It really wasn't a wonderful day for Walter Elias Disney. "UNCLE WALT", as he would become known to television's original "Mouseketeers", and the young viewers of my generation. He would be accused of being a racist, because of a part live-action, part-animated motion picture, that premiered just 4-days less than a full month after my birth.
The above words and lyrics by Ray Gilbert, and Allie Wrubel, had been sung by James Baskett, in Walt Disney's "Song of the South". A motion picture based upon the tales of "Uncle Remus", that premiered on November 12, 1946, in Atlanta, Georgia.
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Above, Walt Disney reads a "Br'er Rabbit" tale to the two young actors from the motion picture, Luana Patten, and Bobby Driscoll.
THIS IS A STORY OF A MOVIE
JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS
"Uncle Remus" was not "Uncle Remus", he was Joel Chandler Harris. Born on December 9, 1848, in Eatonton, Georgia.
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In 1948, on the 100th Anniversary of Joel Chandler Harris's birth, the United States Post Office issued a commemorative, Three-Cent Stamp.
Many people consider Harris to be a racist, and he did live in the South during the American Civil War. However, it is interesting, right or wrong, that calling him by that term. Really didn't take hold until after the release of Walt Disney's, 1946, "Song of the South". Some of his biographers and lovers of American Folklore, have attempted to counter this belief.
It should be noted that Joel Chandler Harris passed away in Atlanta, Georgia, on July 3, 1908, 38-years BEFORE "Song of the South" was released.
The following four paragraphs of biographical information, comes from Bruce Bickley's, 1987, "Joel Chandler Harris: a Biography and Critical Study". Which my reader can find on the "Internet Archive" at:
https://archive.org/details/joelchandlerharr0000bick
An from, Sheryl James's, "The Forgotten Author: Joel Chandler Harris" at:
https://www.toledoblade.com/Books/2016/02/21/The-forgotten-author-Joel-Chandler-Harris.html
In March, 1862, 14-years-old, Joel Chandler Harris dropped out of school. He found work with the owner of the "Turnwold Plantation", Joseph Addison Turner, but not on his plantation. In exchange for clothing, room and board, Harris was about to have a better education than he would have found in the public school he left. Among the writers he was exposed to from Turner's library, and required to read to maintain his employment, were Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Dickens, Chaucer, William Shakespeare, and Johnathan Swift.
Harris had became a "Printer's Devil", an apprentice, for Turner's newspaper, "The Countryman". Which, with an estimated circulation of over 2,000 subscribers, was a major Southern newspaper during the American Civil War. As a result of working on the newspaper, Joseph Addison Turner was able to get Harris an exemption from military service in the Confederate army, which probably saved his life.
While boarding on the plantation during the Civil War, the "Printer's Devil" spent many hours in the slave quarters, listening to the stories being told. It is stated, but not supported, that he felt a kinship to these Negroes from Africa, because he was the son of Irish immigrants who were always treated as inferior in the Northern States.
On April 9, 1865, the "Civil War" ended, the following May, Joseph Addison Turner shut down his newspaper and 17-years old, Joel Chandler Harris was out of work and the only money be had, was now worthless Confederate.
The following comes from the "New Georgia Encyclopedia" at:
Harris also had full access to Turnwold's slave quarters and to the kitchen, where he listened to African American animal stories told by Uncle George Terrell, Old Harbert, and Aunt Crissy. These slaves became models for Uncle Remus, Aunt Tempy, and other figures in the African American animal tales Harris began writing a decade later. Harris's fictionalized autobiography, On the Plantation (1892), chronicles the influence of the Turnwold years on his development. The people he met and the stories he heard, the literary sensibility he began to cultivate there, and several physical features of the extensive middle Georgia plantation property itself informed Harris's writing. In 1876, Joel Chandler Harris was hired by Henry W. Grady, the reporter and editor of "The Atlanta Constitution" as a journalist, a position he would have for the next 24-years.
Shortly after Harris's start with the newspaper, he would write his first "Uncle Remus" story.
Between the closing of "The Countryman" and being hired by Henry W. Grady. Harris worked on two other newspapers leading to a third, the "Savannah Morning News", and the associate editor position. It was in 1872, that the 27-years old (he was claiming to be 24), met 17-years old, French-Canadian) Mary Esther "Essie" LaRose, from Quebec, Canada. In 1873, they would be married and have two children.
Joel Chandler Harris started writing his short stories as part of a series in "The Atlanta Constitution". These "Uncle Remus" stories were picked up by other newspapers across the country. To his surprise, Harris was approached by a representative of the publisher, "D. Appleton & Company", to put his tales into book form.
For his first book in 1881, the following is the original complete original title:
Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings: The Folk-Lore of the Old Plantation
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According to Bruce Bickley, with the publication of this first "Uncle Remus" collection, Joel Chandler Harris, was quoted as hoping his "African-American Folklore" tales would be kept untouched as written, or in his exact wording:
preserve in permanent shape those curious mementoes of a period that will no doubt be sadly misrepresented by historians of the future.
Today, those words spoken by the sharecropper known as "Uncle Remus", remain as written by Joel Chandler Harris, because most Americans don't even know the stories exist.
The following couple of lines are from the opening of the free on-line, "UNCLE REMUS AND BRIER RABBIT":
An' he aint mo'n got out'n sight 'of' here come ol' Brer B'ar, an' when he hear talk er de bakin' meat an' de big pan er gravt=y, he sot up on his beehive lgs an' snored.,
As for his tales being "sadly misrepresented by historians of the future', the three references quoted above, reflect otherwise. However, over the decades since Harris's words were first penned, by a post-Civil War, White Southerner. They are looked upon as racist parodies of the African American's living on and working in the fields of "Turnwold Plantation".
To the question, was Joel Chandler Harris a Racist? History tells us yes, by definition.
Harris not only knew the African American Slaves of "Turnwold" by their name's, but, like all White Southerner's. He believed that every plantation owner, like Joseph Addison Turner, knew what was best for his slaves, and always had good intensions towards them.
This Southern position toward slavery, was superimposed upon the young journalist by Henry Woodfin Grady's vision of the "New South". The following two paragraphs, come from "The New South and other addresses by Henry Woodfin Grady; with biography, critical opinions, and explanatory note by Edna Henry Lee Turnpin", published in 1904, after Grady's death in 1889.
A quote from a speech given of Grady's vision of his "New South":
The new South presents a perfect democracy...; a social system compact and closely knitted, less splendid on the surface, but stronger at the core; a hundred farms for every plantation, fifty homes for every palace; and a diversified industry that meets the complex needs of this complex age.
From an 1887 speech at the "Texas State Fair", in Dallas:
Standing in the presence of this multitude, sobered with the responsibility of the message I deliver to the young men of the South, I declare that the truth above all others to be worn unsullied and sacred in your hearts, to be surrendered to no force, sold for no price, compromised in no necessity, but cherished and defended as the covenant of your prosperity, and the pledge of peace to your children, is that the white race must dominate forever in the South, because it is the white race, and superior to that race by which its supremacy is threatened.
WALTER ELIAS DISNEY
Walter Elias Disney was not a "Southerner", but was born on December 5, 1901, in Chicago, Illinois .
Ten years later in 1911, the Disney Family moved to Kansas City, Missouri. According to Walt, he remembers that about this time. Along with his brother Roy, the boys first became familiar with the stories of Joel Chandler Harris. However, they would become childhood memories as he grew older, forged his birth certificate to become an ambulance driver during the "First World War" in France, and drew cartoons that were published in the "Stars and Stripes" military newspaper.
After the war, in January 1920, having been laid off from the "Pesmen-Rubin Commercial Art" company with his friend Ub Iwerks, the two formed their own company. This would lead to the founding of an animation company located in Kansas City.
The story of Walt Disney's animation studio will be found in my article, "The Walt Disney, Max Fleischer Animation Feud"at:
https://www.bewaretheblog.com/2015/04/the-great-walt-disney-max-fleischer.html
According to Jim Korkis's, 2012, "Who's Afraid of the Song of the South? And Other Forbidden Disney Stories", removed from the website, "Internet Archive", for unstated reasons:
In 1938, Walt Disney believing he remembered the "Uncle Remus" stories from his childhood, decided they might make a good animated film. He had two research papers prepared on the subject, dated April 8th, and April 11, 1938. The results were positive and Walt approached the Joel Chandler Harris Family, purchasing the rights to his stories for $10,000, 1938 dollars, equal to $229, 770, 2025 dollars.
THE LIVE ACTION SEGMENTS
Racism and the Screenplay
The Original Story for the Live Action Segment was by Dalton S. Reymond, who was also one of the Three Screenplay writer's. This was his only screenplay, but he was the Technical Advisor on Five previous films that included Bette Davis's, 1938, "Jezebel", and the Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman, 1945, "Saratoga Trunk".
However, Dalton S. Reymond was "Southern Born". According to Michael Barrier's, 2008, "An Animated Man: Walt Disney", when Joseph Breen of the "Hays Censorship Office", reviewed his 51-page outline on May 15, 1944. Breen recommended several changes, especially to the terminology being used. An example was referring to "Uncle Remus" as an "Old Darkie". Reymond's portrayals of African-American's was not only controversial, but several crew members left and potential actors didn't want to be considered for the Disney Production.
To counter Reymond's obvious racism. Walt Disney hired the very respected African American director, actor, composer, singer, and screenplay writer Clarence Muse, to go over the screenplay and make suggestions. He quit, because Dalton Reymond wouldn't take any of his suggestions that changed the racial tone of the white's to the sharecroppers.
It was Muse who first attacked what would become "Song of the South", by writing letters about the "racism", to the editors of African American Publications. According to Jim Korkis's, the actual reason for the letter writing campaign, was that Clarence Muse was turned down by Walt Disney for the central role of "Uncle Remus", and got back by attacking Disney through Reymond.
However, Walt Disney still wanted the screenplay to reflect Reconstruction African American's in a positive way, and he hired Maurice Rapf to rework the screenplay. Rapf would become the co-writer on Walt Disney's, 1948, "So Dear to My Heart", and 1950's, animated, "Cinderella".
Walt knew Maurice was Jewish, had been facing racism over his religion in the United States and had relatives in Europe dealing with Nazi Germany. To Disney, he was the perfect choice to understand the conditions of the "Sharecroppers" on the once grand plantation of the story.
Concerning his final screenplay for the motion picture, Maurice Rapf told Jim Korkis:
My script was terrible. I've looked at it since. It's just as racist as the film..."
Walt was not a racist; he was hoping not to offend the Blacks. I constantly tell the story about going to see Disney and him saying to me, 'I want you on it to prevent it from being anti-Black."
A third writer was brought in to work with Rapf. Morton Grant was a "B" Western writer for Tim Holt, William Boyd, Bob Steele, and Tom Tyler.
The Director
The "Live Action" was directed by Harve Foster. Foster was billed as the director of the "Photoplay" aka: "Live Action". This was Foster's first directing position and then he moved strictly to the experimental medium of television.
The Eight Main Actors
Ruth Warrick portrayed "Sally". Warrick was a singer, actress, and political activist. Ruth Warrick's first on-screen performance was portraying "Emily Monroe Norton Kane", in 1941's, "Citizen Kane". She had 4th-billing in Orson Welles's, 1943, "Journey Into Fear", but the actress became best known for her role on the Daytime Soap Opera, "All My Children", from 1970 into 2005, for 554-episodes. By the end of her role, Ruth Warrick's character, through her marriage's on the program, technically became known as "Phoebe English Tyler Wallingford Matthews Wallingford".
Bobby Driscoll portrayed "Johnny", he was 9-years-old. Driscoll would star in Walt Disney's, 1948's, "So Dear to My Heart", portrayed "Jim Hawkins" in Disney's, 1950 version of Robert Louis Stevenson's, "Treasure Island", and was the voice of "Peter Pan", in 1953.
The following comes from my article "Bobby Driscoll: The Darkside of Child Acting, "Peter Pan's Real Neverland" at:
https://www.bewaretheblog.com/2022/08/bobby-driscoll-darkside-of-child-acting.html
On March 30, 1968, two boys were playing in a deserted East Side, Lower Manhattan tenement, at 371 East 10th Street, and found the body of Robert Cletus "Bobby" Driscoll laying on a cot with beer bottles and religious pamphlets around it. A post mortem examination had determined that he had died from heart failure caused by advanced atherosclerosis from drug use. There was no identification on the body, and photos of the deceased were shown around the neighborhood, but had no results of identifying the body.
Bobby Driscoll was buried in an unmarked pauper's grave in Potter's Field, Hart Island, New York.
In late 1969, Isabelle Katz Driscoll, arrived at the Burbank, California, studios of Walt Disney. She was seeking their help in finding her son, because his father Cletus Driscoll was nearing death. This resulted in a fingerprint match by the police department to the unknown body found by the two boys, because the bodies in Potter's Field are unmarked, there was no way to find her son's actual grave and return his body to his mother.
James Bassett portrayed "Uncle Remus" and provided the voice for "Br'er Fox". Bassett started out in several African-American musicals and was a song and dance man. See my article, linked under Hattie McDaniel, about Bassett's career prior to this motion picture.
Lucille Watson portrayed "Grandmother, Mrs. Doshy". Watson was a Quebec, Canada, born Canadian-American actress whose first on-screen role was in 1916. She was a major stage actress, and. was known for the patriotic Broadway play, 1941's, "Watch on the Rhine", from playwright, Lillian Hellman, her co-star was Austrian-Hungarian actor Paul Lukas. The two would repeat their roles in the 1943, motion picture version, co-starring with Bette Davis.
Hattie McDaniel portrayed "Aunt Tempy". She was the "Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science, Best Supporting Actress" winner for 1939's, "Gone With the Wind". The following is from my article "HATTIE MCDANIEL and JAMES BASKETT: Racism, the Academy Award's and the First African American Winner's" found at:
https://www.bewaretheblog.com/2020/07/hattie-mcdaniel-and-james-baskett.html
Hattie McDaniel and her African-American date were seated, by the kitchen. Which was at the far end of the auditorium, far away from the stage, and the White attendees, including the other cast members from "Gone with the Wind". Who were seated at the table of David O. Selznick, the film's producer. Hattie and her date were with her White manager, William Meiklejohn. When Hattie McDaniel's name was read as the winner of the "Best Supporting Actress Academy Award". She was made to walk the entire length of the room, with all eyes on her, to the stage to receive her "Oscar".
Erik Rolf, billed as Eric Rolf, portrayed "John, Senior". Rolf was the son of Norwegian parents, but born in the United States. He was mainly a radio actor, but did appear in several Second World War propaganda motion pictures and the seldom seen low-budget horror movie, 1944's, "Soul of the Monster".
Glenn Leedy portrayed "Toby". Leedy voiced the character of "Jasper", in 12 of producer and director, George Pal's, "Puppetoons", prior to this feature film. He also appeared in the uncredited role of a "Little Boy", in the 1942, Irving Berlin musical, "Holiday Inn", starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. Otherwise, the mention of his three wives, and Leedy's death in 2004, is all I could find about him.
Below left to right, behind, Glenn Leedy, are Luana Patten, James Baskett, and Bobby Driscoll.
The Basic Live Action Screenplay
The story takes place in Georgia after the American Civil War.
"Johnny" is seven-years-old and is going on a vacation to "Grandmother Doshy's" plantation, his father's mother. He's happy in the back seat with "Aunt Tempy" of his parent's, "Sally" and "John Senior's" carriage. That is until they arrive and he discovers his father is not staying. He is returning to Atlanta, to continue his "Controversial Editorship" of the cities newspaper. What was controversial about "John Senior's" editorship is never mentioned.
That night, "Johnny" sneaks away from the plantation house, planning to go to his father in Atlanta. He has a Bindel(a sack to carry clothing, food, and other items over a person's shoulders). However, "Johnny" doesn't get far, as the boy comes upon a group of sharecroppers listening to "Uncle Remus" telling one of his tall tales about "Br'er Rabbit". At the same time, "Johnny's" grandmother already has people looking for the missing boy. "Uncle Remus" finds "Johnny", takes him back to his cabin, and tells one of his folk tales about "Br'er Rabbit". Who had started to run away from home until he meets up with "Br'er Fox" and "Br'er Bear", and realizes his life is better at home. This tale convinces "Johnny" he should go back to his mother and grandmother, and "Uncle Remus" takes the boy back to the plantation house and "Sally".
"Johnny" meets "Toby", an African-American sharecropper's son, who is about his age. Next, he meets a poor white farm girl, "Ginny Favers", also about his age. As without. revealing what "John, Senior's" "Controversial Editorship" is to the audience. The live action screenplay, presents three children of different Southern classes, coming together, without realizing there should be certain class attitudes and prejudices between them.
Next, "Ginny's" two older brother's, "Jake", portrayed by Robert "Georgie" Nokes, and "Joe", portrayed by Gene Holland, threaten to drown a puppy she loves.
However, "Johnny's" mother, "Sally", won't take care of the puppy, and orders him to give it back to "Ginny's" brother's. Instead, her son takes the dog to "Uncle Remus". "Uncle Remus" takes the dog in and tells "Johnny" a fable about "Br'er Rabbit". Which teaches that people should never get involved with something they have no business, or reason to be involved with, as an explanation of using reverse psychology on someone. The now educated "Johnny", goes to "Ginny's" two brothers, and tells them they shouldn't tell their mother about "Ginny" and that she gave him the puppy.
As he expected, the two go to their mother, "Mrs. Favers", portrayed by Mary Field, and tell her. The reverse psychology works and the boys are scolded and told to stay away from their sister and "Johnny".
However, to get revenge, the two boys tell "Sally" about "Uncle Remus" having the dog. "Sally" becomes very upset that her order to "Johnny" to return the puppy to the brother's wasn't followed as she wanted. She now turns her anger on "Uncle Remus", but doesn't realize that until that moment of her speaking to him. He had no idea that she had so strongly told her son what to do with the dog. "Sally" adds that "Uncle Remus" is not to tell 'Johnny" anymore stories,.
It's "Johnny's" birthday and he invites "Ginny" to it and with her mother, they make her a party dress.
To "Sally's" dismay, "Johnny" leaves his birthday party and goes and gets "Ginny". On the way back to the party, her brother's show up, and push "Ginny" into the mud, ruining the dress. "Johnny" picks a fight with the boys and "Uncle Remus" appears, saves "Johnny" from being hit with a large stick in the head, and lectures "Ginny's" brother. The following link, as of this writing, takes my reader to the sequence:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=SIxoGSWuaPs
The boys leave, and "Ginny" runs off with "Johnny" going after her. "Uncle Remus" finds the two and calms them down with a story about "Br'er Rabbit and His Laughing Place". "Johnny" admits he didn't want to attend the birthday party with people he didn't know, but mainly because his father isn't there with him.
Outside, the sharecroppers are all gathered awaiting news and praying for the boy. Through the crowd walks "Uncle Remus", who is met my "Grandmother Doshy", and taken to the boy's room.
In the room, the love of "Uncle Remus" brings "Johnny" back to his now understanding mother, and his father. Who also grew up listening to the tales told by "Uncle Remus".
The screenplay ends with "Johnny", his dog, "Ginny", and "Toby" walking down a road with the three main animated character's from the tales of "Uncle Remus".
THE ANIMATED (CARTOON) SEGMENTS
The cartoon's were based upon Joel Chandler Harris's, "Tales of Uncle Remus".
There Were Three Writers
William "Bill" Peet started writing for Walt Disney with 1940's, "Pinocchio". A small selection of his Disney work includes, 1940's, "Fantasia", 1941's. "Dumbo", a 1945 "Goofy" cartoon, "Tiger Trouble", the 1947 cartoon, "Mickey and the Beanstalk", 1953's, "Peter Pan", and the story for 1961's, "One Hundred and One Dalmatians".
Ralph Wright started for Disney with 1940's, "Donald's Dog Laundry". His work included 1944's, "The Three Caballeros", 1953's, "Peter Pan", 1955's, "Lady and the Tramp", and 1970's, "The Aristocats".
Vernon Stallings billed as George Stallings started in animation in 1916. For Walt Disney, he worked on 1940's, "Fantasia", 1941's, "Dumbo", and 1942's, "Bambi".
The Director of Animation
The "Animated (Cartoon's)" were directed by Wilfred Jackson. His first animated cartoon was 1929's, "Mickey's Follies", that he followed by being the main director of Walt Disney's, "Silly Symphony" series. His first animated feature was 1937's, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarf's", followed by other short cartoon's, and 1940's, "Pinocchio", the classic "Night on Bald Mountain/Ava Maria" segment of 1940's, "Fantasia", and 1941's, "Dumbo".
The Three Voice Actors
James Bassett, as mentioned above, provided the voice for "Br'er Fox".
Johnny Lee provided the voice of "Br'er Rabbit". Lee was a singer, dancer, and actor, best known for voicing "Br'er Rabbit", and portraying "Algonquin J. Calhoun" on the radio program "Amos 'n Andy" and bringing that character to the television version for 68-episodes, 1951 through 1953. Among his motion pictures is the Lena Horne, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, and Cab Calloway, 1943, classic all African-American cast, "Stormy Weather",
Horace Winfred Stewart, aka: Nick "Nicodemus" Stewart, aka: "Nick O'Demus", voice "Br'er Bear". Stewart voiced "Specks Crow", in 1941's, "Dumbo", was a dancer at "The Cotton Club", and was on the television version of "Amos 'n Andy", portraying "Lightnin'". On the "Splash Mountain" Disneyland Park ride, more later, Stewart voiced "Br'er Bear".
There are three main animated segments told as fables by "Uncle Remus".
Br'er Rabbit Runs Away
This is the fable first told to "Johnny" and teaches him that he should not run away from the plantation and his family. The following link, as of this writing, takes my reader to the sequence. Which contains "Br'er Rabbit" singing "Zip-a-dee-doo-dah".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMWBKT5UVSE
Br'er Rabbit and the Tar Baby
This is the fable that teaches "Johnny" not to get involved with something that isn't his business. It is also the fable that goes to the accusation that Walt Disney was a racist. I will speak to the fable in my next section.
Br'er Rabbit's Laughing Place
This is the fable that calmed both "Johnny" and '"Ginny" after the fight with her brother's.
As of this writing the following link will take you to your "Laughing Place".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKJvnNNC354
WALT DISNEY AND THE "ALICE" LIVE SHORTS
The following comes from my article, linked above, about the Walt Disney and Max Fleischer animation feud.
The Max Fleischer innovative stamp was clearly upon some of the “Screen Songs.” Max dared to use Negro Performers such as Cab Calloway and Louis Armstrong in non-stereotypical depictions of “blacks”. In some parts of these “Screen Songs” the performers were live and at others “Rotoscoped” images. The treatment of Negro performers by the Fleischer’s was winning praise.
The Fleischer’s praise in this area of race relations irked Walt who never considered himself a bigot. However, he had already been in trouble over the issue. The first of the comments that he was racist were being spoken.
Two of the successful “Alice Shorts” are described as follows:
“One such Alice cartoon, Alice's Mysterious Mystery (1926) features two cartoon characters who resemble members of the Ku Klux Klan. One of the villains drags a dog character into a room marked "Death Chamber" and pulls out a long strand of sausage. In "Alice and the Dog Catcher" she is leader of a club called the Klix Klax Klub, in where the kids wear paper bags with their faces painted on them over their heads.”
The question of Walt’s latent racism would come to the forefront in his 1946 film “The Song of the South” set right after the Civil War.
I want to speak about Walter Francis White, seen below, four-years after the release of "Song of the South", in 1950.
I am a Negro. My skin is white, my eyes are blue, my hair is blond. The traits of my race are nowhere visible upon me.
According to Valerie Stewart the daughter of Nick Stewart, plain and simple, the "NAACP's" attack on "Song of the South" was because of Walter Francis White's hatred of Hattie McDaniel. As of this writing, the following link takes my reader to Valerie Stewart's, January 23, 2023, interview posted on "YouTube" with the Disney Critic known as "WDWPro" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AREMdgWdD48
"WDWPro's" describes the interview as:
Valarie Stewart sits down with WDW Pro to tell the real story behind Walt Disney's Song of the South, Splash Mountain, Zip-a-dee-doo-dah and the trailblazing actors who were the first black movie stars. Find out the truth about James Baskett, Hattie McDaniel and Nick Stewart. Discover how Nick Stewart spent his acting money made from sometimes flawed roles to run a theater that was used to raise up so many future African American stars. And learn how since the 1940s, people of a certain belief have worked hard to tear down what he and his wife, what James Baskett and Hattie McDaniel, accomplished.
Next, I want to quote the website "thechisler.org" at:
https://thechiseler.org/home/hattie-mcdaniel-fitting-and-unfitting
In the 1940s, McDaniel was hounded by Walter White, the head of the NAACP, who criticized her for portraying maids. This elicited her famous comment, “Why should I complain about making $700 a week playing a maid? If I didn’t, I’d be making $7 a week being one.” It should be remembered that most Southern audiences didn’t even want to see African American performers in the small and demeaning roles they were given; they didn’t want to see them at all. McDaniel was stuck in a very tough spot in film history when any visibility for black performers was better than none, - - - -
White was known for attacking McDaniel's movies long before "Song of the South", and very strangely, attacked her for being "too Black".
So, could actress Hattie McDaniel have been the real reason for the "NAACP's" attack on Walt Disney and the "Song of the South"? Perhaps Yes, and Perhaps No, but it may be charged with the negative depictions of "Negroes" in the screenplay.
I turn to Karl F. Cohen's, 1997, "Forbidden Animation: Censored Cartoons and Blacklisted Animators in America, page 64", for the following quote by Walter Francis White. Which he kept sending to a large amount of newspapers and especially those in the African-American community, after the 1946 release of the Disney feature film:
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People recognizes in Song of the South remarkable artistic merit in the music and in the combination of living actors and the cartoon technique. It regrets, however, that in an effort neither to offend audiences in the north or south, the production helps to perpetuate a dangerously glorified picture of slavery. Making use of the beautiful Uncle Remus folklore, Song of the South unfortunately gives the impression of an idyllic master–slave relationship which is a distortion of the facts.
"Song of the South", officially went into production in December 1944. Earlier that same year, Walter Elias Disney invited Walter Francis White to come to the Disney Studio in Burbank, California, for the purpose of reviewing the screenplay and to offer any input he might have about the character's and situations in it. Walt Disney's invitation was refused, and the reasons given, according to page 55, of Jim Korkis's, previously mentioned work, and page 435, of Neal Gabler's, 2006, "Walt Disney: The Triumph of American Imagination" was that:
The NAACP didn't have a "West Coast Representative", and that Walter Francis White was not scheduled to come to California until November, and then only as a War Correspondent.
In his newspaper article, White also stated that the setting of the motion picture was during the Antebellum South, and, not during the Post Civil War, Reconstruction period, as in the screenplay, if he had taken Walt Disney up on his offer to review it.
I would end my look at the man who led the attack on the "Song of the South", by pointing out a partial line in Walter Francis White's newspaper statement:
Making use of the beautiful Uncle Remus folklore,
Which begs the question, if the "folklore" of "Uncle Remus" aka: Joel Chandler Harris, is "beautiful"? How can you attack it, on-screen as "racist"?
Which now brings me to the animated cartoon sequence of:
BR'ER RABBIT AND THE TAR BABY
Below, "The Tar Baby" in "Song of the South".
This example of the "beautiful Uncle Remus Folklore" was the second story, Joel Chandler Harris published in 1881. The following is that complete and short 1881 original version, initially entitled:
"The Wonderful Tar Baby Story"
"Didn't the fox never catch the rabbit, Uncle Remus?" asked the little boy the next evening.
"He come mighty nigh it, honey, sho's you born--Brer Fox did. One day atter Brer Rabbit fool 'im
wid dat calamus root, Brer Fox went ter wuk en got 'im some tar, en mix it wid some turkentime,
en fix up a contrapshun w'at he call a Tar-Baby, en he tuck dish yer Tar-Baby en he sot 'er in de
big road, en den he lay off in de bushes fer to see what de news wuz gwine ter be. En he didn't
hatter wait long, nudder, kaze bimeby here come Brer Rabbit pacin' down de road--lippity-clippity,
clippity -lippity--dez ez sassy ez a jay-bird. Brer Fox, he lay low. Brer Rabbit come prancin' 'long
twel he spy de Tar-Baby, en den he fotch up on his behime legs like he wuz 'stonished. De Tar
Baby, she sot dar, she did, en Brer Fox, he lay low.
"`Mawnin'!' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee - `nice wedder dis mawnin',' sezee.
"Tar-Baby ain't sayin' nuthin', en Brer Fox he lay low.
"`How duz yo' sym'tums seem ter segashuate?' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee.
"Brer Fox, he wink his eye slow, en lay low, en de Tar-Baby, she ain't sayin' nuthin'.
"'How you come on, den? Is you deaf?' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee. 'Kaze if you is, I kin holler louder,'
sezee.
"Tar-Baby stay still, en Brer Fox, he lay low.
"'You er stuck up, dat's w'at you is,' says Brer Rabbit, sezee, 'en I;m gwine ter kyore you, dat's w'at
I'm a gwine ter do,' sezee.
"Brer Fox, he sorter chuckle in his stummick, he did, but Tar-Baby ain't sayin' nothin'.
"'I'm gwine ter larn you how ter talk ter 'spectubble folks ef hit's de las' ack,' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee.
'Ef you don't take off dat hat en tell me howdy, I'm gwine ter bus' you wide open,' sezee.
"Tar-Baby stay still, en Brer Fox, he lay low.
"Brer Rabbit keep on axin' 'im, en de Tar-Baby, she keep on sayin' nothin', twel present'y Brer
Rabbit draw back wid his fis', he did, en blip he tuck 'er side er de head. Right dar's whar he broke
his merlasses jug. His fis' stuck, en he can't pull loose. De tar hilt 'im. But Tar-Baby, she stay still,
en Brer Fox, he lay low.
"`Ef you don't lemme loose, I'll knock you agin,' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee, en wid dat he fotch 'er a
wipe wid de udder han', en dat stuck. Tar-Baby, she ain'y sayin' nuthin', en Brer Fox, he lay low.
"`Tu'n me loose, fo' I kick de natal stuffin' outen you,' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee, but de Tar-Baby, she
ain't sayin' nuthin'. She des hilt on, en de Brer Rabbit lose de use er his feet in de same way. Brer
Fox, he lay low. Den Brer Rabbit squall out dat ef de Tar-Baby don't tu'n 'im loose he butt 'er
En den he butted, en his head got stuck. Den Brer Fox, he sa'ntered fort', lookin' dez ez
innercent ez wunner yo' mammy's mockin'-birds.
"`Howdy, Brer Rabbit,' sez Brer Fox, sezee. `You look sorter stuck up dis mawnin',' sezee, en den
he rolled on de groun', en laft en laft twel he couldn't laff no mo'. `I speck you'll take dinner wid
me dis time, Brer Rabbit. I done laid in some calamus root, en I ain't gwineter take no skuse,' sez
Brer Fox, sezee."
Here Uncle Remus paused, and drew a two-pound yam out of the ashes.
"Did the fox eat the rabbit?" asked the little boy to whom the story had been told.
"Dat's all de fur de tale goes," replied the old man. "He mout, an den agin he moutent. Some say
Judge B'ar come 'long en loosed 'im - some say he didn't. I hear Miss Sally callin'. You better run
'long."
Below, first, is an 1895 illustration, followed by a 1904 illustration of the same scene.
According to President Theodore Roosevelt, in his 1914 autobiography, as a young boy he heard the "Uncle Remus Folklore Tales" from his Aunt Anna Bulloch and his father, Robert Roosevelt, transcribed some of them for keeping. One of these was "The Tar-Baby".
A little history from the website for the "Encyclopedia Britannica", "Britannica" at:
https://www.britannica.com/art/African-American-folktale
Tar-Baby, sticky tar doll, the central figure in black American folktales popularized in written literature by the American author Joel Chandler Harris. Harris’ “Tar-Baby” (1879), one of the animal tales told by the character Uncle Remus, is but one example of numerous African-derived tales featuring the use of a wax, gum, or rubber figure to trap a rascal.
In Harris’ version, the doll is made by Brer Fox and placed in the roadside to even a score with his archenemy Brer Rabbit. Brer Rabbit speaks to the Tar-Baby, gets angry when it does not answer him, strikes it, and gets stuck. The more he strikes and kicks the figure, the more hopelessly he becomes attached.
The sticky-figure motif is also common in American Indian tales.
Brer Rabbit, trickster figure originating in African folklore and transmitted by African slaves to the New World, where it acquired attributes of similar native American tricksters; Brer, or Brother, Rabbit was popularized in the United States in the stories of Joel Chandler Harris (1848–1908). The character’s adventures embody an idea considered to be a universal creation among oppressed peoples—that a small, weak, but ingenious force can overcome a larger, stronger, but dull-witted power. Brer Rabbit continually outsmarts his bigger animal associates, Brer Fox, Brer Wolf, and Brer Bear.
Generally, it can be said that there are many pre-versions of what became Walt Disney's "Tar-Baby", because of the many ethnic groups that have similar folklore:
1. The original concept was about a trickster, who gets his comeuppance by being out tricked. This goes back to the 5th Century B.C. in Greece, and the trickster was "Hermes", the messenger of the God's.
That tale worked its way into different world wide culture's, and over time there was the addition of a sticky figure used to trick the trickster. The material the figure was made of, changes from culture to culture, but the basic story concept remained the same.
2. The following comes from the website for the "Asia Society" at:
https://asiasociety.org/files/Stickfast-Motif.pdf
Uncle Remus told how Brer Rabbit got stuck to a doll covered with tar, a trap laid for him by the crafty Fox, but then how Brer Rabbit outsmarted Brer Fox. The “stickfastmotif,” which is at the heart of that tale, probably has its origin in an Indian Buddhist tale. In India, the Buddhists wanted the story to warn people about becomingattached to desires for worldly goods and pleasures because the more people desired, the harder it would be for them to become enlightened. Desire could entrap all five of their senses. This is the way the Buddhists told the story:
There was in the Himalayas a pleasant place where men and monkeys lived. A hunter, trying to catch the monkeys, would smear their paths with a sticky ointment. Those monkeys that were intelligent and not greedy, when they saw the ointment, would avoid it. But when a foolish, greedy monkey saw it, he would grasp it with his hand and then he would be caught. Thinking that he would release his hands, he would kick, but then his foot would stick fast. So also would the other foot. Then he would bite, and his mouth as well would be held tight. Thus, “caught at five points,” he would be taken by the hunter and killed. [W. Norman Brown. "The Tar-Baby Story at Home" in Scientific Monthly 15, 1922. 227-233.]
3. There were slight variations within the Folklore of the different African tribes.
4. In North America, there are similar tales, specifically within the Apache and Cherokee tribes about a trickster and a figure.
5. When the slave ships arrived in America, the different African's tribes became mixed and apparently, so did their versions of the original story. In some cases, the Native American versions become mixed with the African to create a hybrid version.
6. We do not know which version of the African Folklore Joel Chandler Harris revised into his "Uncle Remus" tales, because, once again, the tales were changed to suit the audience.
7. Screenplay writer, Dalton S. Reymond, took Harris's Folklore, and turned three into outlines for animated cartoon's.
However, the "NAACP", under the direction of Walter Francis White, considered Walt Disney's, "Black Tar Baby". To be a direct racist portrayal of African American's and he stated this in his newspaper articles and lectures. That started after the release of Walt Disney's "Song of the South".
Until the mid to late 1940's, the normally used form of "Tar" in the United States was "Golden Brown Pine Tar", created in Sweden in 1648. According to the website of the "San Francisco Maritime National Park Association" at: https://maritime.org/conf/conf-kaye-tar.php Pine Tar was first created in America in 1705:
From the beginning, Britain's colonies in North American were encouraged to produce pine tar and pitch, and to collect gum from pine trees for later shipment to England. These fledgling industries in New England and the Carolinas were encouraged by the Bounty Act of 1705. At that time England had been cut off from its Scandinavian supplies by Russia's invasion of Sweden-Finland. " By 1725 four fifths of the tar and pitch used in England came from the American colonies...
So, Joel Chandler Harris's "Tar Baby"would have been made from "Pine Tar". The moral lesson in the original tale is a difficult problem gets worse, the more you struggle with it.
In 1944, when the feature went into production, the prominent tar used in the United States was still "Golden Brown Pine Tar". "Black Colored Tar" started very slowly to be used and it didn't come into major usage until the early 1950's. I could not locate why the choice of color was actually made by the Disney studio, but the racial slur associated with the "Black Tar Baby" was not in common use until after the movie's release and the comments made by Walter Francis White. As there appears to be no record of the racial slur being used before 1946, and sadly, as an article from "KSLA" television in Shreveport, Louisiana, dated March 16, 2022, tells my reader, the slur is still in use. The article is at:
For my readers to decide about the racism of the cartoon, the following link take my reader to "Br'er Rabbit and the Tar Baby" at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiMw-8Ttu10
THE HAPPY, SINGING, SHARECROPPERS
My final section on the motion picture was the complaint that the African-American Sharecropper's always "Happily" singing going to and from the fields to work. Those sequences, as is the overall motion picture is divided within the African American community itself.
I turn to Alan Gevinson's, 1997, "Within Our Gates: Ethnicity in American Feature Films, 1911-1960" page 956, to illustrate a typical comparison of two African American critics, from two newspapers, in the African American community. Gevinson quotes Richard B. Dier in the publication, "The Afro-American", as stating "South of the South"was a:
thoroughly disgusted" by the film for being "as vicious a piece of propaganda for white supremacy as Hollywood ever produced
While Herman Hill, in the "The Pittsburg Courier", made two points. He first felt that "Song of the South" would:
prove of inestimable goodwill in the furthering of interracial relations
Adding that he considered criticism of the motion picture to be:
unadulterated hogwash symptomatic of the unfortunate racial neurosis that seems to be gripping so many of our humorless brethren these days
Because of pressure by both the "NAACP" and "CORE (Congress of Racial Equality)", after the 1986 re-release of Walt Disney's "Song of the South". The Disney organization pulled the motion picture from the United States only and it remains that way as I write these words. However, you can find the feature film almost in any other country in the world.
As I was writing this article, I found a beautiful 4K print of the complete motion picture on the website the "Internet Archive" at https://archive.org/details/Songofthesouth4K
My reader can decide for themselves the question I posed in this article's title:
WAS WALT DISNEY A RACIST?
THE SPLASH MOUNTAIN CONTROVERSY
On July 17, 1955, "Disneyland Park", in Anaheim, California, opened with major television coverage. My article "DISNEYLAND 1955: A Childhood Memory of WALT DISNEY'S Original "Magic Kingdom" can be read at:
https://www.bewaretheblog.com/2017/11/disneyland-1955-childhood-memory-of.html
The above is a look at what the park looked like on opening day and remained until Walt Disney started improving some attractions, and removed some to add new attractions. My reader may be surprised at the cost to go to "Disneyland" back then. However, this is about one specific ride
SPLASH MOUNTAIN that opened on October 1, 1992.
Visitors to that 1992-attraction, going up inside the mountain, before the big drop, seen above, travel through the world of 1946's, "Song of the South", also seen outside of the ride.
On November 15, 2009, in the "Roy E. Disney Animation Building", of the Disney Burbank studio, was the private premier of the "Walt Disney Animation Studios", "The Princess and the Frog". Followed on November 25, 2009, with the dual Los Angeles, and New York City general premiers.
That very successful animated motion picture was set in New Orleans, and based upon authoress E. D. Baker's parody of the Grimm Brother's fairy tale, "The Frog Prince".
In June 2020, it was announced, that "Splash Mountain" was to be changed from "Song of the South" to "The Princess and the Frog". The following comes from the "Forbes" website dated June 25, 2020, by Alison Durkee at:
Disney announced Thursday that its popular Splash Mountain attraction will be rethemed to the film The Princess and the Frog in both Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom Park and Disneyland Park, as the current racial injustice movement has prompted a new wave of controversy over the Song of the South-themed attraction.
Adding that:
Over 20,000 people signed a recent Change.org petition calling for Splash Mountain to be re-themed to The Princess and the Frog, a 2009 film featuring Disney's first African-American princess.The following link takes my reader to the "Change.org" original petition, entitled, "Re-theme Splash Mountain to Princess and the Frog":
https://www.change.org/p/the-walt-disney-company-re-theme-splash-mountain-to-princess-and-the-frog
The same website, "Change.org" ran a petition "To Save Splash Mountain and keep it as it is in Magic Kingdom and Disneyland", and that petition shows 100, 091 verified signatures. The following link is the counter petition:
The problem here was that the change the name petition declared "Victory" with only "21, 283 Supporters".
The New Splash Mountain was now called "Tiana's Bayou Adventure", and it first opened at the "Magic Kingdom" at "Disney World" on June 28, 2024, and "Disneyland" on November 15, 2024.
The controversy over the change has a racial component that is still expressed by some visitors. Which asks, how can the "Walt Disney Company" claim that "Splash Mountain" was changed, because of the racial use of "Song of the South" character's, 32-years after it opened? At which time the "Disney Company" switched, not to an uncontroversial group of character's such as a "Mickey and Donald", but instead to "Tiana's Bayou Adventure", with an African American set of characters?
I leave this to my reader to decide their point of view, as I am just a reporter of the facts, as they are at the time of my writing.
