Product Description

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

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #266340 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-31
• Released on: 2006-10-31
• Format: Deckle Edge
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 9.52" h x 1.96" w x 6.54" l, 2.89 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 880 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Few men could be said to have as pervasive an influence on American culture as Walt Disney, and Gabler (Winchell) scours the historical record for as thorough an explanation of that influence as any biographer could muster. Every period of Disney's life is depicted in exacting detail, from the suffering endured on a childhood paper route to the making of Mary Poppins. The core of Gabler's story, though, is clearly in the early years of Disney's studio, from the creation of Mickey Mouse to the hands-on management of early hits like Fantasia and Pinocchio. "Even though Walt could neither animate, nor write, nor direct," Gabler notes, "he was the undisputed power at the studio." Yet there was significant disgruntlement within the ranks of Disney's employees, and Gabler traces the day-to-day resentments that eventually led to a bitter strike against the studio in 1941. That dispute helped harden Disney's anticommunism, which led to rumors of anti-Semitism, which are effectively debunked here. At times, Gabler lays on a bit thick the psychological interpretation of Disney as control freak, but his portrait is so engrossing that it's hard to picture the entertainment mogul playing with his toy trains and not imagine him building Disneyland in his head. 32 pages of photos. 100,000 first printing. (Nov. 6)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From AudioFile
Neal Gabler is the first Disney biographer to have access to the Disney archives, lending authenticity to this work. That access does not mean that the biography paints a whitewashed picture of this icon of twentieth-century American culture. Indeed, what emerges is a complex man with his own collection of human strengths and weaknesses. Optimistic and confident of his own vision and tenacious enough to stay his course in the face of obstacles, he was at the same time demanding and short on compassion and forgiveness for perceived betrayals. Leonardo Leoncavallo's narration is concise and straightforward. His relaxed tempo and clear enunciation keep the reader engaged in the story of this pioneer of animation, film, and television. N.E.M. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
Touted by the masses as America's beloved storyteller, derided by cultural gatekeepers as a philistine, Walt Disney was undeniably one of the most significant figures on the twentieth-century cultural scene. And as Gabler shows in this massive, thoroughly researched biography, Disney's cultural influence went far beyond the beloved cartoon characters he created. The early work produced by Disney and his talented staff--the phenomenal Mickey Mouse shorts of the early 1930s and such groundbreaking feature-length films as Snow White and Pinocchio--drew near-universal critical acclaim and massive commercial success. After World War II and a disastrous strike that shattered the benevolent if paternalistic utopia Disney had created for his employees, he disengaged from the cartoons, much to their detriment, to tackle new enterprises including live-action movies, TV, and theme parks. An ambitious planned community was on the drawing board at the time of his death in 1966--confirming evidence for Gabler's contention that Disney aimed to provide Americans not with escape, as is commonly thought, but with "control and the vicarious empowerment that accompanied it." Although Gabler focuses on corporate matters at the expense of critical treatment of the films, he presents a balanced treatment of the man and his achievements, realistically assessing Disney's considerable impact and offering insight into the hidden, restless soul who constantly challenged himself, risking the financial stability of his empire more than once in his unceasing pursuit of his dreams. Gordon Flagg
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