It´s a fact! But, so many people just don’t want to believe it. Of course, no one in their legalistic right mind would say such a thing in print. It wouldn’t be just deformation of character, it could justifiably be noted as libellous, garnered as hearsay calumny, stamped rumour mongering and spoken of as downright tall tale telling.
Walt Disney was as American as “Mother, apple pie, green backs (dollar bills) and Mickey Mouse.” A man of such immense importance and universal acclaim could only have come from the golden shores; lived the golden dream. Disney fits the American myth: a commercial
Superman exuberating “truth, justice and the American way.”
Those were the ideals Disney espoused; along with imagination, optimism, and self-made success. Why just say his name: WALT DISNEY and childhood images of sugar plum fairies pop into your imagination. And when they do … soon arrive talking ducks, a flying elephant called Dumbo and little dwarfs singing “Hi ho Hi Ho”. Myriads of fantasy personages that composed the litany of all that was good, true, and simple … long before time forced us to grow up.
For generations the Disney company nurtured the world with it´s version of environmentally correct concepts. Whether it be nature films, distant travel logs, comical cartoons,
educational documentaries, TV specials, feature films, or a slight peek into what the future … Disney led from the front.
Disney just didn’t give the American nation what they wanted. His concept of the future helped to remind the working class that they too could laugh and enjoy themselves. Disney expanded from the motion picture industry to theme parks to enhance the new universal “feel good concept.” Not just the thrill of individual assimilation but the whole family travelled together and shared the excitement.
Success fell like spring rain. He won more than 950 honours and citations world-wide, including 48 Academy Awards, 7 Emmys, 29 Oscars, and special commendations from every US president and many foreign heads of states … all because of “his universal good will.”
Disney just didn’t give the American nation what they wanted. His concept of the future helped to remind the working class that they too could laugh and enjoy themselves. Disney expanded from the motion picture industry to theme parks to enhance the new universal “feel good concept.” Not just the thrill of individual assimilation but the whole family travelled together and shared the excitement.
Success fell like spring rain. He won more than 950 honours and citations world-wide, including 48 Academy Awards, 7 Emmys, 29 Oscars, and special commendations from every US president and many foreign heads of states … all because of “his universal good will.”
While the world chuckled few were analytical enough to ask about the man that created it all. Walt Disney was no normal person: he drank scotch heavily, smoked 70 specially rolled black cigarettes daily (died youngish at 65), washed his hands thirty times an hour and spent his eighteen working hours dreaming of unusual characters from a world within himself. A talking mouse, a duck that became so famous he learned to quack in every known language; Goofy dog´s, Cinderella’s that came to life, charming princes´ that awoke sleeping beauties, Lion Kings, frightful beasts and of course fairies. You might say that other than his Kafkaesque habits, Walt Disney never grew up. His mind forever remained locked in fantasy.
Disney´s whimsical industry of escapism
rumours persisted, spurred on by intimate friends, that Disney had an unusual past.
Some suggested that this man that correlated to the American dream had an un-American background; an adopted childhood. The exact historical situation is complicated because Walt Disney himself never once denied his Hispanic origins. According to his life long friend Salvador Dali, they mutually discussed the situation on more than one occasion in private and Dali commented frequently “that Walt too was convinced of his Spanish origins”.
In the states only one public document asserts that he was born at 1249 Tripp Avenue in Chicago on December 5th, 1901. This much we know from his legitimate daughter Diana (the other heir, Sharon Mae, was adopted). Diana