There’s something about Walt Disney the man that spawned a plethora of weird and wonderful myths and “facts” over his life, and since his death. Perhaps it’s a result of his own mythmaking and magic spun during a prolifically creative life as detailed in the fascinating two-part documentary Walt Disney.
Before we present some weird facts like Walt’s hotdog obsession, mice phobia and his perplexing final words, a disclaimer: Some of these may be “alternative facts”, may in fact be taking the mickey and will definitely have Walt turning in his cryogenic chamber.
His last words were “Kurt Russell”
Kurt Russell’s name is said to be Walt Disney’s final words. Here he stars in Disney’s 'Now You See Him, Now You Don’t' (1972) Source: Disney
Russell was a teen actor on a ten-year contract at the studio at the time and had a close relationship with Walt Disney. But no one really knows what he was trying to communicate by scribbling his name.
The actor corroborates the story, saying that he found out about the scribbling a few years after Disney’s death when a staff member showed it to him.
“She was pointing out that that’s the last thing he wrote,” he said. “That’s the only thing I know.”
He was afraid of mice. Mice!
Choking back the terror? Source: Disney
This one’s pretty whacky but perhaps his creating Mickey Mouse was some kind of radical exposure therapy to overcome his musophobia? It does sound like an “alternate fact” but consider this; Disneyland has a feral cat problem but they are tolerated because they control the mouse population. So if the Mouse House is murdering mice perhaps there is some twisted truth to this “fact”.
He had a thing for hot dogs
Walt Disney took his hot dogs very seriously. Source: Disney
The first clue to Disney’s love of the processed junk food came in the 1929 animation The Karnival Kid in which he scripted Mickey Mouse’s first words as “Hot dog! Hot dog!”
The second is the meticulous way he designed the hot dog stall at Disney World to be 25 steps away from the rubbish bins. That’s how long it took him to eat one.
He had a “No facial hair” policy
Walt Disney probably would have had a major problem with Jack Sparrow’s facial fungus.] Source: Disney
Now this is the pot calling the kettle hairy. Even though Disney sported a moustache from the age of 25, facial hair was verboten for Disneyland employees. It took until 2000 for the rule to be bent (sort of) with moustaches allowed, and then in 2012 employees got the go ahead to grow “short, inch-long-or-less goatees and baby beards”! So in other words, hipsters needn’t apply.
Early Disney films were motherless, as he felt guilty over his mother’s death
Early Disney films were sadly mother-free for a reason, due to Disney’s guilt over his mother’s tragic death. Source: SBS
It was his idea to open a speakeasy at Disneyland
The bar at Disneyland's Club 33. Source: Disney
Away from the family-friendly chaos of the happiest place on earth you can get really happy drinking cocktails and eating five star meals in style. But it’ll cost you; there’s an “initiation fee” of $25,000 and a membership fee of $12,000 per year. Oh, and there’s a 15-year waiting list.
He green-lighted Disneyland’s “Wonderful Wizard of Bras”
Another bizarre early Disneyland attraction, “The Wonderful Wizard of Bras” (circled in a press clipping) would have to have been green-lighted by Disney. Source: Yesterland.com/Orange County Archives
Watch part 2 of the documentary Walt Disney at SBS On Demand right here:
