We all know Walt Disney was a movie producer who specialized in the happily ever after. Merely the name Disney invokes childlike wonder. Walt had linked his work very closely to his public image, which also meant he took pains to keep his troubles private. Naturally, life wasn’t all fairy tales for Walt Disney. His daughter, Diane, would always remember, “Two periods in my father’s life were very, very tragic, and one was the death of his mother, and then the other was the strike . . . which, I think—it was incomprehensible to him, the virulence of it.”1
Though not commonly known, the Disney strike was a crucial event in the studio’s history. It ended Disney animation’s golden age, a period of unprecedented creative growth and innovation. Its aftershocks would forever change the spirit of the company and Walt’s relationship to his staff. It was also a milestone in Hollywood’s fight for labor rights. However, Walt himself would almost never mention it.
On the rare occasions when Walt did discuss the strike, he would speak in a pained tone that years of hindsight could not quell. And still, he could not bring himself to utter the name of the strike’s key agitator, his most influential and ambitious artist during that key decade, Art Babbitt.
Babbitt had not only been one of the top animators at the studio. He also—and uniquely—shared with Walt a feverish hunger to elevate the medium. Studio documents reveal the extent of his involvement—from writing the first treatise on cartoon-character acting to first using live action as a reference source, to the very inception of the studio’s art education program. After Walt himself, Babbitt did more to raise the standards of Disney animation, and thereby animation as an art form, than anyone else of his time. Walt recognized this. Within two years, Babbitt advanced from the lowest ranks to Walt’s inner circle.
However, the strike was a fierce blow for both men, each shocked at the behavior of the other. Following the strike and for the rest of his Walt’s life, books and articles about Disney history glaringly omitted the name Art Babbitt. Babbitt himself would grumble the rest of his life, saying things about Walt after the strike that he had never opined before.
The strike erupted during an already tumultuous time. It was the summer of 1941, when World War II was ravaging Europe and America’s involvement looked imminent. The Disney studio had been at odds with an independent animators’ union for several months, with Babbitt representing that union. The singular moment that ripped them apart can be pinpointed to the early evening of Friday, June 13, 1941.
It was a warm afternoon in Burbank, California. Inside the Disney studio on South Buena Vista Street, animators, inkers, and painters sat at their desks making renderings of Dumbo and Bambi. There were many empty desks around them.
The missing Disney artists had been on strike for nearly three weeks. The strikers and non-strikers saw each other every morning and evening as the “scabs” drove through the picket line and the unionists yelled epithets. The strikers brandished Disney characters on their signs and leaflets. It was a media circus.
When the mass pickets gathered outside the studio at quitting time, they learned too late that they had been hoodwinked: the non-strikers had left the lot shortly before to reconvene for a staff meeting at a high school auditorium a few blocks away. In haste the strikers relocated to the high school, led by Babbitt—five foot ten, blond, and steely-eyed. When the strikers finally arrived, most of the non-strikers had already gone home. Except for a handful of studio allies, only Walt Disney himself remained, sitting in his blue Packard convertible, tipping his hat at the many strikers in the confident style of President Roosevelt.
Out of the rabble rushed Art Babbitt to the strikers’ amplified microphone. Babbitt looked directly at his employer. “Walt Disney,” he yelled, “you ought to be ashamed!”2 He yelled it again, more emphatically, the amplified words echoing.
Walt stopped the car. His expression had changed. After months of agitation from Babbitt, something primal and uncharacteristic took over. Walt Disney leapt from the vehicle and stormed toward Babbitt. Stunned onlookers watched as the space between Walt and Babbitt rapidly closed. Cheering and booing filled the air. Babbitt had shattered Walt’s last nerve, and the two were headed to a final showdown.