Walt Disney was not that great as an animator but he was at the forefront of what logically should happen, but no idea can be realised without finance. He knew how to make gambles on game-changing ideas so much so that he was willing to mortgage his house to create Snow White. Since Disney took so many risks, he didn’t like giving out praise to his animator, he felt he was the only one worthy of praise. Walt always attempted to take as much credit for creative output as possible. After all, nothing would have existed with out a risk taking visionary such as himself. He had a chronic cough especially when he was bored, liked to wear casual sweaters and smoked chesterfields in the meeting, which were regularly scheduled to ensure production was moving on schedule. Disney would animate each ‘voice’ of the each characters but that was the extent of his contribution. No one got credit, not even Walt Disney’s brother Roy who kept the finances in check throughout the development of the Disney empire. This thinking was precisely due to business experiences where Disney had been robbed of value by other manipulators like Charles Mintz.
Disney was viciously anti-union in the 1940s. Walt wanted to reward employees who did exceptional work while refusing to provide salary boosts to mediocre employees, he believed it was his right as the creator of the job opportunities in the first place. He didn’t like to fire most employees directly and delegated that to his top executives. As revenues floundered during the 2nd World War, he had to cut back on staff…The 1941 strike lasted 5 weeks after which the union was solidified much to Disney’s disapproval. Walt Disney later went on the offensive in order to attack Disney was against having cartoonists getting credit generally throughout his life and wanted them to act as functionaries through salary compensation as the sole means of recognition. Walt Disney had meetings transcripts carbon copied to ensure that his instructions were fulfilled.
