Americana & the U.S.

In 1971, while in Los Angeles, California, to interview director John Ford, I set up an interview in Burbank with former Disney animator Herb Sorrell about his being being “captain” of 1941 strke aginst Disney Studios for animators being “overworked and underpayed.” Walt Disney would get his personal revenge for that successful strike in 1947, when he testified before The House UnAmerican Activities Committee, where he charged Herb Sorrell as being a Communist who in pushing for a union, Disney claimed with other Communists had tried to take over the studios. I asked Sorrell about accusation Disney was antisemetic. He hesitated before saying, “Lets just say, if Jews being persecuted Disney would not take active role, but he’d do not a damn thing to stop it!”

After telling Sorrell about my collecting objects to tell stories, he retrieved Ferinand The Bull statue, handed it to me saying, “Here’s an object with good story!”

As I sat staring at the Ferdinand the Bull statue which Herb Sorrell had handed me, he launched into his story. “Jim, in 1948 I had gone to Walt Disney’s office to confront him about his having publicly accusing me before The House Un-American Activities Committee of being a Communist who’d tried to take over Disney Studios! At that time Jim, that accusation as a Communist had crippled my career, and I was going to tell Disney what I thought of him, and if he reacted in his customary indifferent or vengeful way, being an ex-boxer I was going to pop the bastard! I must have sat in Disney’s office for half an hour, before I realized he wasn’t going to see me! I sat with anger growing inside me, as I gazed at all those figurines representing the cartoon characters which had made him so self-centeredly wealthy, with the devoted assistance of the animators he had increasingly mistreated. I suddenly bound from my chair with the thought of raking all from his damned desk, when my anger changed to a kind of pity for such a man! I grabbed that statue of Ferinand The Bull off his desk and squeezed it so hard the bull’s ears  cut into my hand. The pain in my hand from that cartoon character I had, with that very hand, helped to create instantly calmed me and I walked from Disney’s office clutching the beloved figure which I now give to you Jim, along with its telltale, fateful story.”