Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination
Author:Neal Gabler
Date published:
2006
Publisher:New York: Knopf
ISBN: 067943822X (alk. paper)
Description
The author offers the full story (Gabler is the first writer to gain complete access to the Disney archives) of Walt Disney by showing Disney’s invention of a “synergistic empire that combined film, television, theme parks, music, book publishing, and merchandise”. Every period of Disney’s life is depicted in detail, from the suffering endured on a childhood paper route to the making of Mary Poppins. The core of the book’s story is clearly in the early years of Disney’s studio, from the creation of Mickey Mouse to the hands-on management of early hits like Fantasia and Pinocchio. “Even though Walt could neither animate, nor write, nor direct,” the author notes, “he was the undisputed power at the studio.” Yet there was significant disgruntlement within the ranks of Disney’s employees, and the book traces the day-to-day resentments that eventually led to a bitter strike against the studio in 1941. That dispute helped harden Disney’s anticommunism, which led to rumors of anti-Semitism.