Walt Disney Art and Politics in the American Century

Detail from ""The Disney empire began at Disneyland in Orangish County, California, in 1955"" by Carol Highsmith

From major regime policies and social and gender politics, to media, shopping, and family time, Common cold State of war tensions heavily influenced about every aspect of life in the United States from the 1950s through the early 1990s. The immense fearfulness of Soviet power and Communism frequently lead to extreme and fervently held political views and eventually, those ideas began to touch the thoughts and actions of everyday people and leaders in politics and concern akin. In fact, even actions such as looking at an advertising for a popular production like soda, watching a moving picture or Tv show, or merely getting dressed or going to work, were usually shaped by elements of Cold War ideology. This touch is readily apparent when examining one of the largest entertainment businesses of the time, the Walt Disney Company.

Since the inception of the Walt Disney Company in 1923 through present day, millions of children and adults have enjoyed the firm'south creations including films, television shows, theme parks, and more than. Several of the studio'due south most popular productions were made during the Cold War. Throughout this time, Walt and his business organisation participated greatly in the cosmos and perpetuation of Cold War culture. Equally a result, the Walt Disney Company is a prime example of the inextricable link betwixt popular culture and politics during the Cold War. The connection started at the top with Walt Disney himself and afterward spread throughout the company and the works it produced including movies, Disneyland, and television shows.

Often, the public likes to recall of Walt Disney as a wonderful person who but created several of their favorite childhood movies and memories. In many eyes, both the homo and his company are very positive and innocent figures that evoke zero but happy emotions. Conversely, many authors and scholars take looked into Walt's political beliefs, oftentimes last that he was a human being of extremely stiff political opinions, sometimes suggesting that he used his business to promote his personal behavior. Merely despite the fact that and then many of the visitor's near important creations were executed during the Cold War, and despite the seemingly undisputed idea that pop culture and the Common cold War were securely linked, nobody has fully interrogated the extent to which the Cold War informed Walt and his corporation'southward activities. This may audio like conspiracy, speculation, and far-fetched conclusions at first. Simply upon considering evidence of Walt's politics from sources such as scholarly journals and FBI files, information technology becomes clear that these connections are quite legitimate and substantial.

Considering Walt's begetter had rather socialist views, Walt started out as a populist who was very anti-elitist, but his views speedily changed in the twelvemonth 1941. ¹ Regardless of the fact that Disney employees were generally well paid and working conditions were considered smashing, they tried to grade a labor organization. Walt was firmly against this given the fact that his visitor was already a very employee-friendly identify, and he refused to negotiate or meet the workers' demands, leading to a labor strike. The studio tried hard to finish the strike and Walt angrily condemned it, calling the strike leaders communists and even going every bit far as to take out an advertizement in Diverseness to land this. ² As the years went on, Walt'southward distaste for communism had grown and so much that he became one of the founding members of The Movement Pic Alliance for the Preservation of American Ethics, which investigated how the amusement industry was manipulated by communism. ⁱⁱⁱ By 1947, he testified before the Firm Committee on United nations-American Activities maxim that the strike at his studio was a result of, "a Communist group trying to accept over my artists." ⁴

Walt's anti-communist beliefs are further demonstrated by his involvement with the FBI and New York Times article "Disney Link To the F.B.I. And Hoover Is Disclosed" discusses the details of this human relationship, which were recently revealed in 1993 with the release of his FBI file. These documents reveal that he gave the FBI names of several people in Hollywood that he believed to be Communists and allowed the director, J. Edgar Hoover, to review and make small changes to his scripts. They likewise show that Disney was made a "total special Amanuensis in Accuse Contact" in 1954. In exchange, Disney was able to film in the Agency'due south Washington DC offices. ⁵

The influence of these anti-communist views, FBI ties, and Cold War culture is readily credible across nearly all of the company's creations just perhaps the first place information technology was seen is in picture show. A number of scholars accept recently suggested that Disney's movies have several central issues. For instance, Steven Watts, in his 1995 article "Walt Disney: Fine art and Politics in the American Century," asserts that "Many of Disney's postwar movies also legislated a kind of cultural Marshall Plan. They nourished a genial cultural imperialism that magically overran the residue of the globe with the values, expectations, and appurtenances of a prosperous middle-class United States." ^{half dozen} In other words, Watts argues that most of the studio'due south postwar films portrayed idealistic United States Cold War values and served to spread those values effectually the world in a friendly way. In addition, it is important to note that this friendly spreading of U.South. values was exceptionally effective because of the studio's item audience. Children are especially receptive to new ideas and the company'south unique position as one of their main sources of entertainment throughout their determinative years allowed Disney'south letters, especially those related to the Common cold War, to be that much more than influential. Various movies such equally Cinderella (1951) or Swiss Family unit Robinson (1960) demonstrated these Cold State of war ideas by depicting everything from the bug with strong, powerful women and the docile, domestic means in which a woman should act, to the importance of working together and having a strong family, and these values continued to show up in Disney films for years to come up. ^seven

Fifty-fifty afterward Walt died, his legacy of fiercely objecting to and condemning communism and promoting Cold War culture is seen in movies for the remainder of the Cold War. Eleanor Byrne and Martin McQuillan, the authors of Deconstructing Disney, for example, wrote an entire book arguing of all the anti-communist and anti-feminist messages prevalent in several Disney movies. In chapter one, they discuss The Fiddling Mermaid (1989), saying, "At a very superficial level the plot, equally extrapolated from Hans Christian Andersen, involves two ideologically opposed kingdoms separated past a supposedly impenetrable barrier." ^viii Here, the authors make their commencement reference to the Cold War, implying that the plot resembles the division betwixt communism and capitalism, going on to fence, "From the start this has been a story about a deprived dissident's desire for the civilities of the W." ⁹ They so add to the argument when writing about Ariel, the mermaid protagonist, singing nigh her desire to join the human being earth in, "Function of Your World," stating, "Ariel's song conflates taking a stand against patriarchy with beingness part of the autonomous West (the human world) and the Thatcher/Reaganite mentality of standing on one'due south own 2 anxiety." ¹⁰ In other words, they are saying that this song, a major scene of the movie, can be viewed equally being almost standing up against communism past participating in pro-democratic activities and values. Overall, in making these comments the authors debate that the politics of the time the film was created heavily influenced the way the picture show was produced, and they continue to do this several times with various other Disney movies. Watts also agrees with them further when he concludes, "In the post-World War 2 globe, Disney'due south populism was channeled into a full-fledged defense of the 'American Way of Life,'" farther demonstrating issue of the Common cold War on Disney's films. ^xi

But the extent of Disney'southward ties to the Common cold State of war goes further than moving picture alone. Watts emphasizes this, observing, "If Disney'south postwar movies presented vignettes of the American Way of Life, Disneyland erected a monument to information technology." ¹² Walt's idea to create Disneyland was built-in out of his distaste for existing entertainment parks such as Coney Isle, which were grungy and solely focused on activities for children. He desired a place where families would savor the fun together. One day, as he was looking at his children playing in the Snow White cottage in his backyard, he realized that his business concern could build a place that would promote togetherness and the nuclear family in a far superior way. ¹³ The very idea of the park in and of itself was effectually promoting Cold State of war values.

From in that location, the connexion between the park and the Cold War simply grew deeper. While Frontierland, Master Street USA, and Tomorrowland, discrete areas of the theme park, romanticized the land'south past, present, and future respectively, individual attractions that were added after, such as Groovy Moments with Mr. Lincoln (1964), served to encourage patriotism and cast United states history in a positive calorie-free. ^fourteen In fact, FBI files show that with the park beingness then ideologically aligned with the government's anti-Communist and pro-Usa motives, Walt, "volunteered representatives of [the FBI] complete access to the facilities of Disneyland for use in connectedness with official matters and for recreational purposes." ¹⁵ Although all of the bureau's activity there is non known, it is condom to say that the FBI made plenty of use of this new privilege. Overall, these conclusions discussed by Watts, Marling, and Mitgang, add together weight to the argument that even the Disney theme park had a serious human relationship with the Cold War. But perhaps an even better example of this link between Disneyland and Common cold War civilization was non in the park itself, just in the telly evidence that was created to draw excitement around its opening.

Disneyland was a television series that began airing in 1954 simply prior to the opening of Disney's start theme park. The bear witness featured Walt as the host and each week information technology discussed a new and commonly educational topic for children using animations and experts from a given field. But, both because information technology was so popular and as well to continue creating excitement about the park, the prove connected long subsequently the Disneyland theme park was opened. Although one could surely find Common cold State of war influence within many episodes of the plan, one particular installment was built-in direct out of the Common cold War, created to serve government interests. In 1957, ABC aired season 3, episode 14 of the show entitled "Our Friend, the Atom." This special uses an analogy of a genie and his magical powers to teach children about the ability of an cantlet and then continues on to explain what an atom is, from the history of its discovery to the many great ways the atom can be used. While it does get on to talk about the destructive powers of nuclear energy, information technology concludes that nosotros as a state should make sure it remains our friend and so that its powers will not exist used against the states. ^sixteen

At first glance, many would probably pass up my contention that Disney acts equally a puppet for the government in this episode, countering that this could take just been an educational talk about a current event. But upon further examination, Disney'due south potential innocence is completely wiped away. Non only was the release date in 1957, only after President Eisenhower, creator of the Atoms for Peace program, was reelected, only the episode was also fabricated with the aid of the U.s. Navy. Knowing this makes it much easier to encounter the clear bias in the way the script discusses this new technology so positively.

Despite the fact that no single slice has been written solely about the ways the Cold War influenced Walt Disney and his company, the notion that the influence was at that place is hinted at throughout several sources including books, journals, and newspapers. Upon examining these works together as well equally Disney's original productions during the fourth dimension, the affiliation between Walt and the FBI and regime during the Common cold War becomes breathy, explicit in everything the company produced from film, to Disneyland, to tv. Although this discussion of Disney and its ties to the Common cold War may seem trivial, information technology is in fact crucial in terms of today's business organisation over the means that different sources of media and popular civilisation influence young people and the biases those sources might have. The Walt Disney Company is a perfect example of the importance of looking past the surface and initial interpretations of mass media, and examining the political and social context that could influence companies and their piece of work.

1. Steven Watts, "Walt Disney: Art and Politics in the American Century,"The Journal of American History, vol. 82, no. 1, (June 1995): 99–105.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Walt Disney, quoted in Stephen Watts, "Walt Disney ," 104.
5. Herbert Mitgang, "Disney Link to the F.B.I. And Hoover Is Disclosed,"The New York Times, May 1993.
6. Stephen Watts, "Walt Disney," 107.
7. Ibid.
8. Eleanor Byrne and Martin McQuillan, Deconstructing Disney (Pluto Press, 2006), 22.
9. Ibid., 23.
10. Ibid., 25-26.
11. Stephen Watts, "Walt Disney," 105-106.
12. Ibid., 108.
13. Karal Ann Marling, "Disneyland, 1955: Simply Have the Santa Ana Freeway to the American Dream," American Art, vol. 5, no. 1/2, (1991): 168–175.
14. Brian McHale, "1955, Disneyland: 'The Happiest Place on World' and the Fiction of Cold War Culture,"The Edinburgh Companion to Twentieth-Century Literatures in English (Edinburgh Academy Press, 2006), 126–136.
15. Herbert Mitgang, "Disney Link to the F.B.I. And Hoover Is Disclosed."
16. Ward Kimball, "Our Friend the Atom,"Disneyland, created by Walt Disney, performance by Heinz Haber, season 3, episode 14, ABC, January 23, 1957.

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Source: https://confluence.gallatin.nyu.edu/sections/research/disney-and-the-cold-war

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