Disney animators' strike

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This was a labor strike by the animators of Walt Disney Studios in 1941.

Contents 1 History 2 Aftermath and notable departures 3 References 4 External links

[edit] History

The 1930s led to a rise of labor unions in motion pictures as in other industries. The Screen Actors Guild was formed in 1933. Animators struck Max Fleischer's New York studios in 1937. The Screen Cartoonists' Guild was formed in 1938. In 1941, they 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?"^[1]

Although Disney artists were the best paid and worked under the best conditions in the industry, there was discontent.^[2] In The Disney Version, Richard Schickel writes, "Many of the employees had given Disney large quantities of free overtime during the drive to complete the 1937 Snow White", and despite the fact that Snow White was an enormous success, "instead of getting the bonuses they had been vaguely promised, they were faced with a string of layoffs... The salary structure remained crazy-quilt, 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."

Schickel says that Disney "responded gracelessly to the pressures of his increasingly difficult economic situation". Story conferences became brutal. "An animator working on Fantasia took piano lessons at his own expense" to increase his understanding of music, and when Disney found out about it, he snarled "What are you, some kind of fag?". According to other sources, more sympathetic than Schickel, Disney did appreciate his artist's interest in art forms other than animation. In Bob Thomas' biography, Disney is quoted as saying: "What young artists need is a school where they can learn a variety of skills, a place where there is cross-pollination." In 1961, Disney founded the interdisciplinary Cal Arts school.^[3]

As the biggest and most successful animation studio, Disney was an obvious target for the Screen Cartoonists' Guild. There was a layoff which seemed to target members of the Guild selectively, and things reached a boiling point when Disney fired animator Art Babbitt, whom Disney regarded as a "troublemaker".^[1] Three days later, on May 29, 1941, the strike began, instigated by union organizer Herb Sorrell, described as a "tough left-winger". Archives of the Soviet Union released by the Russian government implicate Sorrell as a Communist spy.^[4] Thomas relates that Disney had insisted on a vote among his employees, but Sorrel feared he would lose the vote, and decided to strike without a vote. Sorrel also used outside people, "sluggers", in the picket lines.^[2]

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".

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.^[1]

[edit] Aftermath and notable departures

Following the strike, irreparable damage to the psychology and mood of the studio had, nevertheless, been done. 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, Walt Kelly and Virgil Partch. The departures also included Zack Schwartz, 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, 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.

[edit] References

• Sito, Tom. Drawing the Line: The Untold Story of the Animation Unions from Bosko to Bart Simpson. Lexington, Ky.: University Press of Kentucky, 2006. ISBN 0813124077

[edit] 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