The Disney Version

The Life, Times, Art and Commerce of Walt Disney

Richard Schickel

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781982115227
• eBook ISBN: 9781982115234
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Film & Video
• Index: Business

"The single most illuminating work on America and the movies" ( The Kansas City Star ): the story of how a shy boy from Chicago crashed Hollywood and created the world's first multimedia entertainment empire — one that shapes American popular culture to this day. When Walter Elias Disney moved to Hollywood in 1923, the twenty-one-year-old cartoonist seemed an unlikely businessman—and yet within less than two decades, he'd transformed his small animation studio into one of the most successful and beloved brands of the twentieth century. But behind Disney's boisterous entrepreneurial imagination and iconic characters lay regressive cultural attitudes that, as The Walt Disney Company's influence grew, began to not simply reflect the values of midcentury America but actually shape the country's character. Lauded as "one of the best studies ever done on American popular culture" (Stephen J. Whitfield, Professor of American Civilization at Brandeis University), Richard Schickel's The Disney Version explores Walt Disney's extraordinary entrepreneurial success, his fascinatingly complex character, and—decades after his death—his lasting legacy on America.

Index

A note about the index: The pages referenced in this index refer to the page numbers in the print edition. Clicking on a page number will take you to the ebook location that corresponds to the beginning of that page in the print edition. For a comprehensive list of locations of any word or phrase, use your reading system’s search function.

Absent-Minded Professor, The (film), 316–18, 320

Academy Awards

for Flowers and Trees, 160

for Der Fuhrer’s Face, 286

for Mickey Mouse, 160

for The Old Hill, 210

for Seal Island, 300–301

for Snow White, 245

for The Three Little Pigs, 164

for Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom, 216

for The Tortoise and the Hare, 168

Adler, Mortimer, on Disney, 235

Africa, Mickey Mouse in, 178

Agee, James, 104, 279, 284

on Make Mine Music, 292

on Saludos Amigos, 288

on The Three Caballeros, 291

on Victory Through Air Power, 290–91

Albee, Edward, 175

Alice in Cartoonland (film series), 87, 105, 114–18, 120–21, 288

Alice in Wonderland (animated film), 191, 299, 313–14

Alice in Wonderland (Carroll), 236, 237, 314

All-around production system, 373–74

Alpine Climbers (cartoon), 236

American Broadcasting Company–Paramount Theatres, Inc., 330–31

Andrews, Julie, 373

Andy Hardy pictures, 320

Animal short subjects, 299–307

Animation

animals preferred to humans for, 193–94

as compulsive’s delight, 205

cost of, compared with live action, 316–17

history of, 107–12

limited, 214

multiplane camera and, 208–14

sound and, 141–42

on television, 217–18

Anti-Semitism, Disney and, 104–5

Appeal to R...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Introduction to the Third Edition
• Foreword
• I. A Trial Balance
• II. Touching Earth
• III. K.C. to L.A.
• IV. Back to the Drawing Board
• V. Bringing Forth the Mouse
• VI. Everyone Grows Up
• VII. Disney’s Folly
• VIII. Troubled Times
• IX. The Long Pause
• X. Disney’s Land
• XI. A Final Balance
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Bibliographical Note
• Index
• Copyright