From Neal Gabler, the definitive portrait of one
of the most important figures in twentieth-century American entertainment and
cultural history.
Seven years in the making and meticulously
researched--Gabler is the first writer to be given complete access to the Disney
archives--this is the full story of a man whose work left an ineradicable brand
on our culture but whose life has largely been enshrouded in myth.
Gabler shows us the young Walt Disney breaking
free of a heartland childhood of discipline and deprivation and making his way
to Hollywood. We see the visionary, whose desire for escape honed an innate
sense of what people wanted to see on the screen and, when combined with iron
determination and obsessive perfectionism, led him to the reinvention of
animation. It was Disney, first with Mickey Mouse and then with his feature
films--most notably Snow White, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, and Bambi--who
transformed animation from a novelty based on movement to an art form that
presented an illusion of life.
We see him reimagine the amusement park with
Disneyland, prompting critics to coin the word Disneyfication to describe the
process by which reality can be modified to fit one’s personal desires. At the
same time, he provided a new way to connect with American history through his
live-action films and purveyed a view of the country so coherent that even today
one can speak meaningfully of "Walt Disney’s America." We see how the True-Life
Adventure nature documentaries he produced helped create the environmental
movement by sensitizing the general public to issues of conservation. And we see
how he reshaped the entertainment industry by building a synergistic empire that
combined film, television, theme parks, music, book publishing, and merchandise
in a way that was unprecedented and was later widely imitated.
Gabler also reveals a wounded, lonely, and often
disappointed man, who, despite worldwide success, was plagued with financial
problems much of his life, suffered a nervous breakdown, and at times retreated
into pitiable seclusion in his workshop making model trains. Gabler explores
accusations that Disney was a red-baiter, an anti-Semite, an embittered
alcoholic. But whatever the characterizations of Disney’s personal life, he
appealed to the nation by demonstrating the power of wish fulfillment and the
triumph of the American imagination. Walt Disney showed how one could impose
one’s will on the world.
This is a masterly biography, a revelation of
both the work and the man---of both the remarkable accomplishment and the hidden
life.
