Meryl Streep Calls Walt Disney Racist and
Sexist
As you can most
likely tell by my past blog posts I read a lot about Disney History. Not only
about the Disney Company but Walt the man. I see Walt as an Uncle figure in my
life even though I never got to meet him. The knowledge I have is from reading
what those that knew him have said and listening to them speak about him.
Walt Disney was no
saint. He could be mean, nasty and an unforgiving boss. He demanded perfection
from those that worked with him and expected it. Now this is not to say he was
always ranting and raving but he could. He also knew how to drive his employees
to greater accomplishments with equal amounts of praise and critique. He was so
demanding he caused one of his top animators to have a heart attack! Everybody
wanted please Walt. They wanted to please him because it was fun to make the
impossible happen for him. They also did not want him to see them fail.
That said Meryl
Streep taking the time she had to praise a fellow actress to deliver a speech saying
a man over 40 years dead was a bigot, sexist and anti-Semite was ridiculous and
insulting to Emma Thompson, who Streep was there to present an award too.
Read it for yourself here:
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-meryl-streep-disney-sexist-anti-semitic-20140108,0,7038803.story#axzz2pqkyKpqR
Let’s start off
with the comment Bigot. Walt did pay his
black employees less for the same job. That was the norm back in the 1950’s! According
to Floyd Norman, first black animator hired by the Disney Studio in the 1950’s
the Disney Studio and Walt Disney did not care about race or religion. They
cared about what you could do! Could you do the job you were hired to do. Floyd
Norman said, “I can attest to the fact that Walt Disney was not racist or anti-Semitic!”
Here Floyd Norman’s
reply to the question, “Was Walt and/or the company racist.”
Some use the movie
“Song of the South” to say Walt and the Disney Studio were racist. I will
disagree! Uncle Remus was the most intelligent, gentle, kind and caring person
in the movie! He focused on the children’s safety and moral direction when
others were not paying attention to them. Uncle Remus was played by James
Baskett. Baskett was nominated for an Academy Award and received an Honorary
Academy Award in 1948 for his performance as Uncle Remus. James Baskett died a
few months after receiving the Academy Award. According to James’ widow Walt
personally checked in on them before he died offering help when he found out James was ill. After he died Walt
continued to assist the family. Walt said that Baskett was the best actor he
had ever seen. He did not say best black actor, it was best actor period.
Was Walt
anti-Semitic? Marty Sklar told a story at D23 when asked that question. Marty
is Jewish by birth and practices his faith. On one Saturday Walt called one of
his assistance and asked him to get Marty to come into do some work. The
assistant told Walt it was a Jewish High Holy Day and Marty was at Temple with
his family. The assistant asked Walt if he still wanted him to call Marty. Walt
responded without hesitation according to Marty, “No! He is exactly where he
should be, at temple with his family. It can wait until Monday.”
Marty Sklar also
said, “If anybody had a reason to be anti-Semitic it was Walt. Most of the
other studio heads were Jews. It was a Jew that stole Oswald from Walt in 1927.
Jewish heads of other studios often grouped together and did not treat Walt
fairly.”
I suggest you read
Marty’s book “Dream It! Do It!” for further incite and/or check out my blog
post from D23 “Working With Walt”. Get the information straight from people
that knew and worked with Walt.
Now to tackle the Sexist
comment. What about Mary Blare, Alice Davis and Harriet Burns and others that
worked side by side with men to make the movies and magic at the parks. These
women were leaders in the Disney Studios and some of the first employees of
Disney Imagineering back in the 1950’s when many women were still at home being wives and mothers.
Sure blacks and
women did not get paid the same amount as the “white” employees but that was what
it was like at that time! It was a time when things were changing, I know
because I was grew up in the 60’s. I saw the changes in society happen. I saw
the fight it took to make the changes and even though I’m white I stood up for
others and demanded fairness.
Walt Disney had hundreds
if not thousands of employees at a time. He did not know the pay of each and
every one of them. He did not babysit his payroll department and make sure they
paid equal pay for equal jobs. That was unheard of back then. When it was
brought to his attention I heard he set policy in place to stop the practice
and make things fair.
An example of Walt
not knowing what his employees were paid or if the salary offered was what was
paid is Rolly Crump. Rolly is white but it shows Walt was unaware of payroll. In his book, “It’s Kind of a Cute Story” Rolly talks about
how he was promised one salary and when he took the job he was told it was actually
substantially less. A long time later Walt was talking to Rolly and the subject
of salary came up and Walt was made aware of the pay cut. Walt corrected the pay from that day
forward.
So when thinking
about calling Walt a bigot, racist, sexist or anti-Semitic consider the source
of your information. Is it coming from someone who knew him or second hand? Is it
coming from your or someone else's view of the movies? Well, many movies (Disney and non-Disney) made
in the 1920s-1950’s had gags, characters or scenes that we would now consider racist,
sexist and inappropriate, truly politically incorrect. Look at what was social acceptable at the time the
movies were made. What was in other movies, animated and live action at that time? What was
the point of the movie? Was the, now thought of as inappropriate sequence pivotal
to the story or just a gag to get a
laugh? Is "Gone with the Wind" any less a classic if you consider the racist, sexist overtones in it? I think not! It is and will always be a classic. It is the same with Disney.
Back in the early
days of the Disney Studio separate but equal was beginning to be the norm in
American society. Walt still haired by ability not race or religion. Listen
again to Floyd Norman. He was told that Disney did not hire Jew’s or Blacks and
yet when he was hired he found plenty of Latino and Jewish animators already
working there. Floyd was the first black animator hired at the studio and was treated like everybody else!
Walt is dead and
gone. He cannot be hurt by this silly talk. Those that should be and are most likely offended
by Meryl’s tirade are, Emma Thompson, the Disney Family and those that
personally knew Walt and called him friend. I hope Meryl Streep will reconsider her words and think twice before speaking again. While I think Meryl is a wonderful actor I think she needs to do so research before speaking.
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