Meryl Streep Opens the Door

1/9/2014

For the past month, I've been trading emails with a friend in a position to know pretty well about the reputation that Walt Disney was anti-semitic and a misogynist. It's been pretty well acknowledged within the film industry, but now it's got the biggest platform one can almost imagine.

In presenting Emma Thompson to the National Board of Review before Thompson received their Best Actress award for portraying P.L. Travers in Saving Mr. Banks, none other than Meryl Streep gave a nine-minute speech which included calling out Walt Disney. None of this is "proof." But it's certainly raised the issue from hidden behind closed doors to the public platform.

You can read the article about it here.

One can only imagine the reaction at the Disney table that night. One also wonders how awkward it might have been for Emma Thompson. Or not. But among the things Meryl Streep said that night was --

"Disney, who brought joy, arguably, to billions of people, was perhaps ... or had some racist proclivities. He formed and supported an anti-Semitic industry lobbying group. And he was certainly, on the evidence of his company's policies, a gender bigot."

That's hard to miss.

The question is whether Meryl Streep mentioned this to Thompson ahead of time, so as not to shock her friend. Or if she kept it to herself, so that her friend could legitimately swear ignorance.

By the way, in the article it quotes a poem that Streep wrote for Thompson. It leaves out the wonderful name of the poem: "An Ode to Emma , or What Emma is Owed."

And you can read the text of the full speech here.

9 Comments

Glenn C

1/9/2014 05:34:01 pm

The brilliant and lovely Streep, whom I absolutely love and think highly of, sadly didn't get it right in this instance.

It's true there was sexism in the '30s regarding the specific top job of animator, which was widely considered a man's job. But we can't asses the 1930s through 2014 glasses. Look at most industries in the 1930s. How many women were doing the top jobs? Walt was *initially* no more forward-thinking than others of his time in that regard.

But here's the problem. If you're going to make a serious accusation, you have a moral obligation to be well informed with reliable sources. (And if you are well informed, you have a moral obligation not to cherry picking and present a misleading conclusion.) Streep selectively quoted from a letter sent by a Disney secretary in 1938 about which positions were open to women at the animation studio at the time -- which again, was the *industry norm* in the 1930s. But she either did insufficient homework or purposely chose not to quote from the speech Walt gave just a few years later (which the L.A. Times recently reported on when FROZEN opened).

In 1941, Walt told the all-male animation department, while working on DUMBO, "to expect to see more women working at the studio." He went on:

"If a woman can do the work as well, she is worth as much as a man. The girl artists have the right to expect the same chances for advancement as men, and I honestly believe they may eventually contribute something to this business that men never would or could."

Do those sound like the words of a misogynistic "gender bigot"?

And they weren't merely words. That same year, Walt championed Retta Scott to become the first female animator at the studio. She did stunning work on BAMBI. As the legendary Disney animator Marc Davis said: "no one matched her ability" to draw animals from all angles. She animated the complicated and very intense dog chase in the film. Walt soon hired Mary Schuster Broggie as an inbetweener and assistant animator. And many more women followed.

Moreover, women did all sorts of other key animation jobs at Disney. E.g., Walt was a huge proponent of the genius Mary Blair, whose utterly unique style he deeply admired. He pretty much gave her carte blanche, and screen credit too -- which I don't think any other producer (or studio head) did for women in production design then. She's largely the reason CINDERELLA, ALICE IN WONDERLAND and several other Disney classics look the distinctive way they do. Walt also hired her to design It's A Small World, and her hand is all over his parks in other areas. Any fan of her work can spot it.

Even more-moreover, a tv commercial studio was run by a husband and wife team out of the animation studio in the 50s, and when the husband left, Walt kept Phyllis Hurrell on as the very successful head of the Disney Commercial Division. A female production head. Some "gender bigot."

Okay, that bogus claim laid to rest, let's move on to anti-Semitism.

The group Streep spoke of Walt belonging to was the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals. It was first and foremost an anti-Communism and anti-Fascism organization for conservative Hollywood folk. That was Walt's interest. It was co-founded by the Jewish Marx Brothers writer Morrie Ryskind. Is she saying Morrie was an anti-Semite too?! Along with Gary Cooper, Clark Gable, Hedda Hopper, Ronald Reagan, Ginger Rogers, Barbara Stanwyck, King Vidor, John Wayne, etc.? (I don't know about the rest, but I do know about Disney.) Walt later left the group and expressed regret for the association with some of its leaders.

So that's a dud argument.

For some reason, she chose not to mention all the Jewish organizations and charities Walt supported. Or the fact that he was named "Man of the Year" by the B'nai B'rith in the 50s. I'm not sure they're in the habit of giving that honor to anti-Semites.

Streep also neglected to relay the story the Sherman Brothers have famously told, about how Walt immediately fired one of his lawyers for making an anti-Semitic slur. (The lawyer had referred to the Shermans disdainfully as "these Jew boys writing these songs.") That's just what anti-Semites do: fire their top lawyers for privately made anti-Semitic remarks.

Walt hired many Jewish folks to top jobs, and many were among his closest friends. Which is not to make a "Some of his best friends" type argument, but rather to point out that those who knew Walt best, and who were most sensitive to anti-Semitism themselves, did not feel he was anti-Semitic. Those are the most reliable experts we can turn to. Talk to Richard Sherman today. This bogus claim about Walt drives him crazy. Talk to the great animation historian Charles Solomon, and the genius Disney (post-Walt) animator Andreas Deja, both of whom have been and are close with many of those who knew Walt best, including the Nine Old Men and their surviving immediate families who knew him. Talk to

1/9/2014 05:46:14 pm

BTW, here's that L.A. Times article I mentioned. (And thanks for excusing my typos above. My brain clocked out an hour ago.)

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/nov/29/entertainment/la-et-mn-frozen-walt-disney-speech-on-women-animators-20131129

1/9/2014 06:03:20 pm

Oops, I just noticed my 1st comment got cut midway off for length, and the 2nd got repeated twice. Odd. Here's the rest of comment #1, picking up from the cutoff:

...Talk to Alice Davis. Talk to Floyd Norman.

Walt was far from perfect by today's properly PC sensibilities. He was a man of his time. But the heart of the man was crystal clear to those who knew him and evidenced by his actions. He was not an anti-Semite.

On to her final claim, of racism. Floyd Norman, an animator who worked for Walt, and who's black, weighed in yesterday in a blog entry titled "Sophie's Poor Choice." Worth a quick read, but here's part of it:

"By the fifties, talented young women filled the ranks of Walt’s animation department and their names are too numerous to mention. [...] Then there was Joe Grant, Dave Detiege, Lou Appet and Ed Solomon. There was Mel levin, Robert and Richard Sherman, and the list goes on and on. Can you guess where I’m going with this? Why were so many talented Jewish writers, song writers and artists employed at the Disney Studio? Did Walt simply not know? Yeah, he probably had no idea. I can also guess he had no idea why the young black man was in his story meetings. And, how did the famous 'Hollywood racist' fail to notice Victor Haboush, Tyrus Wong, Dick Ung, Iwao Takamoto, Willie Ito, Ray Aragon and Ron Dias?

"To be sure, Walt Disney had his faults like the rest of us. He was not a perfect man nor did we expect him to be. Like most of us, he continued to grow as he moved through life and in time he recognized women could compete alongside men. He knew that talent had no color or ethnicity and he judged people by their ability to do their job and do it well. Walt Disney was a man of his time, but he was determined not to be imprisoned by it. He dreamed of a better world and even had the audacity to try and build it. Hardly an American to be vilified. Walt Disney deserves to be celebrated."

The whole thing: http://floydnormancom.squarespace.com/blog/2014/1/8/sophies-poor-choice

Lastly, it's worth noting that some Disney cartoons, like those of other studios, depicted all sorts of racial and ethnic stereotypes which rightly make us shudder today. But one must look at things through the lens of the time, not our current, slightly more enlightened cultural sensitivity. As others have pointed out, by today's standards GONE WITH THE WIND is more racist than SONG OF THE SOUTH. Both are unfortunate and problematic, to be sure. But they're of their time, and don't indicate the studio heads were bigots.

I'll close with what Floyd posted about this the other day on the Animation Guild's blog:

"Don't get me started. Was Walt perfect? Hell no! Nor is anyone else in this wacky business... or in the world for that matter. But compared to today's Hollywood elite - the man was a saint."

Robert Elisberg

1/10/2014 06:43:01 am

Glenn, thanks for your notes and information and thoughts. (Also, know that this software has an odd glitch where some things do get repeated. I've deleted the extra copies.)

I am no expert on the subject, though I've read a bit and talked to people who worked at Disney Studios. I do agree that Ms. Streep's comments were hardly definitive, and can understand why some feel if one is going to make such statements that something more substantive would be preferred.

That said, while much of what you write is substantive, I think you're more accepting of all that as being proof than I might be. I don't know The Truth. I do know that friends who have worked at Disney who have talked to old-timers there tell a different behind-the-scenes story. I don't think most people are black and white (no pun intended) -- many have wonderful sides and dark sides. Whether that's the case here...I don't know.

1/10/2014 07:17:43 am

Thanks very much, Robert. We agree that nobody's purely "good" or "bad." As I mentioned above, he was far from perfect. It's balance, fairness, perspective and accuracy I'm arguing for.

Much of what I noted are facts of the historical record, not just people's personal opinions. One can't look at the totality of these facts and reasonably call him a "gender bigot" in the way she did. One can't mention the MPA to suggest he was an anti-Semite. It just doesn't hold water. That's my main point.

Sure, different folks had different things to say about the man. Some understandably hated him over the big labor dispute when he fought against unionization, and turned from praise to slander (though even some who hated him over that still never accused him of these sorts of bigoted attitudes). You think I'm more accepting than you might be of the opinions expressed by those who knew him best, yet in fairness, you do seem similarly accepting of those you've heard of through your friend's emails. My sincere apologies if I misread, that's just what your blog's opening paragraph above suggests, since it casts no doubt on and offers no balance of those accusations. I'm curious which old-timers you're talking about. And since you are interested enough to blog about it, I suspect you'd find it interesting to talk with some of the folks I mentioned. You'd likely find their well-informed perspectives insightful and balanced. None claims he had no flaws or negative sides.

1/10/2014 07:38:43 am

Thanks for your note. And I think you read my comments correctly, though are interpreting them slightly differently than I would. Sometimes, people who go on the record are spot-on, as might be the case here, but sometimes they're either protecting a legacy or simply reporting good experiences that are personal and rare. As might be the case here. Sometimes those off-the-record have zero valid to say publicly which is why they don't say anything publicly, but sometimes they wish to protect their privacy and protect that same legacy because what they do have to say is valid.

For what it's worth about me accepting my friend's emails and conversations -- he's been a close friend for decades and is one of the more honorable, honest people I know. So, I tend to give weight to his experiences more than I would to Friends of Walt. That doesn't mean either he or the Friends and Family are inherently right or wrong. I'm just putting this one person in perspective.

I'll add one final comment, that I don't think I've ever heard anyone ever say that Walt Disney was a virulent anti-semite or whatever, someone who would never, ever, never hire a Jew or woman or Black for any job whatsover, ever. But there's a vast gap between that and building a wall that's hard to get around. Again, I don't know the truth. But nothing I've heard -- on *either* side -- has convinced me wholeheartedly of the truth. Too much of what I've read and heard on both sides, however, raises too many problematic questions worth dismissing in full. But -- I don't know.

1/10/2014 07:50:25 am

For clarity: some of the folks I've mentioned are honorable, honest friends of mine whom I trust completely and have discussed this with many times over the years. So we have that in common. I'm not sure I follow what you mean by "a wall that's hard to get around," but I didn't suggest the other extreme of that gap you mention either.

1/10/2014 08:19:59 am

What I meant is that just because someone is not virulent in their actions and doesn't "not ever never" hire anyone in a minority group, or who may on occasion does do some very good things, they can still create a wall that makes it difficult for most people in those groups to be hired. I'm not saying that's what happened here, just explaining what I meant by that phrase.

1/10/2014 08:45:29 am

Ah, thanks. And thanks very much for the fine discussion. Yeah, I too have never heard anyone say Walt would "never ever hire" any minorities or women. And he didn't only do so on occasion, nor did he build a wall of that sort at his animation company. I know you weren't saying he did, but really, I don't think those extremes are quite relevant. I wasn't merely making the point that he hired minorities and women; I trust the more significant points I was making are clear. We're also not just talking about the periodic decent deed. We're talking about the man's attitudes, according to those who observed and knew him well (and as evidenced by the full historical record, in context).

For further clarity on my prior comment: in case I wasn't clear, I've spoken to all of the people I mentioned as being worth talking to. Those who aren't personal friends are close friends of those who are, and I've met and spoken with them at various private social gatherings of friends. Along with the historical record, this adds to the reason I do not share your doubts about how unwarranted these serious accusations are.

Meryl Streep Opens the Door

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