As seen in part one of our look at Walt Disney’s political evolution, he actively tried to stay out of politics during the early years of The Walt Disney Company. He quietly voted for Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1936 before changing his allegiance to Republican candidate Wendell Willkie in 1940.
The first time he showed fervent support for a political candidate was for Republican presidential hopeful Thomas Dewey in 1944 (which he lost). He donated generously to the Dewey campaign and even gave a speech in support of Dewey at a massive rally in Los Angeles.
As Walt became more outspoken in national politics, he also became more concerned about the political climate in Hollywood. He had blamed a 1941 strike by Disney employees on communist infiltration, saying years later that “I definitely feel it was a Communist group trying to take over my artists.” By 1944, he had come to believe that Hollywood as a whole had come under communist influence.
Disney joined with dozens of likeminded Hollywood stars and became one of the founding members of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals (MPA) in February 1944. Besides Disney, the MPA counted prominent stars such as John Wayne, Gary Cooper, Clark Gable, Ronald Reagan, Barbara Stanwyck, Cecil B. DeMille, John Ford, Walter Brennan, and even author Ayn Rand as members.
The organization was created to dispel “the growing impression that this industry is made up of and dominated by communists, radicals and crackpots,” TIME Magazine reported at the time.
“We believe in, and like, the American way of life: the liberty and freedom which generations before us have fought to create and preserve; the freedom to speak, to think, to live, to worship, to work, and to govern ourselves as individuals, as free men; the right to succeed or fail as free men, according to the measure of our ability and our strength,” the organization’s statement of principles said.
“Believing in these things, we find ourselves in sharp revolt against a rising tide of communism, fascism, and kindred beliefs, that seek by subversive means to undermine and change this way of life,” it continued.
“As members of the motion-picture industry, we must face and accept an especial responsibility. Motion pictures are inescapably one of the world’s greatest forces for influencing public thought and opinion, both at home and abroad. In this fact lies solemn obligation. We refuse to permit the effort of Communist, Fascist, and other totalitarian-minded groups to pervert this powerful medium into an instrument for the dissemination of un-American ideas and beliefs.”
Several members of the MPA testified as friendly witnesses before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in the late 1940s — including Cooper and Disney.
HUAC had been established in 1938 to investigate activities undertaken by private citizens that potentially indicated disloyalty to the United States, and those suspected of communist ties or sympathies were heavily scrutinized, especially after the end of World War II and the beginning of the Cold War.
During his testimony before the committee in October 1947, Disney recounted the 1941 strike and how he believed that communist agitators had precipitated the labor unrest at Disney Studios. He claimed that one of the principal organizers of the strike, Hebert K. Sorrell, was a communist and said that Sorrell had privately bragged to him that communists had financially supported one of his previous strikes in 1937. Disney also asserted that there were no communists or fascists working at his company by 1947.
When asked his personal opinion of the Communist Party, Disney replied, “Well, I don’t believe it is a political party. I believe it is an un-American thing.”
Disney lamented that a few agents could infiltrate a union, take it over, and then begin espousing communist ideology despite the fact that most workers represented by the union were anti-communist.
“They are represented to the world as supporting all of those ideologies, and it is not so, and I feel that they really ought to be smoked out and shown up for what they are, so that all of the good, free causes in this country, all the liberalisms that really are American, can go out without the taint of communism. That is my sincere feeling on it,” he said.
When asked whether he wished to see the Communist Party outlawed in the U.S., Disney said, “I feel if the thing can be proven un-American that it ought to be outlawed. I think in some way it should be done without interfering with the rights of the people. I think that will be done.”
Reagan, then-president of the Screen Actors Guild and a member of the MPA, also testified before HUAC and alleged that communists were behind several Hollywood strikes.
Bettmann/Contributor. Getty Images.
John Wayne served four one-year terms as the MPA’s president from 1949 to 1953 and helped enforce the anti-communist Hollywood blacklist. The MPA’s activities gradually diminished after the end of the Red Scare in the late 1950s.
In 1952, Jacqueline Cochran, an aide to Dwight D. Eisenhower’s presidential campaign, approached Roy O. Disney, Walt’s brother and confidant, to ask for help with the Republican nominee’s advertising efforts. The Disneys allowed their animators to donate their time to create a new animated commercial in support of Eisenhower.
The resulting ad, titled “Ike For President” but more commonly known as “I Like Ike,” has become one of the most memorable political ads of the 20th century. Eisenhower’s campaign was the first to make extensive use of television ads, and “I Like Ike” was by far the most popular.
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After Eisenhower defeated the Democratic nominee, Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson, in a landslide, Roy wrote a letter to Cochran, saying, “The boys and girls all enjoyed working on the project and, of course, we are all very happy at the outcome of the election.”
After leaving the White House in 1961, Eisenhower served as the chairman of the Freedoms Foundation, and presented Walt Disney with the organization’s George Washington Medal of Honor in 1963.
“Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge honors Walt Disney, Ambassador of Freedom for the United States of America. For his educational wisdom and patriotic dedication in advancing the concept of freedom under God; for his unfailing professional devotion to the things which matter most, human dignity and personal responsibility; for masterful creative leadership in communicating the hopes and aspirations of our free society to the far corners of the planet,” Eisenhower said at the ceremony in Palm Springs, California.
During his acceptance speech, Disney remarked that one of the most important things his father taught him was to be grateful to be an American citizen, though he did quip about his father’s voting record.
“Frankly, he never voted on the right side. He was a blind Democrat. He was a dead socialist. But he was one that I learned a lot from, and a lot of his words have stuck with me.”
“If you could see close in my eyes, the American flag is waving in both of them, and up my spine is growing this red, white and blue stripe. I’m very proud and very honored,” he concluded.
Disney maintained a friendly relationship with Richard Nixon while he was vice president under Eisenhower. In one piece of correspondence, Walt requested that Nixon answer a young reporter’s question: “When I Grow Up, Mr. Nixon, Why Should I Be A Republican?”
Disney offered some advice to the vice president: “As to your reply, I can say only this: I think it will be most powerful if you confine it to three sentences or less. I realize such a reply is much more difficult than three paragraphs, but I do think the results will be worth the effort.” Disney even offered to set up an interview, but Nixon’s tight schedule prevented a meeting.
According to animation historian Michael Barrier, Disney attended the 1964 Republican National Convention, which nominated Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater as the party’s nominee. Only a couple of months later, President Lyndon B. Johnson presented Disney with he Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House.
“When he learned that he was to receive this honor, and that he was expected to go to the White House to receive it, I reacted with dismay. It was during the Goldwater campaign, and we were all united in enthusiastic support of the senator,” Walt’s eldest daughter, Diane Disney Miller, told Barrier.
Goldwater lost the election to Johnson that November in a landslide.
Disney, a heavy smoker most of his life, died of complications from lung cancer in December of 1966 at the age of 65.
The Motion Picture Alliance was officially disbanded in 1975 — the same year the House Un-American Activities Committee was abolished.
As we’ve seen, Walt Disney’s personal politics were a far cry from the initiatives being pushed by the modern Walt Disney Company. He consistently supported Republican candidates after 1940 and became increasingly concerned by the prospect that communists were trying to infiltrate the film industry. He, along with other conservative Hollywood stars of the era, recognized the importance of film and television in shaping public opinion on issues and acknowledged the danger to American ideals if leftists were able to completely control the nation’s entertainment.
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