The truth behind Meryl Streep's Disney rant

Meryl Streep hit the headlines overnight thanks to a controversial speech she gave at the National Board of Review Awards reportedly calling out Walt Disney for being an ‘anti-semite’ and ‘gender bigot’.

Streep was there to present the Best Actress award to Emma Thompson for her role in ’Saving Mr Banks’ and made the remarks during a speech honouring the English actress. Thompson plays PL Travers in the film, the irascible creator of ‘Mary Poppins’, opposite Tom Hanks as Disney who is out to claim the film rights for the author’s famous creation.

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But what did Streep really say and is there any truth behind the uncharacteristically caustic blast from the highly-decorated actress?

Here’s what Meryl had to say on the issue of Walt and sexism:

"Some of [Walt Disney's] associates reported that Walt Disney didn't really like women" said Ward Kimball, who was one of the original "Nine Old Men" (Disney's chief animators). The creator of the Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter, Jiminy Cricket, said: 'He didn't trust women, or cats.’” You can read the full speech here on Vulture.

She pursued the line further later in her tribute to Thompson asserting, “[Disney] was certainly, on the evidence of his company's policies, a gender bigot."

She went on to read out an excerpt from a rejection letter sent by the Walt Disney company in 1938 to a young female animator looking to join the animation studio’s Inking and Painting department. It contained the missive, "Women do not do any of the creative work in connection with preparing the cartoons for the screen, as that task is performed entirely by young men. For this reason, girls are not considered for the training school.”

The letter is not signed by Walt himself, rather by representative of the company called Mary, and the excerpt chosen by Streep doesn’t tell the full story. The letter itself, which can be read in full below, falls short of refusing the applicant a job based solely on her gender, but it’s not far off.

Instead, the letter encourages the wannabe animator to “appear at the Studio, bringing samples of pen and ink and water color work.” A caveat is added, “It would not be advisable to to come to Hollywood with the above specifically in view, as there are really very few openings in comparison with the number of girls who apply.” Sage advice for a traveller from Arkansas.

As the letter isn’t directly written by Walt himself, it’s hard to label it as definitive proof of his ‘gender bigotry’.

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So what about those 'anti-semite’ remarks?

Here’s what the ‘Bridges of Madison County’ star had to say on the subject:  "Disney, who brought joy, arguably, to billions of people, was perhaps… or had some racist proclivities. He formed and supported an anti-Semitic industry lobbying group.”

Yes, it’s true that Disney did help form an industry lobbying group – The Motion Picture Alliance - in 1941, following a bitter labour dispute. The studio boss is said to have ejected supposed union bosses off the Disney lot during a four-month-long strike over low wages, which also saw other union members allegedly being fired to quash the revolt.

The dispute was eventually settled but many employees were not satisfied and this report from the LA Times, written by a Disney biographer, suggests most of the racist and anti-semite rumours began with those disgruntled strikers. There are, however, a few questionable moments of 'ethnic stereotyping' in some early 30s Disney cartoons, but these were not part of the point being made by Streep.

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The Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals (to give the group its full title) was a controversial group, counting many conservative members of Hollywood glitterati including Gary Cooper, Cecil B DeMille, Clarke Gable, Ronald Reagan, and John Wayne amongst its members.

Other industry bigwigs such as Louis B. Mayer and Jack Warner declined membership of the group which was against communism and ‘fascist infiltration’, apparently because many of the organisation’s members were known to be staunch anti-semites. The group officially disbanded in 1975.

The LA Times report concludes: “Even if Walt were guilty by association - and he was - it would be unfair to label him an anti-Semite himself. There is no evidence whatsoever in the extensive Disney Archives of any anti-Semitic remarks or actions by Walt -- only a few casual slurs by his brother Roy.”

Walt Disney was undoubtedly a controversial Hollywood personality, but was he guilty of the crimes levelled at him nearly 50 years after his death from lung cancer?

Perhaps we’ll never know for certain. Let's just hope Meryl Streep cashed her paycheque for 'Into The Woods', the film she's currently shooting for Disney, before she made the speech.

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