The 1941 Walt Disney Animators Strike

The Walt Disney Corporation has such a good family-friendly image. It really styles itself as an ideal place to work. We can only imagine that things were even better in Disney’s golden era, when the man himself was still running things. But that wasn’t always the case; in fact, in 1941 hundreds of Disney animators went on strike. The Business Insider has some fantastic photographs of and other images from the strike, and of the materials the strikers were circulating. But it’s a bit lacking on the specific details of why animators would go on strike, especially so soon after … Continue reading →

Uncertain Fate for Walt Disney’s Birthplace

First the Laugh-o-Gram and now the house in which he was born and lived until he was four: the significant buildings of Walt Disney’s early life all seem to be in the news lately. The Chicago Tribune has a story about 2156 N. Tripp Avenue, Walt Disney’s first home. It’s nothing special, just another building on a street with others that look kind of like it. Two-flat, new windows, hardwood floors, and it’s been on the market for over a year. It’s not an official historic landmark and it doesn’t even have a bronze plaque. Yet this is the building … Continue reading →

Preserving the Laugh-o-Gram, Walt Disney’s First Studio

If you’re at all interested in Disney history, or even just that of film or animation, there’s something going on right now that you really ought to know about. A group called “Thank You Walt Disney” is currently trying to raise enough money to preserve the Laugh-o-Gram building in Kansas City, MO. Local news site Ozarks First has the details. The Laugh-o-Gram building is the site in which Walt Disney did his first professional animation work around 90 years ago, before he moved out to Hollywood and built the company that would bear his name. The studio was on the … Continue reading →

Honoring Alice Davis: Legendary Disney Costume Designer

Costumes designed by Alice Davis This year I missed out on my annual tradition of profiling important women in Disney history for Women’s History Month. My March was very busy this year so I just didn’t have time to do the necessary research. Luckily, the perfect profile has fallen into my lap. This month costume designer Alice Davis was honored on Disneyland’s Main Street, USA, as a new window in her honor was unveiled. Alice Davis isn’t a name you’ll hear much when talking about the movies; she only had involvement in a couple, including, “Sleeping Beauty.” Her stamp is … Continue reading →

Rare Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Cartoon Discovered

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit has been getting more attention lately than he’s had in over 50 years. Now that the Disney Company bought him back so he could have a major role in the “Epic Mickey” video game, one could say this is the best Oswald’s career has been since its start. It’s fitting, then, that one of the early shorts featuring him has just been discovered in a film archive in the United Kingdom. The Reuters news agency reports that employees from Huntley Film Archives, one of the U.K.’s largest, discovered the old cartoon this year when doing a … Continue reading →

Walt Disney and the U.S. State Department

About a month ago I learned of the most interesting rumor about “Saludos Amigos” and “The Three Caballeros.” The little-known 1940s flicks, which feature Donald Duck traveling to Central and South America, meeting, and having adventures with Brazilian parrot Jose Carioca and Mexican rooster Panchito Pistolas, were supposedly commissioned by the U.S. State Department. As soon as I read this, I instantly had to know more. I really wanted to learn the real story, if one existed, behind the rumor and share it with you here. I couldn’t do that, however, until I was able to find at least some … Continue reading →

Mary Blair’s Disney Legacy

Last year for Women’s History Month I introduced the women of the Pen and Ink Department in the Golden Era of Walt Disney Animation. Today, on the 100th anniversary of Women’s History Day, his year I want to take a look at a woman who stands out in the following generation of Disney work in the 1940s. One of the most notable of these female Disney animation trailblazers is Mary Blair. Inducted into the Disney Legends Hall in 1991, Mary Blair revolutionized the artistry of the Disney Company. Her biography on the Legends website has the scoop on Mary Blair’s … Continue reading →

The Walt Disney Family Museum

To keep many of his animators from being drafted, Walt Disney struck a deal with the government to create promotional material during the Second World War. I’ve written twice now about things relating to The Walt Disney Family Museum, but I realized that I’ve never covered details about the museum itself. Before it opened it was examined here on the families.com Disney blog, but now that it’s been in operation for over a year let’s look at the institution again. The Walt Disney Family Museum was co-founded by Diane Disney Miller, eldest daughter of Walt Disney, and Richard Benefield in … Continue reading →

Walt Disney and NASA

Walt Disney visiting Wernher von Braun at the Marshall Space Flight Center When preparing my article on the Walt Disney Family Museum’s video contest, I searched a stock photography website for historic images of Walt Disney. I was baffled to find a NASA-owned picture of him alongside scientist Dr. Wernher von Braun. My husband didn’t understand my incredulity. He said that’s what top executives do: rub shoulders with other powerful people. Walt Disney was a great mover and shaker in his day and it makes sense that he’d hang around NASA or any other large company or government institution. I … Continue reading →

Women’s History at Disney

In recent years more credit and accolades have gone to those behind the birth of animation, through the many acknowledgments (including a 2005 documentary) to Disney’s famous “Nine Old Men,” the main animators responsible for Disney’s golden age. But these Nine Old Men were backed by more than their mostly-male animation department. For the glory years of Disney’s early animation, from the first cartoon shorts to the feature films leading up to World War II, the department in charge of all the inking and painting of the drawings was staffed almost exclusively by women. In honor of Women’s History Month, … Continue reading →