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MU PROFESSOR EXPLORES THE MAGICAL WORLD OF DISNEY IN RECENTLY RELEASED PAPERBACK BOOK
COLUMBIA, Mo.-- A historian at the University of Missouri-Columbia spent nearly six years exploring the person many call "the man behind the mouse" -- Walt Disney. Now, the findings of his research, which explore the life of Disney and his powerful influence on American culture, are available in his recently published paperback book, "The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life."
According to Steven Watts, professor of history at MU, Disney was a man who was, on one side, the popular stereotype -- creative, good-hearted and friendly. However, Watts also found Disney to be a demanding commercial entrepreneur.
"Walt Disney was a very complex man. His enormous creativity and enthusiasm were contagious as the studio's artists and technical staff would be swept away by the inspiring force of his personality and vision," Watts said. "Yet, Walt also could be a domineering presence who drove his staff relentlessly. He was a man both loved and feared at the Disney Studio."
Other issues Watts explores include the social agenda and cultural ideals of Disney. His research found that Disneyland was designed to be a tightly controlled setting where technical experts would shape people's experiences. Watts traces Disney's utopian social ideals back to his life in Marceline, Mo. Although Disney's family spent less than four years there, his memories painted Marceline as a perfect small town community, which he then tried to model in Disneyland's Mainstreet USA.
Watts has conducted an extensive amount of research including interviews with Disney's widow, the late Lillian Disney, and his daughter, Diane Disney Miller. He also made numerous trips to the Disney Archives in Burbank, Calif. The archives are the home of thousands of documents dating back to the beginning of the company, as wells as hundreds of tape-recorded reels of Disney and others who worked in the studio.
"The research for this book was a labor of love," Watts said. "It involved thousands of hours of work digging through documents, letters, art work and transcripts at the Walt Disney Archives. More fun were the many interviews I conducted with Disney family members, actors such as Fess Parker - of 'Davy Crockett' fame - and studio artists now in their 80s who had worked on such classic films as 'Snow White' and 'Fantasia.'"
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