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Routledge is a global publisher of academic books, journals and online resources in the humanities and social sciences.
(1901 – 1966) Walt Disney brought visions and values of small-town America to mass media and theme parks; his multimedia conglomerate continues to grow after his death. Disney characters, films, books, toys and places, aggressively marketed, have sold America as a magical kingdom to a global audience. Others have read the man and his legacy as an evil empire defined by exaltation of carefully controlled consumerism, with over 400 Disney stores around the world selling everything from lunch boxes to the Tarzan CD-ROM.
As an artist in Kansas City Kansas in 1919, Disney became involved in the production of local animation/live-action shorts (Laugh-O-Grams). By 1923 he had moved to Los Angeles, CA and created his own creative team and formats for animation. By 1928, after business setbacks mediated by brother Roy Disney produced Steam-boat Willie, which united Mickey Mouse with sound (Walt did the voice). Over time, Disney’s productions increased in quality (with music and color in the Silly Symphonies series), while merchandising of Mickey and other items built revenues.
In the 1930s, Disney Studios pushed the boundaries of animation, including the first animated feature film Snow White (1939) and the growing artistry and complexity of Pinocchio (1941) and Fantasia (1942), despite continuing financial concerns and sometimes problematic labor relations. After the Second World War, Disney’s ability to control products and profits from re-releases, marketing tie-ins and new ventures provided a foundation to move into television and Disneyland (1955). The company also continued to control its labor force tightly supporting HUAC investigations of Hollywood labor organizers.
From Disney’s initial televisual outing, ABC’s Disneyland (1954–8), which promoted the planned theme park on its first show, some form of Disney prime-time children’s television showcase continued for thirty years, although changing titles and networks (in addition to the child ensemble of the Mickey Mouse Club, ABC, 1955–9). Disney continued to seek creative development and public recognition through films like Mary Poppins (1964), plans for a larger, visionary Disneyworld and publicity suggesting him for a Nobel prize. At his death in 1966, primary ownership of the studio stayed with the family Roy Disney finished the Florida project before his death in 1971, by which time studio profits had reached $250 million.
Despite the creative heritage the Disney corporation controlled, the next decade saw diffuse initiatives in films and audiences. By the early 1980s, corporate Disney was vulnerable to takeover battles that attracted Ivan Boesky and Michael Milken. Finally in 1984, the family reasserted control, bringing in Michael Eisner, Frank Wells and Jeffrey Katzenberg to revitalize the company. Their initiatives spurred Disney production in mature films (Touchstone, Hollywood Pictures, Buena Vista), distribution (Miramax), radio, television, cable, multimedia and, finally the second golden age of Disney animation with Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1987), The Little Mermaid (1989) and successors. Disney theme parks continued a global expansion in Tokyo (1983), a stillgrowing EuroDisney (1992) and Hong Kong (estimated opening 2005), augmented by the urban Disney-Quest concept and Caribbean cruises.
Disney’s corporate growth was rocked by the Eisner/Katzenberg split (as well as problems with Michael Ovitz), and subsequent court cases dragged out details of finance and vituperation. In 1996, nonetheless, Disney moved to acquire the ABC network, creating a concentration of entertainment power that has generated worries about conflicting interests in journalism and creative competition. With Celebration, its new urbanist planned community near Disneyworld, the corporation has blurred the boundaries of theme park and idealized “real life.” The Disney saga revels in many themes of American ideology—making it through work, promoting freedom, supporting family and hometown. Darker shadows appear in heavy-handed control of labor, stereotypes of gender, race and place, and incessant selling, not of the last product but the next. Here, its expanse, power and ideologies remain themes of concern even as new generations of children worldwide delight in these products themselves.
Industry:Culture
(1901 – 1971) Beloved jazz cornetist, singer and movie personality whose career spanned six decades. Born in poverty in New Orleans, Armstrong’s talents led him to fame with swing bands in Chicago and New York City, NY, where his style moved from New Orleans Dixieland ensembles towards more innovative solos and scat singing (jazz improvisation without words). His unique gravelly voice also established American standards like “Hello Dolly!” and “What a Wonderful World,” while he became known through concerts, movies and other appearances worldwide. His autobiography, Satchmo, appeared in 1956; he is also the subject of several documentaries.
Industry:Culture
(1901 – 1974) Architect most controversial for breaking away from the international style in his designs of the 1950s. Born in the Russian Empire, Kahn designed workers’ housing and private residences in the 1930s and 1940s in the form of the international style. His mature works, including the Richards Medical Research Building (1960–5) in Philadelphia, PA and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies (1959–65) in La Jolla, California, attempted to look to history without reviving it in the creation of distinct “servant” and “served” spaces. This design technique made reference to both classical and medieval architecture, creating laboratories of architectural note for the first time.
Industry:Culture
(1901 – 1994) Scientist, activist and the only figure to have won two unshared Nobel prizes.
Pauling’s scientific work originally focused on the nature of chemical bonds and their impacts on complex formations like proteins for which he received the Nobel Laureate in Chemistry (1954). He also worked against the spread of atomic weapons, organizing a 1958 petition to the UN signed by 11,000 scientists. This work led to the Nobel Peace prize in 1962. In his later years, he became absorbed by the possibilities of Vitamin C in fighting cancer and extending human life, an enthusiasm other scientists did not share.
Industry:Culture
(born 1902) Perennial senator from South Carolina. Thurmond was elected as a Democratic governor in 1946, but veered away from Truman’s civil rights agenda to head the splinter Dixiecrat presidential ticket in 1948. Winning a write-in ballot for the Senate in 1954, Thurmond has held onto his seat and beliefs for decades, although he switched to the Republicans in 1964, a watershed year for the transformation of the Democratic South into a conservative Republican enclave. Despite increasing black voter registration and Sunbelt development, Thurmond represents a power broker for his state in addition to his hawkish, moralistic roles in the Senate. As of 1996, he became the oldest person ever to serve in the Senate.
Industry:Culture
(1902 – 1981) Wyler’s reputation as a Hollywood film director veers from that of a meticulous and creative craftsperson to a plodding dullard who had little eye for visual storytelling.
Wyler did his best work when he worked for producer Samuel Goldwyn, who supported his efforts with studio artisans like cinematographer Gregg Toland. He drifted visually and thematically in the 1960s when the studio system had broken down. Three Wyler films won Best Director and Best Film Oscars: Mrs Miniver (1942), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) and Ben-Hur (1959).
Industry:Culture
(1902 – 1984) Adam’s dramatic black and white photographs shaped American visions of the West from the 1930s onwards. His landscape compositions relied on strong natural features, exquisite detail and the interplay of light and shadow. He produced breathtaking images of national parks like Yosemite. He also helped establish photography as an academic discipline in the US. See This is the American Earth (1960) among other published collections.
Industry:Culture
(born 1903) Although English-born, Hope amused Americans for decades with sharp one-liners on the stage, screen, television and the golf course. In movies, he was known for his partnership with Bing Crosby in comic “road” pictures in exotic locales; he also hosted the Academy Awards. Many knew him through television specials, including decades of entertaining American troops abroad with caustic but ultimately patriotic wit. Hope was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Industry:Culture
(1903 – 1963) Crusading Tennessee Democratic senator and unsuccessful vice-presidential candidate (with Adlai Stevenson) in 1956. In the Senate, Kefauver conducted important investigations on many social issues, including his 1951 televised attacks on organized crime that brought government to a mass audience and won him an Emmy Later, the generally liberal Kefauver showed equal zeal in pursuing relations between mass media (television, radio, comics) and juvenile violence, antitrust violations and pharmaceuticals. His presidential aspirations were overshadowed by images of the South in national politics, but his popularity and integrity paved the way for later southern presidents.
Industry:Culture
(1903 – 1977) Crooner and actor, Bing Crosby born Harry Lillis Crosby in Tacoma, Washington, DC, was first a successful popular singer in nightclubs and on radio. When he became a movie actor, he encompassed a genial humor that sold American Catholicism (Going My Way, 1944), adventure abroad (his road series with comedian Bob Hope) and even “White Christmas” (by Irving Berlin) as a bestselling anthem of family comfort for postwar America (from the musical White Christmas, 1954). Like other studio-packaged stars, Crosby’s relaxed, fatherly persona was deconstructed by family biographers after his death.
Industry:Culture
