Richard Sherman Claims That Disney Was No Anti-Semite

One of my blog entries that continue to get a lot of hits (even after all these years - it was posted in 2008) is the report that Walt Disney was NOT an anti-semite. For some odd reason, some people, who have never even met Walt, are CONVINCED that he was.

This probably won't change their opinion, but the well-know composer Richard Sherman has flat out denied such claim.

One of the most enduring and least flattering perceptions of Walt Disney, who died in 1966, is that he was a virulent anti-Semite. Not so, said composer Richard Sherman, one of only two songwriters - with his brother, Robert - who were under contract to Disney's studio.

"That is b-------," insisted Sherman, who is Jewish. "That is a terrible rumor. He was a wonderful man."

As Sherman sees it, the anti-Semite label probably stemmed from a 1940 strike against the Walt Disney Co. "Somebody must of heard [Disney] say, 'That little Jew bastard' [about one of the strike's organizers]," he reasoned. "But he had Jewish guys working for him all the time. The head of marketing was Irving Ludwig. How Jewish can you get?

But of course, Richard Sherman is only someone who actually have met Walt, worked for him, and spent a lot of time with him. He can't be as accurate as Walt's other accusers who must know him a lot better via 2nd hand information.

Zz.