Walter Mitty

Walter Mitty
File:Mittydvd.jpg Danny Kaye as Walter Mitty
First appearance	"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" The New Yorker, March 18, 1939
Created by	James Thurber
Portrayed by	Danny Kaye
In-universe information
Nickname	"The Old Man" (in one fantasy)
Title	Commander, Doctor (in fantasies)
Occupation	unknown; various fantasy occupations
Spouse	unnamed except as "Mrs. Mitty"

Walter Mitty is a fictional character in James Thurber's short story "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", first published in The New Yorker on March 18, 1939, and in book form in My World— and Welcome to It in 1942. It was made into a film in 1947.

Mitty is a meek, mild man with a vivid fantasy life: in a few dozen paragraphs he imagines himself a wartime pilot, an emergency-room surgeon, and a devil-may-care killer. The character's name has come into more general use to refer to an ineffectual dreamer, appearing in several dictionaries. The American Heritage Dictionary defines a Walter Mitty as "an ordinary, often ineffectual person who indulges in fantastic daydreams of personal triumphs." The most famous of Thurber's inept male protagonists, the character is considered "the archetype for dreamy, hapless, Thurber Man".

Although the story has humorous elements, some critics see a darker and more significant message underlying the text, leading to a more tragic interpretation of the Mitty character. Even in his heroic daydreams, Mitty does not triumph, several fantasies being interrupted before the final one sees Mitty dying bravely in front of a firing squad. In addition, it is possible to read the events in the story as the responses to the stress of reality by an aging man who is sliding into senescence. In the brief snatches of reality that punctuate Mitty's fantasies we meet well-meaning but insensitive strangers who inadvertently rob Mitty of some of his remaining dignity.

His wife is the only inhabitant of reality that we meet more than once.

Use of the term

When referencing actor Errol Flynn, Warner Brothers studio head, Jack Warner, noted in his autobiography, My First Hundred Years in Hollywood, "To the Walter Mittys of the world he [Flynn] was all the heroes in one magnificent, sexy, animal package."

In 1977, Andrew Roth titled his biography of British prime minister Harold Wilson Sir Harold Wilson: the Yorkshire Walter Mitty. Wilson successfully sued Roth for libel arising out of a section of the book referring to Wilson's wife.

In his 1992 biography of Henry Kissinger, Walter Isaacson records that on 6 October 1973, during the 1973 Arab Israeli War, Kissinger urged President Richard Nixon's Chief of Staff General Alexander Haig to keep Nixon in Florida in order to avoid "any hysterical moves" and to "keep any Walter Mitty tendencies under control."

In 1990, American soldier Teddy Temish was described as a Walter Mitty-like figure by a panel of Army psychiatrists who examined him after he had been suspected of committing espionage for the Soviet Union, when his self-created persona as a spy was discovered to be an elaborate fabrication.

In the 1997 text, 'Into Thin Air' by Jon Krakauer- where the author personally recounted the events of the 1996 Everest disaster- Krakauer states: "Walter Mittys with Everest dreams need to bear in mind that when things go wrong up in the death zone (above 26,000 feet)- and sooner or later they always do- the strongest guides in the world may be powerless to save a clients life; indeed as the events of 1996 demonstrated , the strongest guides in the world are sometimes powerless to save even their own lives." (page 275)

In 2003, Tom Kelly, a spokesman for British prime minister Tony Blair, publicly apologised for referring to David Kelly as "a Walter Mitty character" during a private discussion with a journalist.

In 2007, Automaker Ford admitted that it had to exclude from the list of potential bidders "Walter Mitty" types who had dreams but no experience, prior to the sale of their Aston Martin British GT car brand to a consortium of business interests from America and the Middle East, headed by Prodrive founder and world rally championship owner David Richards.

Later in 2007, Conservative British MP Sir Peter Tapsell backhandedly complimented outgoing Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair for portraying "…despite the deep disillusionment of his fellow countrymen with his premiership, an optimism that eluded King James II and would have delighted Walter Mitty."

In 2008, Jim McAuley, a soldier who boasted on Facebook that he had served with the SAS and killed more than 100 people, was termed a "Walter Mitty" by genuine soldiers who exposed him as a fantasist, forcing his resignation from the army.

In 2008-2009, James Shortt, the Baron of Castleshort, Director General of the International Bodyguard Association, claiming SAS and Parachute Regiment service, was outed as a "Walt" by the British Army Rumour Service (ARRSE) website and subsequently reported on by Private Eye and The Sun.

In February 2009 George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, said the prime minister Gordon Brown was "still living in his Walter Mitty world where his system of banking regulation didn't fail, where boom-and-bust had been abolished and where Britain is best placed to withstand the recession".

In his book on selection for the Special Air Service, Andy McNab wrote that people who give away the fact that they want to be in the SAS for reasons of personal vanity are labeled as 'Walter Mittys' and quietly sent home.

Also, there is a term in military slang, "Walt", which is an abbreviation of Walter Mitty, which refers to someone who has aspirations to become a soldier, but none of the necessary personal qualities. This bit of slang can also refer to someone who poses as an (ex-) soldier but who isn't a soldier (serving or former) or who poses as something he isn't or wasn't. (e.g. regular army soldiers who pose as SAS troopers.)

References in popular culture

The character was played by Danny Kaye in the 1947 film version, and is scheduled to be played by Mike Myers in a future film version. Thurber opposed the 1947 production. Kaye's Mitty is a more comedic character than the original, who is unmarried, gets drawn into a farcical adventure in real life, and triumphs in ways that the original character does not, even in his fantasies.

Walter Mitty is referenced in the lyrics to the songs "T&P Combo" by 311, "Vacation" by Alabama, "Sex and Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll" by Ian Dury, "Kitty Ricketts" by Radiator, "In The City" by Madness, "Dreams" by The Descendents, "All Dressed Up For San Francisco" by The Philosopher Kings, and "Sammy Davis City" by Joe Strummer and Brian Setzer. Mark Lindsay referred to "Walter Mitty mind" in his song "Silver Bird." Although the character is not specifically referenced within its lyrics, the concept album Eldorado by Electric Light Orchestra focuses on the exploits of a Walter Mitty-style persona.

Stephen King in his novel, The Stand describes the character of Paul Burlson as a "Walter Mitty outlaw daydream" when Paul tucks a revolver into the waistband of his dress pants.

The official Peanuts website describes the character of Snoopy, as "...an extroverted Beagle with a Walter Mitty complex," a reference to the many fantasy segments in which Snoopy imagines he is a World War I flying ace battling the Red Baron

The children's television programme The Secret Lives of Waldo Kitty parodied the story as well as many others, with a mix of live footage and animation featuring anthropomorphic animals.