The Disney revolt : the great labor war of animation's golden age

The Disney revolt The great labor war of animation's golden age

Jake S. Friedman

Book - 2022

Soon after the birth of Mickey Mouse, one animator raised the Disney Studio far beyond Walt's expectations. That animator also led a union war that almost destroyed it. Art Babbitt animated for the Disney studio throughout the 1930s and through 1941, years in which he and Walt were jointly driven to elevate animation as an art form, up through Snow White, Pinocchio, and Fantasia. But as America prepared for World War II, labor unions spread across Hollywood. Disney fought the unions while Babbitt embraced them. Soon, angry Disney cartoon characters graced picket signs as hundreds of animation artists went out on strike. Adding fuel to the fire was Willie Bioff, one of Al Capone's wiseguys who was seizing control of Hollywood worke...rs and vied for the animators' union. Using never-before-seen research from previously lost records, including conversation transcriptions from within the studio walls, author and historian Jake S. Friedman reveals the details behind the labor dispute that changed animation and Hollywood forever.

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Subjects
Disney, Walt, > 1901-1966.
Babbitt, Art, > 1907-1992.
Walt Disney Company.
Walt Disney Productions > History.
Walt Disney Productions > Employees.
Animators > Labor unions > California > Los Angeles > History.
Strikes and lockouts > Motion picture industry > California > Los Angeles.
Animators > Labor unions > United States > History.
Animators > United States.
Published
Chicago, Illinois : Chicago Review Press [2022]
Language
English
Main Author
Jake S. Friedman (author)
Physical Description
xii, 322 pages ; illustrations, map ; 23 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographic references (pages 263-312) and index.
ISBN
9781641607193
9781641607223
  • Author's Note
  • Prologue
  • Map
  • Part I. Innovation
  • 1. My Father Was a Socialist
  • 2. Poor and Starving
  • 3. The Value of Loyalty
  • 4. Arthur Babbitt: Hell-Raiser
  • 5. Fighting for His Salary
  • 6. You Can't Draw Your Ass
  • 7. The Disney Art School
  • 8. Three Little Pigs
  • 9. Enter Bioffsky
  • 10. The Cult of Personality
  • 11. A Feature-Length Cartoon
  • 12. Bioff Stakes His Claim
  • 13. A Drunken Mouse
  • 14. Disney's Folly
  • 15. Defense Against the Enemy
  • Part II. Turmoil
  • 16. A Growing Divide
  • 17. The Norconian
  • 18. A Wooden Boy and a World War
  • 19. Dreams Shattered
  • 20. Hilberman, Sorrell, and Bioff
  • 21. The Federation Versus the Guild
  • 22. The Guild and Babbitt
  • 23. Disney Versus the Labor Board
  • 24. The Final Strike Vote
  • 25. Strike!
  • 26. The Big Stick
  • 27. The 21 Club
  • 28. Willie Bioff and Walt Disney
  • 29. The Guild and the CIO
  • 30. Not the Drawing
  • 31. The Final Goodbye
  • 32. And They Lived
  • Epilogue
  • Acknowledgments
  • Image Credits
  • Appendix: The Strikers
  • Notes
  • Index
Review by Booklist Review

Animation historian Friedman (The Art of Blue Sky Studios, 2014) traces the 1941 labor dispute at iconic Disney Studios. Dividing his book into two sections, innovation and turmoil, Friedman explores the lives of Walt Disney and Art Babbitt, one of the Disney animators who organized the strike, along with others who intersected these lives in the Disney Studios. Following the release of Snow White in 1937, Disney was the largest cartoon studio in the world; however, Disney animators were subject to unfair practices and grueling hours. Drawing from interviews, transcripts, and labor archives, Friedman crafts a compelling narrative about the negotiation and bargaining process between the strikers and Disney as well as the strike's impact on both the company and Hollywood's unionism at large. Disney and animation historians and readers of American labor history will find a fascinating chronicle of an essential labor dispute in twentieth-century America.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review

There are countless histories of Walt Disney Studios, but this latest by animation historian Friedman (The Art of Blue Sky Studios) is a fascinating look at Disney's Burbank animation studio during the five-week animators' strike of 1941 (which took place during the production of Dumbo). Friedman provides an engaging history of the Disney studio from the perspective of its overworked artists who churned out short films as well as celebrated features. He focuses particularly on lead animator Art Babbitt, one of the studio's highest-paid employees, who nevertheless stood on the picket line with his coworkers, many of whom were being paid far less for the same work. Meanwhile, Walt Disney was stunned by his animators' demands and tried to break the strike by allying with Willie Bioff, a "two-bit wise guy" from Chicago who (for a healthy fee) had been manipulating the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees to protect the film industry against strikes. Relationships were destroyed during the dispute, Friedman writes, but the strike soon ended in a labor victory that forced Disney to recognize an animators' union. VERDICT A fascinating look at how the Disney magic happened, and how close it came to tumbling down.--Peter Thornell

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