December 15, 1966 –
Walt Disney, alleged neo-nazi, commie hater, union-buster and child pornography lover died on this day.
And he’s not a giant frozen popicle in Cinderella’s Castle nor buried beneath the Pirates of the Caribbean ride!
Let us compare of two of the modern era’s finest and most influential artists: Georges Seurat (December 2, 1859) and Walt Disney (December 5, 1901), both born in December.
Young Seurat studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and was strongly influenced by the work of Rembrandt and Goya. He studied optical science and aesthetic theory, and painted with a unique technique that he called “divisionism,” but which others came to call “pointillism.”
Young Disney arrived in Hollywood in 1923 with $40 in his pocket, a suitcase, and a sketchbook. He had not studied at any fancy French schools. He drew cute little pictures of funny little animals, called “cartoons.”
Seurat served a year of military service at Brest, then returned to Paris and had his drawing Aman-Jean at the official Salon in 1883. The following year, the Salon rejected the panels from his painting Bathing at Asnieres, so he stormed off with some friends and formed the Societe des Artistes Independentes (Guys Who Got Rejected by the Salon.)
Disney and his brother, Roy, sold a cartoon series called the Alice Comedies, and landed a distribution deal. Over the next four years, they continued to produce Alice Comedies and more than two dozen episodes of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.
In 1886, after two years of labor, Seurat’s Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Grande Jatte was the centerpiece of the Societe’s exhibition. It was hailed by critics, and he was recognized as the successor to the Impressionists.
In 1928, Disney conceived of a funny little mouse while on a train ride, and Steamboat Willie became the first sound Mickey Mouse cartoon on November 28, 1928, at the Colony Theater in New York. Mickey was an instant hit, and by 1930 he was already earning Disney significant merchandise deals.
Seurat and his followers were dubbed the “neo-impressionists.” Only at the time of his premature death in 1891 did his friends and family learn that he had been living with and had even fathered a child with his mistress.
Disney built an entertainment and recreation empire from Mickey Mouse, but was not frozen in liquid nitrogen after his death in 1966. His followers are called the “imagineers.”
(Seurat was not frozen, either. I believe he may have briefly dated Bernadette Peters.)
And so it goes
The Haus of Dcaligari 