WHEN FUTURE HISTORIANS sit down to choose a Hall of Fame for our time, there will be trouble over the name of Walt Disney.
Some judges will list him as an artist; others will call him an educator. Still others may insist that Disney belongs with the inventors, and some will argue that he was a naturalist.
Each, in my view, will have a point, for Walt Disney is all these things. But on one question the historians are bound to agree: Walter Elias Disney was a genius who brought laughter and knowledge to the world in a distinctive American way.
No country ever had such a corps of good-will ambassadors as Mickey Mouse, the veteran trouper of 35 years; Donald, the irascible duck; Snow White and her delightful dwarfs; and Pluto the pup. Wherever they and their companions go-and there is scarcely a country that has not welcomed them-they bring laughter and enduring friendship.
Hard on the heels of Walt’s antic cartoon animals came other, more serious stars-the beguiling beavers and otters of In Beaver Valley, the seals of Seal Island, the African lion, Perri the squirrel-actors not merely drawn but taken from life. Walt is a superb teacher of natural history, geography, and history. Disney’s television characters, Davy Crockett and Johnny Shiloh, subtly taught history as they entertained.
I recently glimpsed the restless brilliance that drives Walt Disney to venture constantly into the new and the untried. We stood in one of his studios, and there Walt introduced me to Abraham Lincoln.
Unbelievably, the President put out his hand and gave me a warm handshake, as if he were receiving at the White House. Lincoln’s eyes met mine, his lips moved, and I was greeted with a deep “How do you do?” and a slight bow. It was a startling, even an eerie, experience. I almost had doubts that this was only an electronically operated effigy.
Remembering how my deaf Grandmother Bell “heard” by reading the lips, I asked Walt how closely Lincoln’s mouth actually shaped the words I had heard. For answer Walt turned to an assistant.
“Hear that? A great idea! Find someone who reads lips to tell us how good Lincoln’s mouth is. I want him perfect!”
That was typical of Walt Disney. He seizes ideas and runs with them. Even Disneyland began this way.
“Like every father, I used to take my children to an amusement park,” he told me, “and I’d be bored to death. Nothing for me to do. And I’d think, why doesn’t someone develop a park where the parent can enjoy himself with the children?”
Millions of other parents must have had the same thought. The difference is, Walt Disney did something about it. He dreamed of an amusement park where family groups-children, parents, and grandparents-could go and have fun together, and then he built it. And as everyone knows, the lure of Disneyland now reaches even to Moscow.
How highly Walt Disney is regarded by his fellow Americans was indicated last March when he received the George Washington medal, highest award of the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge. Former President Eisenhower, serving as Chairman ofthe Foundation’s Board of Directors, made the presentation. He read a citation honoring:
“Walt Disney, Ambassador of Freedom for the U. S. A. ...
“For his unfailing professional devotion to the things which matter most-human dignity and personal responsibility.
“For masterful, creative leadership in communicating the hopes and aspirations of our free society to the far corners of the planet.”
[signature]Melville Bell Grosvenor[/signature]
Editor
