Disney animators' strike
Encyclopedia
The Disney animators' strike was a labor strike by the animators of Walt Disney Studios
in 1941.
which was formed in 1933. Animators of Fleischer Studios
went on strike in 1937 when Max Fleischer
fired 15 employees, all who were a part of American Art-Union
. The Fleischer strike was eventually solved by forming The Screen Cartoonists' Guild in 1938. The leader of the Guild was Herbert Sorrell who was described as a "tough left-winger". In 1941, he began a push and obtained contracts with Terrytoons
, Walter Lantz Productions, Screen Gems
, George Pal
and MGM
. Leon Schlesinger
, whose Leon Schlesinger Productions
produced the popular Looney Tunes
/Merrie Melodies
cartoons for Warner Bros.
, attempted a lockout
, but soon gave in to the union and then asked, "What about Disney?"
Although Disney artists were the best paid and worked under the best conditions in the industry, there was discontent. Many of the employees had given Disney large quantities of free overtime during the drive to complete the 1937 Snow White
". Despite the fact that Snow White was an enormous success, Walt Disney
kept postponing their bonouses, because he had read a book on psychology and postponing their bonuses might make his animators work harder. However Hitler's War in Europe cut off 40% of Disney's foreign release market which led to Disney's two following films Pinocchio
and Fantasia to fail at the box office. In return Disney could no longer afford to give the animators their bonuses and the animators feared that Walt would start a string of layoffs. Although reletivly few amount layoffs actually occurred the salary structure became disorganized, and the only general wage increase Disney granted in those years was self-serving: he brought a number of workers up over the forty-dollar-a-week level, at which point, under the Wagner Labor Relations Act, they ceased being entitled to time-and-a-half
for overtime
." When animator Art Babbitt
became one of the union leaders he started questioning Walt's authority and "rallying his staff against him" in Walt's words.
As the biggest and most successful animation studio, Disney was an obvious target for the Screen Cartoonists' Guild. Sorrell approached Walt and demanded that he sign an agreement with the Guild and threatened to go on strike if he refused. Walt said that he should put it to a secret vote with his top employees. Sorrel claimed that he was he was a fool and he was going to "crush Disney to a dustball"
The final spark that started the strike was when Disney fired Babbit who he regarded as a "troublemaker" and a "Bolshevik
" . The next day on May 29, 1941, the strike began, instigated by Sorrell and lead by Babbit.
The strike occurred during the making of the animated feature Dumbo
, and a number of strikers are caricatured in the feature as clowns who go to "hit the big boss for a raise".
During the strike, cartoonists from other studios offered support for the strikers. Cartoonists from Warner Bros.
, including Chuck Jones
, volunteered their cars to form a motorcade around the Disney studio.
The strike lasted five weeks. Toward the end, Disney accepted a suggestion by Nelson Rockefeller
, then head of the Latin American Affairs office in the State department
, that he make a tour of Latin America as a goodwill ambassador. His removal from the scene enabled passions to cool, and in his absence the strike was settled with the help of a federal mediator
, who found in the Guild's favor on every issue. The Disney studio signed a contract and has been a union shop ever since.
In addition to Babbitt, among the notable animators that left following the strike were Bill Tytla
, Walt Kelly
and Virgil Partch. The departures also included David Hilberman
and John Hubley
, who all went on to form a new animation studio known as United Productions of America
, or UPA. Leaving for the MGM studio were Kenneth Muse
, Ray Patterson
(he briefly worked at Screen Gems for a year under Tashlin's supervision before going to MGM) , Preston Blair
, Ed Love
, Walter Clinton, and Grant Simmons. Animators who would resurface at Leon Schlesinger Productions (then under contract to produce cartoons for Warner Brothers) included Bill Meléndez
, Frank Tashlin
(who had worked at Schlesinger before moving to Disney), Emery Hawkins, Basil Davidovich, Maurice Noble
, Cornett Wood
, Ted Bonnicksen, and Jack Bradbury
(Bradbury and Noble would return many years later).
Other notable animators to leave following the strike included Bob Wickersham, Volus Jones, Claude Smith, Bernie Wolf, Alfred Abranz, William Hurtz, T. Hee
, and Howard Swift. An unfair labor practices suit brought by Babbitt (by this point drafted into the Armed Forces) worked its way through the courts, and Disney was forced to rehire him after World War II. But Disney, who had blamed Babbitt for instigating the strike, never forgave him for what he had done. Babbitt finally left Disney for good and on his own free will in 1947.
The strike also had an impact on Walt Disney. Before the strike he (and the other employees) felt as if they were "one big family", but during and after the strike Walt felt betrayed and he was not sure whether he could trust anyone. He became moody, grouchy and was cruel to those who had been a part of the strike. It took years before he returned to his regular lighthearted self.
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
in 1941.
History
The 1930s led to a rise of labor unions in motion pictures as in other industries such as The Screen Actors GuildScreen Actors Guild
The Screen Actors Guild is an American labor union representing over 200,000 film and television principal performers and background performers worldwide...
which was formed in 1933. Animators of Fleischer Studios
Fleischer Studios
Fleischer Studios, Inc., was an American corporation which originated as an Animation studio located at 1600 Broadway, New York City, New York...
went on strike in 1937 when Max Fleischer
Max Fleischer
Max Fleischer was an American animator. He was a pioneer in the development of the animated cartoon and served as the head of Fleischer Studios...
fired 15 employees, all who were a part of American Art-Union
American Art-Union
The American Art-Union was a subscription-based organization founded in 1840, whose goal was to enlighten and educate an American public to a national art, while providing a support system for the viewing and sales of art “executed by rtists in the United States or by American rtists abroad." The...
. The Fleischer strike was eventually solved by forming The Screen Cartoonists' Guild in 1938. The leader of the Guild was Herbert Sorrell who was described as a "tough left-winger". In 1941, he began a push and obtained contracts with Terrytoons
Terrytoons
Terrytoons was an animation studio founded by Paul Terry. The studio, located in suburban New Rochelle, New York, operated from 1929 to 1968. Its most popular characters included Mighty Mouse, Gandy Goose, Sourpuss, Dinky Duck, Deputy Dawg, Luno and Heckle and Jeckle; these cartoons and all of its...
, Walter Lantz Productions, Screen Gems
Screen Gems
Screen Gems is an American movie production company and subsidiary company of Sony Pictures Entertainment's Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group that has served several different purposes for its parent companies over the decades since its incorporation....
, George Pal
George Pál
George Pal , born György Pál Marczincsak, was a Hungarian-born American animator and film producer, principally associated with the science fiction genre...
and MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio
The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio was the in-house division of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer motion picture studio in Hollywood, California during the Golden Age of American animation, responsible for producing animated short subjects to accompany MGM feature films in Loew's Theaters...
. Leon Schlesinger
Leon Schlesinger
Leon Schlesinger was an American film producer, most noted for founding Leon Schlesinger Productions, which later became the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio, during the golden age of Hollywood animation.-Early life and career:...
, whose Leon Schlesinger Productions
Warner Bros. Cartoons
Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. was the in-house division of Warner Bros. Pictures during the Golden Age of American animation. One of the most successful animation studios in American media history, Warner Bros. Cartoons was primarily responsible for the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies theatrical...
produced the popular Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...
/Merrie Melodies
Merrie Melodies
Merrie Melodies is the name of a series of animated cartoons distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures between 1931 and 1969.Originally produced by Harman-Ising Pictures, Merrie Melodies were produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions from 1933 to 1944. Schlesinger sold his studio to Warner Bros. in 1944,...
cartoons for Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
, attempted a lockout
Lockout (industry)
A lockout is a work stoppage in which an employer prevents employees from working. This is different from a strike, in which employees refuse to work.- Causes :...
, but soon gave in to the union and then asked, "What about Disney?"
Although Disney artists were the best paid and worked under the best conditions in the industry, there was discontent. Many of the employees had given Disney large quantities of free overtime during the drive to complete the 1937 Snow White
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a 1937 American animated film based on Snow White, a German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. It was the first full-length cel-animated feature in motion picture history, as well as the first animated feature film produced in America, the first produced in full...
". Despite the fact that Snow White was an enormous success, Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
kept postponing their bonouses, because he had read a book on psychology and postponing their bonuses might make his animators work harder. However Hitler's War in Europe cut off 40% of Disney's foreign release market which led to Disney's two following films Pinocchio
Pinocchio (1940 film)
Pinocchio is a 1940 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and based on the story The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. It is the second film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics, and it was made after the success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and was released to theaters by...
and Fantasia to fail at the box office. In return Disney could no longer afford to give the animators their bonuses and the animators feared that Walt would start a string of layoffs. Although reletivly few amount layoffs actually occurred the salary structure became disorganized, and the only general wage increase Disney granted in those years was self-serving: he brought a number of workers up over the forty-dollar-a-week level, at which point, under the Wagner Labor Relations Act, they ceased being entitled to time-and-a-half
Time-and-a-half
Time-and-a-half is when a worker is paid 1.5 times their usual hourly rate. It is usually paid as an incentive to work on a particular day or as government-mandated compensation for having workers work on particular days Time-and-a-half is when a worker (or workers) is paid 1.5 times their usual...
for overtime
Overtime
Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours. Normal hours may be determined in several ways:*by custom ,*by practices of a given trade or profession,*by legislation,...
." When animator Art Babbitt
Art Babbitt
Arthur Harold Babitsky , better known as Art Babbitt, was an American animator, best known for his work at The Walt Disney Company. He received over 80 awards as animation director and animator, but is most famous for creating Goofy...
became one of the union leaders he started questioning Walt's authority and "rallying his staff against him" in Walt's words.
As the biggest and most successful animation studio, Disney was an obvious target for the Screen Cartoonists' Guild. Sorrell approached Walt and demanded that he sign an agreement with the Guild and threatened to go on strike if he refused. Walt said that he should put it to a secret vote with his top employees. Sorrel claimed that he was he was a fool and he was going to "crush Disney to a dustball"
The final spark that started the strike was when Disney fired Babbit who he regarded as a "troublemaker" and a "Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
" . The next day on May 29, 1941, the strike began, instigated by Sorrell and lead by Babbit.
The strike occurred during the making of the animated feature Dumbo
Dumbo
Dumbo is a 1941 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and released on October 23, 1941, by RKO Radio Pictures.The fourth film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, Dumbo is based upon the storyline written by Helen Aberson and illustrated by Harold Pearl for the prototype of a...
, and a number of strikers are caricatured in the feature as clowns who go to "hit the big boss for a raise".
During the strike, cartoonists from other studios offered support for the strikers. Cartoonists from Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
, including Chuck Jones
Chuck Jones
Charles Martin "Chuck" Jones was an American animator, cartoon artist, screenwriter, producer, and director of animated films, most memorably of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts for the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio...
, volunteered their cars to form a motorcade around the Disney studio.
The strike lasted five weeks. Toward the end, Disney accepted a suggestion by Nelson Rockefeller
Nelson Rockefeller
Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller was the 41st Vice President of the United States , serving under President Gerald Ford, and the 49th Governor of New York , as well as serving the Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower administrations in a variety of positions...
, then head of the Latin American Affairs office in the State department
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
, that he make a tour of Latin America as a goodwill ambassador. His removal from the scene enabled passions to cool, and in his absence the strike was settled with the help of a federal mediator
National Labor Relations Board
The National Labor Relations Board is an independent agency of the United States government charged with conducting elections for labor union representation and with investigating and remedying unfair labor practices. Unfair labor practices may involve union-related situations or instances of...
, who found in the Guild's favor on every issue. The Disney studio signed a contract and has been a union shop ever since.
Aftermath and notable departures
Following the strike, irreparable damage to the psychology and mood of the studio had, nevertheless, been done. Before the strike, the number of employees had been about 1200, but after it ended, it was reduced to 694. Schickel quotes a letter in which Disney said that "it cleaned house at our studio" and got rid of "the chip-on-the-shoulder boys and the world-owes-me-a-living lads".In addition to Babbitt, among the notable animators that left following the strike were Bill Tytla
Bill Tytla
Vladimir Peter "Bill" Tytla was one of the original Disney animators and is considered by many to be the best character animator to work during The Golden Age of Hollywood animation...
, Walt Kelly
Walt Kelly
Walter Crawford Kelly, Jr. , or Walt Kelly, was an American animator and cartoonist, best known for the comic strip, Pogo. He began his animation career in 1936 at Walt Disney Studios, contributing to Pinocchio and Fantasia. Kelly resigned in 1941 at the age of 28 to work at Post-Hall Syndicate,...
and Virgil Partch. The departures also included David Hilberman
David Hilberman
David Hilberman was an American cartoon animator and one of the founders of classic 1940s animation.Hilberman worked for Walt Disney Studios and helped animate Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Bambi. His involvement in unionizing colleagues and organization of the 1941 Disney strike cost him...
and John Hubley
John Hubley
John Hubley was an American animation director, art director, producer and writer of traditional animation films known for both his formal experimentation and for his emotional realism which stemmed from his tendency to cast his own children as voice actors in his films.- Biography :Hubley was...
, who all went on to form a new animation studio known as United Productions of America
United Productions of America
United Productions of America, better known as UPA, was an American animation studio of the 1940s through present day, beginning with industrial films and World War II training films. In the late 1940s, UPA produced theatrical shorts for Columbia Pictures, most notably the Mr. Magoo series. In...
, or UPA. Leaving for the MGM studio were Kenneth Muse
Kenneth Muse
Kenneth Lee Muse was an American animator. He is best known for his work on the Tom and Jerry series at MGM.-Biography:...
, Ray Patterson
Ray Patterson (animator)
Raymond "Ray" Patterson was an American animator, producer, and director. Patterson was born in Hollywood, California, and was the brother of animator Don Patterson.-Early career:...
(he briefly worked at Screen Gems for a year under Tashlin's supervision before going to MGM) , Preston Blair
Preston Blair
Preston Blair was an American character animator, most noted for his work at Walt Disney Productions and the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animation department...
, Ed Love
Ed Love
Edward H. Love was an American animator who has worked at various studios during the golden age of animation. He is well known for his work at Disney , MGM , Walter Lantz , and his work on television shows such as Yogi Bear and The Flintstones.Love won a Golden Award at the 1984 Motion Pictures...
, Walter Clinton, and Grant Simmons. Animators who would resurface at Leon Schlesinger Productions (then under contract to produce cartoons for Warner Brothers) included Bill Meléndez
Bill Melendez
José Cuauhtémoc "Bill" Meléndez was a Mexican-American character animator, film director, voice artist and producer, known for his cartoons for Warner Brothers, UPA and the Peanuts series...
, Frank Tashlin
Frank Tashlin
Frank Tashlin, born Francis Fredrick von Taschlein, also known as Tish Tash or Frank Tash was an American animator, screenwriter, and film director.-Animator:...
(who had worked at Schlesinger before moving to Disney), Emery Hawkins, Basil Davidovich, Maurice Noble
Maurice Noble
Maurice Noble was an American animation background artist and layout designer whose contributions to the industry spanned more than 60 years. He was a long-time associate of animation director Chuck Jones, most notably at Warner Bros. in the 1950s...
, Cornett Wood
Cornett Wood
Cornett Wood was an American animator and layout artist. He served as an animator on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Fantasia for Walt Disney, and eventually went on to work on backgrounds for Robert McKimson at Warner Bros. Animation.-References:...
, Ted Bonnicksen, and Jack Bradbury
Jack Bradbury
Jack Bradbury was an American animator and comic book artist.Bradbury began working for Disney at age 20 and was responsible for key scenes in movies like Bambi, Fantasia, and Pinocchio...
(Bradbury and Noble would return many years later).
Other notable animators to leave following the strike included Bob Wickersham, Volus Jones, Claude Smith, Bernie Wolf, Alfred Abranz, William Hurtz, T. Hee
T. Hee
This article is about the animator. For the James Bond villain, see Tee Hee.Thornton "T." Hee, born Alex Campbell was an American animator, director, and teacher. He taught character design and caricature. He is always credited as T. Hee.Hee worked at Leon Schlesinger Productions from 1935-36 as...
, and Howard Swift. An unfair labor practices suit brought by Babbitt (by this point drafted into the Armed Forces) worked its way through the courts, and Disney was forced to rehire him after World War II. But Disney, who had blamed Babbitt for instigating the strike, never forgave him for what he had done. Babbitt finally left Disney for good and on his own free will in 1947.
The strike also had an impact on Walt Disney. Before the strike he (and the other employees) felt as if they were "one big family", but during and after the strike Walt felt betrayed and he was not sure whether he could trust anyone. He became moody, grouchy and was cruel to those who had been a part of the strike. It took years before he returned to his regular lighthearted self.
External links
- The Disney strike, from Cartoonists' Unions: A survey of our history
- Another look back at the 1941 Disney Studio strike; includes contemporary article from Screen Actor magazine