Walt Disney and Freemasonry
by David A. Blackner
Sovereign Master, Laurel Ridge Council 67 AMD, 2023
Walter Elias Disney was born in Chicago on December 5, 1901, the fourth of five children born to Elias and Flora Disney. His father, a strict and religious man, was working as a building contractor when Walt was born. Soon afterward, his father took over a farm in Marceline, Missouri, where he moved the family. Walt was very happy on the farm and developed his love of animals while living there. After the farm failed, the family moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where Walt helped his father deliver newspapers. He also worked selling candy and newspapers on the train that traveled between Kansas City and Chicago. He began drawing and took some art lessons during this time. In 1917 at the age of 16, he enrolled at McKinley High School and became the school newspaper cartoonist, creating patriotic drawings in support of the American effort in the first World War. At the same time, he took night courses at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. At the age of seventeen, Walt dropped out of high school and tried to enlist in the United States Army to fight in Europe, but he was rejected for being too young. Undeterred, Walter Elias Disney forged the date of birth on his birth certificate and joined the Red Cross in September 1918 as an ambulance driver.
Soon after returning to the States, Walt Disney returned to Kansas City to work as a commercial illustrator and later made crude animated cartoons. In May, 1920, at the age of 19, Walt became the 107th member of the DeMolay Kansas City Chapter. Walt Disney was sponsored for DeMolay by Dr. John E. Morser, a family friend and physician who had treated Walt's father. Morser was also a member of the Order of DeMolay and recognized Walt's potential as a leader and the benefits that the organization could offer him.
By 1922, he had set up his own shop as a partner with Ub Iwerks, whose drawing ability and technical skill were major factors in Walt's eventual success. However, failure with Ub Iwerks sent Walt to Hollywood, California in 1923. In partnership with his older brother, Roy, he began producing cartoons for Universal Studios. After a contract dispute led to the end of this work, Walt and his brother decided to come up with their own character. Their first success came in Steamboat Willie, which was the first all-sound cartoon. It also featured Walt as the voice of a character first called "Mortimer Mouse." Walt Disney's wife, Lillian (whom he had married in 1925) suggested that Mickey sounded better, and Walt agreed.
In 1931, Walt returned home to Kansas City for the first time since going to Hollywood. Upon his return, Walt was surprised to learn that he received the Legion of Honor from DeMolay founder "Dad" Frank S. Land. Walt said at the time, "I am proud to receive the Legion of Honor, but I feel as though I haven't done anything to merit it."
His feeling of having accomplished little, however, was not to last long. The year after he received the honor, Walt Disney won his first Academy Award for a short-animated feature in 1932 and repeated the win in 1933. Recognizing how important DeMolay International was to his life and growth as a young man, Walt made Mickey Mouse a DeMolay in some of his early cartoons.
During the early to mid-1930s, five comic strips featuring the now-famous characters of Mickey Mouse, Pluto, Horace, and more were focused on DeMolay. In these early comics, the characters were depicted participating in meetings of the Barnyard Chapter, Order of DeMolay. While they bore Walt Disney's branding signature, one of his many illustrators, Fred Spencer (also a former DeMolay) was credited with creating these strips. These comics were published in The DeMolay Cordon, the organization’s magazine.
In July 1936, during another trip home to Kansas City, Disney took part in conferring the Legion of Honor on 100 candidates at the first DeMolay Founder's Conference. Despite a request from "Dad" Land to address the thousands of boys and advisors in attendance, Disney was afraid of public speaking and declined. Finding it fascinating that world-famous Walt Disney, the original voice of Mickey Mouse, was intimidated by speaking in front of a live audience, "Dad" Land urged him forward, and Walt overcame his fear, delivering a "rambling but heartfelt presentation." He discussed his career and relayed how influential DeMolay's principles had been in guiding him in life. In part of his speech, he articulated this... “I feel a great sense of obligation and gratitude toward the Order of DeMolay for the important part it played in my life. Its precepts have been invaluable in making decisions, facing dilemmas and crises, holding on the face and ideals, and meeting those tests which are borne when shared with others in a bond of confidence. DeMolay stands for all that is good for the family and for our country. I feel privileged to have enjoyed membership in DeMolay.”
Upon the United States entry into World War II, Walt formed the Walt Disney Training Films Unit within the company to produce instruction films for the military such as Four Methods of Flush Riveting and Aircraft Production Methods. Disney also met with Henry Morgenthau, Jr., the Secretary of the Treasury, and agreed to produce short Donald Duck cartoons to promote war bonds. Disney also produced several propaganda productions, including shorts such as Der Fuehere's Face - which won an Academy Award, and the 1943 feature film, Victory Through Air Power.
In 1965, Walt was asked by the DeMolay Acacia Chapter of Stuart Florida for a statement on his feelings towards DeMolay. It was explained that “An organization such as ours can’t possibly survive unless it has the support of adults who can give it all of their years of learning. We need men who are willing to spend a little time to teach young boys how to grow up in to perfect gentlemen and citizens. There is no way at all in which we can get these men unless they know about us and what we stand for. Mr. Disney, we need support. Can we have yours?” Walt Disney responded thus, “To my young brothers in the Acacia Chapter, Order of DeMolay, in Stuart, Florida, I am happy to extend my warm greetings to you all. I am proud, indeed, still to retain my bond with DeMolay as an honorary legionnaire. I am deeply grateful for the association which materially influenced not alone my young years but my whole personal and professional life. One of the most important events of my youth, and one of the happiest too, was my acceptance into the membership of DeMolay. And I realize now, even more than then, how deeply my whole life, personal and professional, has been influenced by that early association. I am proud, indeed, still to retain my bond with DeMolay as an honorary legionnaire. I was among the first members of the order when it was conceived and established in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1919 by that grand humanitarian, Dad Land. At his invitation, a number of my young neighbors and I from the Benton School joined the first chapter in the city of its birth. Through the years, I have watched the growth and progress and prestige of this great organization. I have witnessed the inspiration it has been to many of our finest citizens and ablest leaders in all walks of life. The composite record of the 2,000,000-odd past and present DeMolays is most impressive for its many outstanding contributions in the private and public life of our nation. I feel a great sense of obligation and gratitude toward the order for the part it has played in my endeavors. Its precepts have been beyond value in making decisions, in facing dilemmas and crises, in holding onto faiths and ideals and in meeting the tests which are best borne when shared with others in a bond of confidence and mutual respect. The DeMolay creeds had become a definite guide by the time I started making motion pictures, first in Kansas City, then in Hollywood. There is always some connection between a man’s character and what he creates or perfects, so we are told. And it may well be that the same influences which shaped the thinking and behavior and preferences of my youth, had something to do with the early steps of my movie career and the direction it took. It is gratifying to be assured that these same influences of DeMolay are still at work among so many young Americans today”.
In early November 1966, Walt was diagnosed with lung cancer. On November 30th, he felt unwell and was taken by ambulance from his home to St. Joseph Hospital where, on December 15, 1966, aged 65 years, he died of circulatory collapse caused by cancer attributed to smoking. His remains were cremated two days later and his ashes interred at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.
So where does Walt Disney the Freemason fit into all of this? Well, contrary to popular belief in Masonic circles, it doesn't. Despite Walt Disney's tenure and respect for DeMolay, there is no evidence he ever joined a Masonic Lodge and became a Master Mason. Speculators can be forgiven for assuming he had continued into the Craft, however, as it is the usual path for members of DeMolay. Curiously though, one notable example supporting the connection between Freemasonry and Walt Disney can be found hiding in plain sight at Disney World's Magic Kingdom:
Many today have not heard of the Order of DeMolay, but this Fraternal organization has changed the lives of millions of young men. Many famous icons were alumni in DeMolay... John Wayne, Walter Cronkite, Mel Blanc, football Hall-of-Famer Fran Tarkenton, legendary Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne, news anchor David Goodnow, and of course Walt Disney.
Although rarely mentioned about Walt, largely being overshadowed by his phenomenal success in animation, contributions to the industry and his Theme Parks, DeMolay was a major part of Walt’s life until his death. He always acknowledged that without the Order of DeMolay in his life, his life might have turned out completely different!