Aftermath and Notable Departures
Following the strike, irreparable damage to the psychology and mood of the studio had, nevertheless, been done. Before the strike, the number of employees had been about 1200, but after it ended, it was reduced to 694. Schickel quotes a letter in which Disney said that "it cleaned house at our studio" and got rid of "the chip-on-the-shoulder boys and the world-owes-me-a-living lads".
In addition to Babbitt, among the notable animators that left following the strike were Bill Tytla, Walt Kelly and Virgil Partch. The departures also included David Hilberman and John Hubley, who all went on to form a new animation studio known as United Productions of America, or UPA. Leaving for the MGM studio were Kenneth Muse, Ray Patterson (he briefly worked at Screen Gems for a year under Tashlin's supervision before going to MGM), Preston Blair, Ed Love, Walter Clinton, and Grant Simmons. Animators who would resurface at Leon Schlesinger Productions (then under contract to produce cartoons for Warner Brothers) included Bill Meléndez, Frank Tashlin (who had worked at Schlesinger before moving to Disney), Emery Hawkins, Basil Davidovich, Maurice Noble, Cornett Wood, Ted Bonnicksen, and Jack Bradbury (Davidovich and Bradbury would return many years later).
Other notable animators to leave following the strike included Volus Jones, Claude Smith, Bernie Wolf, Joey Lockwood, Alfred Abranz, William Hurtz, T. Hee, and Howard Swift. An unfair labor practices suit brought by Babbitt (by this point drafted into the Armed Forces) worked its way through the courts, and Disney was forced to rehire him after World War II. But Disney, who had blamed Babbitt for instigating the strike, never forgave him for what he had done. Babbitt finally left Disney for good and on his own free will in 1947.
Several of the other people who left Disney after the strike returned in the postwar years, including Volus Jones, Phil Duncan, Milt Schaffer and (briefly) Emery Hawkins. Basil Davidovich returned in the 1950s. Jack Bradbury became a frequent artist for the Disney comic books beginning in the 1950s.
The strike also had an impact on Walt Disney. Before the strike he (and the other employees) felt as if they were "one big family", but during and after the strike Walt felt betrayed and he was not sure whether he could trust anyone. Walt eventually recovered for the most part but never quite forgave the people who had been part of the strike.
Read more about this topic: Disney Animators' Strike
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