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New Disney Strike footage
July 30, 2009 8:45 am
The folks at the John Basmajian Collection have just unearthed – and posted – a reel of rare 8mm film footage of the infamous 1941 Disney animators strike. This is new stuff and incredibly rare. They even did a nice job of adding sound effects to bring it to life. Tom Sito points out, when watching the footage, to look for these highlights: • The first man shown speaking on a microphone is Animator Art Babbitt. The footage is posted here. |
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Walt kinda looks like Don Fanucci “The Black Hand” in Godfather 2!
Wow! Incredible footage! My fave is the Donald-picket….who is animated yet!!
Agreed. That Donald picket sign was great. So clever!
The footage is great but why all the flickering? No need for the distracting iMovie fake ‘old time movie’ illusion, unless that 8mm camera’s shutter was broken and the original footage really looks like that. The effect detracts from the important stuff we should be looking at here, and those very well drawn signs should be readable. That severe a flicker was engineered out of even home movies by about 1930.
Unfortunately, the original 8mm footage was not projected with a variable speed projector when captured to video and resulted in a slightly exaggerated flicker. The film itself is pristine for its age and the flicker is not as apparent when viewed; although it is still there. Eventually the footage will be recaptured.
I have a 16mm copy of some of the same footage plus other shots. No flicker. It was shot by John Hubley as part of the feature documentary he put together about the strike.
Michael,
Thank you for identifying the source of this footage as John Hubley. John Basmajian had said that he got it from a participating studio friend.
Does any of the footage here differ from the 16mm copy you have? Have you had the footage captured to video?
I can’t help but find this footage heartbreaking because it ended forever the special relationship Walt Disney had with his staff.
Sure, life when on, but Walt Disney Productions was never the same. I was too young to have been around during the strike days, but when I arrived in the fifties I couldn’t help but be aware of the distance Walt had put between his artists and himself.
A sad, sad story that should have had a better ending.
What’s with the flicker gripe? It’s amazing footage! This site just gets better and better.
I am very sure that the driver of the second car going into the studio is Wilfred Jackson. What sad footage. I wonder what was going through Walt’s mind as he watched the strike from the guard house?
Floyd says it all. Well said, Floyd. Nothing more poignant than seeing a good man watch his own effigy get hanged in front of the studio he built with his brother from the ground up and every one of those people hanging his effigy and mocking and ridiculing him he hired and schooled, cajoled and inspired to be the best they could possibly be all for the sake of making great animated films. His passion was for the art form not the monetary rewards. A tough, demanding studio head that was not fully appreciated or valued by that volatile branch of his illustrious staff who only saw a rich man getting rich off their sweat and labor.
I also found it sad to watch. We are witnessing on 8mm film the end of the real golden era of animation. What Walt and his staff built before that event would never be duplicated, here or anyplace else.
Wasn’t aware members of Warner picketed.
Did any other animation studios artists participate?
Sorry, Mike.
It is true that great works of
cinema came out of the Walt
Disney Studios during the pre-
strike years (as well as afterwards)
but what must be faced is that Walt
Disney ran the studio like a tyrant.
Disney always gave off the air of being
unapproachable despite studio publicity.
The mock drawings some animators
drew of him depicting him as dictator
or some other unsympathetic character
reflected their feelings toward his
stand-offish character.
Disney had to be convinced to include
proper credits on his films.
His reason for not previously including
them was that the public just needed
to know that they were Walt Disney
Productions.
The striking animators were for the most
part idealistic types.
True, their grievances had some merit,
but eventually their demands would,
in the long run, cause more animation
to be done offshore.
The true heroes in the bitter strike
were Disney’s Nine Old Men: Les
Clark, Marc Davis, Ollie Johnston,
Milt Kahl, Ward Kimball, Eric Larson,
John Lounsbery, Wolfgang “Woolie”
Reitherman, and Frank Thomas.
They realized that despite the shouting
and discontent outside the studio gates,
there was still work to be done.
I’ve come across this entry about a week or so after it was posted, only to find that all the links to the footage of the Disney picket line have been broken. Any reason for the removal?
Yes, for some reason the whole site is gone. Very mysterious. I have no idea what happened.
The John Basmajian website has had incredible traffic and our servers took a hit. We are currently increasing bandwidte and the complete site (video included) should be restored within 24 hours. There is still alot of the collection to unveil. Thanks for your interest and support.
hi, just left the studio today, had a wonderful tour with my son, given by a screenwriter that is presently working there. he told us about the discovery of this footage of the 1941 strike. i tend to agree with what don peri says, that the driver of the 2nd car is wilford jackson, as my dad was ham luske and it sure doesn’t look like him. however, he did not strike and he did cross the picket line and went to work, and said to me many years ago that that strike changed walt’s relationships with many of his animators.
Any idea if the site will be up again at some point?
The site is still down :-(. Does anyone have a copy of that footage and can provide it? Thanx.