Daniel Gifford celebrates an unsung conservationist:
When Earth Day approaches, we tend to think about the leading figures in conservation: John Muir, Aldo Leopold, Rachel Carson, Walt Disney.
If that last name seems out of place, it may be because Disney’s role as a conservationist is highly debated and historically murky—in large measure because Disney himself publicly and repeatedly shunned the title of conservationist. But, dig a little deeper, and a picture emerges of a man who cared tremendously about conservation and used his position to communicate environmentally-progressive messages to his audiences. Disney was the ultimate stealth conservationist.
The centerpiece of Disney’s conservation work was his True Life Adventures films. This collection of over a dozen short and feature-length nature documentaries brought nature to millions of people from 1948 (Seal Island) well into the 1960s. From the beginning, Disney pushed back against the idea that these films had an educational purpose. His 1948 Los Angeles Times announcement of the series emphasized that these films would be “keyed to entertainment,” and that the “unique material already being edited will be distinctively Disney in character.” In 1954 Disney added, “We’d have to do the films our way or not at all. Anything carrying the Disney names was going to mean entertainment—this I insisted on.”
Yet even as entertainment was emphasized, early reports suggested that education was a conscious and deliberate goal: “…our most resourceful storyteller premises his whole approach on the proposition that people—picture audiences—want to know things rather than escape realities.” By 1957, the studio had embraced its role as an educator. In fact, a Disney executive told 400 Los Angeles teachers and school administrators that “fifty per cent of Walt Disney’s forthcoming productions will have educational implications,” all while pointing to images from the Disney nature films.
From the beginning, Disney ensured that his films were made in collaboration with serious conservation and educational organizations. 1952’s Water Birds was filmed in cooperation with the National Audubon Society and the Denver Museum of Natural History. The Museum’s director received “top billing” along with “other naturalists who had photographed footage used,” as was trumpeted by the museum’s own annual report that year. Many of the bird sound recordings in the films came from Cornell University’s Laboratory of Ornithology. Similarly, White Wilderness was made in cooperation with various branches of the Canadian Wildlife Service.
PictureTitles from the series demonstrate their educational nature.
Disney went further still.