Insider 8mm Footage of the Disney Studios strike of 1941.
Johnny often talked about how, during the Great Depression of the 1930’s, the labor unions moved into Hollywood to organize the movie industry. It was a time of unrest and uncertainty; of Communist exaggerations and union corruptions. The mafia muscled in on the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE). Willie Bioff was the underling in charge of the screen capital’s recruitment for a labor union. The studios were in real trouble then. Most, if not all, of the movie studios were targeted.
In the beginning, Walt Disney Studios was not affected. Their staff were not members of any union, at least not openly. So the studio went about its business normally. This fact was probably due to the relationship between Walt Disney and the employees. They regarded him as a friend, respecting and standing a little in awe of him at the same time. He was rather a father figure, regardless of their main grievance against his policy for not giving screen credit for the contributions of others., until Snow White.
Snow White helped Disney Studio out financially. When times were tough, Disney told his men he would give them bonuses and raises when things got better. So the employees continued to work with no salary increase because they expected to have a share in the Disney profits. However, it never quite worked out in the way Walt had said. He said he had to put everything he could back into new productions.
The Hyperion studio was bursting at the seams, so they moved to the new Buena Vista Studio location in Burbank. The artists patiently waited for their increased benefits. The only screen acknowledgements were to be given to feature movies now, no cartoon credits.
Financially, things must have been very rough for Disney with the new studio expansion. Indeed, he finally had to sell stock in the open market. Stock was also offered to the employees at approximately $2.00 per share. He didn’t want to, but it was necessary for survival. Moving to the new location caused Walt to have to delegate more organizational and studio concerns to other people.
Disney Studios became the objective of the Screen Cartoonists Guild, led by Herb Sorrell. He signed up a lot of employees already disgruntled by what they felt were Walt’s unfulfilled promises. Sorrell prevented a “right of choice” secret ballot from taking place. Walt wanted the men to vote on a closed shop. Sorrell threatened Disney with national boycott. He declared Disney would be put on an ‘unfair’ list all over the country.
Johnny recalls, “I have movies of that strike. It was an ugly one. I got the film from a participating studio friend. Only less than half of the men walked the picket lines. The rest crossed over them.”
“I never walked the picket line. I didn’t believe all the rumors going around about Walt and the operations of the studio. I know he tried to tell the strikers at a special meeting what his position was. I think he felt betrayed, right or wrong. He was hurt because some of the men he had trusted very much were against him. He was even booed at the meeting.”
After that, things changed at the studio, Walt withdrew from his employees. The old camaraderie was lost. Johnny used to say, “All I know is that when I first went too work at the studio, it was like an honor system. You came to work, you did your job and when you finished you left. There were no strings on coffee breaks. Often you would go down to the cafeteria and sit ant talk to Walt over a cup of coffee. There were not time clocks. You were trusted to perform your allotted task and you did just that.”
Afterwards, when things settled down with union demands having been satisfied, there was a complete turn-around. Time clocks were installed, punched in and out for everything. Coffee breaks were limited. Walt did not fraternize with the men. He stood more and more apart from them. Decisions were being made by in-between executives.
