Art Babbitt, once a top animator at Disney's, talks about the studio strike he instigated which led to a lifelong feud with Walt and, arguably, dimmed his career.

Gunther Lessing, who was the vice president and legal counsel for the Disney Studio, called me in one day and said that we should form a union of cartoonists. I was very naïve and I didn’t quite know—I mean, here he was on the management’s side—why should he want a union? What he wanted was a company union that would keep regular unions from getting into the Studio. This is the first time it has ever been mentioned that Gunther Lessing had anything to do with the formation of the union. I’ve spoken of it to people, but this is the first time I’ve put it in recorded form.

So, anyhow, I got the message around the Studio, and very soon I was elected president of this company union. Our attorney at that time was a man by the name of Leonard Janofski, who was at that time legal representative for the Screen Writers Guild. I’m almost certain that this is the same Leonard Janofski who is now head of the American Bar Association. Leonard Janofski said to us, “Look, if you’re going to have a union, you should behave as a union behaves. The idea is to improve the conditions of the people who are represented, financially, safety-wise, medically, and so on.”

We had people at the Studio working for as little as $16 and $18 a week at that time. I happened to be fortunate: at that time my base salary was $200 a week, and stock distribution and bonuses brought my average salary up to $300. In other words, $15,000 a year, which at the height of the Depression was really something. I had two servants, a big house, entertained a lot, I had three cars, which is insanity, you know.

I called for a meeting with Gunther Lessing; Roy Disney, who was business head of the Studio; and Bill Garity, who was the production manager of the Studio, and I proposed that the inkers, who were the lowest paid, be given a two-dollar raise in pay, because even in those days you couldn’t survive on $18 a week. Later that afternoon, Roy Disney called me on the dictagraph—that’s like an intercom now—and said, “You keep your nose out of our business or we’ll cut it off!” I decided then and there that possibly I wasn’t doing the right thing. And mind you, on some of the meetings of the company union Gunther Lessing was present in my house. On one occasion I tried to get my assistant, Bill Hurtz, a raise. He assisted me on Fantasia. Bill Hurtz was a terrific artist, and no matter how bad my art was, he would make it look beautiful. He was getting $25 a week and I was trying to get him $27.50, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get this raise for him. When I asked for a raise for him, I was told to mind my own business, that if these people were worth it they’d be getting it, and to not care a goddamn about anybody, just worry about my own self. So I finally called Walt Disney and told him what I wanted, and Walt himself said, “Why don’t you mind your own god-damned business, if he was worth it he’d be getting it.” He said, “The trouble with you is that you and your communist friends live in a world so small you don’t know what’s going on around you.” So I said, “Well, if you can’t afford to give it to him, I’ll give him the two-and-a-half dollars a week, because he’s worth it and lots more, and furthermore, I don’t care what you think of my politics as long as you respect my work.” And I said, “If you care to follow me around in the evening you’ll find I still do have a friend or two.” At any rate, to show me that he could afford it, the next morning a whole group of assistants got two-and-a-half-dollar raises.

At that time the Screen Cartoonists Guild had tried to organize the Warner Bros. and MGM Cartoon Departments, and they asked for a meeting with me. They explained what their objectives were, and they asked if I’d join them in making an honest union, one that would really benefit the people we represented, and after thinking it over a few days I agreed to join them. I went about getting people to join the Guild at the Studio, and the way I would do it would be to have meetings in my home. I would have representative people from the Inking Department, for example, come to my house for drinks and a very nice dinner, and then I would give my little talk about unionization and joining this Screen Cartoonists Guild. I did this with all departments. I don’t think any union organization was ever carried on in this manner.

I also recruited on Studio grounds whenever I had the chance, and the Studio warned me not to solicit membership in this union on Studio property at any time. Well, it so happens that we had a law passed in 1936, I believe, called the Wagner Labor Relations Act. Essentially, the law said that no employer could prevent you from soliciting membership in a union. After a considerable amount of time in getting people to join, we had a sizable membership at the Disney Studio. We knew that if we didn’t win recognition at Disney’s, there would be no chance of winning recognition at any of the other studios.

So, the reason for the strike was to get union recognition, because as a group we would have more power to raise salaries and improve conditions. Another big reason for the strike was this: there were two men by the name of Willie Bioff and George Browne who controlled all of the studio unions except the painters, and they were crooks, they were henchmen of Al Capone. Willie Bioff was blown up in his car; his car was dynamited in Arizona or Nevada or someplace about ten or twelve years ago. These two men came out here, and through pressure made arrangements with the various studio heads that they would run the IATSE. The IATSE controlled all the theatrical and motion picture unions at that time, the studio teamsters, the studio carpenters, the studio set builders, the works. We little cartoonists didn’t want gangsters to run our union. It so turns out that the Disney Studio was working very closely with Willie Bioff and George Browne.

I was harassed for months before the strike by studio management, and told to cut out my union activities or else. Of course, I refused to acquiesce to that, and I went on just as I had before because I knew I had the law on my side. One day, to my surprise, I guess, two detectives from the Burbank police station appeared in my office and arrested me, and the charge against me was carrying a concealed weapon. My weapon was so concealed that to this day they have not found it. I was taken to the Burbank jail. Now there were just a few coincidences that day. One was that at 2:00 that afternoon I was scheduled to go to the National Labor Relations Board to give my deposition about why we wanted recognition, and how the Studio was thwarting us. The other coincidence was that the chief of police of Burbank was the brother-in-law of the chief of studio security at Disney’s. That’s just a coincidence. The detectives picked me up at noon, took my fingerprints, the whole bit, and put me in the Burbank jail. I wasn’t allowed to make any phone calls. I was put into a big cell which is called a cooler, where they put drunks, pimps, dope peddlers, and so on, and it was below street level. One tiny window. Near that little window a young boy, maybe 10, 12, would come by selling apples and cigarettes and things like that. Everything was taken from me when I was put in this little room, but one of the pimps had some money, and he bought apples and cigarettes for all of us, which made me think that, possibly, they had the wrong people in jail and the wrong people outside of jail. At any rate, the girl who was assistant chairman of the Disney unit of the Guild—I was the chairman—called the various jails, figuring I had to be in jail someplace, and finally she found out where I was in Burbank. All of a sudden, I was released and taken to Disney’s office, and Disney again gave me a fatherly lecture to the effect that if I lived right and thought right everything would be marvelous.

I guess I didn’t live right. A few weeks later, about lunch time, two Studio policemen came to get me. They handed me a very foolishly and stupidly written letter by this Gunther Lessing. The essence of it was that since they had repeatedly warned me to not do any unionization efforts or something like that at the Studio and I hadn’t obeyed them, I was being fired. No warning or anything like that. It so happens that I had a three-year contract with two more years to go, I had work in progress, but they fired me. So I said, “Alright, I’ve been here for many years, do you mind if I go get my pencils and things?” Well, it took me half an hour to get my pencils, and by that time quite a crowd had collected. The two policemen marched me out of the Studio gate, and there was quite a bit of commotion caused by the people who had witnessed this.

Continued in "Walt's People: Volume 3"!

Teenaged Floyd Norman (now a Disney Legend who celebrated his 80th birthday in 2015) recalls his first encounter with Walt Disney.

Well, I didn’t really meet Walt Disney the first time I saw him.

It was my first week at the Disney Studio as a young animation trainee. Seven of us were in an animation class trying to qualify as Disney animation artists. We were going through drawing exercises and classes.

One day we were told to report to the screening room up on the third floor of the Animation Building. While we waited in the hallway, we heard the elevator doors open at the far end of the hallway, and a shadowy figure emerged from the elevator. The figure moved slowly toward us backlit by the large window at the south side of the hall. Suddenly, we realized the man coming toward us was none other than Walt Disney. Backlit by the window, Walt seemed to be a vision. Like Moses coming down from the mount. All of us kids backed against the wall as Walt Disney walked past. He had a smile on his face because I’m sure he was amused by our silly behavior.

At this time in my career, I was just a kid who was afraid to talk to animators, much less Walt Disney. In time, I grew more confident, and got to know many of the Disney animators, and even some musicians and actors who worked at the Studio. Walt Disney spent most of his time with the story artists upstairs, and was rarely seen in the animation halls on the first floor. He would watch the films in “sweat box” sessions on the second floor, but none of us newcomers were invited to such meetings with the boss.

Still, Walt Disney was a friendly gentleman, and he would always speak to us as he walked past on the Studio lot. A conversation with Walt was reserved for the senior members of his team, or high-level employees. I never dared to even talk to Walt unless he spoke first. One day, one of my animation pals had a visitor from Africa. This little lady was a missionary, and had just seen Walt Disney’s The African Lion. We happened to see Walt strolling on the back lot, and my friend introduced Walt to the missionary. Walt was very proud of his new movie, but the missionary said the film was not all that accurate when it came to portraying African lions. Walt insisted the film was correct, and the missionary insisted it was not. This was one conversation with Walt Disney that turned out to be a very bad idea.

As time went on, Walt seemed to recognize me. He never called me by name, but often said, “Hiya, kid!” as he walked passed me in the hallway or on the Studio lot. I was pleased to be called “kid” because at least the boss seemed to know who I was. As I moved up the ranks, I was able to attend meetings and screenings with Disney. This was great, because I was able to hear from the boss himself. I got to know first-hand what he really liked or didn’t like and why. I think I learned a great deal, not so much by talking to Walt Disney, but by listening to him. Of course, I was just a kid, and really didn’t have anything to contribute. I was at the Disney Studio to learn, not to talk. One day, I did have a brief conversation with Walt Disney as he walked to his office. It was on a narrow walkway between the theater and the recording stage. After Disney went on his way, I kept thinking to myself, “Gee, Walt Disney actually talked to me!” That was many years ago, but I’ll never forget that day as long as I live.

Continued in "Walt's People: Volume 3"!