PBS American Experience - Walt Disney

[rteetz]

Too short. But I liked it.

The part that got me was when they described Walt planning WDW on his hospital celing tiles. I have heard this story before but it gets me every time.

Yes He left some clues and said some things right before his death that are still a mystery today about how he wanted things and future projects.

 

[mcjaco]

It sounded to me like in the early days, Walt Disney's employees didn't like him much! Did anyone else get that impression?

When there's no set pay scale, and everyone knows who is bringing home what, thanks to going public....it's bound to happen. It's still a tough company to work for.

I think their biggest problem was not getting credit when credit was due.

Much like how the Screen Actors Guild fought for their credits at the beginning of the movies.


I really enjoyed the show, even though there wasn't anything new to it. Well put together, and covered a lot in four hours. It's a must see. I saw footage of his home railroad I'd never seen before, and I have that stuff pretty well covered in my "archives."

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

Walt beleive in selling one name with the product, it was not a ego thing it was a marketing thing. Many companies ido that

It do the same thing, I even sign the reports withy.name.and th3 surveyors name under it.

AKK

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

Yes He left some clues and said some things right before his death that are still a mystery today about how he wanted things and future projects.

He also left a.note with Kurt Russell name on it , nothing else. They asked Kurt and.he knew nothing about it.

AKK

 

[Sparkly]

awww, can't watch from the UK

Bummer, this sounds so interesting!

 

[rteetz]

He also left a.note with Kurt Russell name on it , nothing else. They asked Kurt and.he knew nothing about it.

AKK

Yep if only we knew what was meant by that.

 

[Redcon1]

My favorite part was when Walt returned to Marceline in '56. Having visited there numerous times and been inside his house, it was great seeing footage of Walt actually walking the farm and stopping by the Dreaming Tree of which we've taken many family pictures under the past few years.

 

[DDLand]

He also left a.note with Kurt Russell name on it , nothing else. They asked Kurt and.he knew nothing about it.

AKK

This might make sense:
http://www.mouseplanet.com/9734/Walts_Last_Words_NOT_Kurt_Russell

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

This might make sense:
http://www.mouseplanet.com/9734/Walts_Last_Words_NOT_Kurt_Russell

Am I miss reading that.........where does it show that piece of paper was not Walt's last words? Unless the writer is saying *Kirt Russell* was not the last thing written on the paper?

 

[Andrew015]

When there's no set pay scale, and everyone knows who is bringing home what, thanks to going public....it's bound to happen.

The bigger issue here was intense pressure from the union (Screen Cartoonist's Guild). Disney's animators were the highest paid in the industry and worked under the best conditions. Disney typically gave discretionary bonuses to all of his workers (up to 20% of a film's profits) in the early days. As his company continued to grow significantly in size, he couldn't afford to pay "everyone" these generous bonuses, and rather, began to single out those that really went above and beyond. This left a bad taste with those who no longer received these discretionary bonuses. Making things more challenging was the effects of the Great Depression, which further impacted Walt's ability to compensate his staff so generously. Many disgruntled workers (essentially, the lower performers who no longer received "bonuses") succumbed to pressure to unionize, which ultimately led to the infamous strike.

What's more telling to me is the number of folks who stood by Disney's side through thick and thin. To me, that's where the focus should be, and this tells the bigger picture.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

The Leader of the Disney Union was a Stalinist Communist as well, and it was well known that Walt was a conservative and he wanted to crush the Disney Studio. Yes the union won the strike but the leaders ended up moving out. But the family like feeling between Walt and his animators was never the same.

AKK

 

[DDLand]

Am I miss reading that.........where does it show that piece of paper was not Walt's last words? Unless the writer is saying *Kirt Russell* was not the last thing written on the paper?

Essentially they're suggesting that this story wasn't just a random note that was found, but was in fact a document in Walt's office. The same office that was later reproduced.

He was in the hospital and a decent enough frame of mind to be focusing on Epcot. While it's perfectly possible that he never wrote another thing in the hospital, it's also perfectly reasonable to assume he did. It's just we don't know.

Though we do know for a fact that "Kirt Russel was not the last thing he wrote. From this document:
“Ron Miller--
2 Way Down Cellar

2. Kirt (sp) Russell
3. CIA—Mobley”

"Mobley" would qualify.

Also not much mystery involved either because there's a story too.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

Essentially they're suggesting that this story wasn't just a random note that was found, but was in fact a document in Walt's office. The same office that was later reproduced.

He was in the hospital and a decent enough frame of mind to be focusing on Epcot. While it's perfectly possible that he never wrote another thing in the hospital, it's also perfectly reasonable to assume he did. It's just we don't know.

Though we do know for a fact that "Kirt Russel was not the last thing he wrote. From this document:
“Ron Miller--
2 Way Down Cellar

2. Kirt (sp) Russell
3. CIA—Mobley”

"Mobley" would qualify.

Also not much mystery involved either because there's a story too.

OK.........Me Bad.......I see your point. Basically we really don't know, one way or the other.....I read it looking for a smoking gun.


I also read somewhere that the mental drawing Walt was doing on the Hospital room ceiling tiles was about Epcot, not the MK.


AKK

 

[DDLand]

OK.........Me Bad.......I see your point. Basically we really don't know, one way or the other.....I read it looking for a smoking gun.


I also read somewhere that the mental drawing Walt was doing on the Hospital room ceiling tiles was about Epcot, not the MK.


AKK

Indeed it was! MK's planning committee didn't even include Walt Disney, Roy headed it up. He was rather disinterested and focused on the big picture infrastructure and city. He sure was planning Epcot before he passed, it was his baby.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

Indeed it was! MK's planning committee didn't even include Walt Disney, Roy headed it up. He was rather disinterested and focused on the big picture infrastructure and city. He sure was planning Epcot before he passed, it was his baby.

All true, Walt had already built DL and he could trust the talented staff/team he put together to build the MK. So his mind was on Epcot.

There is another name for Epcot......................*every person comes out tired!* As much as we tease about bus drivers. I have to credit them. A bus driver told me that back in 1977, our honeymoon.

AKK

 

[antoniod]

Because they had to tell a 60-year story in four hours, some generalizations about Disney's film output crept in. The wildly creative omnibus films like THE THREE CABALLEROS were ignored in favor of an idea that Disney stopped experimenting after DUMBO. You saw Dali' visit him, but you didn't hear of the unfinished Disney/Dali film(Part of a cancelled omnibus). Disney's contempt for the "Communists" at UPA was heard, but not his efforts to imitate UPA. And his live action output of the 50s and 60s was dismissed as corny and even racist(?), but this ignores the fine British dramas produced for the NBC series like SCARECROW. And even in the "Corny" movies, there were nuances that PBS missed. Speaking of "Racist", they didn't mention that Disney was very good to James Baskett's family after Baskett died (Baskett played "Uncle Remus"). And naturally, they never mentioned that Herbert Sorell really was a Communist, not merely a liberal who Disney mistook for one.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

Because they had to tell a 60-year story in four hours, some generalizations about Disney's film output crept in. The wildly creative omnibus films like THE THREE CABALLEROS were ignored in favor of an idea that Disney stopped experimenting after DUMBO. You saw Dali' visit him, but you didn't hear of the unfinished Disney/Dali film(Part of a cancelled omnibus). Disney's contempt for the "Communists" at UPA was heard, but not his efforts to imitate UPA. And his live action output of the 50s and 60s was dismissed as corny and even racist(?), but this ignores the fine British dramas produced for the NBC series like SCARECROW. And even in the "Corny" movies, there were nuances that PBS missed. Speaking of "Racist", they didn't mention that Disney was very good to James Baskett's family after Baskett died (Baskett played "Uncle Remus"). And naturally, they never mentioned that Herbert Sorell really was a Communist, not merely a liberal who Disney mistook for one.

All very true....AKK

 

[Magic Fanatic]

The bigger issue here was intense pressure from the union (Screen Cartoonist's Guild). Disney's animators were the highest paid in the industry and worked under the best conditions. Disney typically gave discretionary bonuses to all of his workers (up to 20% of a film's profits) in the early days. As his company continued to grow significantly in size, he couldn't afford to pay "everyone" these generous bonuses, and rather, began to single out those that really went above and beyond. This left a bad taste with those who no longer received these discretionary bonuses. Making things more challenging was the effects of the Great Depression, which further impacted Walt's ability to compensate his staff so generously. Many disgruntled workers (essentially, the lower performers who no longer received "bonuses") succumbed to pressure to unionize, which ultimately led to the infamous strike.

What's more telling to me is the number of folks who stood by Disney's side through thick and thin. To me, that's where the focus should be, and this tells the bigger picture.

That is just not accurate. While Disney Studio was the place to work during the early years, your post ignores significant facts.

Pay inequality between men and women. No limit to the hours required to work each day. Cell color specialists worked 16-18 hour days at minimum wages.

While the studio had a cafeteria, gym and barber onsite, only a small percentage of employees could afford this.

You mention that Disney paid discretionary bonuses to all employees, up to 20% of gross profit. That is just not accurate. By Disney's own admission the four movies following Snow White did not initially recoup the investment. Point is, there was no money to pay everyone bonuses.

While I am not pro Union in today's environment, the truth is Disney was the place every artist wanted to work, yet the pay and working conditions were less than ideal and receiving film credit for work done was nonexistent.

Disney was a brilliant artist with an incredible ability to visualize success, but he was a terrible business person. Without Roy one could argue he would have never achieved this level of success. Roy kept him out of bankruptcy and Roy was who got their employees off the picket line and back to work.

 

[middlechild]

Neal Gabler's book "The Triumph of the American Imagination" on Disney outlines many of the issues surrounding the strike. My understanding is if an employee 'got it' and signed on to do whatever was required was rewarded. Those that asked how to do it, or claimed it too much, was not rewarded. And these arbitrary decisions could be made at any time during production. Results were some that 'got it' did not get bonuses, and others did. This conclusion all from Gabler's book.

I have to watch the PBS show on line in the next couple of days, sounds good!

 

[TheRustyScupper]

There is another name for Epcot......................*every person comes out tired!*

Also:
Every Pocket Comes Out Thinner
Every Parent Carries Out Toddlers
Every Payday Comes On Thursday
Eisner's Polyester Costumes Of Torture
Exceptionally Pugnacious Castmembers Often Tease
Eisner's Profit Center Of Today
Experimental Polyester Costumes Of Today
Eager People Come On Time
Every Principle Comes Out Twisted