{"id":1984169,"date":"2023-07-27T13:47:01","date_gmt":"2023-07-27T17:47:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/walt-disney-teamed-up-with-john-wayne-ronald-reagan-to-take-on-communists-in-hollywood\/"},"modified":"2023-07-27T13:51:16","modified_gmt":"2023-07-27T17:51:16","slug":"walt-disney-teamed-up-with-john-wayne-ronald-reagan-to-take-on-communists-in-hollywood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/walt-disney-teamed-up-with-john-wayne-ronald-reagan-to-take-on-communists-in-hollywood\/","title":{"rendered":"Walt Disney joined forces with John Wayne and Ronald Reagan to combat Communism in Hollywood."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwalt-disney-teamed-up-with-john-wayne-ronald-reagan-to-take-on-communists-in-hollywood%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1984169&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Walt Disney&#8217;s Political Evolution: Part \u200dTwo<\/h2>\n<p>As seen in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/walt-disney-would-be-appalled-at-what-his-company-has-become\">part one<\/a> of our \u200clook \u2064at Walt Disney\u2019s political evolution, he actively tried to stay out\u2062 of politics during the early years of The Walt Disney Company. He quietly voted for Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1936 before changing his \u2062allegiance to \u200bRepublican candidate Wendell \u200dWillkie in 1940.<\/p>\n<p>The first \u200ctime he showed fervent support for a political candidate was for Republican presidential hopeful Thomas Dewey in 1944 (which he lost). He donated generously to the Dewey campaign and even gave a <a href=\"https:\/\/tessa2.lapl.org\/digital\/collection\/photos\/id\/31700\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">speech<\/a> in support of Dewey at a massive rally in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n<p>As Walt became more \u2063outspoken in national politics, he also became more concerned about the political climate in Hollywood.\u200b He \u2064had blamed a 1941 strike by Disney employees on communist infiltration, saying years later that \u201cI definitely feel\u200b it was a Communist \u2064group trying to take over\u2063 my artists.\u201d By 1944, \u200bhe had come \u2064to believe that Hollywood as a \u2064whole had come under communist influence.<\/p>\n<p>Disney joined with dozens of likeminded Hollywood stars and became one of \u200bthe founding members of the Motion \u2063Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals (MPA) in February\u2064 1944. Besides Disney, the MPA <a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=pSKLfQYNYDAC&#038;pg=PA1081#v=onepage&#038;q&#038;f=false\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">counted<\/a> prominent stars such as John Wayne, Gary Cooper, Clark Gable, Ronald Reagan, Barbara \u200dStanwyck, \u200dCecil \u2064B. DeMille, John Ford, Walter Brennan, and even author Ayn Rand as \u2062 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/list\/ls089560613\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">members<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The\u2063 organization was created to dispel \u201cthe\u200b growing impression that\u200c this industry is made up of and dominated by communists, radicals and crackpots,\u201d TIME Magazine <a href=\"https:\/\/content.time.com\/time\/subscriber\/article\/0,33009,885343,00.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a> \u200d at the time.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h3>Statement of Principles:<\/h3>\n<p>\u201cWe believe in, and like, the American way of\u200b life: the liberty and freedom which generations before us have fought to create and preserve; the freedom to speak, to think, to live, to worship, to work, and to govern ourselves\u2063 as individuals, as free \u2064men; the right to succeed or fail as free men, \u200daccording to the measure of\u2062 our ability and our strength,\u201d \u2063the organization\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cobbles.com\/simpp_archive\/huac_alliance.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">statement of principles<\/a> said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBelieving \u2062in these things, we find ourselves in sharp revolt against a rising tide of communism, fascism,\u2063 and kindred beliefs, that seek by subversive means to undermine and change this way of life,\u201d it continued.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs members of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/review-the-flash\/\" title=\"'The Flash' review:\">motion-picture industry<\/a>,\u200b we must face and accept an especial responsibility. Motion pictures are inescapably one of the world\u2019s greatest\u200d forces for influencing public thought and opinion, \u2062both \u200bat home and abroad. In this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/walt-disney-teamed-up-with-john-wayne-ronald-reagan-to-take-on-communists-in-hollywood\/\" title=\"Walt Disney joined forces with John Wayne and Ronald Reagan to combat Communism in Hollywood.\">fact lies solemn obligation<\/a>. We \u2063refuse to permit the\u200c effort of Communist, Fascist, and other totalitarian-minded groups to pervert this powerful medium into an\u2063 instrument for the\u200c dissemination of un-American ideas and beliefs.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Several members of the\u2062 MPA testified as friendly witnesses before the House\u2063 Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in the late 1940s \u2014\u200d including Cooper and \u200bDisney.<\/p>\n<p>HUAC had been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.trumanlibrary.gov\/education\/presidential-inquiries\/house-un-american-activities-committee\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">established<\/a> in 1938 to investigate activities undertaken by private citizens that potentially indicated disloyalty to\u2063 the United States, and those suspected of communist ties or sympathies were heavily scrutinized, especially after the end \u2062of World \u200cWar II and the beginning of the Cold War.<\/p>\n<p>During his testimony before the committee in October 1947, \u200cDisney <a href=\"https:\/\/www.encyclopedia.com\/history\/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases\/testimony-walter-e-disney-house-committee-un-american-activities-24-october-1947\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">recounted<\/a> \u2063the 1941 strike and how he believed that communist agitators had precipitated \u200bthe labor unrest at Disney Studios.\u2063 He claimed\u2062 that one of the\u2064 principal organizers of the\u200d strike, Hebert K. Sorrell, was a communist and said \u200cthat Sorrell had privately bragged to him that communists had\u200d financially supported one of his previous strikes in 1937. Disney also asserted\u2062 that there were no communists or fascists \u2064working at his company by 1947.<\/p>\n<p>When\u2064 asked \u200dhis personal opinion of the Communist Party, Disney replied, \u201cWell,\u200d I don\u2019t believe it is a\u00a0political party. I believe it is an un-American thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Disney lamented that a few agents could infiltrate a union, take it over, and then begin espousing \u200bcommunist ideology despite the fact that most workers represented by the union were \u2064anti-communist.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey are represented to the \u200bworld as supporting all of those ideologies, and it is not so, and I feel that they really ought to be smoked out and\u2063 shown up for what they are, so that all of\u200c the good, free causes in this country, all the liberalisms that really are American, can go out without the taint of communism. That \u200dis my sincere feeling on it,\u201d\u2064 he said.<\/p>\n<p>When asked whether he wished to see the\u2064 Communist \u200bParty outlawed in the U.S., Disney said, \u201cI\u2064 feel if the thing can be proven un-American that it ought to\u200d be outlawed. I think in some way it should be done without interfering \u2064with the rights of the people.\u200b I think that will\u2062 be \u200bdone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Reagan, then-president of the Screen Actors Guild\u200b and a member of the MPA, also \u200d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reaganfoundation.org\/media\/51313\/red-scare.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">testified<\/a> before HUAC and alleged \u200dthat communists were behind several Hollywood strikes.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_594623\" style=\"width: 589px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\">\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-594623\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bettmann\/Contributor. Getty Images.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>John Wayne <a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=dOPU1Zu7gjwC&#038;pg=PA338#v=onepage&#038;q&#038;f=false\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">served<\/a> four one-year terms as the MPA\u2019s president from 1949 to 1953 and helped <a href=\"https:\/\/lawliberty.org\/the-real-wayne\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">enforce<\/a> the anti-communist Hollywood blacklist. The MPA\u2019s activities gradually diminished after the end of the Red Scare in the late 1950s.<\/p>\n<p>In 1952, Jacqueline \u2063Cochran, an aide\u2063 to Dwight D. Eisenhower\u2019s presidential campaign, <a href=\"https:\/\/d23.com\/disneys-presidential-past-connections-to-commanders-in-chief\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">approached<\/a> Roy O. Disney, Walt\u2019s brother and confidant,\u2063 to ask for help with the Republican nominee\u2019s advertising efforts. The Disneys allowed their animators to donate their time to create a new animated commercial in support of Eisenhower.<\/p>\n<p>The resulting\u200b ad,\u200d titled \u201cIke For President\u201d but more commonly known as \u201cI \u200bLike Ike,\u201d\u2062 has become one of the most <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insidernj.com\/like-ike-political-parties-never-same\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">memorable<\/a> political ads of the 20th century. Eisenhower\u2019s campaign was the first to make extensive use of television ads, and \u201cI Like Ike\u201d was by far the \u200bmost\u2063 popular.<\/p>\n<p><strong>WATCH:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>After Eisenhower defeated the Democratic\u2062 nominee, Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson, in a landslide, \u2063Roy \u200b <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/j.ctv8pzcv5.5?seq=4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wrote<\/a> a letter to \u200bCochran, saying, \u201cThe boys and girls all \u200denjoyed working on the project and, of course, we are all\u2062 very happy at the outcome of the election.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After leaving the White House in 1961, Eisenhower served as the chairman of the Freedoms Foundation, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.waltdisney.org\/blog\/red-walt-and-blue\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">presented<\/a> Walt Disney with the organization\u2019s George Washington Medal of Honor in 1963.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFreedoms Foundation at Valley Forge honors Walt Disney, Ambassador of\u2062 Freedom for the United States of America. For his educational \u200cwisdom and patriotic dedication in\u2064 advancing the concept \u200bof freedom under God; for his unfailing professional devotion to the things which matter most, human dignity and personal responsibility; for masterful creative leadership in communicating the hopes and aspirations of our \u200dfree society to the far corners of the planet,\u201d Eisenhower said at the ceremony in Palm Springs, California.<\/p>\n<p>During his acceptance speech, Disney remarked \u200bthat one of the most important things his father taught him was to be grateful to be an American citizen, though he did quip about his father\u2019s voting \u2063record.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrankly, he never voted on the right side. He was a blind Democrat. He was a dead socialist. But he was one that I learned a lot from, and a\u200d lot of his words have stuck with me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf \u2062you could see close in my eyes, the\u200d American flag is waving in both of them, and up my spine is growing this red,\u200d white and blue stripe. I\u2019m very proud and very \u2062honored,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n<p>Disney maintained a friendly relationship with Richard Nixon while he was vice president under Eisenhower. In one piece of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nixonlibrary.gov\/news\/attention-mouseketeers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">correspondence<\/a>, Walt requested that\u2062 Nixon answer a young reporter\u2019s \u2062question: \u201cWhen I Grow Up, Mr. Nixon, \u200bWhy Should I \u2063Be A Republican?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Disney offered some advice to the vice president: \u201cAs to your reply,\u200c I \u2063can say only this: I think it will \u200cbe most powerful if you confine it to three sentences or less. I realize \u200bsuch a reply is much more difficult than three paragraphs, but I do think the results will be worth the\u200d effort.\u201d Disney even offered \u2063to set up an interview, but Nixon\u2019s tight schedule prevented a \u200dmeeting.<\/p>\n<p>According to animation historian Michael Barrier, Disney <a href=\"http:\/\/www.michaelbarrier.com\/Essays\/Walts_Goldwater_Button\/WaltsGoldwaterButton.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">attended<\/a> the 1964 Republican National Convention, which nominated Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater as \u200bthe party\u2019s nominee. Only a couple of months later, President Lyndon B. Johnson presented Disney with he Presidential Medal \u2062of Freedom at the White\u200b House.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen he learned that he was to receive\u200b this honor, and that he was expected to go to the\u2063 White House to receive it, I reacted with \u200bdismay. \u2063It was \u2062during the Goldwater campaign, and we were all united in enthusiastic support of\u2063 the \u200csenator,\u201d \u2063Walt\u2019s eldest daughter, Diane\u2064 Disney Miller, told Barrier.<\/p>\n<p>Goldwater lost the\u2063 election to Johnson\u200b that November in a landslide.<\/p>\n<p>Disney, a heavy smoker most of his life, died of complications from lung cancer in December of 1966 at the age of 65.<\/p>\n<p>The Motion\u200c Picture Alliance\u200b was officially disbanded in 1975 \u2014 the same\u200c year the House Un-American Activities Committee was abolished.<\/p>\n<p>As we\u2019ve seen, Walt Disney\u2019s personal politics were a far cry from the initiatives being \u2063pushed by the \u2063modern Walt \u200dDisney Company. He consistently supported Republican candidates after 1940 \u2062and became increasingly concerned by the prospect that communists were trying to infiltrate the film industry. He, along with other conservative Hollywood stars of the era, \u2062recognized the importance of film and television in shaping\u200d public opinion on issues and\u200c acknowledged the danger to American ideals if leftists were able to completely control the nation\u2019s entertainment.<\/p>\n<p><em>(Disclosure: The Daily Wire has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/videos\/introducing-dw-kids\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">announced plans<\/a> for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lgbtq-groups-sue-florida-over-parental-rights-in-education-law\/\" title=\"LGBTQ Groups Sue Florida Over Parental Rights In Education Law\">kids entertainment content<\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In part one of our exploration into Walt Disney&#8217;s political journey, we observed his initial avoidance of politics during the early years of The Walt Disney Company. In 1936, he discreetly supported Franklin Delano Roosevelt, but later shifted his loyalty to Republican contender Wendell Willkie in 1940. This marked his first public display of political inclination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1548,"featured_media":1984170,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1984169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1984169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1548"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1984169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1984169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1984170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1984169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1984169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1984169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}