The cruel reality of Disney's world. A new book strips away the last illusions about kind Uncle Walt to reveal an uncaring husband, bullying boss and rabid anti-communist witch-hunter. Paul Harris in New York Sunday November 26, 2006.
He bestrode America's 20th-century cultural landscape like a colossus, churning out an idealised cartoon vision of reality that influenced the world. He was kindly 'Uncle Walt', the amiable old man all American children loved like a member of their own family.
Now a new biography of Walt Disney has cast a fresh light on one of the most elusive characters of modern American history. The picture that has emerged is far from the genial figure of legend. Disney has emerged as a troubled man, a lonely and reclusive depressive. He also notoriously ill-treated his staff and close friends and was a ferociously right-wing anti-communist during the Forties and Fifties.
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