Jake S. Friedman

By the late 1930s, Disney was one of the biggest entertainment companies in the world, winning Oscar after Oscar for their innovative animation and making the highest-grossing movie to date with 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. These achievements depended on Disney’s artists working punishing hours and often for less pay than staff at other Hollywood companies. When the company owner, Walt Disney, reneged on his promise to pay his staff bonuses in light of Snow White’s success, the animators unionised and by 1941 went on strike. The strike was so lengthy and contentious that federal mediators eventually got involved.

Jake Friedman provides a lucid account of both the backstory of the strike and of the strike itself, largely centering around the biographies of two of the key figures: Walt Disney himself and the union organiser Art Babbitt. An interesting read but one that perhaps could have dwelt a little more on the broader contexts of labour history in the 1930s/40s U.S., and on the longer-term consequences of this particular struggle.… (mehr)

A detailed, in-depth look at the landmark strike by animators and staff at Walt Disney Productions in 1941. The first part of the book explores the growth of the studio, physically and intellectually, and focuses on the career history of a leader of the strike, Art Babbitt. The second part of the book is on the strike itself, and has a great deal to say on the confused internal and external politics that drove the strike. There's a fair bit of fresh information, with internal Disney documents (especially on Babbitt's relationship with directors), and some new material on how Warner Bros. animators were involved in the strike. No bibliography and no real footnotes (the notes go back to text, but are a bit hard to parse). Other than that, though, an engrossing read, and very interesting. Definitely recommended for animation fans.… (mehr)