Posted on 11/20/2008 7:28:49 AM PST by distressed
As the cartoon rodent reaches 80, we should celebrate his creator - a genius and one of the best arguments for capitalism.
In the summer of 1928 Walter Elias Disney hung a bedroom sheet from his office wall and asked some members of his family in to watch a film. Disney was only 26 years old, but he'd lived quite a tough life. And he was down on his luck - he had been cheated in a business deal, he had no money and he couldn't find anyone to distribute his films.
That June night, however, Walt was exultant. He had his brother Roy man the projector and his small team of animators produce sound synchronised to the action. They had to improvise - banging pencils against a spitoon that served as a gong, for instance. But however amateur the improvisation, the result shone through. Steamboat Willie would be a hit. It would make Walt Disney. It would save the Walt Disney Company. It would change the world.
Yesterday was the 80th anniversary of the first public showing of Steamboat Willie, the first commercial cartoon with sound, and of the first appearance of Mickey Mouse in American cinema. And I want to defend Walt Disney. I want to proclaim that Walt Disney was one of the great men of our era. That Walt Disney helped to make our world a better place. That Walt Disney was a genius.
It seems a bit odd arguing that Disney needs defending. After all, the man made a mint in his lifetime, and his company is still coining it.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
A small town Missouri boy...
“Gay Day” and other homosexual promotions have totally turned us OFF. We haven’t been to Disney and have NO PLANS on going to Disney World. Let the homosexuals fund them. Also there is no reason in the world why a child HAS to go to Disney. If they are “scarred” because they didn’t go to Disney World, then the PARENTS are not raising them properly.
I'm surprised this sort of slipped under the radar. Usually Disney celebrates Anniversary's and Birthdays in a Big Way at their parks.
Disney is hurting financially.
None of that has to do with Walt.
He was a genius. My husband hates everything Disney, but being a lower middle class kid in Ohio, my life was surrounded by Disney and I loved it.
Getting around the tv and watching “The Wonderful World of Color” on a B&W tv is one of my fondest memories of childhood.
I still cry when Cinderella cried hopelessly in the garden before her Fairy Godmother appears. I explain to my children that Bambi’s mother was killed by poachers, because real hunters would not shoot a doe in the spring, and I would DIE to see the Goofy cartoon that was supposed to be released with “Enchanted” but didn’t make it.
The thought of my Dear Departed Dad, laughing uncontrolably at Goofy playing golf, makes me tear up right now.
Disney of the past is not evil. Disney of today needs work.
Poor Mickey - Gays want to have sex with him, and Saudi Clerics want to behead him.
Disney is the same company that continually lobbies for and receives a perpetual extension of all copyrights every time the copyright for Steamboat Willie is up for expiration. Thanks to them, the original intent of the Constitution with regard to limited term of copyrights has been trashed.
“Gay Day” is a modern invention, Disney himself was long dead. This is about defending Walt himself, not what his company has done since his passing.
My now 6 year old son would stop crying when he heard the Mickey Mouse March from the age of 1 1/2. He still loves hearing it.
Brought to you by Michael the closet Eisner!
[rant]
bunch of queers putting out movies that bash traditional male/female roles and never have a traditional, intact, nuclear family as the basis of any of their stories. yeah, sure, this is what I want to feed my kids.
[/rant]
Here here, the bloom is long off the rose; Homosexual Days and Disney’s anti-Family ant-American values/programing (via their MSM network, etc...) have destroyed their reputation.
Brought to you by Michael the closet Eisner!
Read the article, people. This isn’t a defense of Disney the company, it’s a defense of Disney, the man, who has long since perished. Those attacks come from the leftists. They go so far as to claim that he was a closet Nazi. Again, please read the article.
If people are ready to roll on their hot point agendas, there's no amount of clarification that will dissuade them.
Eisner has been gone. I don’t think Disney is doing any hurting - we just got back and the lines were are long as I have ever seen.
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