Walt Disney: Hollywood's Dark Prince
LC Class | NC1766.U52 D5328 1994 |
Walt Disney: Hollywood's Dark Prince is a biography by Marc Eliot, presenting a darker picture of entertainer Walt Disney than his popular perception.
Summary
Eliot's book casts a shadow on some of Walt Disney's actions.
It discusses the urban legend that, in preparation for his death in December 1966, Disney had himself cryogenically frozen, in the hopes of being returned to life by medical science in the future. Eliot opines that the myth of Disney being frozen is probably false, although Disney did have a strong interest in cryonics.[1]
Eliot alleges his lifelong
The book also discusses the absence of a birth certificate for Walter Elias Disney and the possibility that Disney was actually born in 1890 to a peasant woman in Spain, then adopted by the Disney family alongside the possibility that Disney was later passed off as a full decade younger than he actually was. During that era, some birth certificates in various American states were never created or were lost or destroyed, so resolving this issue is impossible unless his body was exhumed and tested.
Reception
The book has received sharp criticism from wife Lillian and daughter Diane Miller[3] and some of the book's claims have been disputed by other authors.[4][5]
Animation historian
Disney historian Didier Ghez calls it on his website "the latest and by far most stupid and uninteresting "scandalous biography" of Walt".[8]
See also
- The Disney Version, the 1968 Richard Schickel book that is one of the first to be critical of Disney
- Walt Disney: An American Original, the 1976 biography by Bob Thomas
- Walt: The Man Behind the Myth, the 2001 documentary about Walt
References
- ^ Snopes
- ^ This tourist photo, allegedly taken on November 29, 1963, shows flags by the Matterhorn flying at half mast., davelandweb.com
- ^ LA Times
- Snopes.com
- ^ Summary of Walt Disney: The FBI Files by Richard L. Trethewey, retrieved January 2, 2008
- ^ Barrier, Michael (December 2006). "'Walter, Walter Everywhere'". MichaelBarrier.com. Retrieved May 13, 2014.
- ^ a b MichaelBarrier.com -- Essays: Walt's Goldwater Button
- ^ "Disney books about Walt himself".