Customer Reviews

Walt Disney: Hollywood's Dark Prince

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

If your wanting to learn about the life of Walt Disney, this is one of the two books you MUST read. The other being "Walt Disney: An American Original". This book does an excellent job of walking through the great Mr. Disney's life from the eyes of many people other than those close to his family. It provides very interesting insights into Disney's experiences with the more unpleasant aspects of building a business legacy, such as breaking into the Hollywood community, labor unions, personal hardships, family and business squabbles, friendships gained and lost, and of course...many of his activities as a special industry contact agent for the FBI. But this book never turns into a "mud-slinging" read. It strikes a very good balance of pointing out Disney's unique qualities, good and bad. Although Disney is somewhat of an enigma, this book makes us appreciate that he was, after all, just a man. I would have liked to see the book go on for another 50+ pages with more info on the last 10 years of his life, as the book did seem to rush through those years. But that does not detract from the enjoyment of this book. For more insights into Disney's last years (1970+), I recommend the book "Prince of the Magic Kingdom: Michael Eisner".

I love the World That Walt Built beyond all reason. I've studied Disney corporate history, I own stock in the company, and I read anything about it I can lay my hands on.

That said, I know how difficult it is to get a true account of Walt Disney. The company has offered up his image of sainthood for years, making it increasingly difficult to get past that glossed perfection. Disney will do anything to protect its image (understandably so) and this applies lavishly to whitewashing Walt.

I found this book a very moving account of a man brutally abused as a kid, who went through life striving through his unique genius to create and secure the childhood he never had. The book charts Walt's many heights of seeing his various visions to fruition, and the subsequent depression once a dream is realized--the cycle of creativity for us all. And if the book dwells on his considerable darkness, well, there's plenty of room for that. Something needs to balance out the company's, and other writers' God-hype about Walt. His shadow is laid out compassionately in these pages, and Walt Disney stands all the taller for it.

...there was a shy boy who loved to draw and turned out to be one of the greatest icons of the Twentieth Century. This is the story of Walt Disney told by Marc Eliot. The book tells us about Disney's youth, his relationship with his parents and later his wife (Lillian) and children. It also tells how he started his company and how important his brother Roy turned out to be for Walt's achievements, because Walt Disney wasn't a businessman, but an artist who, ironically, couldn't draw so good himself. I don't claim that Walt Disney had no drawingtalent, but I regard that his greatest "gift" were his fantastic ideas (e.g. about what a story/tale successful makes)and his perseverance. Anyhow, Eliot has written a credible book which is fun and easy to read, although he emphasizes the "negative" trait of Walt's character, but Eliot doesn't judge Disney on that, that's something the reader should do. I found this book refreshing and it made me eager to learn more about a true genius, Walt Disney.

There are many "sanctioned" biographies and there are precious few sources like "Hollywood's Dark Prince." Is it sensationalist? Of course, painting Walt as a super-patriotic, slightly anti-semitic, homophobe is going to shake people up. But I think people need to consider the fact that Walt Disney was a man, and far from perfect.
Disney's behavior during the strike years is especially telling, and his passion for his studio and films had to have taken a toll in his personal life- which Eliot explains in heartbreaking detail. This book discusses aspects of Disney, the man and the company, that few 'official sources' explore in detail. Eliot has stood by his research and I feel that some of the most sensationalistic aspects are taken out of context. While it is not a completely neutral book, I feel that it should be considered along side other books about Walt Disney when one is trying to understand who Disney was as a person.

Other readers have pointed out the flaws in this book, most of them dealing with errors of fact and the author's tendency to spin yarns from a few disconnected pieces of Disney's life. While it's true that he's done that, he also has unflinchingly laid bare the abuse in Walt's early life (which is glossed over in other authorized bios) and how he reacted to it.

If Eliot really wanted to do a number on Disney, he might have charged many other things, but even he doesn't dare suggest that, for example, Disney's interest in the Mouseketeers was anything other than absolutely normal paternal interest. (He does suggest, from one photograph reprinted in the book, that Disney may have had an affair with Dolores del Rio, but there's absolutely no substantiation for that in the text.)

I personally am a huge fan of all things Disney and a great admirer of Walt Disney himself. His achievements were so towering that it seems petty to worry about his less-than-perfect side. When Eliot refers to `careers ruined' at Disney Studios, he's speaking of employees who felt stifled by the atmosphere and who did not receive as much credit as they would have liked for their achievements. But Disney made it plain from the beginning that he was going to promote the Disney name and nothing else, and it worked beautifully. Anyone who was looking for more personal glory had the option of leaving, and many did. Those who stayed had to know what the rules were.

The one new revelation here that I have to admit intrigues me is Eliot's assertion that Disney's favorite breakfast, when he ate alone at his studio desk, was fresh doughnuts dunked in scotch. (Eliot claims Disney's drinking was excessive.) Photos of the aging Walt Disney show him with the red cheeks and bloodshot eyes of a habitual drinker. So perhaps Eliot is right about this.

However, if Walt really did begin his day with fresh doughnuts dunked in scotch (I can't explain why, but I find this endearing), and every bio of him has already stressed his extreme dependence on cigarettes, well, to me the wonder isn't that he died as young as he did, but that he LASTED as long as he did ... And how lucky for all of us that he did.

I thought parts of this bio were genuinely interesting, but it did not make me love Disney less, just sympathize with him more.

Walt Disney was a visionary, but he was still human. I've read many biographies of Walt Disney and they are almost all pretty much the same, and there's a reason for that; The Walt Disney Company's PR people hand out the same information to anyone writing a bio on him.

Reading between the lines of all the other biographies, I always got the impression that Walt's dad was a bully, a coward, and a jerk, but there was just little hints of his behaviour here and there. This book reveals more of what Walt's early life was like, and how it shaped him as an adult.

The book might be a little silly sometimes, but there is actually some balance. The author does praise Disney often for his vision and creativity. I wish more time was speant on Ub Iwerks and his relationship with Disney.

Anyway, it will round out your view of Disney and perhpas help you to appreciate him just a bit more despite his foibles. He was only human.

I'm not saying don't read this book, just take the author's pronouncements with a grain of salt. It is a fascinating subject that deserves better research, but at least the book's negative conjectures help balance out the corporate suppressions found in the authorized biography.

In the first chapter, the author informs us that Elias Disney (Walt's father) got married in the spring of 1888 and his first child (Herbert) was born later that year. Elias soon got bored with the tedium of having a new baby in the house and enlisted to fight in the Spanish-American War. Seven days into basic training he became disillusioned and was given a medical discharge for a suspect knee. He returned to Florida in time to see his Florida orange grove destroyed by a record frost in the spring of 1889.

The problem with this account is that the Spanish-American War actually happened ten years later (from April-August 1898). This is one of the few assertions in the chapter that can be easily checked. If Eliot was that careless or indifferent about his research, one is reluctant to credit his more "out-there" conjecture, like: "Because paper and pencils were rarely available, Walt improvised, usually with a piece of coal on toilet paper. That was all he needed to pass a free hour sketching the gentle farm animals he considered his only true friends. He especially loved the feeling when they brushed up against him while he lay in the tall grass trying to capture their likenesses".

It is hard to imagine any biographical subject prone to as much distortion as Walt Disney; for corporate reasons or for personal ones. So readers would be advised to read ANY Disney biography for its entertainment value, not for its historical accuracy or objectivity.

Than again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

If you are like me and really interested in all things Disney and learning about all sides of Walt Disney this is the book for you. The 1 star reviews are complete fabrications of Disney fan boys that can't take the truth and rather hear only the details of the good times and moments. I've read Bob Thomas's "Walt Disney: An American Original" and although really good, the book doesn't go into the details of the troubled times like Marc Eliot's Hollywood's Dark Prince does. The interviews are done with close sources, friends, animators and artists that were right next to Walt and in his reach for many years that have never been asked to be a part of any of the "authorized" biographies.

Here are a few things that the 1 Star reviewers say Marc Eliot says but ACTUALLY DOES NOT SAY in this book:

The book saying Walt Disney was adopted - Actually, because Walt's birth certificate had a date of 10 years prior before Disney was actually born and because Walt's father Elias used to beat him badly and daily, Walt used to question the way his father treated him. Thinking he may have been adopted. Through the way he handled things as an adult and with his company, anyone can see that Walt had a troubled childhood. So no, that's not in this book.

The book focusing on all the negative things - Actually, this book doesn't really offer an opinion but offers facts on the issues that Walt Disney faced. I think the 1 star reviewers didn't want to hear any of the details of the bad because all of the authorized books glorify all of the triumphs in fine detail while speaking very little of the specifics in the way Disney treated his employees, family and work relationships.

Overall this book is a really good read. You will learn that yes Disney was just a person like you and me that also made mistakes. Of course he could have handled things differently and treated his employees better but you wonder had he not been this way would he have been as successful as he had been? This book will not make you hate Walt Disney but it will definitely give you more perspective on why the Disney brand is so strong and why things are done the way they are in movies and at the parks to this day.

Great book. Read it!
And also go to youtube and type in "Walt Disney Secret Lives Documentary" in the search bar for a part 1-6 documentary about the dark side of Disney with interviews with the people mentioned in the book, Marc Eliot himself and other Disney Biographers and past workers.

Allegedly the first biography released without full consent of the studio, Eliot offers an unflattering portrait of Uncle Walt. While some of his assertions are absurd (Disney's incestous relationship with his daughter, Disney's predisposition to cross dressing as part of an alleged Norman Bates complex), the book does address many of the issues that had not been publicly acknowledged prior to it's release. Disney's involvement with the House of UnAmerican Activities Commitee in the 1950s, the animator's strike of the 1940's that nearly crippled the studio, and the fact the Disney studio was the first animation studio to delegate menial tasks to women, are all addressed in this book.
Is it totally legit? No.
Does it make for an enjoyable read? Yes.

The information in the book is fine and sometimes eyebrow raising. However, I get the sense the author got pushed around by Disney so much that he has an axe to grind. Flip comments about how Walt couldn't peform on his wedding night. Why should I believe that and how could that be relevant? Skip the book and read the book jacket- you'll save precious time.