Pussyfooting with Evil: Disney and the OtherMain MenuPussyfooting with EvilDisney and the OtherChapter 1Chapter 2First MoviesChapter 4Christen Kadkhodai4f1a22ca86629a98482907fea98a466b6f15a3a3
Chapter 3
12021-04-16T18:15:02+00:00Christen Kadkhodai4f1a22ca86629a98482907fea98a466b6f15a3a31023plain2021-04-16T18:18:50+00:00Christen Kadkhodai4f1a22ca86629a98482907fea98a466b6f15a3a3Merlock’s compilation also includes Disney’s 1947 testimony before the House Committee of Un-American Activities during World War II. This testimony, taken as a direct transcript without the approval of publicist Joe Reddy, is the most telling of all Disney interviews on how his views of patriotism connect to jingoism, and the direct role the Walt Disney Corporation played in bringing those views to the silver screen. The propaganda films the corporation produced during early war efforts as well as the labor strike at Disney’s studios are among the topics covered by the Committee if Un-American Activities. Disney does not mince words when he calls those who chose to strike at his studios in 1937 part of the Communist Party: “I definitely feel it was a Communist group trying to take over my artists and they did take them over.”[1] Disney goes on to assure the Committee that those who continue to work at his studio are decidedly not Communist and, “one-hundred-percent American” as Disney describes it.[2] They also show the many indirect ways Disney influenced the distribution of his films internationally to reflect his personal political views. David Shale’s Donald Duck Joins Up: The Walt Disney Studio During World War II delves deeply into the relationship between the Studios and the U.S. Government’s war time efforts, positing information counter to Disney’s testimony to suggest that Disney courted the government to create such propaganda, rather than the other way around.
