The sweet Disney characters are suitable for the whole family. During his life, creator and founder Walt Disney was considered the nice uncle to all of the Americans. The truth is not so nice though.

Young Walt, born Walter Elias Disney in 1901 in Chicago, spends his childhood with an abusive and violent father. The abuse convinces the young boy that he is adopted, or that he was born out of wedlock. During World War I (1914-1918) he tries to join the army but the required birth certificate does not exist. Walt is now even more convinced of his questionable origins. He forges his father’s signature so he can join the army as a minor. They find out about the falsification though and Walt is refused, but his name ends up on a list of young men who really want to serve their country…

A lack of talent
After the war Walt finds a job as a designer: he had taken a course in cartoon drawing and gone to the academy of arts for a while. He is not very talented though. In this period of his life, Walt does find out that he has a good eye for comical scenes and funny facial expressions in animals. Together with his brother Roy he founds the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio in 1923 and together the men create characters such as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy.

Walt obsessively works on improving the comics and animated films and hires designers to further develop his ideas. Mickey Mouse for example is not an instant hit, but when Walt adds sound to a film (Steamboat Willie) starring the mouse in 1928, the studio starts to make a name for itself. For years to come Walt would lend his voice to Mickey, whose popularity was growing.

Disney schaakspel klassiekAfter working on short animated movies starring animals, Walt starts to focus on full-length feature films. In 1937 the first movie is shown in cinemas: Snow White and the seven dwarfs. The film is a box-office hit and is awarded nine Oscars. The years that follow are considered the golden years for the studio and the movies that they produce the crown jewels: Pinocchio, Bambi, Dumbo and Fantasia. In 1941 everything changes though when the studio’s staff goes on strike. On top of that, the FBI, the American intelligence service, starts to interfere in the business…
Chess game featuring classic Disney characters

Spying against communism
In 1940, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover asked Walt to become a spy for the intelligence service. Hoover had seen the list of names of patriotic youngsters from the First World War. In exchange for his services Walt receives all help possible from the FBI to find out the truth about his roots. The studio owner can’t refuse: his is just as eager to know where he came from as he is to serve his country.

The FBI wants to know about all of the people with communist tendencies in the movie business. Communism is considered a huge threat at that time and after World War II ends a true witch hunt for communists starts. The film industry is considered a left-wing hotbed occupied by unreliable people and many employees end up on blacklists. They are being followed, their wires are tapped, and they are interrogated and terrorized, oftentimes without any proof or just because a spy or an angry neighbor accused them.

Walt Disney fully participates in these practices. This also has to do with the strike organized by his employees in 1941. They are sick and tired of their low wages and long working days and what’s more, they are prohibited to unite in a trade union to negotiate a collective labor agreement. They stop working for half a year to try and obtain better work circumstances. Walt takes the strike very personally and considers it a betrayal. He openly calls the leaders of the strike communists and because of that they would be spied on by the FBI for years after.

Walt_disneyAnother thing that really annoys Walt is a powerful group of Jewish immigrants that rule Hollywood. He himself only has access to the production process while the oftentimes Jewish distributors and cinema operators earn tons of money by showing his popular Disney movies! So the spy /film producer has no problem making them seem suspicious. In 1954 he is promoted to Special Agent in Charge (SAC) because of all the information he zealously provides the FBI with.

Nice reputation
With the arrival of television in the nineteen fifties Walt is on the air on a weekly basis: he hosts his own show. His friendly and funny behavior, as well as his creations’ kind disposition, make for a reputation of kind uncle for the American children. His reputation is reinforced by the opening of his theme park Disneyland in 1955, from which every child should leave taking home lovely memories. While Walt does not remember his childhood fondly…

Walt plans on making more movies and opening up more theme parks, but his health gets in the way. He is a chain smoker and on 15 December 1966 he dies of lung cancer. Hoover immediately orders the FBI to erase Disney’s name from all of its files. For a long time Walt Disney’s career as an FBI agent was kept a secret and it is still denied by the Walt Disney studios. They do not want to damage his reputation; this could cause quite a lot of harm to the family friendly image of the billion-dollar company.

Artikel 14 foto 2All of this doesn’t matter one bit to the kids though. They can still enjoy their favorite Disney characters in the movies (Frozen, movie number 53 was in cinemas in 2013), on TV, in the Donald Duck magazine and also at the Chessmen Museum. Here we have some colorful Disney chess games on display, free of any political ideas. We have every character from the classic ones such as Mickey, Goofy and Donald, to the more recent ones from movies such as The little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast. So there is plenty to see!
Disney chess game featuring characters from more recent films

By Marjolein Overmeer