The Disney Version: The Life, Times, Art, and Commerce of Walt Disney

Front Cover
Simon and Schuster, 1985 - Biography & Autobiography - 449 pages
Richard Schickel's classic history of Walt Disney's life and times was the first to look behind the carefully nurtured avuncular image of the man. Some howled in protest at this criticism of their hero, but they failed to see that Mr. Schickel's book acknowledged Disney's profound influence on American popular culture. The Disney Version takes us from Walt's wandering youth through the desperate gamble of opening his own animation studio, his daring decision to crash Hollywood, the sudden and inspired invention of Mickey Mouse - and on to the creation of a multimillion-dollar international entertainment empire. Throughout, Mr. Schickel asks penetrating questions about Disney's achievements and shortcomings, and about the enormous popularity of the "Disney version."

Contents

Foreword
9
A Trial Balance
15
Touching Earth
45
K C to L A
67
Back to the Drawing Board
87
Bringing Forth the Mouse
115
Everyone Grows Up
137
Disneys Folly
171
The Long Pause
263
Disneys Land
295
A Final Balance
339
Disney Without Walt
365
Acknowledgments
428
Bibliographical Note
430
Index
438
Copyright

Troubled Times
229

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About the author (1985)

Richard Warren Schickel was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on February 10, 1933. He received a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1955. He became a noted film critic, Hollywood historian, and prolific author and documentarian. He reviewed films for Life magazine from 1965 until it closed in 1972, then wrote for Time until 2010 and later for the blog Truthdig.com. He wrote 37 books on movies and filmmakers and wrote or directed more than 30 documentaries including The Men Who Made the Movies. He wrote biographies of Woody Allen, Marlon Brando, James Cagney, Charlie Chaplin, Gary Cooper, Clint Eastwood, Lena Horne, and Elia Kazan. He also wrote a memoir entitled Good Morning, Mr. Zip Zip Zip: Movies, Memory, and World War II. He died from complications of dementia on February 19, 2017 at the age of 84.

Bibliographic information