[The Magic Kingdom 01] • The Magic Kingdom · Walt Disney and the American Way of Life

The Magic Kingdom sheds new light on the cultural icon of "Uncle Walt."  Watts digs deeply into Disney's private life, investigating his roles as husband, father, and brother and providing fresh insight into his peculiar psyche-his genuine folksiness and warmth, his domineering treatment of colleagues and friends, his deepest prejudices and passions.  Full of colorful sketches of daily life at the Disney Studio and tales about the creation of Disneyland and Disney World, The Magic Kingdom offers a definitive view of one of the most influential Americans of the twentieth century.

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From Library JournalAlthough the Disney studio was hailed as a dream factory, there was plenty of hard work and hard-nosed business deals behind the facade. Drawing on interviews and research from Disney archives, Watts shows how Disney and mid-America influenced each other, from the birth of the animation empire, through the "libertarian populism" of the Fifties film, TV, and theme-park efforts, to Walt's untimely death in 1966. Other topics include Disney's pioneering role in business "integration" (using one side of the business to promote another side), his idealization of small-town life, his contagious creative enthusiasm, and his growing conservatism and abiding contempt for unions. Whether selling World War II to an anxious home front, lifting spirits in the Depression, soothing America's Cold War fears, or catering to the new leisure and consumer society, Disney had a unique rapport with average Americans. Portrayed as neither devil nor saint, Disney emerges as a human and sometimes sympathetic figure. This lively, witty, and insightful study is likely to become a standard. Highly recommended for academic and public libraries. [Two other Disney biographers in recent years have accused the Disney family of attempting to undermine criticisms of him; for a more critical appraisal see Marc Eliot's Walt Disney: Hollywood's Dark Prince, LJ 5/1/93.?Ed.]?Stephen Rees, Levittown Reg. Lib., Pa.

-?Stephen Rees, Levittown Reg. Lib., Pa.

Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Today's Disney entertainment empire might rephrase Watts' subtitle to read "Walt Disney IS the American Way of Life" as part of its seeming dedication to crafting sanitized versions of aspects of the American ideal and then selling the bejesus out of them. Watts' biography of the creator of Mickey, Donald, and Goofy examines Disney's role in the creation of American consumer culture and his and his company's successful commercial feeding of that culture's voracious entertainment appetites. The book, Watts says, exemplifies "something of a hybrid genre: part biography and part cultural analysis, an anatomy of Disney's productions as well as an anatomy of their consumption." Fully referenced and forcefully and cogently argued, it does an excellent job of tying together all the facets--artistic, commercial, and personal--of the Disney saga. "Walt Disney has been, arguably, the most influential American of the twentieth century," Watts concludes. This valuable, unique book about him will be greatly valued by fans, cynics, and semioticians alike. Mike Tribby