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HOLLYWOOD (AP) - Walt Disney’s philosophy as a film producer was summed up in his oft-repeated phrase, “We can lick ’em with product.”

Lick who? The major studios with whom he competed for theater dates, the bankers who urged him to stop chasing dreams and run a more businesslike, economical operation. These were the forces, plus other invisible ones, that goaded Disney on to bigger, more ambitious productions.

“Money never meant anything to me," said Walt, and he ran up deficits to prove it. But he believed that if he could achieve quality, the films would eventually bail him out. And they did.

Such films as “Bambi,” “Pinocchio” and “Fantasia” failed to make a profit on their first release. But later they were re-released as each new wave of youngsters grew to movie-going age, and the result was a bonanza for the Disney organization.

Walt learned early to hold onto his product and allow no outside control. When a distributor spirited away the rights to the first Disney star, Oswald the Rabbit, Walt vowed never to part with the films he created. Thus when he went into television, he could draw from the vast library of Disney product, dating back to the birth of Mickey Mouse.
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