Background on Walt Disney and the Bohemian Grove

Disney is back in the news after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said that he might put a prison next to Disney World. It’s stirred up the usual left/right bickering among people who really don’t know much about Disney, but do know whether or not they like DeSantis. Me, there’s a lot I like about DeSantis, as here, but then again he won’t try to stop the “COVID” mRNA/Remdesivir death program in Florida, and that’s a priority issue for me.

If you’re wondering whose side to be on about Disney, don’t. It isn’t politics. I think it’s as bad as everyone thinks, probably worse. Most of this article is an old rough draft, a collection of “cut and pastes” from sources that I intended to write an article on one day about the connection between Walt Disney and the Bohemian Grove.

I never got around to writing that article, but the information I would have used is below. I would have researched it further, this isn’t much, but there is enough to give you some basis for a summary conclusion that I will make anyway. Due to my time constraints of work, I have to put out rough drafts.

If you’re like me, you probably heard of Bohemian Grove in northern California from a documentary done by Alex Jones in the summer of 2000. After breaking that video down and gleaning all the information I could from numerous sources, I think I can say with a high degree of certainty that Bohemian Grove was a “Freemason” human sacrifice theme park, which showcased several ancient rituals and “religions” lost to history, or so we thought.

Walt Disney was influenced by Bohemian Grove and set out to build his own theme park. And yes, he was almost certainly a pedophile. He went around selling baby pictures in his early days. Etc. Anyway, that’s it. some of the sources are below.

TIMELINE

December 5, 1901. Walt Disney born in Chicago.

1910. The next stop in Walt’s life was Kansas City, where the family arrived in 1910. Archbridge Institute

December 1918. Then the boys heard about the American Ambulance Corps, part of the Red Cross, which needed drivers. While this service also required recruits to be seventeen, the two lied and got in. Next, Walt needed a passport, which required his parents’ signature. Elias refused, saying it was a “death warrant” for Walt, but Flora forged Elias’s name, figuring that Walt was so determined that he’d run away if she didn’t.

Walt then got the influenza virus that killed millions around the world. Two of his friends died, but Walt recovered.

On December 4, 1918, Walt landed in France. A whole new world opened up to him as he explored the streets of tiny villages. He soon arrived in Paris. Walt drove ambulances but was also assigned to the motor pool—taxiing officers around Paris and later in a rural area. He learned every street and shortcut. As the war subsided, he worked alongside German prisoners, befriending some of them. Walt sold war souvenirs to make money to send home. He explored the countryside, drawing everything he saw. His year in France added immeasurably to his understanding of the world and to his maturity. (Ray Kroc, the man behind the rise of McDonald’s, also lied about his age, served in the ambulance service at the same time, and met Walt in France.) Archbridge Institute

December 31, 1918. Born in Kansas City, Missouri on December 31, 1918, to a homemaker and a traveling salesman, Virginia began taking dance and dramatic lessons at age two. A couple of years later, when Walt Disney was struggling with his first Studio, Laugh-O-gram Films, he remembered the girl’s long blonde Mary Pickford-style ringlets and charming smile from a local ad, and placed a call to her parents to see if she would star in Alice’s Wonderland. D23

October 1919. In October of 1919, Walt returned home via New York City, his first visit to and exploration of the great city. In two months, he would turn eighteen. While the people we have covered in the American Originals series often had diverse experiences in their early years, none of them exceeded the lengths (literally) that Walt Disney went to in order to “see the world”—and to observe it, to learn. Archbridge Institute

1920. Walt Disney becomes employed as a commercial illustrator. Wikipedia.

May 1922. Archbridge Institute These efforts led to a second try at working on his own. He quit the Film Ad Company. On May 23, 1922, twenty-one-year-old Walt incorporated Laugh-O-Gram Films with $15,000 raised from investors at $250 to $500 each. Soon Walt was joined by Ub Iwerks, five other animators, a secretary, business manager, and “a girl to ink and paint the celluloids.” A New York film distributor sent a $100 deposit check and promised $11,000 in six months for six cartoons but went broke before making the payment. Walt continued to shoot newsreels, even flying in an early airplane to film aerial acrobatics. He took baby pictures to add to the company’s cash flow. The company still struggled, borrowing another $2,500 to stay in business. Walt often slept in the office, with nowhere else to go after his brother’s house was sold. Finally, even Walt’s strongest backers, including brother Roy, were unable to advance any more money, and Laugh-O-Gram Films went bankrupt. While many would have given up (and followed his father’s advice to choose a better career), not Walt. He went door-to-door selling baby pictures, then sold his camera, until he had enough money to buy a one-way train ticket to California. In 1923, he arrived in Los Angeles with the clothes on his back, a half-filled suitcase, some drawing materials, and $40 in his pocket.

1923. Davis was hired by Disney in 1923 when he was a struggling filmmaker in Kansas City, and later worked with him in Hollywood. She was the first of several girls to have the title role in the series of "Alice" comedies that ran from 1923 to Davis was filmed in front of a white cloth draped over a billboard in a vacant lot. Animated characters were later added alongside Davis.Davis later sang, danced, and acted in such films as "Three on a Match," "The Harvey Girls" and "Weekend in Havana." She also occasionally worked for Disney, providing supporting voices for "Pinocchio" and working in the studio’s ink-and-paint department. Later in life, Davis became an interior decorator, magazine editor and real estate agent before retiring. Slideplayer

Summer 1923. Walt Disney arrived in California in the summer of 1923 with a lot of hopes but little else. He had made a cartoon in Kansas City about a little girl in a cartoon world, called Alice’s Wonderland, and he decided that he could use it as his “pilot” film to sell a series of these “Alice Comedies” to a distributor. Soon after arriving in California, he was successful. A distributor in New York, M. J. Winkler, contracted to distribute the Alice Comedies on October 16, 1923, and this date became the start of the Disney company. Originally known as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, with Walt Disney and his brother, Roy, as equal partners, the company soon changed its name, at Roy’s suggestion, to the Walt Disney Studio. D23

10.16.23. A distributor in New York, M. J. Winkler, contracted to distribute the Alice Comedies on October 16, 1923, and this date became the start of the Disney company. Originally known as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, with Walt Disney and his brother, Roy, as equal partners, the company soon changed its name, at Roy’s suggestion, to the Walt Disney Studio. D23

Eventually realizing cartoons were his best shot to get into the movie business, he went to the office of Los Angeles theater owner Alexander Pantages, hoping to sell him on cartoon shorts. Pantages’s secretary told Walt, “Mr. Pantages would not be interested.” A voice from behind a door said, “How do you know I wouldn’t?” Pantages said he would be interested in Walt’s product. Walt set up a cartoon production rig in his uncle’s garage.

At the same time, he sent Alice’s Wonderland off to a New York distributor, hoping to get a deal. Receiving a positive response, on October 16, 1923, Walt signed a contract with the distributor, MJ Winkler, for six Alice comedies at $1,500 each, followed by six more at $1,800 each. This seemed like a fortune to Walt. Unable to get a loan from a bank on such a risky venture, Roy financed Walt’s efforts and became his partner in the “Disney Brothers Studio,” a fraternal relationship that lasted beyond Walt’s death. Archbridge

December 1923. Walt and Roy were filming Alice Comedies and were looking for a distributor. They managed to find one and signed a contract with Margaret J. Winker, a New York cartoon distributor, and agreed to deliver 12 Alice Comedies series. On December 26, 1923, they produced the first comedy series, Alice’s Day at Sea, and received $1,500 for it. Astrum

Spring 1924. By the spring of 1924, the Alice comedies were showing in theaters. Things were looking up for the twenty-three-year-old entrepreneur and his thirty-one-year-old brother. That summer, Walt convinced Ub Iwerks to join him, moving from Kansas City. In December, their distributor signed up for eighteen more “Alices,” to be distributed to theaters through Universal Studios. More animators moved from Kansas City or were hired locally, including many who went on to fame on their own after working for Walt. In July 1925, the Disney brothers made a $400 down payment on a sixty-by-forty-foot lot on Hyperion Avenue, where they built a new studio in 1926 Archbridge

1926. The original Disney Studio had been in the back half of a real estate office on Kingswell Avenue in Hollywood, but soon Walt had enough money to move next door and rent a whole store for his studio. That small studio was sufficient for a couple of years, but the company eventually outgrew it, and Walt had to look elsewhere. He found an ideal piece of property on Hyperion Avenue in Hollywood, built a studio, and in 1926, moved his staff to the new facility. D23

1928. Stories abound about the birth of Mickey Mouse, but one thing is clear: twenty-six-year-old Walt needed a character to replace Oswald; he needed a character he controlled. So the Mouse was born. The first Mickey Mouse film was 1928’s silent Plane Crazy (the sound was added later), inspired by Charles Lindbergh’s solo flight across the Atlantic. But Walt could not find any distributors to sell it to theaters. Archbridge

1929. By 1929, Mickey Mouse had become a national craze, with Mickey Mouse Clubs springing up everywhere. At theaters, audiences would shout, “What? No Mickey Mouse?” if the little character did not appear before the film. While the company should have been profitable, checks from their New York distributor were slow to arrive. When Walt went to meet with the distributor, he was told that he could work for the distributor for a big paycheck ($2,500 per week) and that Ub Iwerks had signed on to leave Walt and work for the distributor. Once again, others were undercutting the Disney brothers and trying to deny them their fair share of the profits. Archbridge

1934. One night in 1934, Walt informed his animators that they were going to make an animated feature film, and then he told them the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. There were some skeptics in the group, but before long everyone had caught Walt’s enthusiasm, and work began in earnest. It took three years, but the landmark film debuted on December 21, 1937 and became a spectacular hit. Snow White soon became the highest-grossing film of all time, a record it held until it was surpassed by Gone with the Wind. Now Walt Disney’s studio had firmer footing. The short cartoons paid the bills, but Walt knew that future profits would come from feature films. D23

1934. .pdf: A Relative Advantage:Sociology of the San Francisco Bohemian Club. The San Francisco Chronicle reported on the progress of the new building (1-19- 34) describing the six story, $1,000,000 construction project as one of "the finest physical plants of its kind in the world." A Chronicle story on March 31, 1934 described how the new modern soft diffused lighting, the Club would install, was similar to that used in the Municipal Opera House. The formal dedication of the new clubhouse occurred October 13, 1934 with the oldest living Bohemian unlocking the doors. The Chronicle story on Sunday, October 14th was significantly shorter and more subdued than the Chronicle article covering the 1910 opening. Instead of describing the grandeur of the new clubhouse the Chronicle simply stated in a seven paragraph article: The new structure adds two floors of bedrooms, and also houses an improved Jinks room or theater seating more than 750, a permanent art gallery, a smaller art gallery, an improved library and a roof solarium.

7.X.36. Walt Disney drawing at Bohemian Grove.

Walt Disney attended Bohemian Grove in 1936. On page 136 of his book, Walt Disney: An American Original, Bob Thomas mentioned what happened during Disney’s visit. “In 1936 he was invited to the annual encampment of the Bohemian Club,” wrote Bob Thomas, “a San Francisco organization of artists and civic figures. The ritual consisted of wining, feasting and camping out in a redwood grove north of San Francisco Bay. When Walt returned to the studio, he complained of being unable to sleep because of the symphony of snores in nearby tents. He described and reproduced each of the snores to the hilarity of his story men. The result was the snoring sequence in the Dwarfs’ cottage.” Whatistruth911.

Bohemian Club book featuring rare Mickey sketch by Walt Disney

Signed book: Ivanhoe. Member edition. San Francisco: Bohemian Club, 1936. Hardcover, 5.25 x 8, 107 pages. Signed on the reverse of the first free end page in pencil by Disney, who adds a wonderful sketch of Mickey Mouse.  rrauction

December 1937. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiers using owls.

8.X.1941. In 1941, on the eve of America's entry to World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt wanted to curb the influence of Nazis and fascists in South America. So the President enlisted someone who embodied the American capitalist spirit: Walt Disney.   The president sent Disney to Latin America, where the influence of Nazis and fascists was growing. So Disney went with 16 of his artists on an extended trip to Brazil, Argentina and Chile.  (was asked by Nelson Rockefeller, CIAA)

Walt Disney and a group of artists disembark in Rio de Janeiro to begin their nine-week journey through Latin America in August 194

1941. Walt Disney drawing Goofey in Argentina 1941

Charles Wright