An essential piece of Disney history has been largely unreported for
eighty years.
Soon after the birth of Mickey Mouse, one animator raised the Disney
Studio far beyond Walt's expectations. That animator also led a union
war that almost destroyed it. Art Babbitt animated for the Disney studio
throughout the 1930s and through 1941, years in which he and Walt were
jointly driven to elevate animation as an art form, up through Snow
White, Pinocchio, and Fantasia.
But as America prepared for World War II, labor unions spread across
Hollywood. Disney fought the unions while Babbitt embraced them. Soon,
angry Disney cartoon characters graced picket signs as hundreds of
animation artists went out on strike. Adding fuel to the fire was Willie
Bioff, one of Al Capone's wiseguys who was seizing control of Hollywood
workers and vied for the animators' union.
Using never-before-seen research from previously lost records, including
conversation transcriptions from within the studio walls, author and
historian Jake S. Friedman reveals the details behind the labor dispute
that changed animation and Hollywood forever.
The Disney Revolt is an American story of industry and of the
underdog, the golden age of animated cartoons at the world's most famous
studio.
