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Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination Paperback – Illustrated, October 9, 2007
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Walt Disney was a true visionary whose desire for escape, iron determination and obsessive perfectionism transformed animation from a novelty to an art form, first with Mickey Mouse and then with his feature films–most notably Snow White, Fantasia, and Bambi. In his superb biography, Neal Gabler shows us how, over the course of two decades, Disney revolutionized the entertainment industry. In a way that was unprecedented and later widely imitated, he built a synergistic empire that combined film, television, theme parks, music, book publishing, and merchandise. Walt Disney is a revelation of both the work and the man–of both the remarkable accomplishment and the hidden life.
Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography and USA Today Biography of the Year
- Print length912 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherVintage
- Publication dateOctober 9, 2007
- Dimensions6.05 x 1.88 x 9.2 inches
- ISBN-100679757473
- ISBN-13978-0679757474
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Editorial Reviews
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—Washington Post Book World
“Gabler’s restless eye invigorates each page. . . . Part of the author’s formidable achievement is to take the intricacies of Disney’s devoted artistry and intertwine them with [his] life.”
—Los Angeles Times Book Review
“Far outshines any previous Disney bio, both in scope and in specificity. The domestic details are revelatory. . . . Walt Disney is looking at us–seemingly for the first time.”
—Entertainment Weekly
“Illuminating. . . . Engrossing. . . . Gabler paints a vivid portrait.”
—The New York Times Book Review
About the Author
Neal Gabler is the author of five books: An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood, Winchell: Gossip, Power and the Culture of Celebrity, Life the Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality, Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination, and, most recently, Barbra Streisand: Redefining Beauty, Femininity and Power for the Yale Jewish Lives series. His essays and articles have appeared in numerous newspapers and magazines, including The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, Esquire, Playboy, Newsweek, and Vogue, and he has been the recipient of two Los Angeles Times Book Prizes, Time magazine's nonfiction book of the year, USA Today's biography of the year, a National Book Critics Circle nomination, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Public Policy Scholarship at the Woodrow Wilson Center, a Shorenstein Fellowship at the Harvard Kennedy School, and a Patrick Henry Fellowship at Washington College's C.V. Starr Center. He has also served as the chief nonfiction judge of the National Book Awards. Gabler is currently a professor for the MFA program at Stonybrook Southampton.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Product details
- Publisher : Vintage; Reprint edition (October 9, 2007)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 912 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0679757473
- ISBN-13 : 978-0679757474
- Item Weight : 2.1 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.05 x 1.88 x 9.2 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #59,783 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #23 in Movie Director Biographies
- #57 in Art of Film & Video
- #599 in Actor & Entertainer Biographies
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I apologize for the long back story, but it's an integral part of my review and is what inspired me to write, so it bore mentioning. Neal Gabler's "Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination" is a fascinating, absorbing, and detail-filled examination of the life of a man who not only desired to re-create his own earlier, idealized rural (translation: Marceline) experiences, but who expanded that vision to the rest of the world through his pioneering work in both animation and entertainment. Nothing is missed: Walt's early and (perhaps even over-dramatized) difficult childhood; The creation of the Disney studio and it's early successes including Mickey Mouse, one of the world's most recognized artistic and commercial symbols; the animated triumph of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves; the devastating animator's strike of 1941, and the post-war metamorphosis from cutting edge folk artist to corporate defender of cold-war conservatism and "right-wing" values. Gabler manages to portray the whole story in a disarming and captivating, straight-forward, one would almost say, mid-western, tone that I for one can certainly relate to.
The resultant impact that Disney (and the huge mega-corporation he almost single-handedly created) has had on society, culture, and even politics has been mixed to say the least, and the book argues, successfully I think, that there is no clear-cut, clean and simplistic answer to the question, was it for good or ill? Ironic, considering that black and white, good versus evil simplicity versus shaded, ambiguous and complex meaning were recurring themes throughout his artistic life, and by extension, that of our country, more relevant than ever in this day and age. I found the book to be very balanced, with equal credence given to both sides of that coin. Occasionally, I found myself getting bogged down in the pedantic details of the development of the animation and the inner dynamics of the company. But they weren't too overwhelming, and in the end, they were both necessary and complementary to the main story of Disney's life. In fact, the book works on several levels: in-depth biography, socio-cultural exposition, artistic history lesson, and to boot, a damned interesting business read.
For me, in the end analysis, I was able to capture, or really re-capture through reading this fine book, a sense of my own childhood as seen through my family experiences in literally THE small-town America (once I got that Main Street, USA in both Disneyland and Disney World were modeled after his youthful memories of Main Street in Marceline, it all became clear). The idea that a substantial part of my world-view was shaped by watching Disney movies as a kid and heck, even as an adult, and the way Disney created an alternative universe, simplistic or not, that one can escape to (or do we live in it at least partially today?) is compelling. The book captures all of these ideas and more. I think that anyone, regardless of their connection to the Disney story, would feel the same, and that is the mark of a good book, now isn't it?
Finally, a shout-out: To my Aunt Erma, who still lives in that wonderful small town, I love you, Aunt Erma!
Please be kind if you read, this is my first book review!
Randy Blew
The truth is much more interesting than that.
Disney was an optimistic, hardworking go-getter with an astounding capacity for concentration who fell in love with the early twentieth century's high technology--motion pictures. Motion pictures drawn by hand.
He had the perseverance to start over again every time he failed artistically and financially. And fail he did. This is one of the most unlikely success stories ever told, since the Disney Brothers studio was working in a marginal field (animation) in a minor city (Kansas, then Hollywood, when the animation studios were all in New York), and attempting to make it as an independent producer just as the big studios were forming, eliminating independent competition in all but a few areas by 1928.
He made it because he had the unfashionable idea that quality would out, he had a tremendous amount of luck and he knew how to make appealing entertainment(Mickey Mouse was NOT the first successful character he created). Disney also had a real genius for hiring talented people. A surprising number of remarkable artists started with him in Kansas City, others were trained right on the studio lot.
Mr. Gabler's book is readable and contains much new information. Who would have thought that Charlie Chaplin was, at one time, Snow White's Prince? Chaplin, one of the few independent producers left by 1936, loaned his books for MODERN TIMES to the Disneys to help them ask fair prices for their landmark feature. For Disney's weak spot was running the business--he once actually forgot to add on the profit to the budget for a job in Kansas City, and was forced to work for cost of materials, with no salary for him or his animators! The 1941 strike by his artists was seen as a personal betrayal--but this strike can be predicted when you read about that early project. The Dream was the goal but (as an old cartoon states) coal is still somewhat important. Disney had his head in the clouds, and his brother Roy, who played the father's role to his sibling since childhood, was a major reason why Walt's feet were kept on the ground. It was a fine parntership and this is really a dual biography.
The truth about Disney is not sensational or scandalous--just refreshing after decades of inaccuracy and outright fabrication that somehow passed for fact.
The weakest part of the book is Gabler's attempts to psychoanalyze Walt's obsession with animation production as a desire to control his world. Of course he controlled his world. This is what all artists do. We animators love creating characters that APPEAR to think and move for themselves. They are really just an expression of our own sentiments and desires; we create life. That's what animation means. It's wonderful being able to control every aspect of the film's production-to be leading man, leading woman, and sets as well! Disney is hardly exceptional in this respect and the psychological insights don't ring true for me.
As one other animator told me, Disney was remarkable because 'he was the only man in the world who ever got 500 artists to work together in one building without KILLING each other!"
Buy this book.
Top reviews from other countries
Had no idea of this Biography even a few months ago. By chance I read two other books related to Disney - Bob Iger's "The Ride of a Lifetime" and then "Be Our Guest."
The information I read about the person Walt Disney made me interested to know him more and this I found this very book and ordered in scecptically as it was relatively expensive and also not much known.
But, I'm more than overwhelmed with this stately Biography of a man who change many of my inherent notions about the best of the CEOs ever and moreover about what all someone can achieve from whatever meagre background and adverse situations in life against all odds from all ends in life and livelihood.
Read it. And recommend it to anyone looking for one of the Must Read Biographies Ever!!
Leitura obrigatória para que aprecia a obra deste gênio.
Muito Motivadora .