Can We Talk about Meryl Streep's Trashing of Walt Disney (with Les)

Moviefan12:  Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney.  And today, we  are taking on one of the biggest controversies in the Disney community of late.   You see earlier,  this year Emma Thompson was deservedly honored with a Best Actress Award by the National Board of Review.  Well, her presenter and close friend,  Meryl Streep  felt this was the right time to shift the focus away from Thompson's excellent work in Saving Mr. Banks and instead vilify Walt Disney.  Now,  most of what she said can and has been debunked numerous times. And I'm here to take her words to task.    Because you see I'm not as much offended by what she said but rather the fact that these rumors persist.   Though,  I won't be going it alone as joining me, will be Les.  Thanks for agreeing to do this with me, Les.     

LES: No problem. I was more than a little miffed at this too, and I'm always up for some collaborating goodness with you, my friend.


Moviefan12: Excellent,  where would you  like to start?   With her claims that Walt hated women or that he was racist and anti-semitic?   So, many places to choose from.

LES: Why don't we start with how even bringing up any of that wasn't relevant to her presentation to honor actress Emma Thompson? Let's ask Ms. Streep just what did bashing Walt Disney have to do with tributing Emma Thompson? And, while we're at it, seeing as Ms. Streep never met, interacted or had any contact with the late Walt Disney, just who the F*%K does she think she is to have an opinion on this subject in the first place?

Moviefan12:  All I can say to that is...

THANK YOU.   I understand that Saving Mr.  Banks is a story about P.L. Travers and Walt Disney but what made her think this was the right platform to attack a man that has been dead for fifty goddamn years.  And because of that,  he has no way of defending himself against your ludicrous claims.    And while we're on this subject,  yes it's true that the film did whitewash some facts about what happened and about Walt.  But Meryl, can I call ya Meryl?  Weren't you in a biopic that according to multiple sources whitewashed facts about the person that film was focusing on.  Who was it, again?  Oh, right...

LES: YEP! Oh, and very cool clip from Citizen Kane for the slow clap LOL! At the very least, it certainly comes across as a woman promoting a personal agenda instead of doing her job, which was to tribute Emma Thompson. It comes across as petty and vindictive.

Moviefan12:  And you see,  my biggest issue isn't even her slamming Walt but rather by going off on this tangent, she took the night away from Emma Thompson.  When this was supposed to be a night celebrating Thompson's work but instead, she decided to use it to bash Walt.   Not  only is that unfair to Walt but that is also unfair to Emma Thompson.   Streep could've gone up there, said a few words, give the award to Thompson and then let Thompson have her night.  

LES: Precisely! It's like when Richard Gere flouted his presenter duties at the Academy Awards by appealing on live TV to the Premier of China to get out of Tibet. WTF did that have to do with presenting an Oscar? Nothing! And Ms. Streep (I refuse to call her Meryl...in spite of her brilliant career...but I digress...) has flouted her responsibilities in this instance.

Moviefan12:  I do believe that we've dilly dallied enough.  Let's get into the meat of Ms. Streep had to say about Walter Elias Disney.   The first thing that Ms. Streep brought up in her speech was that apparently Walt hated women.

“Some of his associates reported that Walt Disney didn’t really like women,” Streep said, quoting esteemed animator Ward Kimball on his old boss: “He didn’t trust women or cats.”

That's cute but however multiple sources, including Floyd Norman, who worked for Walt and The Walt Disney Family Museum, which was founded by Walt's daughter,  Diane Disney Miller came to Walt's defense with this to say.

“If a woman can do the work as well, she is worth as much as a man,” he declared. “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.”  

This is a quote from Walt, himself delivered to his animators  during February  of 1941.  And as  the Museum's article points out,  many great females that I admire and laid the way for the future of animation were prominent at the animation studio.  Including one of Walt's most trusted and by the fans most-beloved animators.  She's a personal favorite of mine as well.   I am of course referring to the brilliant Mary Blair.

  

You may not know her name but if you've seen Cinderella,  Peter Pan, or been on Small World (easily, what she is best known for),  you know her work.




LES: Absolutely. Walt's been quoted making statements that defenitely contradict the assertion that he was against women. But if we go by Ms. Streep's claim that according to his company's practices, that they, and by extension, Walt, himself, were against women, then you have to put that statement in historical context. Name one business or animation department of that time that treated women equally. Can't find one, you say? That's because there were none! It wasn't until WWII, when women became the backbone of US Labor, that women saw a shift in company practices, so while you might find evidence to support such a statement against Walt Disney, you can't do so and say everyone else was supporting women while this was going on.




And as you showed, he was on record having a positive view of women, so it's a moot point, after all.

Moviefan12:  Let's next look at how Walt apparently was anti-semitic.

Streep talked about how Disney “supported an anti-Semitic industry lobbying group” and called him a “gender bigot.” She read a letter that his company wrote in 1938 to an aspiring female animator. It included the line, “Women do not do any of the creative work in connection with preparing the cartoons for the screen, as that task is performed entirely by young men.”

Moviefan12:  Oi,  this one again.  As The Museum's article pointed out, Walt hired many people that would go on be held in great reverence alongside himself that were of Jewish descent including the people that wrote the music of childhood,  The Shermans.

Richard and his late brother, Robert Sherman had  both said on occasion that Walt was one of the people that could bring them together.  For those that may not know,  The Shermans while they worked well, didn't get along but Walt was able to bring them together.  And besides this,  you can also take a look at the shorts that Walt made during World War II such as Education For Death or Der Fuhrer's Face to see that he viewed Adolf Hitler as a monster and was appalled by what Hitler was doing to the Jewish community.  So, DO NOT EVEN TRY TO PUT HIM IN THE SAME GROUP WITH THAT REAL LIFE MONSTER THAT DESERVES EVERY OUNCE OF VENOM  THAT IS THROWN HIS WAY!!!!!!!!!!!    I'm sorry but as someone that has studied and read about this tragic time in history,  this rumor to me is easily the most offensive.

Also,  if you take the time to watch either of these great pieces of history,  you'll see that Hitler was portrayed as a buffoon by Disney.    And that letter that Ms.  Streep  brought up, we'll I'll let the Museum handle this one.

In 1938, a letter was written from Walt Disney Productions to a female applicant, turning down her request to enroll in the Studios' Animation Training Program. The letter, to the right, states that women did not perform the position of Animator at that time. What it did not say is that women were not capable of such work. This type of job restriction could be found not only at The Walt Disney Studios but at every other animation studio. Put into historical context, this letter illustrates the culturally accepted limited role of women in the workplace in the 1930s.

I do imagine that was disheartening for Ms. Ford to hear and I am not trying to belittle her loss.   As I  know rejection but what the Museum pointed out is that whether right or wrong, this was the mindset of the time.  Because  as it points out,  it wasn't just Disney but every major studio that thought this way.  But  I implore to go back to the quote from earlier and take a another look at it.  

“If a woman can do the work as well, she is worth as much as a man,” he declared. “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.”  

This  clearly shows as previously stated that Walt  saw a place for women in the future of animation and he was right.    

LES: Absolutely! I laughed at the anti-semitic remark when I heard it and immediately thought of the anti-Hitler shorts and the fact that his songwriting team responsible for the music and songs in Mary Poppins, The Aristocats, The Jungle Book, Bedknobs and Broomsticks and the perenneal favorite, It's a Small World, were Jewish......yeah, he certainly showed a hatred towards Jews... Oh, wait...NO, HE DIDN'T!




All things considered, Ms. Streep clearly took some very isolated remarks out of context and decided that was all there was to Walt Disney....DO YOUR HOMEWORK, NEXT TIME, Ms. Streep!

Moviefan12: Although, you've previously addressed this. Do you have any further thoughts regarding the rejection letter?




LES: The rejection letter was a statement about the current (Back then) positions eligible for women that didn't include animators or artists. However, that didn't stay the company practice for long, and Disney had certainly stated a desire to change that policy so it's a weak piece of evidence to condemn the man with.

Moviefan12:  Now  I feel that I'd be doing this article a disservice, if I didn't mention that Walt's grandniece,  Abigail Disney has spoken out... in agreement with Ms. Streep.   According to the Hollywood Reporter, Ms. Disney had this to say regarding her late uncle.   

"And if you are going to have mixed feelings about a family member (and we all do) take it from me, you really need to be as honest as possible about those feelings, or else you are going to lead yourself into many a blind alley in life!! ... Anti-Semite? Check. Misogynist? OF COURSE!! Racist? C'mon he made a film (Jungle Book) about how you should stay 'with your own kind' at the height of the fight over segregation! As if the 'King of the Jungle' number wasn't proof enough!! How much more information do you need? But damn, he was hella good at making films and his work has made billions of people happy. There's no denying it. So there ya go. Mixed feelings up the wazoo."

Perhaps it is just me but I take her statement with a grain of salt because by the time, Walt had passed.  Abigail was still a little girl.  Not saying that she didn't know her uncle but this is a hard pill for m to swallow. And I truly do not get her Jungle Book comment.  

LES: Not to mention the fact that The Jungle Book's segregation tenets came from Rudyard Kipling and the source material. Have you ever read the book? Disney didn't change a lot in that story. And really? Segregation? It was about Mowgli, a human child being encouraged to return to his species....that's a far cry from the fight for black equality. Additionally, those films took years to produce so having the film come out at the "height of the fight over segregation" was a coincidence. And, like you said, she was 6! I think her memories and observations are questionable at the least, and dismissable the rest of the time.

Moviefan12:  Thank you,  Les.  You  perfectly cleared up her statement and again, I'm in agreement with you but as it turns out, we aren't done with Ms. Disney as of yet.  As she later had this to say. 

"I feel I have to clarify. I LOVED what Meryl Streep said. I know he was a man of his times and I can forgive him, but Saving Mr Banks was a brazen attempt by the company to make a saint out of the man. A devil he was not. Nor an angel. That's the point and if you read ALL her remarks you'll know that's exactly what she was getting at. She said exactly what I said about how in spite of it all, his vision was amazing and he brought joy to so many around the world. So I say Brava Meryl. I don't believe in bashing for bashing's sake but whenever we see a misplaced attempt at hagiography we need to speak our minds!"

I will agree that  Saving Mr.  Banks does whitewash the facts,  and from what I've heard moreso with Travers then Walt.   I mean in the film,  Hanks  plays the jovial  "Uncle Walt" persona  that Walt sold himself as on TV. And  I understand why  the film would want that as that is the Walt that people grew up with.   Saving Mr.  Banks  at best is a biopic that uses the Disney formula to tell the story of the making of one of Disney's most beloved films.  Having said that though,  the film does hint at some of Walt's less  "Disney" moments to put it.  Such as it does show him putting out a cigar  and telling PL  Travers that doesn't like to smoke in front of his employees as that sets a bad example.  This is a falsehood as everyone smoked at the studios but this is from the new policy that Disney had set up, they will not show smoking in their films.  Stupid but it is a minor point of contention.  Another moment that shows Walt's less favorable side and is true to the events is that he didn't want to invite Travers to the premiere of Mary Poppins and  had to be blackmailed by I believe his receptionist to send her a ticket.  Still, one of my favorite movies though.   And I am able to look past those facts.

At the end of the day,  I do not hate Abigail Disney or Meryl Streep.  No,  I cannot find it in myself to hate these people that I do not know.  I do not agree with their assessment of  Walt but I could never hate them.   I mean,  I am very much looking forward to Meryl Streep being in Disney's adaption of "Into The Woods",  coming out this December.   It's a movie that sounds up my alley,  it's fairy tales and a musical.  I will not boycott the movie, just because she's in it.  That'd be robbing myself of a film I want to see.

LES:  Again.   Something may have been needing to be said about Walt Disney's portrayal in the film....but I refer you to our first point, yet again....

WHY WAS THIS NECESSARY TO SAY IN A TRIBUTE TO EMMA THOMPSON?

Moviefan12: Yeah, I'm with Les on this one. I'm just scratching at what all this had to do with Emma Thompson.

LES: It was an inappropriate topic for the presentation and what she said was not supportable in the long run. What was she thinking?

Moviefan12:  I do not know.  Les,  your final words on this matter as I think we've said everything we can on this matter.

LES: Cool.....so....wanna go watch Mary Poppins?

Moviefan12:  Better yet,  Let's Go Fly A Kite. Up To The Highest High and Send It Soaring.   Yeah,  let's just watch Mary Poppins.  But first  let me get my Bert costume ready.  Peace!


LES: AWESOME, and thanks, Manic Fans for joining us today. Peace.