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Tuesday, March 8, 2011

An Interest in a Darker Walt, a follow up

The other day I was going through my blog stats and noticed something I thing is curious, and possibly a bit disturbing.  Back in November I published an article;  Walter Elias Disney, the lesser know man  The stats  would seem to indicate this a popular topic for Walt Disney.  This article elicited the first email response from a posting here…  And then, the other day at the mall, I was asked about Walt Disney at an isle way kiosk.  Granted for that last one, I was wearing my Walt Disney Family Museum hat, so a question about Walt Disney shouldn’t be unexpected.  What is unexpected is the common thread through all of this inquiry…

Was Walt Disney a Freemason?

I wrote the article originally because I’d seen enough of the content while doing my web research that was trying to claim that Walt had a real dark side to his personality.  I felt that my claims of be an analyst, and trying to do a thorough look at this iconic figure’s life, I had to address these dark images of the man, and to put some contextual historic information around the activities.  I was quite surprised when I was going over my stats for that last few months, and noticed that this article had garnered as much attention as it has so far.  It was also interesting to see how many search engine hits contain “mason” as part of the search string.  When I received the email comment particularly with it reference to the Masons and Illuminati, I began doing a little more research, and then the unsolicited question in the mall the other day as to whether Walt Disney was a Mason…  Well, I just needed to explore this topic further.

Type “Walt Disney mason” in your search engine of choice.  I use Google, and it returns over 900,000 hits.  Type in “Roy Disney mason” and you a 144,000 links back, but most of those ultimately reference back to Walt.  In doing research on the Mason, I found the following people in entertainment listed as Master Masons;  Arthur Godfrey, Red Skelton, Ernest Borgnine, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Will Rogers, Danny Thomas, Burl Ives.  Why would Walt Disney not want to be included on that list, if he were in fact a Master Mason, or even a Mason of lower rank?

I will say again, I’ve seen no evidence to proclaim with certainty that Walt Disney was a Freemason, Master or otherwise.  All of the so called proof is nothing more than circumstantial at best.  Let see, Club 33 and the address for Disneyland being 1313.  Well Club 33 wasn’t even named until after Walt Disney’s death, you’d think, if that was a name that Walt had chosen, there’d be evidence to that effective.  None has been offered to my knowledge.  I’ve seen nothing indicating it was Walt himself who chose the DLR address.  It could have been a suggestion by an employee, either of Walt’s or the county or city.  Yes the numbers 11, 13, and 33 hold significance to Masons, along with just about anyone who is into numerology.  Just drawing the conclusion that Walt was a Freemason because of numerology doesn’t meet accepted standard, at least in my opinion.  So, we’ll chalk that one up to circumstantial.

The only other piece of evidence, which I have personally seen, is a DeMolay membership card from the 20’s.  Then as supporting documentation as to Roy O’s once being a Mason.  It’s interesting that the only reference I can find to Roy O’s membership is his own claim in Bob Thomas book “Building a Company.”  With all the internet content about Walt’s association, I’d think one would be able to find more about Roy, not so much…  Now, I know that in my earlier post that I said it is reasonable to conclude that Walt Disney could have been a Mason based on these facts, but now that I think more about it, I believe it is more probable that Walt Disney was not a Freemason. 

So, why am now changing my opinion?

It has been more than 40 years since Walt Disney passed away, and the only hard piece of proof that has surfaced is a DeMolay card.  Since the DeMolay card is on display at the Walt Disney Family Museum, and many of the artifacts on display at the Museum have come from Diane Disney Miller’s personal collection of her Father’s possessions, I would think there would be some other Masonic artifact on display.  Surely, if Walt was a Mason, Diane would display some Masonic artifact to go along with the DeMolay card, unless you subscribe to the same principles as most conspiracy theorist, that any connection is good enough and multiple connections, no matter how weak, make it fact.  Everything else is just conjecture, a conspiracy theorist’s dream world.  Also, as studying the Masons is another hobby of mine, and I have found that the Masonic order, particularly in this country, is not particularly secretive about their members, especially those have passed on.  Also in my research, I have seen pictures of many famous Masons, and almost always there is at least one in full Masonic regalia.  I have yet to see a picture of Walt Disney with any of the traditional Masonic symbols.  Not a ring, not a pin, not a picture with anything related to the Masons.  Am I the only one who finds that strange?  Conspiracy theorists notwithstanding, I am now inclined to say that the overwhelming lack of any real evidence would support the idea that Walt Disney was not a Freemason, or Illuminati, or in the CIA mind control programs.

I am fascinated, for lack a better definition, by the individuals who actually believe these things to be true.  The number of people, who can be manipulated by little more than weak correlation, is more a testament to the power of conspiracy theory, than to the powers of the Masons or any other organization that has drawn the attention from the community of the conspiracy theorists.  But, this would be fodder for another blog…

But I am interested in this fascination with the idea that Walt Disney was Mason, and why that association is with the darker views of Freemasonry?

If you have a actual proof (or links to actual proof) that Walt Disney was a Mason, I’d certainly be interested in reviewing it or them.  If you are one of those individuals with a belief in or fascination that Walt was a Mason, I’d be most interested in your stories.  There’s an email address below, or leave comment.  Depending on what I get back, I may do another article.


Your comments or questions are always welcome.  If you have a correction or something you think I should look at in my research, please feel free to contact me at mr.grumpyguy@gmail.com

2 comments:

  1. Hi, I know you wrote this back in 2011, but I had to comment because I can't understand how you don't see why people say he was a mason. Ok, first of all, have you ever seen Disney's animations? I imagine you have. Every single one of them contain subliminary messages with sexual content, mostly. There are hundreds of videos on YouTube to back me up. The connection I can make between WD and freemasonry without even trying hard is that the last one clearly worships the devil. A man who fills (or allows people to fill) his work with filthy content can't love God. Another thing I believe you've found out by now, since it's one of your hobbies. Believe me, they do not worship God, so you can easily realize who they really worship. Just to be clear, I'm not a conspiracy theory believer, but I do believe you can't deny what's right on your face. Sorry about my poor English. What I want to say to you is, please don't be so naive to think he was just a sweet, brilliant and respectable old man, it's clearly more complicated than that. Maybe not a mason, ok, but he was obviously connected with something bad, which is what really matters here.

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    1. I have been studying Walt Disney for almost 2 decades, and I have familial exposure to the Freemasons. I have yet to find any solid evidence that Walt was ever a Mason. There is a singular DeMolay card from 1919 in the Museum, but nothing else. I don't know all, but, I do know that Freemason are not secretive in the display of their craft's symbology, and it is not in the Museum. If you have anything other than conjecture, and accusation without real evidence, I would be more that happy to look at it,

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