counts of sexual misconduct.1135 Salva confessed to having sex with the

child while directing him in a low-budget horror film called “Clownhouse.” He pleaded guitly to charges of lewd

and lascivious conduct, oral copulation with a person under 14 and procuring a child for pornography. 1136 Salva was

convicted on two felony counts of lewd and lascivious conduct and having oral copulation with a person under four-

teen. He was convicted on three counts of procuring a child for pornography. 1137

According to Sergeant Primavera, “Victor has every characteristic of a pedophile that I know of, and I‟ve worked

with enough of them.” Uncharacteristically, however, “[t]here was no remorse. The only sadness on Victor‟s part

was that he got caught.” 1138

Victor Salva served fifteen months of a three-year sentence in state prison.1139 When he got out of jail, Salva sent

a completed script to several studios, including Disney. Roger Birnbaum, the head of Caravan Pictures, which de-

velops films for Disney, read it and was so impressed that he immediately bought the script and gave Salva the direc-

tor‟s job. Disney even gave Salva $10 million to produce Powder.1140

Top executives at Disney…appeared startled and embarrassed by the disclosure. But they insisted Mr. Salva had

paid his debt to society.1141 “He paid for his crime; he paid his debt to society,” said Roger Birnbaum, expressing no

regrets about Disney‟s relationship with a convicted child molester.1142 Apparently,…convicted pedophiles are al-

lowed to keep working regardless of the risks to young actors. 1143

The Los Angeles Times, Daily Variety, CNN, and the Associated Press all ran major stories.1144 And it hasn‟t

been just a few film critics raising questions about the film. Experts in pedophilia are equally disturbed by the im-

agery in Powder.1145 According to Sandra Baker, executive director of the Child and Family Institute in Sacramento,

Calif., child molesters think “they are more perceptive and beautiful than other people. They feel misunderstood.”

Salva‟s having made Powder a pale, hairless, sensitive outcast fits “what pedophiles can relate to,” she adds. “They

want their victims to be hairless usually. They don‟t want adult sex characteristics.”

L.A. family therapist Lisa Hacker notes that when a teacher (Jeff Glodblum) tells Powder that he‟s “never had

better sex” since being touched by him, and then later strokes his bald head the conduct is very intimate and inappro-

priate.” 1146



an older friend or companion might utilize games or pornography; a stranger might try bribery, requests for assistance, or citing

an emergency.

— Ira A. Lipman, How to Protect Yourself from Crime (Chicago: Contemporary Books, Inc., 1975, 1989), p. 306.





68

Disney refused to comment on the controversy surrounding the film. 1147 Despite the controversy, Disney contin-

ues to distribute Powder, which offers a pedophile‟s view of the world.1148 Disney has never issued a statement of

regret about employing Victor Salva or distributing Powder.1149

Patrick J. Naughton, an executive vice president with [Infoseek], was arrested by FBI agents [16 September

1999] 1150…when the teen-age girl he had arranged to meet at a pier in Santa Monica, Calif., turned out to be an un-

dercover agent with law enforcement.1151 After Naughton‟s arrest, the FBI released a 17-page report detailing

his…online discussions with agents who had been posing as underage girls.1152 In an affidavit filed in U.S. District

Court in Los Angeles, Special Agent Bruce Applin said Naughton “admitted to using both the „hotseattle‟ and

„sfmate‟ screen names.” 1153 “hotseattle” chatted for [seven months 1154] with the undercover agent[s] 1155…[and] said

he was anxious to meet his online correspondent,1156…even pointing the supposed 13-year-old girl to a Web site with

a picture of his genitals.1157 According to the [Los Angeles] Times, when agents seized his portable comput-

er,…Naughton told them that “there were sexually explicit images of children on the laptop.” 1158

Officials at Infoseek, a search engine owned by Disney‟s Go Network, declined to comment on the

charges, although the company released a prepared statement that said Naughton “is no longer an employee of

InfoSeek.” 1159

Along with James Gosling and Kim Polese, Naughton led the development of what became the Ja-

va programming language at Sun Microsystems in the early 1990s,1160…and more recently [he] over-

saw the Go Network of Web sites created by Infoseek i and Walt Disney Co. His arrest was an em-

barrassing blow to Disney,1161…[who] has since tried to distance itself from Naughton.1162

Although he‟s worshipped by a circle of software developers,…[others] say Naughton, endowed

with money and power since his early twenties, became an egomaniac. (In a guest column for Forbes

magazine, Naughton once wrote: “I‟m glad I‟m at the top of the food chain.”) 1163 One of Naughton‟s

former colleagues…says he had a “princely attitude” that made him the antithesis of a team player. 1164

The FBI…insist[s] that Naughton knowingly and willingly pursued [the “girl”] through a dense thicket of dis-

claimers and obstacles—that he, in other words, went to great lengths to arrange a meeting with a partner he believed

to be 13 years old.1165 Posing as KrisLA, Applin said that he typed to Naughton that he had told the FBI and the Los

Angeles police about their planned encounter, then said he was joking. When Naughton said he was concerned that

their meeting was illegal, KrisLA chided him. “You guessed it,” KrisLA typed in a warning that Naughton probably

wishes he had heeded, “I‟m an FBI secret agent.” 1166

Patrick Naughton entered a guilty plea to the charge of crossing state lines to solcit [sic] sex with a minor, 1167, ii

…travel[ing] from Washington to California…for the “dominant purpose” of engaging in sexual acts with what he

thought was [the] girl.1168 In exchange for the plea, federal authorities agreed to drop other charges…of possessing

child pornography and using the Internet to have sex with a minor. 1169 Why? Because he was saved by the bell. Or,

more precisely, by the Ninth Circuit Court of appeals, which only days after Naughton‟s [previous] conviction

handed down a ruling that overturned parts of the [1996] Child Pornography Prevention Act. 1170, iii

Naughton [had previously been] convicted of possessing child porn by a federal jury that deadlocked on the two

other counts.1171 During the trial,1172…Naughton‟s lawyers got a chance to test 1173…a strategy that would become

known as the “fantasy defense” 1174…[with] a jury of six men and six women—including one Disney employee.1175

(Three Disney employees stood “shoulder to shoulder” with him to show support for [Naughton] …during the court

proceedings.1176)

Most suspects in such cases plea-bargain; instead, Naughton hired Anthony Brooklier and Donald Marks,… high-

priced attorneys.1177 From the start, Brooklier and Marks set out to convince jurors that Naughton thought he was





i

Mickey Mouse bought all of Infoseek he d[idn‟t] own and merged his entire Internet operation into the single Walt Disney

Go.com supersite—ABC, ESPN and all.

— Microsoft and Walt Disney complete Mickey Mouse deals (International Review), Bangkok Post, 21 July 1999.

ii

Under a 1994 federal law, it is a federal crime to travel from one state to another with the intent to have sex with a minor.

— Greg Miller (Los Angeles Times), Impact of Internet sex-predator stings questioned; Small percentage of victims meet mole-

sters online, The Seattle Times, 26 Sep 1999, p. A6.

iii

Two other federal appeals courts…have upheld the anti-pornography law, making it likely that the current ruling eventually

will be reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

— Henry Weinstein and Greg Miller (Los Angeles Times), Court weakens child-porn law; Naughton to be freed while impact

studied, The Seattle Times, 18 Dec 1999, p. A1.





69

chatting with an adult. Their main arguments: Naughton was in a “fantasy only” chatroom, and he never received a

picture or phone call from KrisLA.

In traditional molestation cases, it is customary for defense attorneys to claim that the defendant didn‟t know he

was dealing with a minor.1178 Naughton…claimed on the stand that he never really thought KrisLA was only 13, a

charge many jurors believed but one that he would later disavow in his plea agreement. 1179 [But] at the same time he

was arranging to meet with the girl, he also allegedly was “chatting” with other girls on the Internet, and he claimed

to have already met “a couple” of them, according to court papers.1180

Says [Peter Gulotta, special agent for the Baltimore division of the FBI], “We would be naïve to think that the

first time these people got caught was the first time that they traveled to have sex with a child.”

Agents are sensitive to accusations that they are entrapping their targets—this is the most common claim by de-

fense attorneys in these cases (and one that Naughton…also use[d]). The undercover cops don‟t initiate the cha-

troom conversation or the sexual talk that follows, [Randy Aden, supervisor of the Sexual Assault Felony Enforce-

ment team (SAFE) for the Los Angeles bureau of the FBI], says, adding that they go out of their way to discourage

their targets. “These individuals are given every opportunity to back out,” he says.1181

Most often, the undercover agents assume the names of young girls or boys. 1182 Then they sit and wait. Usually,

it‟s only a few minutes before someone approaches them and wants to chat. The questions from the stranger read

like a script: How old are you? What do you look like? What are you wearing? And on and on, becoming more

sexually explicit with each keystroke. Many send lewd photos.

Naughton followed the formula. He told the court that he used keystroke shortcuts that are common in chatrooms

to converse with several people at a time. He would, for instance, type “/old” to yield the question “How old are

you?” or “/meas” to ask for measurements. Naughton would run down the list of questions in a systematic manner

during his chatroom sessions, waiting for responses. He never chatted with just one person at a time but would have

a few screens open simultaneously.1183





“We’ll be watching” 1184



I used to actually like Disney.1185 Is has been several years since I last visited a Disney theme park, but I still

catch myself humming the dreaded “It‟s a Small World.” 1186

Disney is militantly aware that its existence depends on continually convincing the public that its product is

unique and that its symbolic capital is earned and praiseworthy.1187 The Mouse wants to encourage the belief that the

company is the same one today‟s adults grew up with. If we‟ve changed at all, is the Disney line, it‟s only in terms

of size and scope. As Professor Janet Wasko, who studies Disney at the University of Oregon, points out, “Disney

so deliberately promotes itself as family values and good entertainment. Disney is just taken for granted—you just

assume it‟s going to be wholesome and good.” i

That squeaky-clean image is the essence of what gives Disney the most powerful brand name in entertainment.1188

In the popular mind, Walt Disney, the man and the company, has become synonymous with the notion of childhood

innocence.1189 Walt‟s virtue is all [Disney] want[s] to perpetuate.1190, ii This carefully crafted “mystique” of

ty so pervades the popular conception of the Walt Disney Company that as early as the 1930s, some in Hollywood

had nicknamed the studio “Mickey‟s Monastery,” in honor of the studio‟s biggest “star.” 1191

Reality or legend, the Disney myth is…truly established today, though we must…de-mystify it.1192 The Mouse

will go to extraordinary lengths to perpetuate this myth. The reason crimes are covered up at Disney World is to

maintain the myth that bad things don‟t happen in the Magic Kingdom. As we‟ve seen, it‟s the same reason the

company is unwilling to cooperate in efforts to nab child molesters working at Disney World. And it also explains

why Disney doesn‟t apprehend and fire voyeurs who peep on guests and fellow employees. Taking action means

admitting there is a problem. Keeping the myth of Disney innocence alive is crucial for the Mouse‟s financial suc-

cess.1193

As Disney faces…the dawn of a new millennium, it is impossible to predict all the changes and advances that will

occur within the Company.1194 “If there‟s one thing I‟ve learned, it‟s not to underestimate the Mouse.” 1195 Disney

knows when to pull out the heavy artillery:1196



i

“Before, you knew when you bought something „Disney,‟ it was safe. Not anymore.”

— Ken Wales (former vice president of the Disney Channel), quoted in Schweizer and Schweizer, Mouse Betrayed, p. 5.

ii

But he said “shit” and the rest of the words, and as I‟ve said, he‟d talk about turds for thirty minutes without pausing for breath.

— Kimball, “Walt Disney,” in Wagner, Remember This, p. 282.





70

A [federal] jury…ruled [8-0] that Disney, in some very un-Mouseketeer-like behavior, bullied a dying… exec

into giving up millions of dollars in benefits.1197 Jurors rejected Disney‟s argument that [Robert] Jahn gave

up the benefits.1198 Jahn, who died of AIDS in 1994, three weeks after signing away his stock options, life in-

surance and bonuses,1199…said Disney “took advantage of a weakened and dying man at the worst moment in

his life.” 1200

Larry Sackey, attorney for Jahn‟s estate,1201…contended that Jahn, who had been a senior vice president at

Disney Motion Pictures and Television overseeing trailers and TV spots for the Mouse House, was pressured

on his deathbed to give up the benefits or be labeled a crook by Disney henchmen. 1202

“This jury has confirmed for us what we‟ve been arguing for six long years, that this man was coerced to

sign away his benefits on his death bed. It was a despicable act and now he can rest in peace,” 1203…[said]

Greg Hafif, who represented Jahn‟s estate during a two-week trial in Los Angeles.1204

“It‟s a total victory,” says [Sackey]. “We feel it‟s a vindication.1205 They feel they can scare most

people,…but we didn‟t scare.1206 I hope this corporation gets the message.” 1207

Concerns seem[] to be heightened by the preponderance of Disneyphiles. 1208 “The one‟s we‟re worried about

[a]re the people who believe Disney can do no wrong,” Peter Rummell, the chief visionary behind Celebration

[notes].1209



Disneyitis ( ) n. Condition related to the uncontrollable desire to return to the Magic King-

dom. Subjects with this condition are known to frequent note-files, Web pages, and newsgroups. Only

known relief is a trip to the Magic Kingdom. There is no permanent cure . . . and no cure is being researched

as those afflicted don‟t WANT one! People who suffer from Disneyitis have also been known to spend an

unusual amount of time at their local Disney stores to temporarily relieve some of the symptoms associated

with the disease. They will also tape, watch, re-watch, and re-rewatch Disney videos, specials, parades, vaca-

tion planners, etc. Also will subscribe to Disney Magazine, and will read every brochure on Disney they can

get their hands on. They will sport hats, coats, jackets, pants, and carry-bags with Disney logos. Can‟t go

more than one full year without going to the Magic Kingdom without becoming suicidal, or worse, Homicid-

al! And no matter how many vacation days they take, they always seem to get ticked off at everything one or

even two days before they have to leave the Magic Kingdom and return to the rat race. 1210

“It‟s a scary thing,” said park spokesman Bob Roth. “People are so fanatical about this place you‟ve got to lock your

drawers at night.” 1211

Need we stress further how closed and suffocating this world of Disney really is? 1212 “When the American public

wakes up to what Disney is doing, they are going to be very offended.” 1213

Whether Mother Nature may ever revolt against Team Rodent remains to be seen.1214, i

So what‟s the worst thing you‟ve heard?1215









i

Considering Walt Disney World‟s near-militaristic orderliness, the idea that there might be sentinels posted on the property isn‟t

particularly surprising. But sentinel chickens? On the grounds,…flocks of public-health-department fowl are exposed to mos-

quitoes and then tested…for blood-borne diseases.*

— Sarah Van Boven and Peter Katel, No Mickey Mouse; Walt Disney World and Forida are beset by a dangerous mosquito. Is

your town next?, Newsweek, 8 Sep 1997, 130(10), p. 59.

*

Mosquito abatement efforts have been stepped up at Disney parks, but all are operating normally, spokesman John Dreyer said.

— Vicki Vaughan (Orlando Sentinel), Encephalitis spreads fear about Florida, The Seattle Times, 23 Oct 1990, p. B5.





71

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Stern, Michael, Stern’s Guide to Disney Collectibles, 2nd series (Paducah, KY: Collector Books, 1991).

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??Thomas, Frank and Ollie Johnston, Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life (New York: Abbeville Press, 1981).

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———, The Third Wave (Toronto: Bantam Books, 1982).

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Tumbusch, Tom, Tormart’s Illustrated Disneyana Catalog and Price Guide, Condensed Ed. (Dayton, OH: Tomart Publ., 1989).

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Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse in Color (New York: Pantheon, 1988).

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74

i, ii, iii, iv, v, vi, vii, viii







Hurry!1216



“The Yanks Are Not Coming” 1217

Good bugs eat bad bugs.1218



The world of Walt, in which every word advertises something or somebody, is under an intense compulsion to

consume. The Disney vision can hardly transcend consumerism when it is fixated upon selling itself, along with oth-

er merchandise.1219









i

I was a reservations agent for Walt Disney World in Florida. While on the phone making reservations for a guest, I was asked

by the caller what all the commotion was in the background. I explained that our staff was having a party and that Chip and Dale

had just entered the room. By her silence, I wondered if the woman on the line was upset, so I asked her if everything was okay.

“Frankly,” she said in an irritated tone, “I can‟t believe that a place like Walt Disney World would hire male strippers!”

— Carol La Liberte, in All in a Day‟s Work®, Reader’s Digest, June 1997, 150(902), p. 169.

ii

Thanks to a 1996 law, however, its now illegal to even simulate sex with a minor.

— Lolita (1998 Seattle International Film Festival Guide), The Stranger, 14-20 May 1998, 7(34), p. 33.

iii

For those of us who grew up here, the anti-Mickey burn is chronic and ulcerating. It manifests in behavior that‟s not always

mature, well reasoned, or even comprehensible to outsiders.

— Carl Hiaasen, Team Rodent: How Disney Devours the World (New York: Ballantine Books, 1998), p. 77.

iv

“Audio-Animatronics overload.”

— One mother, in Kim Wright Wiley, Walt Disney World with Kids (Rocklin, CA: Prima Publ., 1997), p. 135.

v

Although witnessing overweight [sexa]genarians with wriggling slugs between their legs, hanging about…in…the “Nude Pi-

rates of the Caribbean” ride at Walt Naked Disney[land], is very disturbing indeed, I was even more put-out by this [band-aid*

bid].

— Wm.™ Steven Humphrey, Nudity: I‟m against it! (I Love Television™), The Stranger, 17-23 Sep 1998, 7(52), p. 39.

*

Bite me.†

— Shannon Brownlee, Of males and tails; Seeming handicaps tout a suitor‟s worth, U.S. News & World Report, 6 July 1998,

125(1), p. 61.

†

(Hey, Mickey, whistle on this!)

— Hiaasen, Team Rodent, p. 9.

vi

Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened

round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

— Matthew 18.6, Mark 9.42, & Luke 17.2, The Bible, Revised Standard Version (New York: American Bible Society, 1970).

vii

You‟ve promised to take your kids to Walt Disney World, and now you‟re wondering…

— Web sites gear up for last-minute vacationers (Online Travel), The Seattle Times/Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 16 Aug 1998,

16(33), p. K6.

viii

There is a conspiracy* going on within the children‟s movie industry. Influential, high-profile corporations are ruining the

minds of children across our great nation. Among the top perpetrators of this abhorrent behavior are our old friends at Walt Dis-

ney and their inbred brothers at DreamWorks. Hiding respectively behind the demonic smirk of Mickey Mouse and the Damien-

like child fishing from a crescent moon, these Illuminati of the entertainment industry are involved with something I can only

deem vicious and perverse. This of course being the unholy use of animals behaving like people in major motion pictures: ani-

mals grabbing people‟s behinds, hitting them in the groin, flipping ‟em off, electrocuting, farting, spitting, fighting, and generally

being bad.

— Ernie Mojica, Animals are not people!, The Stranger, 25 June-1 July 1998, 7(40), p. 81.

*

“A conspiracy may be a continuing one. Actors may drop out and others may drop in; the details of operation may change from

time to time; the members need not know each other or the part played by others; a member may not need to know all the details

of the plan of the operation; he must, however, know the purpose of the conspiracy and agree to become a party to a plan to ef-

fectuate that purpose.” †

— Craig vs. U.S., quoted in Art Bender (Tarrant County (Fort Worth) Texas County Democratic chairman and trial lawyer), You

don‟t have to be paranoid to suspect right-wing conspiracy, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 1 April 1998, 135(78), p. A11.

†

The Smith Act (enacted in 1940)…prohibits any conspiracy that advocates the overthow of the United States government by

force and violence.

— J. Edgar Hoover, Masters of Deceit: The Story of Communism in America and How to Fight It (New York: Henry Holt & Co.,

1958), p. 75.





75

Animals have always been a part of the Disney magic, but they were cartoon animals. Cute, cuddly, or scary,

they raked in a fortune for the company and didn‟t need care or feeding. Or they were stuffed or computer-con-

trolled into lifelike animation, wise beyond their food chain status.1220



Disney ha[s] advertised a Mickey Mouse doll with glow-in-the-dark eyes, an unnerving “Children of the

Damned” look.1221



Louis Marin‟s indictment of Disneyland holds true for EPCOT as well:

Disneyland is an extraordinary dystopia. It displaces the spatial habitability . . . into its spectacular represen-

tation; it reduces the dynamic organization of the places, the aleatory unity of a possible tour to a univocal

scheme allowing only the same redundant behavior [Louis Marin, “Disneyland, a Degenerate Utopia,” Glymph, 1977, 1, p.

1222

61].





[EPCOT] It is a future of hierarchy, continued industrialization, enforced scarcity, and a ravished planet. 1223



Walt Disney was…a man made famous by a mouse, a duck and a shameless abiltity to exploit childish innocence

on an industrial scale.1224



All big companies are pretty much equally evil. In the case of the millions of viewers missing their ABC in five

major TV markets, the bad guy appears to be AOL, Time-Warner‟s parent company, which waited till the start of

sweeps to abruptly cut off negotiations with Disney, ABC‟s parent company. You will, however, grow old and die

before you hear me say a kind word for the copyright-abusing bastards at Disney. This isn‟t about consumers but

about a dick-waving contest.1225



Given his importance in the formation of mass culture, Walt Disney, as an object of critical study, has been great-

ly neglected.1226 “Because his image is so controlled, there‟s been virtually no criticism of Walt Disney,” [Marc

Eliot] said. “He‟s like a god, an icon. Therefore, any criticism of Walt Disney is going to appear harsher or more

damning than it might be.” 1227



Science fiction with benign professors and mad scientists, eerie laboratories and weird machines were in full

bloom in the 30‟s.1228 Gangster films, such as Little Caesar, were all over the scenes.1229



Animation style (a la Disney) remained rather constant until after World War II, when U.P.A. (United Produc-

tions of America),1230…a splinter group from Disney,1231…changed animation by simplifying it.1232 Hanna-Barbera

Productions…took one more step toward simplifying the animation by confining the action of the cartoon characters

to very simple movements—only one arm, perhaps, or a leg, or the mouth—instead of the realistic full-body anima-

tion characteristic of Disney‟s work.1233



Animation schools in the USSR [we]re similar to the USA‟s Disney crash course, both motivated by the decline

of skills in fluid animation techniques.1234



…the cutey-cute characters of the 1930s, the violence in the animation of the 1940s and 1950s, and the adulation

of the superhero in the 1970s and 1980s.1235



As a middle-class, small-town Mid-Westener (he always considered himself a Kansas City boy),1236…



It was Iwerks who gave Mickey his early look and who almost single-handedly animated the early Micky Mouse

cartoons. The mouse was first animated in 1928 in a silent short called Plane Crazy. Because Walt Disney was un-

able to sell the silent film, Disney delayed its release and preceded it Steamboat Willie, the first Mickey Mouse short

to be seen by the public and the first cartoon to feature a fully synchronized soundtrack. 1237



“I love Mickey Mouse more than any woman I‟ve ever known.” 1238



“Sex is of no interest to Mickey.” 1239





76

By 1964, when Walt Disney decided to build in Florida,1240…fraud was rampant, and the same piece of unbuild-

able swamp was often sold dozens of times over.

Thus, it hardly seemed strange when a tough-talking guy named Bob Price Foster, who was Disney‟s in-house

lawyer, showed up in Kissimmee wearing tattered jeans and ragget T-shirts and, using his middle name as his last

name, began buying up land through five dummy corporations. He looked like a hick and sounded like a sucker. In

eighteen months, he‟d bought 27,400 acres of swampland, ranchland, hammock, and citrus groves for just about

$200 an acre.

All of this took place in the utmost secrecy; virtually no one in Orlando suspected what was going on. Then, in

October 1965, Orlando Sentinel reporter Emily Bavar snagged an interview with Walt Disney during a Disneyland

press event. The more she probed, the more diligently he denied having any plans for Florida, explaining in much-

too-great detail what was wrong with it as a theme part destination. Trusting her instinct, she wrote a speculative

story that the Sentinel ran on its front page. She was right, of course.1241



In late 1987, Disney officials began buying up sugar beet fields just south of Paris. 1242



Brainwashing . . . is an effort to put a man‟s mind into a fog so that he will mistake what is true for what is un-

true, what is right or what is wrong, and come to believe what did not happen actually had happened, until he ulti-

mately becomes a robot for the…manipulator [E. Hunter, Brainwashing (New York: Farrar, Strauss, and Cudahy, 1956)].1243



Because Disney tries so hard to present itself as practically perfect in every way,…it has engendered the most

vocal of supporters and the most vociferous of critics.1244



I spoke with someone at the Department of Justice who did not want to be named. Let‟s call her . . . Janet Reno.

“First, this is not legal advice,” Ms. Reno warned me in a husky voice. “But it is illegal to possess, distribute, or

receive child pronography.” 1245 Then Janet—sounding distracted—ended our brief interview.1246

Considering the lengths…everyone else at the Department of Justice are willing to go to protect children,…I

wouldn‟t advise you to surf kiddie porn websites.1247



With acoustic guitar, [Roger] Waters lit into “Mother,” singing out plaintively, “Mother should we trust the gov-

ernment?” The crowed shouted back “No!” 1248



One in five youths surveyed by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Washington, D.C.,

said they received a sexual solicitation through the Internet in the past year, including questions about their bo-

dies.1249



But in the game of spy vs. spy, few players are willing to admit involvement unless caught in the act. 1250



Negotiations with Disney is not so much good-cop/bad-cop, but more like bad-cop/anti-Christ.1251



In the fall of 1999, Disney unfairly stopped paying workers for time spent changing into or out of a costume or

uniform, and for the time spent wearing a uniform before reaching a worksite. 1252



Three people were injured on rides from September to January [2001], and a 6-year-old girl had her left finger

pulled off when it caught in a toy rifle in January. The toy guns since have been removed.

In 1998, a Washington state tourist was killed and his wife and an employee were seriously injured when a cleat

used to moor the Columbia sailing ship ride ripped loose.1253









77

1

T.E. Breitenbach, Proverbidioms™, 1980.

2

Adrian Bailey, Walt Disney’s World of Fantasy (New York: Everest House, 1982), p. 16.

3

Steven Watts, The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1997), p. 11.

4

Judith A. Adams, The American Amusement Park Industry: A History of Technology and Thrills (Boston: Twayne Publ., 1991), p. 88.

5

Kathy Merlock Jackson, Walt Disney: A Bio-Bibliography (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1993), p. 1.

6

Perucci Ferraiuolo, Disney and the Bible: A Scriptural Critique of the Magic Kingdom (Camp Hill, PA: Horizon Books, 1996), p. 15.

7

Leonard Maltin, Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons, Revised ed. (New York: Plume, 1980, 1987), p. 30.

8- 9

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 88.

10

Watts, Magic Kingdom, p. 7.

11

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 88.

12

Ibidem, pp. 88-89.

13

Michael D. Cole, People to Know: Walt Disney: Creator of Mickey Mouse (Springfield, NJ: Enslow Publ., Inc., 1996), p. 14.

14- 15

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 89.

16

Richard Schickel, The Disney Version: The Life, Times, Art and Commerce of Walt Disney, 3rd ed. (Chicago: Elephant Paperbacks, 1968,

1985, 1997), p. 56.

17

Watts, Magic Kingdom, p. 17.

18

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 89.

19

Marc Eliot, The dark side of Uncle Walt: Walt Disney, Los Angeles Magazine, May 1993, 38(5), p. 48(8).

20- 21

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 89.

22

Watts, Magic Kingdom, p. 19.

23

John Barry, Some parents may not recognize child abuse; Here are some examples, Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service, 11 July 1995.

24

John Langone, Violence! Our Fastest-Growing Public Health Problem (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1984), pp. 138-139.

25

Elinor Burkett and Frank Bruni, A Gospel of Shame: Children, Sexual Abuse, and the Catholic Church (New York: Viking, 1993), p. 54.

26- 29

The Associated Press, AIDS death rate for priests is high, newspaper reports, TheLinkup.com, 31 Jan 2000.

30- 31

Andrew M. Greenley, How serious is the problem of sexual abuse by clergy?, America, 20 March 1993, 168(10), p. 6(5).

32

Clark Morphew, New book illustrates how many forces outside the church protected pedophile priests, Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service,

21 Oct 1993.

33

Aric Press with Carolyn Friday, Nina Biddle, Todd Barrett, and Susan Miller, Priests and abuse; The sins of the fathers: The Roman Catholic

Church is starting to confront a lingering scandal, Newsweek, 16 Aug 1993, 122(7), p. 42.

34

Venise Wagner (Orange County Register), Abuse by priests: How best to heal?, Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service, 20 Aug 1993.

35- 36

Greenley, How serious?, America, p. 6(5).

37

Steven Komarow, Army expands sex abuse investigation; Army: fear silenced victims, USA Today, 11 Nov 1996, 15(41), p. 3A.

38

Arthur J. Felitti, Ami Laws, and Edward A. Walker, Women abused as children, Patient Care, 15 Nov 1993, 27(18), p. 169(9).

39

Scot Auguston, Death in Seattle; A guided tour, The Stranger, 14-20 Aug 1996, 6(8), p. 12.

40

Claude Lewis, Parents teach their children not to trust priest, police, teachers any longer, Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service, 6 Oct 1993.

41

David Schmader, Last days; The week in review, The Stranger, 16-22 March 2000, 9(26), p. 7.

42

Langone, Violence!, p. 139.

43

Ibidem, p. 141.

44

Ibidem, p. 142.

45- 46

Paul Radin, The Autobiography of a Winnebago Indian: Life, Ways, Acculturation, and the Peyote Cult (New York: Dover Publ., Inc.,

1920, 1963), p. 87.

47

Watts, Magic Kingdom, p. 19.

48

Ibidem, pp. 19-20

49

Ibidem, p. 20.

50

Ibidem, p. 272.

51

Charles Solomon, Enchanted Drawings: The History of Animation, Revised ed. (New York: Wings Books, 1989, 1994), p. 56.

52

Giannalberto Bendzai, Cartoons: One Hundred Years of Cinema Animation (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1994), p. 69.

53

Bob Thomas, Walt Disney: An American Original (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1976), p. 230.

54

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, pp. 89-90.

55

Schickel, Disney Version, p. 56.

56

Eliot, Uncle Walt, p. 48(8).

57

Schickel, Disney Version, pp. 56-57.

58

Eliot, Uncle Walt, p. 48(8).

59

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 90.

60

Watts, Magic Kingdom, p. 15.

61- 62

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 90.

63

Watts, Magic Kingdom, p. 26.

64

Marc Eliot, Walt Disney: Hollywood’s Dark Prince (New York: Carol Publ., 1993), p. 17.

65

Ibidem, p. 18.

66- 67

Ibidem, p. 19.

68

Cole, Creator of Mickey, p. 26.

69

Ibidem, p. 28.

70

Eliot, Dark Prince, p. 22.

71- 73

Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life (New York: Abbeville Press, 1981), p. 29.

74

Ibidem, p. 538.









78

75

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 90.

76

Amy Boothe Green and Howard E. Green, Remembering Walt: Favorite Memories of Walt Disney (New York: Hyperion, 1999), p. 9.

77

Watts, Magic Kingdom, p. 28.

78

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 91.

79

Eliot, Uncle Walt, p. 48(8).

80

Watts, Magic Kingdom, pp. 351-352.

81

Eliot, Uncle Walt, p. 48(8).

82

Watts, Magic Kingdom, p. 352.

83

Eliot, Uncle Walt, p. 48(8).

84

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 91.

85

Eliot, Uncle Walt, p. 48(8).

86- 87

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 91.

88

Eliot, Uncle Walt, p. 48(8).

89

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 91.

90- 91

Jack Rosenthal, Mickey Mousing, The New York Times Magazine, 2 Aug 1998, CXLI (49,046), p. 12.

92

Mike Wallace, Mickey Mouse History and Other Essays on American Memory (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996), p. 133.

93

Len Deighton, Goodbye, Mickey Mouse (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1982), p. 1.

94

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 91.

95

Mickey‟s mom: Lillian Disney was Walt‟s real-life love; Wife of entertainment mogul Walt Disney, People Weekly, 12 Jan 1998, 49(1), p.

117.

96

Eliot, Uncle Walt, p. 48(8).

97

Ferraiuolo, Disney and the Bible, p. 13.

98- 100

John Canemaker, Before the Animation Begins: The Art and Lives of Disney Inspirational Sketch Artists (New York: Hyperion, 1996), p.

4.

101- 102

Eliot, Uncle Walt, p. 48(8).

103

Ferraiuolo, Disney and the Bible, p. 38.

104

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, pp. 91-92.

105

Jack Mingo, The Juicy Parts: Things Your History Teacher Never Told You About the 20th Century’s Most Famous People (New York:

Perigee, 1996), p. 103.

106

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 92.

107- 108

Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation (New York: Hyperion, 1981), p. 285.

109

Ibidem, p. 297.

110

Ibidem, p. 298.

111

Ibidem, p. 299.

112

Ibidem, p. 301.

113- 114

Op. cit.

115

Eliot, Uncle Walt, p. 48(8).

116

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 92.

117

Eliot, Uncle Walt, p. 48(8).

118

Bailey, World of Fantasy, p. 60.

119

Eliot, Dark Prince, p. 47.

120

Jackson, Walt Disney, p. 19.

121

Eliot, Dark Prince, p. 47.

122- 123

Ibidem, p. 48.

124

Ibidem, pp. 48-49.

125- 126

Ibidem, p. 49.

127

Ibidem, p. 50.

128- 129

Ibidem, p. 51.

130

Schickel, Disney Version, p. 95.

131- 132

Mingo, Juicy Parts, p. 104.

133

Schickel, Disney Version, p. 58.

134

Ibidem, p. 157.

135- 136

Ibidem, p. 58.

137

Ibidem, p. 59.

138

Stephen Jay Gould, The Panda’s Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History (New York: W.W. Norton, 1980), p. 95.

139

Sean Griffin, Tinker Belles and Evil Queens: The Walt Disney Company from the Inside Out (New York:New York University Press, 2000), p.

8.

140

Christopher Finch, The Art of Walt Disney: From Mickey Mouse to the Magic Kingdoms (Greenwich, CT: Twin Books, 1988), p. 31.

141

Solomon, Enchanted Drawings, p. 46.

142

Marcia Blitz, Donald Duck (New York: Harmony Books, 1979), p. 13.

143

Gould, Panda’s Thumb, p. 96.

144

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 92.

145

L.M. Boyd, Mike mailway, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 19 Jan 1998, 135(16), p. E6; see also Ripley’s—Believe It or Not!®, The Stranger, 25-

31 May 2000, 9(36), p. 5.

146

John Taylor, Storming the Magic Kingdom: Wall Street, the Raiders, and the Battle for Disney (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1987), p. 25.









79

147

Solomon, Enchanted Drawings, p. 246.

148- 149

Cruelty in the Magic Kingdom, Time, 9 Oct 1989, 134(15), p. 37.

150

Mireya Navarro, New Disney Kingdom comes with real-life obstacles, The New York Times, CXLVII(51,129), p. A14.

151

Cruelty, Time, p. 37.

152

Bendzai, Cartoons, p. 64.

153

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 92.

154

Jerry Bowles, Forever Hold Your Banner High! The Story of the Mickey Mouse Club & What Happened to the Mouseketeers (Garden City,

NY: Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1976), p. 10.

155

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 92.

156

Gould, Panda’s Thumb, p. 107.

157

Eliot, Uncle Walt, p. 48(8).

158

Mickey Mouse, Encyclopedia Americana (Grolier‟s Educational Co., 1996), CD ROM.

159

Jack Kinney, Walt Disney and Assorted Other Characters: An Unauthorized Account of the Early Years at Disney’s (New York: Harmony

Books, 1988), p. 9.

160

Bruce D. Kurtz, ed., Keith Haring, Andy Warhol, and Walt Disney (Prestel-Verlag, Munich and Phoenix Art Museum, 1992), p. 16.

161

Kit Laybourne, The Animation Book: A Complete Guide to Animated Filmmaking—From Flip-Books to Sound Cartoons to 3-D Animation

(New York: Three Rivers Press, 1988), p. 171.

162- 163

Eliot, Uncle Walt, p. 48(8).

164

Eliot, Dark Prince, p. 52.

165

Mickey Mouse, Encyclopedia Americana.

166

Eliot, Dark Prince, p. 52.

167

Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse in Color (New York: Pantheon, 1988), p. 9.

168

Richard deCordova, “The Mickey in Macy‟s Window: Childhood, Consumerism, and Disney Animation,” in Eric Smoodin, ed., Disney Dis-

course: Producing the Magic Kingdom (New York: Routledge, 1994), p. 205.

169

Richard Shale, Donald Duck Joins Up: The Walt Disney Studio During World War II (Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1976, 1982), p.

10.

170

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 92.

171

Douglas Fairbanks Jr., quoted in Scott Eyman, The Speed of Sound: Hollywood and the Talkie Revolution (1926-1930) (New York: Simon &

Schuster, 1997), p. 273.

172

J. Michael Barrier, Building a Better Mouse: Fifty Years of Animation (Washington: Library of Congress, 1978), p. 9.

173

Gorham Kindem, ed., The American Movie Industry: The Business of Motion Pictures (Carbondale & Edwardsville, IL: Southern Illinois

University Press, 1982), p. 150.

174

Richard Neupert, “Painting a Plausible World: Disney‟s Color Prototypes,” in Smoodin, Disney Discourse, p. 106.

175

Kindem, American Movie Industry, p. 152.

176

Eliot, Dark Prince, p. 81.

177

John Cawley and Jim Korkis, Cartoon Superstars (Las Vegas, NV: Pioneer Book, Inc., 1990), p. 126.

178- 179

Eliot, Uncle Walt, p. 48(8).

180

Solomon, Enchanted Drawings, p. 86.

181- 184

Eliot, Uncle Walt, p. 48(8).

185

Mingo, Juicy Parts, p. 103.

186- 187

Eliot, Uncle Walt, p. 48(8).

188

SkyTel pagers advertisement, USA Today, 11 May 1998, 16(168), p. 7B.

189- 191

Eliot, Dark Prince, p. 82.

192

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 92.

193

Douglas Gomery, The Hollywood Studio System (New York: St. Martin‟s Press, 1986), p. 144.

194- 195

Solomon, Enchanted Drawings, p. 62; See also Charles Solomon, The Complete Kodak Animation Book (Rochester, NY: Eastman Kodak

Co., 1983), p. 21.

196

Jackson, Walt Disney, p. 24.

197

Ferraiuolo, Disney and the Bible, p. 21.

198

Jackson, Walt Disney, p. 24.

199- 200

Ward Kimball, “The Wonderful World of Walt Disney,” in Walter Wagner, ed., You Must Remember This: Oral Reminiscences of the

Real Hollywood (New York: G.P. Putnam‟s Sons, 1975), p. 269.

201

Norman M. Klein, Seven Minutes: The Life and Death of the American Animated Cartoon (London: Verso, 1993), p. 96.

202

Ferraiuolo, Disney and the Bible, p. 21.

203

Ibidem, pp. 21-22.

204- 205

Leonard Mosley, Disney’s World (New York: Stein & Day, 1985), p. 162.

206

Eliot, Dark Prince, p. 103.

207

Watts, Magic Kingdom, p. 283.

208- 209

Eliot, Uncle Walt, p. 48(8).

210- 211

Mosley, Disney’s World, p. 170.

212

John Trojanski and Louis Rockwood, Making It Move (Dayton, OH: Pflaum/Standard, 1973), p. 117.

213- 214

Bruno Edera, Full Length Animated Feature Films (New York: Hastings House, Publ., 1977), p. 29.

215- 216

Solomon, Enchanted Drawings, p. 80.

217

Ibidem, p. 82.

218- 219

Thomas and Johnston, The Illusion of Life, p. 417.









80

220

Solomon, Enchanted Drawings, p. 83.

221

Ibidem, p. 82.

222

Ibidem, p. 83.

223

Eric Smoodin, Animating Culture: Hollywood Cartoons from the Sound Era (Oxford: Roundhouse Publ., 1993), p. 30.

224- 226

Solomon, Enchanted Drawings, p. 77.

227- 228

Ibidem, p. 75.

229

Keith Keller, The Mickey Mouse Club Scrapbook (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1975), p. 16.

230

Bowles, Hold Your Banner High!, p. 21.

231

Schickel, Disney Version, p. 165.

232

Ibidem, p. 167.

233

Jackson, Walt Disney, p. 58.

234

Mickey Mouse, Encyclopedia Americana.

235

Keller, Mickey Mouse Club, p. 80.

236

Cole, Creator of Mickey, p. 6.

237

Bowles, Hold Your Banner High!, p. 16.

238

Ibidem, p. 21.

239- 240

James Fallows, National Defense (New York: Vintage Books, 1982), p. 114.

241

Bowles, Hold Your Banner High!, p. 21.

242

Ex-Mousketeer Tommy Cole, quoted in Elisabeth Bumiller, Fall of a Mouseketeer; Two-year jail term for former Mouseketeer Darlene Gil-

lespie, Good Housekeeping, June 1999, 228(6), p. 114.

243

Janet Weeks, The mice that soared; Former members of „The Micky Mouse Club‟, TV Guide, 8 May 1999, 47(19), p. 34(2), abstract.

244- 246

Solomon, Enchanted Drawings, p. 77.

247

Ibidem, pp. 78-79.

248

Ibidem, p. 79.

249- 250

Solomon, Enchanted Drawings, p. 83.

251- 252

Eliot, Dark Prince, p. 90.

253

Ibidem, pp. 88-89.

254

Ibidem, p. 235.

255

Ibidem, p. 89.

256

Mingo, Juicy Parts, p. 105.

257

Bob Thomas, Building a Company: Roy O. Disney and the Creation of an Entertainment Empire (New York: Hyperian, 1998), p. 267.

258

Mingo, Juicy Parts, p. 104.

259- 261

Eliot, Uncle Walt, p. 48(8).

262

Thomas, Building a Company, p. 267.

263

Kinney, Assorted Other Characters, p. 72.

264

Watts, Magic Kingdom, p. 271.

265

Eliot, Uncle Walt, p. 48(8).

266

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 93.

267- 269

Eliot, Uncle Walt, p. 48(8).

270

Ferraiuolo, Disney and the Bible, p. 94.

271- 272

Eliot, Uncle Walt, p. 48(8).

273

Watts, Magic Kingdom, p. 52.

274

Ibidem, pp. 52-53.

275- 277

Ibidem, p. 63.

278

Ibidem, pp. 63-64.

279

Ibidem, p. 64.

280- 283

?? Robert Lacey, Little man: Meyer Lansky and the gangster life (Sound recording reviews), Publishers Weekly, 6 Jan 1992, 239(2).

284- 285

?? Mark Leyner, Einstein calling; A genius brought down to earth, New Republic, 21 Nov 1994, 211(21).

286

Watts, Magic Kingdom, p. 64.

287

Ibidem, pp. 64-65.

288

Ibidem, p. 65.

289

Ibidem, p. 66.

290

Leonard Maltin, The Disney Films, 2nd ed. (New York: Crown Publ., 1973, 1984), p. 8.

291

Watts, Magic Kingdom, p. 68.

292

Eliot, Dark Prince, p. 120.

293- 294

Watts, Magic Kingdom, p. 68.

295- 296

J. Edgar Hoover, Masters of Deceit: The Story of Communism in America and How to Fight It (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1958), p.

71.

297

Emil Lengyel, Siberia (Garden City, NY: Garden City Publ. Co., Inc., 1943), p. 269.

298

Rollo May, The Meaning of Anxiety (New York: Pocket Books, 1950, 1979), p. 172.

299

Ibidem, p. 109.

300

Ibidem, p. 72.

301

Roy Wilkins with Tom Mathews, Standing Fast: The Autobiography of Roy Wilkins (New York: Penguin Books, 1984), p. 175.

302

Robert V. Daniels, ed., A Documentary History of Communism, Vol. 2 (New York: Vintage Books, 1960), p. 126.

303

Dennis Hollier, ed., The College of Sociology (1937-39), Betsy Wing, trans. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1988), p. 217.









81

304

Daniels, History of Communism, p. 365.

305

William J. Chambliss, On the Take: From Petty Crooks to Presidents, 2nd ed. (Bloomington, ID: Indiana University Press, 1978, 1988), p.

151.

306- 309

Stu Campbell, Let it Rot! The Gardener’s Guide to Composting, Updated & revised (Pownal, VT: Storey Publ., 1990), p. 33.

310

Kimberly Mills, Girding for the weed war, The Seattle Times/Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 23 Aug 1998, 16(34), p. E1.

311

W.W. Fletcher, The Pest War (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1974), p. ix.

312

Eliot, Uncle Walt, p. 48(8).

313

Eliot, Dark Prince, p. 120.

314

Ibidem, pp. 120-121.

315

Schickel, Disney Version, p. 158.

316

Walt Disney, quoted in op. cit.

317

Ibidem, p. 159.

318

John Grant, Encyclopedia of Walt Disney’s Animated Characters (New York: Hyperion, 1993), p. 367.

319

Eliot, Uncle Walt, p. 48(8).

320- 321

Watts, Magic Kingdom, p. 22.

322

Ferraiuolo, Disney and the Bible, p. 4.

323

Ibidem, p. 5.

324

Ibidem, p. 4.

325

Solomon, Enchanted Drawings, p. 70.

326- 328

David Koenig, Mouse Under Glass: Secrets of Disney Animation & Theme Parks (Irvine, CA: Bonaventure Press, 1997), p. 46.

329

Ibidem, p. 49.

330

Shale, Donald Duck Joins Up, p. 20.

331

Bob Thomas, Disney’s Animation: From Mickey Mouse to Hercules (New York: Hyperion, 1992, 1997), p. 94.

332

Leonard Maltin, Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons, Revised ed. (New York: Plume, 1980, 1987), p. 64.

333

Thomas, Disney’s Animation, p. 94.

334

Watts, Magic Kingdom, p. 210.

335

Solomon, Enchanted Drawings, p. 71.

336

Smoodin, Animating Culture, p. 123.

337

Ibidem, p. 121.

338

Watts, Magic Kingdom, p. 209.

339

Ferraiuolo, Disney and the Bible, p. 5.

340

Mingo, Juicy Parts, p. 104.

341

Ibidem, p. 105.

342

Solomon, Enchanted Drawings, p. 71.

343- 344

Ferraiuolo, Disney and the Bible, p. 5.

345

Watts, Magic Kingdom, p. 210.

346

Ferraiuolo, Disney and the Bible, p. 5.

347

Ibidem, pp. 5-6.

348

Eliot, Uncle Walt, p. 48(8).

349

Smoodin, Animating Culture, p. 121.

350

Eliot, Uncle Walt, p. 48(8).

351

Smoodin, Animating Culture, p. 131.

352

Thomas, Disney’s Animation, pp. 94-95.

353

Eliot, Uncle Walt, p. 48(8).

354- 355

Thomas, Disney’s Animation, p. 95.

356

Eliot, Uncle Walt, p. 48(8).

357

Thomas, Disney’s Animation, p. 95.

358

Eliot, Uncle Walt, p. 48(8).

359

Ferraiuolo, Disney and the Bible, p. 141.

360

Koenig, Mouse Under Glass, p. 205.

361

Jeff B. Copeland, Lawsuit says Disney hid sexy messages in cartoons, E! Online (EOnline.com), 5 Sep 1996.

362

Koenig, Mouse Under Glass, pp. 184-185.

363

Karl F. Cohen, Forbidden Animation: Censored Cartoons and Blacklisted Animators in America (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., Inc.,

1997), p. 111.

364

Kim Masters, The Keys to the Kingdom: How Michael Eisner Lost His Grip (New York: William Morrows, 2000), p. 226.

365- 366

Koenig, Mouse Under Glass, p. 185.

367

Ferraiuolo, Disney and the Bible, p. 141.

368

Benjamin Svetkey, Disney catches hell; Gay and subliminal messages at Mickey & Co. bring on the religious right‟s wrath, Entertainment

Weekly, 15 Dec 1995, 305, p. 42(2).

369

Koenig, Mouse Under Glass, p. 20.

370- 371

Peter Schweizer and Rochelle Schweizer, Disney: The Mouse Betrayed; Greed, Corruption, and Children at Risk (Washington, D.C.:

Regnery Publ., Inc., 1998), p. 142.

372

Ibidem, p. 143.

373- 374

Ferraiuolo, Disney and the Bible, p. 109.

375

Ibidem, pp. 1-2.









82

376- 378

Eliot, Uncle Walt, p. 48(8).

379

Eliot, Dark Prince, p. 153.

380

Eliot, Uncle Walt, p. 48(8).

381

Gomery, Hollywood Studio System, p. 145.

382

Maltin, Of Mice and Magic, p. 63.

383

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 93.

384

Solomon, Enchanted Drawings, p. 113.

385

Thomas, American Original, p. 176.

386

Christopher Finch, Walt Disney’s America (New York: Abbeville Press, Inc., 1978), p. 175.

387

Thomas, Disney’s Animation, p. 133.

388

Jackson, Walt Disney, p. 39.

389

Thomas, Disney’s Animation, p. 125.

390

Cohen, Forbidden Animation, p. 124.

391

Thomas, American Original, p. 178.

392

Walton Rawls, Disney Dons Dogtags: The Best of Disney Military Insignia from World War II (New York: Abbeville Publ. Group, 1992), p.

6.

393

Time eds., Great People of the 20 Century (New York: Time Inc., 1996), p. 118.

394- 395

Combat Insignia Stamps of the United States Army & Navy Air Corps, in War Insignia Stamp Album, Vol. 1-4, 1942-44 (Hollywood:

Postamp Publ. Co.).

396

Smoodin, Animating Culture, p. 75.

397

Ibidem, p. 4.

398

Ibidem, p. 5.

399

Watts, Magic Kingdom, p. 303.

400

Susan Gilmore, The Cold War and Albert Canwell, The Seattle Times/Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 2 Aug 1998, 16(31), Pacific Magazine, p.

12.

401

Gomery, Hollywood Studio System, p. 185.

402

Watts, Magic Kingdom, p. 349.

403

Ferraiuolo, Disney and the Bible, p. 65.

404

Lizette Alvarez, GOP efforts to honor Reagan hit turbulence, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 4 Feb 1998, 135(30), p. A5.

405

Anthony Summers, Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover (New York: G.P. Putnam‟s Sons, 1993), p. 52.

406

Ferraiuolo, Disney and the Bible, p. 65.

407

Ted Johnson, Little union unity on subject of Commies, Variety, 9-15 Sep 1996, 364(6), p. 124.

408

Jay Robert Nash, Citizen Hoover: A Critical Study of the Life and Times of J. Edgar Hoover and His FBI (Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1972), p.

89.

409

Johnson, Subject of Commies, p. 124.

410- 411

Summers, Official and Confidential, p. 161.

412

Testimony of Walter E. Disney before HUAC (24 Oct 1947), CNN.com, www.clinton.cnn.com/specials/cold.war/episodes/06/docu-

ments/huac/disney.html.

413

Michael Barrier, Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in its Golden Age (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 308.

414

Summers, Official and Confidential, p. 161.

415

Paul Kerr, “My Name Is Joseph H. Lewis,” in Screen, July/Oct 1983, 24:4/5, in Janet Staiger, ed., The Studio System (New Brunswick, NJ:

Rutgers University Press, 1995), p. 70.

416

Watts, Magic Kingdom, p. 349.

417- 418

Johnson, Subject of Commies, p. 124.

419

Ferraiuolo, Disney and the Bible, p. 65.

420

Watts, Magic Kingdom, p. 349.

421

Summers, Official and Confidential, p. 186.

422- 424

Richard Gid Powers, Secrecy and Power: The Life of J. Edgar Hoover (New York: Free Press, 1987), p. 344.

425

Watts, Magic Kingdom, p. 349.

426

Mingo, Juicy Parts, p. 217.

427

Anthony Summers, Hidden Hoover, Vanity Fair, March 1993, 56(3), p. 203.

428- 429

Mingo, Juicy Parts, p. 219.

430- 432

Mark North, Act of Treason: The Role of J. Edgar Hoover in the Assassination of President Kennedy (New York: Carol & Graf Publ.,

Inc., 1991), p. 24.

433

Watts, Magic Kingdom, p. 349.

434

Smoodin, Animating Culture, p. 153.

435

Edgar Argo, in Funny Times, in Quotable Quotes®, Reader’s Digest, Oct 1994, 145(870), p. 31.

436

Tom Wilson, “Ziggy,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 9 July 1998, p. C6.

437

Geroge Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair), Nineteen Eighty-Four (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1949, 1992), p. 214.

438

Richard Willing, Drug war fuels boom in use of wiretaps, USA Today, 8 May 1998, 16(167), p. 3A.

439

Morton Rhue, The Wave (New York: Laurel Leaf Books, 1981), p. 124.

440

Jennifer Mateyaschuk, We know where you are, and who you‟re talking to, Information Week, 27 July 1998, 693, p. 14.

441

Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, p. 3.

442

Henry A. Giroux, The Mouse that Roared: Disney and the End of Innocence (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publ., Inc., 1999), p. 68 .

443

Ibidem, p. 124.









83

444

Mingo, Juicy Parts, p. 222.

445

Gerald D. McKnight, The Last Crusade: Martin Luther King, Jr., the FBI, and the Poor People’s Campaign (Boulder, CO: Westview Press,

1998), p. 135.

446

Mingo, Juicy Parts, p. 222.

447

Watts, Magic Kingdom, p. 349.

448

Maltin, Disney Films, p. 238.

449- 450

William R. Koehler, The Wonderful World of Disney Animals (New York: Howell Book House, Inc., 1979), p. 163.

451

Ibidem, p. 166.

452

Maltin, Disney Films, p. 238.

453

Martin Kasindorf, LAPD can‟t get its paws on biker dog; Attempts to ticket owner have failed, USA Today, 1 Sep 1998, 16(246), p. 3A.

454

Eliot, Dark Prince, p. 244.

455

Maltin, Disney Films, p. 197.

456

John G. West, Jr., The Disney Live-Action Reproductions (Washington: Hawthorne & Peabody, Publ., 1994), p. 156.

457

Maltin, Disney Films, p. 197.

458

West, Jr., Disney Live-Action, 157.

459- 461

Watts, Magic Kingdom, p. 63.

462

Ibidem, p. 74.

463- 464

Ibidem, p. 75.

465

Schickel, Disney Version, p. 300.

466

Rita Aero, Walt Disney World for Adults . . . and Families, Too! (New York: Fodor‟s Travel Publ., Inc., 1997, 1998), p. 11.

467

Eliot, Dark Prince, p. 198.

468

Ibidem, pp. 198-199.

469- 471

Ibidem, p. 199.

472

Ibidem, pp. 199-200.

473- 474

Ibidem, p. 200.

475

Mingo, Juicy Parts, p. 121.

476

Eliot, Dark Prince, p. 200.

477

Mingo, Juicy Parts, p. 121.

478

Eliot, Dark Prince, p. 200.

479

Disney Imagineers, Walt Disney Imagineering: A Behind the Dreams Look at Making the Magic Real (New York: Hyperion, 1996), p. 114.

480

Eliot, Dark Prince, p. 200.

481

Ibidem, p. 201.

482

Mickey‟s mom, People Weekly, 12 Jan 1998, p. 117.

483

Disneyland: The First Quarter Century (Disneyland Co., 1979).

484

Michael Broggie, Walt Disney’s Railroad Story: The Small-Scale Fascination That Led to a Full-Scale Kingdom (Pasadena, CA: Pentrex,

1997), pp. 209-210.

485

Eliot, Dark Prince, p. 201.

486- 487

Ibidem, p. 202.

488

Smoodin, Animating Culture, p. 1.

489

Ariel Dorfman and Armand Matterlart, Paro leer al Pato Donald (Valparaiso: Ediciones Universitarins, 1971); How to Read Donald Duck:

Imperialist Ideology in the Disney Comic, David Kunzle, trans. (New York: International General, 1975, 1984, 1991), p. 35.

490

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, pp. 93-94.

491

Eliot, Dark Prince, p. 220.

492

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 94.

493

Stephen M. Fjellman, Vinyl Leaves: Walt Disney World and America (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1992), p. 169.

494- 495

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 94.

496

William Ready, Understanding Tolkien and the Lord of the Rings (New York: Paperback Library, 1969), p. 14.

497

Stanislaw Dygat, Disneyland (Poland: Instytut Wydawniczy); Cloak of Illusion, David Welsh, trans. (Cambridge, MA: M.I.T.

Press, 1969, pp. 160-161.

498

Ibidem, p. 161.

499- 500

Ferraiuolo, Disney and the Bible, p. 47.

501

Ibidem, p. 45.

502

Ibidem, p. 44.

503

Ibidem, p. 45.

504

Ibidem, p. 47.

505

Ibidem, p. 48.

506

Ibidem, pp. 48-49.

507

Ibidem, pp. 44-45.

508- 509

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 94.

510

Ibidem, pp. 94-95.

511

Beth Dunlop, Building a Dream: The Art of Disney Architecture (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1996), p. 37.

512

David Koenig, More Mouse Tales: A Closer Peek Backstage at Disneyland (Irvine, CA: Bonaventure Press, 1999), p. 17.

513

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 95.

514

Ibidem, p. 87.

515

David Koenig, Mouse Tales: A Behind-the-Ears Look at Disneyland (Irvine, CA: Bonaventure Press, 1994), p. 19.









84

516

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 95.

517

Eliot, Dark Prince, p. 230.

518- 520

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 95.

521

Michael Skapinker, Mickey Mouse lessons for the Dome: Broken rides, profanities broadcast, wet asphalt—Disney‟s record in launching

leisure parks is distinctly pat (Letter to the editor), Financial Times, 8 Feb 2000, p. 23.

522- 524

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 96.

525

Koenig, Mouse Tales, p. 62.

526

Tom Peters and Nancy Austin, A Passion for Excellence: The Leadership Difference (New York: Warner Books, 1986), p. 63.

527

Schickel, Disney Version, pp. 317-318.

528

Andrew Ross, The Celebration Chronicles: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Property Value in Disney’s New Town (New York, Ballantine

Books, 1999), p. 9.

529

Schickel, Disney Version, pp. 318-319.

530

Giroux, Mouse that Roared, p. 50.

531

Schickel, Disney Version, p. 319.

532

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 96.

533

Ibidem, p. 87.

534

Ibidem, p. 156.

535- 536

Ibidem, p. 97.

537

Carl Hiaasen, Team Rodent: How Disney Devours the World (New York: Ballantine Books, 1998), p. 30.

538

Ibidem, p. 43.

539

Dorfman and Matterlart, How to Read Donald Duck, p. 33.

540

cf. Smoodin, Disney Discourse, p. 243.

541

Dorfman and Matterlart, How to Read Donald Duck, p. 33.

542

Hiaasen, Team Rodent, p. 43.

543

Ibidem, p. 23.

544

Jeremy Rifkin, The ultimate therapy; Commercial eugenics on the eve of the biotech century, Tikkun: A Bimonthly Jewish Critique of Poli-

tics, Culture & Society, May/June 1998, 13(3), p. 38.

545

R.J. Pokorski (Swiss Re America, Fairfield, CT 06430), Genetic information and life insurance, Nature, 6 July 1995, 376(6535), abstract.

546

Bradley Graham (Washington Post), DNA sampling sparks worries; Two Marines take privacy issues to court, The Seattle Times, 14 April

1996, p. A22.

547

Rifkin, Ultimate therapy, p. 38.

548

Fjellman, Vinyl Leaves, pp. 59-60.

549

Wallace, Mickey Mouse History, pp. 136-137.

550

Fjellman, Vinyl Leaves, p. 60.

551- 552

Wallace, Mickey Mouse History, p. 137.

553

Virginia Postrel (Editor of Reason magazine), Disney reinvents the future, Forbes, 15 June 1998, 161(12), p. 108.

554

Grover, Disney Touch, p. 57.

555

Koenig, Mouse Tales, p. 117.

556

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 97.

557- 558

Bob Sehlinger, The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World (New York: Macmillan, 1997), p. 141.

559

Stephen Birnbaum, ed., Birnbaum’s Walt Disney World 1997 (USA: Hyperion & Hearst Business Publ., Inc., 1997), p. 34.

560

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 97.

561

Eliot, Uncle Walt, p. 48(8).

562- 563

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 98.

564

Ibidem, p. 99.

565

Finch, Art of Walt, 1988, p. 150.

566

Ferraiuolo, Disney and the Bible, pp. 51-52.

567

Koenig, Mouse Under Glass, p. 104.

568

Finch, Art of Walt, 1988, p. 150.

569

Fodor‟s Travel, Fodor’s 99 Walt Disney World, Universal Studios and Orlando: Your Complete Guide to All the Magic (New York: Fodor‟s

Travel Publ., Inc., 1998), p. 303.

570

Finch, Art of Walt, 1988, p. 150.

571- 573

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 99.

574

Bob Sehlinger, The Unofficial Guide to Disneyland (New York: Macmillan, 1995), p. 122.

575

Schickel, Disney Version, pp. 333-334.

576

Walt Disney Co., Walt Disney World: 20 Magical Years (Walt Disney Co., 1990), p. 45.

577

Aero, Disney World for Adults, p. 61.

578

Schickel, Disney Version, p. 334.

579

Toffler, Future Shock, pp. 210-211.

580

Schickel, Disney Version, pp. 336-337.

581

Robert De Roos, “The Magic Worlds of Walt Disney,” National Geographic, Aug 1963, in Smoodin, Disney Discourse, p. 67.

582

Toffler, Future Shock, p. 211.

583

Schickel, Disney Version, p. 333.

584

Ibidem, p. 334.

585

Walt Disney, quoted in Saturday Evening Post, 1954, in Watts, Magic Kingdom, p. v.









85

586

Robert I. Watson, Sr., and Rand B. Evans, The Great Psychologists: A History of Psychological Thought, 5th ed. (New York: HarperCollins

Publ., Inc., 1991), p. 467.

587

John Broadus Watson, Psychology as the behaviorist views it, Psychological Review, 1913, 20, pp. 158-177, in Dennis Coon, Introduction to

Psychology: Exploration and Application, 5th ed. (St. Paul: West Publ. Co., 1989), p. 9; E. Mavis Hetherington and Ross D. Parke, Child Psy-

chology: A Contemporary Viewpoint, 4th ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1993), p. 80; Spencer A. Rathus, Psychology, 3rd ed. (New York:

Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1987), p. 430; and Robert I. Watson, Sr., and Rand B. Evans, The Great Psychologists: A History of Psychological

Thought, 5th ed. (New York: HarperCollins Publ., Inc., 1991), p. 479.

588

Watson, Sr., and Evans, Great Psychologists, p. 467.

589

Walt Disney, quoted in Giroux, Mouse that Roared, p. 17.

590

Hiaasen, Team Rodent, p. 19.

591

Alvin Toffler, Future Shock (Toronto: Bantam Books, 1970, 1988), pp. 25-26.

592- 593

Ibidem, p. 25.

594

Ibidem, p. 402.

595

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 100.

596

Ibidem, pp. 100-101.

597

Ibidem, p. 101.

598

Tom Connellan, Inside the Magic Kingdom: Seven Key’s to Disney’s Success (Austin: Bard Press, 1996, 1997), p. 170.

599- 600

Ibidem, p. 171.

601- 603

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 101.

604

Ibidem, p. 102.

605

Ibidem, p. 104.

606

“Tonight Show,” NBC, in Laughter, the Best Medicine®, Reader’s Digest, Nov 1996, 149(895), pp. 60-61.

607

Andy James, A simple guide to urban etiquette, Downtown [Seattle] Source, 30 March-5 April 1998, V(13), p. 8.

608

Hiaasen, Team Rodent, p. 60.

609

Ibidem, p. 63.

610

Ibidem, pp. 63-64.

611

Finch, Art of Walt, 1988, p. 151.

612

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 137.

613

Ibidem, pp. 137-138.

614

Rena Bulkin, Frommer’s Comprehensive Travel Guide: Orlando ’95 (New York: Macmillan Travel, 1994), p. 10.

615

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 137.

616- 617

Hiaasen, Team Rodent, p. 26.

618

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 137.

619

Hiaasen, Team Rodent, p. 36.

620

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, pp. 137-138.

621

Tim Appelo, When Mickey goes marching in, Entertainment Weekly, 15 July 1994, 231, p. 30(2).

622

Fodor‟s Travel, Fodor’s 99, p. 303.

623

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 138.

624

Hiaasen, Team Rodent, p. 5.

625

Lisa Gubernick, The third battle of Bull Run, Forbes, 17 Oct 1994, 154(9), p. 67(4).

626

P.S. (Across the Nation/Daily Briefing), The Seattle Times, 8 Sep 1998, 121(215), p. A6.

627- 628

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 138.

629

Bulkin, Orlando ’95, p. 10.

630

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 138.

631

Ibidem, p. 139.

632

Ibidem, p. 140.

633

Bulkin, Orlando ’95, p. 139.

634

Hiaasen, Team Rodent, p. 26.

635

Ibidem, p. 27.

636

Alexander Wilson, “The Betrayal of the Future: Walt Disney‟s EPCOT Center,” in Smoodin, Disney Discourse, p. 119.

637- 638

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 138.

639- 640

Hiaasen, Team Rodent, p. 18.

641

Ibidem, p. 19.

642

Jeff Kurtti, Since the World Began: Walt Disney World: The First 25 Years (New York: Hyperion, 1996), p. 29.

643- 645

Tom Connellan, Inside the Magic Kingdom: Seven Key’s to Disney’s Success (Austin: Bard Press, 1996, 1997), p. 64.

646

Ibidem, p. 65.

647

Peters and Austin, Passion for Excellence, p. 4.

648- 649

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 140.

650

Ray Bradbury, The Martian Chronicles (Toronto: Bantam Books, 1946, 1980), p. 168.

651

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 140.

652

Fjellman, Vinyl Leaves, p. 194.

653- 654

Hiaasen, Team Rodent, p. 27.

655- 656

Jackson, Walt Disney, p. 101.

657

Walt Disney, foreword, Heinz Haber, The Walt Disney Story of Our Friend the Atom (New York: Dell, 1956), pp. 7-8.

658

Schickel, Disney Version, p. 334.









86

659- 660

Masters, Keys to the Kingdom, p. 197.

661

Lief H. Carter, J.D., Ph.D., Reason in Law, 3rd ed. (Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman/Little, Brown College Division, 1988), p. 126.

662

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 159.

663

Ibidem, p. 140.

664

Rick Perlmutter and Gayle Perlmutter, Walt Disney World for Lovers (Rocklin, CA: Prima Publ., 1996), p. 162.

665

American Automobile Association, AAA Guide to North America’s Theme Parks (Heathrow, FL: American Automobile Association, 1997), p.

63.

666

Fjellman, Vinyl Leaves, p. 186.

667

Ibidem, pp. 1-2.

668

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 140.

669

Richard Harris with Tamalyn Harris, 2 to 22 Days in Florida (Santa Fe, NM: John Muir Publ., 1995), p. 42.

670

Martin A. Sklar, Introduction to Richard R. Beard, Walt Disney’s EPCOT: Creating the New World of Tomorrow (New York: Harry N.

Abrams, Inc., 1982), p. 13.

671

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 140.

672

Wilson, “Betrayal of the Future,” in Smoodin, Disney Discourse, p. 118.

673

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 141.

674- 676

Eliot, Dark Prince, p. 267.

677

Thomas and Johnston, The Illusion of Life, p. 11.

678

Edera, Animated Feature Films, p. 93.

679- 680

Ferraiuolo, Disney and the Bible, p. 66.

681

Klein, Seven Minutes, p. 184.

682

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 141.

683

Joe Flower, Prince of the Magic Kingdom: Michael Eisner and the Re-Making of Disney (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1991), p. 28.

684- 685

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 141.

686

Eliot, Dark Prince, p. 268.

687

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 141.

688

Ferraiuolo, Disney and the Bible, p. 34.

689

Edera, Animated Feature Films, p. 37.

690

Ferraiuolo, Disney and the Bible, pp. 34-35.

691

Ibidem, p. 35.

692

Edera, Animated Feature Films, p. 166.

693

Paula Poundstone, Thanks, Mr. Clean, Mother Jones, May/June 1996, 21(3), p. 100.

694- 696

Ferraiuolo, Disney and the Bible, p. 35.

697

Melanie McFarland, Cartoon cover-ups; Today‟s animated films offer suger-coated versions of harsh fairy tales, The Seattle Times, 16 Nov

1997, p. M1.

698

Jane E. Brody, Genetic ties may be factor in violence in stepfamilies; Evolution is being cited to explain higher rates of infanticide, The New

York Times, 10 Feb 1998, CXKLVII(51,064), p. B9.

699

Francine du Plessix Gray, Soviet Women: Walking the Tightrope (New York: Doubleday, 1989), pp. 88-89.

700

Colette Dowling, The Cinderella Complex: Women’s Hidden Fear of Independence (New York: Summit Books, 1981), p. 16.

701

Ibidem, p. 197.

702

Birnbaum, Walt Disney World, p. 98.

703

Hiaasen, Team Rodent, p. 29.

704- 706

Ibidem, p. 30.

707

Schweizer and Schweizer, Mouse Betrayed, p. 110.

708

Ibidem, p. 98.

709

Rick Perlmutter and Gayle Perlmutter, Walt Disney World for Couples (With or Without Kids) (Rocklin, CA: Prima Publ., 1997), p. 28.

710

Schweizer and Schweizer, Mouse Betrayed, p. 99.

711

Ibidem, pp. 99-100.

712

Hiaasen, Team Rodent, p. 31.

713- 714

Fjellman, Vinyl Leaves, p. 219.

715

Jackson, Walt Disney, p. 203.

716

Richard Turner and Corie Brown, Sending an SOS at ABC (Lifestyles), Newsweek, 12 May 1997, CXXIX(19), p. 54.

717

Koenig, Mouse Tales, p. 197.

718

Flower, Prince of the Magic Kingdom, p. 261.

719

Hiaasen, Team Rodent, p. 31.

720- 722

Schweizer and Schweizer, Mouse Betrayed, p. 90.

723

Ibidem, p. 87.

724

Hiaasen, Team Rodent, p. 35.

725

Anna Woolverton, Vacation (Pop Paralysis), The Stranger, 14-20 May 1998, 7(34), p. 66.

726

Gene Sloan and Anthony DeBarros, Safety rules lax at amusement parks, USA Today (USAToday.com), 6 April 2000.

727

Rich Marosi, Brady MacDonald, and Scott Reckard (Los Angeles Times), Duvall pair hurt in Disneyland accident; Cleat flies off ship; Inju-

ries critical, The Seattle Times, 25 Dec 1998, p. A1.

728

Susan Byrnes, Ian Ith, Tan Vinh, and Florangela Davila, Inspections were left to Disneyland, The Seattle Times, 29 Dec 1998, p. B1.

729

Duvall man hurt at Disneyland dies from injuries, The Seattle Times, 27 Dec 1998, p. A1.

730

Christine Clarridge and Florangela Davila, Police may review Disneyland accident, The Seattle Times, 28 Dec 1998, p. B1.









87

731- 732

Byrnes, Ith, Vinh, and Davila, Inspections, p. B1.

733

Sloan and DeBarros, Safety rules lax.

734- 735

Gene Sloan, Fla. law: No state inspectors in big parks; Disney, Universal say they know best with complexity, USA Today (USATo-

day.com), 6 April 2000.

736- 740

Ibidem, Safety rules lax.

741- 742

Ibidem, No state inspectors.

743

Clarridge and Davila, Disneyland accident, p. B1.

744

The Associated Press, Coroner: Disney ride misjudged; Worker underestimated speed of boat, The Seattle Times, 31 Dec 1998, p. B1.

745

Dies from injuries, p. A1.

746

Clarridge and Davila, Disneyland accident, p. B1.

747

Byrnes, Ith, Vinh, and Davila, Inspections, p. B1.

748

Marosi, MacDonald, and Reckard, Cleat flies off ship, p. A1.

749

Dunlop, Building a Dream, p. 43.

750- 751

Alison Roberts (Sacramento Bee), Back to the future as Disneyland puts new spin on Tomorrowland, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 4 June

1998, Getaways, p. 16.

752

Masters, Keys to the Kingdom, p. 198.

753

Koenig, Mouse Tales, p. 119.

754

Fjellman, Vinyl Leaves, p. 127.

755

Ibidem, p. 128.

756- 759

Koenig, Mouse Tales, p. 66.

760

Harris with Harris, 2 to 22 Days, pp. 52-53.

761

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 146.

762

Ibidem, p. 147.

763

Fjellman, Vinyl Leaves, p. 208.

764

Ibidem, p. 209.

765

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 147.

766

Harris with Harris, 2 to 22 Days, p. 53.

767

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 147.

768

Ibidem, p. 141.

769

Douglas Frantz and Catherine Collins, Celebration, U.S.A.: Living in Disney’s Brave New Town (New York: Henry Holt & Co.: Marian

Wood, 1999), p. 27.

770- 771

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 148.

772

Harris with Harris, 2 to 22 Days, p. 43.

773

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 148.

774

Ibidem, p. 150.

775

Ibidem, p. 151.

776

Fjellman, Vinyl Leaves, p. 10.

777

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, pp. 154-155.

778

Dorfman and Matterlart, How to Read Donald Duck, p. 86.

779

Ibidem, p. 96.

780

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 155.

781

Ibidem, p. 155.

782

Ibidem, pp. 155-156.

783

Frantz and Collins, Celebration, U.S.A., p. 112.

784

Harris with Harris, 2 to 22 Days, p. 52.

785

Sehlinger, Unofficial Guide, p. 145.

786

Tim O‟Brien, The Amusement Park Guide: Coast to Coast Thrills, 3rd ed. (Old Saybrook, CT: Globe Pequot Press, 1991, 1997, 1999), p. 12.

787

Susan Willis, A Primer for Daily Life (London: Routledge, 1991), pp. 57-58.

788

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 145.

789

Fjellman, Vinyl Leaves, p. 206.

790

Rena Bulkin, Frommer’s 97 Walt Disney World & Orlando (New York: Macmillan, 1996), p. 120.

791

Fodor‟s Travel, Fodor’s 99, p. 28.

792

Bulkin, Frommer’s 97, p. 120.

793

Pamela S. Weiers, Birnbaum’s Walt Disney World Without Kids (USA: Hyperion & Hearst Business Publ., Inc., 1997), p. 95.

794

Schickel, Disney Version, p. 337.

795

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 146.

796

Bulkin, Orlando ’95, p. 147.

797

Ibidem, p. 155.

798

Hiaasen, Team Rodent, p. 13.

799

Kim Wright Wiley, Walt Disney World with Kids (Rocklin, CA: Prima Publ., 1997), p. 110.

800

Fodor‟s Travel, Fodor’s 99, p. 28.

801

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 146.

802

Harris with Harris, 2 to 22 Days, p. 55.

803

Thomas Swick ([South Florida] Sun-Sentinel), Paths already trodden, The Seattle Times, 28 Dec 1997, p. I1.

804- 805

The Associated Press, Disneyland pirates to lust no more, The Seattle Times, 4 Jan 1997, p. A2.









88

806- 808

Jeff Kramer and Marla Jo Fisher (Orange County Register), Pirates may be PC now, but rest of Disneyland isn‟t; From animals to Indians,

park a cultural sensitivity minefield, The Seattle Times, 12 Jan 1997, p. A13.

809

Toffler, Future Shock, pp. 232-233.

810

Gene Sloan, Disney at Sea; When you‟re young at heart, Disney makes big Magic on the high seas, USA Today, 31 July-2 Aug 1998, 16(225), p.

2D.

811

Gene Sloan, Disney at Sea; Disney ship signals new wave in family cruising, USA Today, 31 July-2 Aug 1998, 16(225), p. 1D.

812

Sloan, Young at heart, p. 2D.

813

Scott Kraft (Los Angeles Times), When you wish upon a ship. . .; Three nights aboard the new Disney Magic, The Seattle Times/Seattle Post-

Intelligencer, 11 Oct 1998, 16(39), p. K8.

814

Sloan, Young at heart, p. 2D.

815

Sloan, Family cruising, p. 1D.

816- 817

Hiaasen, Team Rodent, p. 45.

818

Ibidem, p. 46.

819

Disney representative, quoted in Susan J. Rogoski, Disney by land and sea, Town & Country, Oct 1999, 153(5233), p. 119.

820

Sloan, Family cruising, p. 1D.

821- 822

Kraft, Wish upon a ship, p. K8.

823- 826

Arline Bleecker (Orlando Sentinel), When a dream cruise turns nightmare; Resolving disputes is no simple matter under maritime law,

Times/Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 11 Oct 1998, 16(39), p. K6.

827- 831

Sloan, Family cruising, p. 2D.

832- 833

Sloan, Young at heart, p. 2D.

834

Rogoski, By land and sea, p. 119.

835- 836

Sloan, Young at heart, p. 2D.

837- 838

Sloan, Family cruising, p. 2D.

839

Sloan, Young at heart, p. 2D.

840

Rebecca Adams, M.D. (Fellow in Child Adolescent Psychiatry at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center), Titanic love (Film review),

Tikkun: A Bimonthly Jewish Critique of Politics, Culture & Society, May/June 1998, 13(3), pp. 66-67.

841

Ibidem, p. 67.

842

Sloan, Young at heart, p. 2D.

843

Hiaasen, Team Rodent, p. 46.

844

Sloan, Young at heart, p. 2D.

845

Kraft, Wish upon a ship, p. K9.

846

Kurtti, World Began, p. 185.

847

Hiaasen, Team Rodent, pp. 46-47.

848- 849

Ibidem, p. 47.

850

Ibidem, p. 48.

851- 855

Schweizer and Schweizer, Mouse Betrayed, p. 265.

856- 857

Ibidem, p. 266.

858

Ibidem, p. 13.

859

Ibidem, p. 275.

860

Ibidem, p. 13.

861

Ibidem, p. 23.

862

Disney: Baptist‟s claims „ridiculous‟, The Seattle Times, 22 Nov 1997, p. A10.

863- 864

Carol Morello (Philadelphia Inquirer), Disney boycotts haven‟t worked before; Some suggest constructive engagement, Knight-

Ridder/Tribune Business News, 23 June 1997.

865- 867

Mark Weber, Subverting the Disney legacy; How Michael Eisner has transformed the „Magic Kingdom‟ („Culture War‟ Profile), The

Journal of Historical Review (IHR.org), Sep/Oct 1998, 17(5).

868- 869

Briefs (Nation), Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 30 March 1998, 135(76), p. A3.

870

Schweizer and Schweizer, Mouse Betrayed, p. 23.

871

Ibidem, p. 25.

872

David Lees and Stan Berkowitz, The Movie Business (New York: Vintage Books, 1981), p. 158.

873- 876

Frank Rich (The New York Times), Anti-drug ad effort a pricey bit of Mickey Mouse, [Tacoma] News Tribune, 20 July 1998, 116(102), p.

A6.

877

Schweizer and Schweizer, Mouse Betrayed, p. 266.

878

Ibidem, p. 269.

879- 880

Roberts, New spin on Tomorrowland, p. 16.

881

Koenig, Mouse Tales, p. 120.

882

Ferraiuolo, Disney and the Bible, p. 7.

883

Koenig, Mouse Under Glass, p. 172.

884

Douglass Gomery, “Disney‟s Business History: A Reinterpretation,” in Smoodin, Disney Discourse, p. 83.

885- 886

Cole, Creator of Mickey, p. 99.

887

Barry R. Litman, The Motion Picture Mega-Industry (Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 1998), p. 22.

888- 889

Weber, Disney legacy.

890

Ferraiuolo, Disney and the Bible, p. 7.

891

Schweizer and Schweizer, Mouse Betrayed, p. 277.

892

Bill Capodagli and Lynn Jackson, The Disney Way: Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company (New York: McGraw-









89

Hill, 1999), p. 59.

893- 894

Griffin, Tinker Belles, p. 106.

895

Hiaasen, Team Rodent, p. 17.

896

Henry A. Giroux, The Mouse that Roared: Disney and the End of Innocence (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publ., Inc., 1999), p. 26.

897

Masters, Keys to the Kingdom, p. 231.

898

Giroux, Mouse that Roared, p. 89.

899

Gregg Zoroya (USA Today), Orlando overload; How much is too much at rapidly expanding theme parks?, 7 May 1999.

900

Hiaasen, Team Rodent, p. 6.

901

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 154.

902

Hiaasen, Team Rodent, pp. 6-7.

903

Giroux, Mouse that Roared, p. 65.

904

Ibidem, pp. 66-67.

905

Ibidem, p. 67.

906

Ross, Celebration Chronicles, p. 2.

907

Ibidem, p. 4.

908

Giroux, Mouse that Roared, p. 69.

909

Ibidem, pp. 71-72.

910

Ibidem, p. 73

911

Ibidem, p. 18.

912

Hiaasen, Team Rodent, p. 6.

913

Rosalyn Will, Alice Tepper Marlin, Benjamin Corson and Jonathan Schorsch; with Jennifer Kasmin, Nadia Malinovich, Alan Nadelhaft, and

Jessica Patt, Shopping For a Better World: A Quick and Easy Guide to Socially Responsible Supermarket Shopping (New York: Council on

Economic Priorities, 1989), p. 1.

914

Frantz and Collins, Celebration, U.S.A., p. 112.

915

Hiaasen, Team Rodent, p. 10.

916- 918

Weber, Disney legacy.

919

Hiaasen, Team Rodent, p. 10.

920

Ibidem, pp. 10-11.

921

Cole, Creator of Mickey, p. 7.

922- 924

Weber, Disney legacy.

925

Hiaasen, Team Rodent, p. 11.

926

Ibidem, p. 12.

927

Frank Rich, The rodent rules, The New York Times, 6 May 1998, CXLVII(51,149), p. A27.

928

Hiaasen, Team Rodent, p. 4.

929

1 Timothy 6:10, The Bible, Revised Standard Version (New York: American Bible Society, 1973).

930

Hiaasen, Team Rodent, p. 5.

931

Ibidem, p. 4.

932

Ibidem, p. 5.

933

Zeke Wigglesworth (San Jose Mercury News), Noisy and polluting? Well, that‟s their nature, The Seattle Times/Seattle Post-Intelligencer,

23 Aug 1998, 16(34), p. K10.

934

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 178.

935

Barbara Ehrenreich, The Worst Years of Our Lives: Irreverent Notes from a Decade of Greed (New York: Pantheon Books, 1990).

936

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 178.

937

Grover, Disney Touch, p. 249.

938

Harris with Harris, 2 to 22 Days, p. 64.

939

Glen Sloan, Tomorrowland gets a $100 million face lift, USA Today, 17 April 1998, 16(152), p. 1D.

940

Cory Lancaster, Disney considers building fifth theme park in central Florida, Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News, 17 May 1998.

941

Masters, Keys to the Kingdom, p. 175.

942

Wallace, Mickey Mouse History, p. 162.

943

P.S. (Around the World/Daily Briefing), The Seattle Times, 15 April 1998, 121(90), p. A14.

944

Wallace, Mickey Mouse History, p. 162.

945

P.S., The Seattle Times, 15 April 1998, p. A14.

946- 951

Michael A. Lev (Chicago Tribune), Increasingly, young girls are sex objects in Japan, The Seattle Times, 23 Feb 1997, 15(8), p. A16.

952

Terry Trucco, Tokyo developers bet on Goofy and sushi; But risks face Japan‟s new Disneyland, which opens this week, The New York

Times, 10 April 1983, CXXXII(45,644), p. III:13.

953

Clyde Haberman (special to Times), English-speaking mouse thrives in Tokyo, The New York Times, 9 Sep 1983, CXXXII(45,796), p. I:16.

954

Trucco, Developers bet on Goofy, p. III:13.

955

Haberman , Mouse thrives, p. I:16.

956

Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto, “Images of Empire: Tokyo Disneyland and Japanese Cultural Imperialism,” in Smoodin, Disney Discourse, p. 190.

957

Adams, Amusement Park Industry, p. 170.

958

Hiaasen, Team Rodent, p. 19.

959

Frantz and Collins, Celebration, U.S.A., p. 52.

960

Hiaasen, Team Rodent, p. 19.

961

Reuters, Disneyland workers can now wear mustaches, Yahoo! News (Yahoo.com), 28 March 2000.

962

The Associated Press, Disney relaxes facial hair rules, Yahoo! News (Yahoo.com), 25 March 2000.









90

963

E! Online, Disney lets loose with lip hair, Yahoo! News (Yahoo.com), 28 March 2000.

964

The Associated Press, Disney relaxes.

965- 966

E! Online, Disney lets loose.

967

Koenig, Mouse Tales, p. 220.

968

E! Online, Disney lets loose.

969

The Associated Press, Disney relaxes.

970

Hiaasen, Team Rodent, pp. 19-20.

971

Ibidem, p. 20.

972

Mark Worth, Loose change (Media Culpa), Seattle Weekly, 30 April 1998, 23(17), p. 17.

973

Schweizer and Schweizer, Mouse Betrayed, p. 262.

974

Ibidem, p. 263.

975

Ibidem, p. 264.

976

Hiaasen, Team Rodent, p. 38.

977

Ibidem, pp. 38-39.

978

Masters, Keys to the Kingdom, p. 6.

979

Jon Lewis, “Disney After Disney: Family Business and the Business of Family,” in Smoodin, Disney Discourse, p. 88.

980- 983

ABC kills anti-Disney story, E! Online (EOnline.com), 14 Oct 1998.

984- 985

Schweizer and Schweizer, Mouse Betrayed, p. 264.

986

Henry Chu (Los Angeles Times), Disney reveals its plans for park in Hong Kong, The Seattle Times, 2 Nov 1999, p. A15.

987

Hong Kong Disneylan (Backgrounder), Xinhua News Agency, 2 Nov 1999.

988

Mouse of the rising sun; Disneyland in Hong Kong, Travel Trade Gazette UK & Ireland, 10 Jan 2000, p. 57.

989

Jo Bowman, Disney‟s appeal will endure, says expert, South China Morning Post, 29 Nov 1999.

990

HK Disneyland expected to bring about intangible benefits, Xinhua News Agency, 3 Nov 1999.

991

Stella Lee, Disney „will lure mainlanders‟, South China Morning Post, 10 Dec 1999.

992

E.P. Patanne, Disneyland goes to Hong Kong (Weekender: Travel Trade East), BusinessWorld (Phillippines), 12 Nov 1999.

993

Kong Lai-fan, Mainland to increase flow of Disneyland tourists, says Qian, South Chian Morning Post, 23 Nov 1999.

994

Sushi, Disney (Topics/Home Truths), The New York Times, 17 April 1983, CXXXII(45,651), p. IV:18.

995

Rich, Rodent rules, p. A27.

996

Mary Lou Gallagher, Taking a stand on hallow ground; Some Civil War battlefields could soon be history if steps aren‟t taken to save them,

Planning, June 1995, 61(1), p. 10(6).

997

Hiaasen, Team Rodent, p. 21.

998

Ibidem, p. 22.

999

Los Angeles Times, Some Virginians don‟t want U.S. history park in their back yard, Bertino.com, 16 Jan 1994.

1000

Tim Appelo, When Mickey goes marching in, Entertainment Weekly, 15 July 1994, 231, p. 30(2).

1001

Hiaasen, Team Rodent, p. 22.

1002

Koenig, Mouse Under Glass, p. 235.

1003

Eisner with Schwartz, Work in Progress, p. 320.

1004

Koenig, Mouse Under Glass, p. 235.

1005

Hiaasen, Team Rodent, p. 22.

1006

Ibidem, p. 24.

1007- 1008

Schweizer and Schweizer, Mouse Betrayed, p. 233.

1009

Karen Klugman, Jane Kuenz, Shelton Waldrep, and Susan Willis, Inside the Mouse: Work and Play at Disney World (Durham: Duke Uni-

versity Press, 1995), p. 16.

1010

The talking chihuahua; The it bitch (The It List), Entertainment Weekly, 26 June-3 July 1998, 438/439, p. 94.

1011

John Hartl, „Mary‟ and „Mulan‟ among latest releases, The Seattle Times, 28 Jan 1999, p. E6.

1012

Joe McDonald (The Associated Press), „Mulan‟ debuts in Shanghai after long delay, The Seattle Times, 23 Feb 1999, p. A7.

1013

Moira MacDonald, Disney‟s „Mulan‟: Surprising words and scenes—and visual beatury, too, The Seattle Times, 19 June 1998, p. G1.

1014

Jim Mullen, Hot sheet, Entertainment Weekly, 26 June-3 July 1998, 438/439, p. 12.

1015

Dennis Akizuki (Knight-Ridder Newspapers), Disney‟s „Mulan‟ resonates among Chinese Americans, The Seattle Times, 23 June 1998, p.

F6.

1016

Giroux, Mouse that Roared, p. 103.

1017

Ibidem, p. 85

1018

Schweizer and Schweizer, Mouse Betrayed, p. 149.

1019- 1021

Los Angeles Daily News, Little girls who want to look like Mulan pose a cutting dilemma, Seattle-Post Intelligencer, 5 Sep 1998,

135(213), p. C2.

1022- 1024

Hiaasen, Team Rodent, p. 42.

1025

Mireya Navarro (The New York Times), Movie fallout: Dalmatians now being abandoned, The Seattle Times, 14 Sep 1997, p. A6.

1026

Hiaasen, Team Rodent, p. 42.

1027

Ibidem, pp. 42-43.

1028

Glen Sloan, Disney goes wild, USA Today, 17 April 1998, 16(152), p. 2D.

1029

Ibidem, p. 68.

1030

Jon Nordheimer (The New York Times), Animal Kingdom brings a new world to Disney, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 30 April 1998, 135(103), p.

A15.

1031

Sloan, Disney goes wild, p. 2D.

1032

Mireya Navarro (The New York Times), Disney opens animal theme park amid criticism and government investigation, Seattle Post-









91

Intelligencer, 21 April 1998, p. E3.

1033

Tammerlin Drummond, Caution: Live animals, Time, 20 April 1998, 151(15), p. 68.

1034

Hiaasen, Team Rodent, p. 68.

1035- 1036

Kerry Smith, Walt Disney World for Mature Travelers (New York: St. Martin‟s Griffin, 1999), p. 212.

1037

Hiaasen, Team Rodent, pp. 68-69.

1038

Andrew Paxman, Orlando‟s battle of the beasts: Disney and U throw billions into theme park showdown, Variety, 20 April 1998, 370(10), p.

1.

1039

Richard Corliss with Tammerlin Drummond, Stocked with real creatures and fantastic images, Disney‟s Animal Kingdom is positivly zoo-

issimo!, Time, 20 April 1998, 151(15), p. 70.

1040

Michael D. Eisner with Tony Schwartz, Work in Progress (New York: Random House, 1998), p. 402.

1041- 1042

Hiaasen, Team Rodent, p. 69.

1043

Glen Sloan, Disney goes wild, USA Today, 17 April 1998, 16(152), p. 2D.

1044

Drummond, Caution, p. 69.

1045

Sloan, Disney goes wild, p. 1D.

1046

McNonsense; Strange advertising campaign by McDonald‟s, Time, 11 May 1998, 151(18), p. 18.

1047

Larry Wallberg, Where humans are herded and animals roam free, Wall Street Journal, 18 June 1998, CCXXXI(116), p. A16.

1048

A rocky start for a new zoo; Safety of animals at Walt Disney World‟s Animal Kingdom questioned, Time for Kids, 17 April 1998, 3(26), p.

6.

1049

Sloan, Disney goes wild, p. 2D.

1050

Hiaasen, Team Rodent, p. 74.

1051

Ibidem, pp. 74-75.

1052

Ibidem, p. 75.

1053

Ibidem, pp. 75-76.

1054- 1055

Navarro, Animal theme park, p. E1.

1056

The Associated Press, Agency investigating Disney animal deaths, The New York Times, 9 April 1998, CXLVII(51,122), p. A23.

1057

Animal death toll at Disney theme park raised to 29 (Nation/Briefs/Washington, D.C.), Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 14 May 1998, 135(115),

p. A3.

1058

Navarro, Animal theme park, p. E3.

1059

Gerry Vogenan (Knight-Ridder Newspapers), Move over, Mickey. Disney gets into real animals, The Seattle Times/Seattle Post-

Intelligencer, 26 April 1998, 16(17), p. K8.

1060

Death toll at Disney, p. A3.

1061

Navarro, Animal theme park, p. E3.

1062- 1063

Frantz and Collins, Celebration, U.S.A., p. 231.

1064

Animals are worst part of Disney‟s Animal Kingdom, Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service, 4 May 1998.

1065

Animal death toll, p. A3.

1066

Diane Ledder, quoted in The Associated Press, Report lists 29 animals dead at new Disney park, The New York Times, 14 May 1998,

CXLVII(51,157), p. A19.

1067

Hiaasen, Team Rodent, p. 13.

1068- 1069

Greg Burkman, Steven Watt‟s “The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life” (Book Review), The Seattle Times,

11 Jan 1998, 16(2), p. M2.

1070

Dr. Will Miller, Mental TV, Psychology Today, Dec 1996, 29(6), p. 62.

1071

Ibidem, pp. 62, 76.

1072

Ibidem, p. 76.

1073

Bob Moorehead (former* Senior Pastor, Overlake Christian church, Kirkland, Washington), quoted in Ferraiuolo, Disney and the Bible, p.

xi.

*

Moorehead announced his resignation [17 May 1998] as pastor.

— Steve Miletich and Heath Foster, Moorehead resigns as pastor; He denies charges, but say they hurt Overlake ministry, Seattle Post-

Intelligencer, 18 May 1998, 135(118), p. A1.

1074- 1075

Schweizer and Schweizer, Mouse Betrayed, p. 245.

1076- 1080

Ibidem, p. 246.

1081

Ibidem, p. 249.

1082

Ibidem, p. 248.

1083

Ibidem, p. 250.

1084

Susan Kuklin, Iqbal Masih and the Crusaders Against Child Slavery (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1998), p. 6.

1085

Schweizer and Schweizer, Mouse Betrayed, p. 250.

1086

Ibidem, p. 277.

1087- 1088

Ibidem, p. 251.

1089

Ibidem, p. 252.

1090

Ibidem, p. 253.

1091- 1092

Ibidem, p. 254.

1093

Kuklin, Crusaders Against Child Slavery, p. 63.

1094- 1095

Ibidem, p. 38.

1096

From a dream, 1997.

1097

Schweizer and Schweizer, Mouse Betrayed, p. 79.

1098- 1099

Ibidem, p. 85.









92

1100- 1102

The Associated Press, Newborn abandoned at Disney World doing fine, The Seattle Times, 10 Nov 1997, p. A4.

1103- 1106

Orlando Sentinel and The Associated Press, Mother who abandoned newborn at Disnew World is identified, The Seattle Times, 6 Feb

1998, p. A7.

1107

Schweizer and Schweizer, Mouse Betrayed, p. 93.

1108

Ibidem, p. 114.

1109

Ibidem, p. 90.

1110- 1111

Ibidem, p. 93.

1112

Ibidem, p. 86.

1113

Ibidem, p. 77.

1114

Ibidem, p. 85.

1115

Ibidem, p. 9.

1116

Ibidem, p. 80.

1117

Ibidem, p. 85.

1118- 1120

Ibidem, p. 77.

1121- 1122

Ibidem, p. 223.

1123- 1124

Ibidem, p. 224.

1125- 1126

Ibidem, p. 223.

1127

Glenn Kenny, „Powder‟ (Movie reviews), Entertainment Weekly, 17 May 1996, 327, p. 70.

1128

Ken Tucker, „Powder‟ (Move reviews), Entertainment Weekly, 10 Nov 1996, 300, p. 36.

1129- 1131

Schweizer and Schweizer, Mouse Betrayed, p. 223.

1132

Kenneth L. Woodward, To abuse is human, to repent is rare; Repentance and forgiveness for criminals in modern society, Newsweek, 6 Nov

1995, 126(19), p. 78.

1133- 1134

Schweizer and Schweizer, Mouse Betrayed, p. 225.

1135

Director of Disney film had a 1988 conviction for child molestation, Wall Street Journal, 25 Oct 1995, CCXXVI(81), p. B5.

1136

Bernard Weintraub, A director for Disney once jailed in sex case, The New York Times, 26 Oct 1995, CXLV(50,226), p. C20.

1137

Ferraiuolo, Disney and the Bible, p. 111.

1138- 1140

Schweizer and Schweizer, Mouse Betrayed, p. 225.

1141

Weintraub, Once jailed, p. C20.

1142- 1144

Schweizer and Schweizer, Mouse Betrayed, p. 227.

1145

Ibidem, p. 229.

1146

Jeffrey Wells, A question Disneyland ducked; History of child molestation clouds director Victor Salva‟s film „Powder‟, Entertainment

Weekly, 10 Nov 1995, 300, p. 37.

1147

John Gallagher, A fairy-tale ending; The uproar over the Disney film Powder leaves the company‟s profits—and its pro-gay policies—

unscathed, Advocate, 28 Nov 1995, 695, p. 25.

1148

Schweizer and Schweizer, Mouse Betrayed, p. 228.

1149

Ibidem, p. 230.

1150

The Associated Press, Infoseek exec. nabbed in sex sting; Accused of using Net to solicit teen sex, USA Today (USAToday.com), 20 Sep

1999.

1151

Keith Alexander, Arrest threatens career of Net star, USA Today (USAToday.com), 21 Sep 1999.

1152

Ian Ith, FBI sex charges denied; Naughton defense hints at conspiracy, The Seattle Times, 1 Oct 1999, p. B1.

1153

Eric Lacitis, Secrets on a computer: „delete‟ key doesn‟t make things clear, The Seattle Times, 26 Sep 1999, p. L1.

1154

Greg Miller (Los Angeles Times), Feds will retry Naughton on sex charges, The Seattle Times, 6 Jan 2000, p. B3.

1155- 1156

Alexander, Arrest threatens career.

1157

Greg Miller (Los Angeles Times), Naughton says sex talk online was just fantasy, The Seattle Times, 10 Dec 1999, p. B6.

1158

ABC News, Infoseek executive arrested; Faces charges of soliciting sex with minor, ABCNews.com, 19 Sep 1999.

1159- 1160

Ed Scannel and Bob Trott (InfoWorld Electric), Java developer arrested in FBI sting, International Data Group (IDG.net), 21 Sep 1999.

1161

Bloomberg News, Mistrial in Naughton sex case; But former Infoseek exec found guilty of possessing child porn, USA Today (USATo-

day.com), 16 Dec 1999.

1162

Bloomberg News (Reuters), Seattle‟s Naughton guilty on pron count, The Seattle Times, 16 Dec 1999, p. A1.

1163- 1167

Lisa Bowman (ZDNet News), Jailbait and switch, Yahoo! News (Yahoo.com), 21 March 2000.

1168- 1169

Bloomberg News, Ex-Infoseek exec pleads guilty in sex case, USA Today (USAToday.com), 17 March 2000.

1170

Bowman, Jailbait and switch.

1171

Dan Whitcomb (Reuters), Ex-Web executive pleads guilty to U.S. sex charge, Yahoo! News (Yahoo.com), 17 March 2000.

1172- 1178

Bowman, Jailbait and switch.

1179

Lisa M. Bowman (ZDNet News), Patrick Naughton back in court Monday, Yahoo! News (Yahoo.com), 4 June 2000.

1180

Andrea Orr (Reuters), Arrest in US Online sex case shows dangers for kids, Infowar.com, 25 Sep 1999.

1183

Bowman, Jailbait and switch.

1184

John Hamer and Mariana Parks, „P-I‟ intelligence (Watch Dogs), Seattle Weekly, 12 March 1998, 23(10), p. 20.

1185

Robi Zocher (special to Times), Is Disney only Mickey Mouse?, The Seattle Times, 8 June 1997, p. C3.

1186

Kraft, Wish upon a ship, p. K8.

1187

Fjellman, Vinyl Leaves, p. 158.

1188

Schweizer and Schweizer, Mouse Betrayed, p. 276.

1189

Giroux, Mouse that Roared, p. 17.

1190

Kimball, “Walt Disney,” in Wagner, Remember This, p. 282.

1191

Griffin, Tinker Belles, p. 3.









93

1192

Edera, Animated Feature Films, p. 29.

1193

Schweizer and Schweizer, Mouse Betrayed, p. 276.

1194

Dave Smith and Steven Clark, Disney: The First 100 Years (New York: Hyperion, 1999), p. 191.

1195

Tim O‟Brien (Amusement Business), quoted in Sloan, Disney goes wild, p. 2D.

1196

Micky to the rescue?, Business Week, 6 March 2000, 3671, p. 54.

1197- 1198

E! Online, Jury: Disney bullied dying exec, Yahoo! News (Yahoo.com), 21 April 2000.

1199

Reuters, Jury finds dying Disney exec didn‟t waive benefits, Yahoo! News (Yahoo.com), 21 April 2000.

1200- 1202

E! Online, Disney bullied dying exec.

1203- 1204

Dan Whitcomb (Reuters), Jury returns verdict in Disney exec lawsuit, Yahoo! News (Yahoo.com), 21 April 2000.

1205- 1206

E! Online, Disney bullied dying exec.

1207

Gary Gentile (The Associated Press), Jurors rule in favor of Disney exec, Yahoo! News (Yahoo.com), 22 April 2000.

1208- 1209

Frantz and Collins, Celebration, U.S.A., p. 35.

1210

Adapted from Badgers‟ Disney Countdown Page, www.home.ici.net/customers/his/badger/nuts.html, 20 April 2000.

1211

Koenig, Mouse Tales, p. 98.

1212

Dorfman and Matterlart, How to Read Donald Duck, p. 85.

1213

Dr. D. James Kennedy, in Ferraiulo, Disney and the Bible, back cover.

1214

Rich, Rodent rules, p. A27.

1215

Jolayne Hontz, The kids in the middle, The Seattle Times, 16 June 1998, 121(143), p. A1.

1216

Warts and all; Thanks to Disney, some not-so-sexy animals are having their time in the sun, Time, 26 May 1997, 149(21), p. 109.

1217

Hoover, Masters of Deceit, p. 72.

1218

Kurtti, World Began, p. 174.

1219

Dorfman and Matterlart, How to Read Donald Duck, p. 66.

1220

Jon Nordheimer, Disney goes live with its newest park; After a bumpy start, 1,000 animals meet the public in natural setting, The New York

Times, CXLVII(51,139), p. TR8.

1221

Eric Smoodin, ed., Disney Discourse: Producing the Magic Kingdom (New York: Routledge, 1994), p. 8.

1222

Alexander Wilson, “The Betrayal of the Future: Walt Disney‟s EPCOT Center,” in Smoodin, Disney Discourse, p. 122.

1223

Alexander Wilson, “The Betrayal of the Future: Walt Disney‟s EPCOT Center,” in Smoodin, Disney Discourse, p. 128.

1224

Clive James, Fame in the 20th Century (New York: Random House, 1993), p. 89.

1225

Angela Gunn, The past, the future (Kiss my ASCII), Seattle Weekly, 4 May 2000, 25(18), p. 25.

1226

Susan Willis, A Primer for Daily Life (London: Routledge, 1991), p. 61.

1227

Jeffrey Miller (Orange County Register), The debate over „Walt Disney: Hollywood‟s Dark Prince‟ continues, Knight-Ridder/Tribune News

Service, 29 July 1993.

1228- 1229

Mickey Mouse (New York: Abbeville Press, Inc., 1978), p. 13.

1230

John Trojanski and Louis Rockwood, Making It Move (Dayton, OH: Pflaum/Standard, 1973), p. 119.

1231

John Halas, The Contemporary Animator (London: Focal Press, 1990), p. 44.

1232

John Trojanski and Louis Rockwood, Making It Move (Dayton, OH: Pflaum/Standard, 1973), p. 119.

1233

John Trojanski and Louis Rockwood, Making It Move (Dayton, OH: Pflaum/Standard, 1973), pp. 119-120.

1234

John Halas, The Contemporary Animator (London: Focal Press, 1990), p. 2.

1235

Shamus Culhane, Animation: From Script to Screen (New York: St. Martin‟s Press, 1988), p. 7.

1236

Giannalberto Bendzai, Cartoons: One Hundred Years of Cinema Animation (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1994), pp. 69-70.

1237

Bruce D. Kurtz, ed., Keith Haring, Andy Warhol, and Walt Disney (Prestel-Verlag, Munich and Phoenix Art Museum, 1992), p. 27.

1238

Walt Disney, quoted in John Cawley and Jim Korkis, Cartoon Superstars (Las Vegas, NV: Pioneer Book, Inc., 1990), p. 126.

1239

Walt Disney, quoted in John Cawley and Jim Korkis, Cartoon Superstars (Las Vegas, NV: Pioneer Book, Inc., 1990), p. 128.

1240

Beth Dunlop, Building a Dream: The Art of Disney Architecture (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1996), p. 45.

1241

Beth Dunlop, Building a Dream: The Art of Disney Architecture (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1996), p. 45.

1242

Beth Dunlop, Building a Dream: The Art of Disney Architecture (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1996), p. 147.

1243

fn. Edgar H. Schein with Inge Schneier and Curtis H. Barker, Coercive Persuation: A Socio-psychological Analysis of the “Brainwashing”

of American Civilian Prisoners by the Chinese Communists (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., Inc., 1961), p.

200.

1244

David Koenig, More Mouse Tales: A Closer Peek Backstage at Disneyland (Irvine, CA: Bonaventure Press, 1999), p. 14.

1245

Dan Savage, Sexy mamas, kiddie porn (Savage Love), The Stranger, 29 June - 5 July 2000, 9(41), p. 85.

1246

Dan Savage, Sexy mamas, kiddie porn (Savage Love), The Stranger, 29 June - 5 July 2000, 9(41), p. 85.

1247

Dan Savage, Sexy mamas, kiddie porn (Savage Love), The Stranger, 29 June - 5 July 2000, 9(41), p. 85.

1248

Winda Benedetti, Waters knows where he stands with his fans (Music Review), Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 3 July 2000, 137(158), p. D4.

1249

Amy E. Nevala, Protecting children from online predators; Undercover detectives pose as kids to catch those who exploit young computer

users, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 3 July 2000, 137(158), p. B3.

1250

Cliff Edwards (The Associated Press), High-tech world is rife with spying; Competition creates climate with few rules, Seattle Post-

Intelligencer, 3 July 2000, 137(158), p. E4.

1251

Bill Plympton, in Mondo Plympton: The Animation of Bill Plympton, 1999, videorecording.

1252

Associated Press, Disney told: paid for dressing time, Yahoo! News, 3 April 2001.

1253

Chelsea J. Carter (Associated Press), Tree falls on Disneyland visitors, Yahoo! News, 5 May 2001.









94