When we discuss the life of Walt Disney, we do him a disservice by trying to pigeonhole him into archetypes. He was a complex, often difficult, frequently brilliant, man whose contradictions may have been as valuable as his talents.
He was the Twentieth Century’s greatest pop artist, though he had very little practical talent for the arts with which he was associated.
He was a symbol of futurism in America while being inextricably tied to the nation’s sense of nostalgia.
He revolutionized the use of music in films, television, and themed environments without knowing a thing about music or having ever, as far as we know, picked up a musical instrument.
He founded the largest, most successful, entertainment company in history though he was wildly irresponsible with money and the company was operating at a loss for much of his time running it.
Some of his work has formed legacies that have lasted for a hundred years and yet he was notoriously easy to bore and would move on to new things quickly.
Walt Disney was a man that the United States entrusted as the keeper of our national mythology for most of the twentieth century. We didn’t vote on it. No government position was created with a fancy office on Capitol Hill for him to occupy and issue decrees. There was no ornate seal with an eagle and his initials that had to be hung in the background every time he made public proclamations. He just did the work and we assented, silently but with pride.
Maybe we’ve learned a lot of things about history and culture since Walt left us. Maybe we look at his work a little more critically now. But it is worth taking a moment to appreciate a time where the work of one man was a thing we all agreed on. And to appreciate that he was a man who never stopped progressing.
“We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” — Walt Disney
Stay curious. Never stop learning. Do the best you can with the skills you have. Walt did.
Happy Birthday, Uncle Walt. I would have loved to have seen what you could’ve done with all the stuff we have now.
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Kelly McCubbin is a columnist for Boardwalk Times
