Bill Tytla - The Strike

The Strike

While Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was hugely successful the following films had a hard time making money due to the war in Europe cutting of nearly 50% of their revenue. This led to staff layoff and broken promises with regard to job security, raises and bonuses.

While the top animators like Tytla and Babbit were highly paid, they were all too aware of the low wages being paid to assistants and production people. Babbit even went as far as paying his assistant out of his own pocket. But in early 1941 Babbitt was fired for union activities. The day after Babbit led over 300 Disney studio employees in a strike, demanding union representation. To Disney's surprise and dismay, Tytla joined the strike line. "I was for the company union, and I went on strike because my friends were on strike," said Tytla. " I was sympathetic with their views, but I never wanted to do anything against Walt." The strike lasted over two months and was so divisive that it profoundly altered the course of American character animation. As the strike ended, America entered World War II and the Golden age was effectively over.

Tytla returned to the studio, but "there was too much tension and electricity in the air," according to Adrianne Tytla. With Vladimir, "everything was instinctive and intuitive, and now the vibes were all wrong." Due to the economics of the studio at the time, assignments were less challenging.

In Saludos Amigos (1942) Tytla animated Pedro (a baby airplane) and Jose Carioca (a Brazilian parrot). His small but juicy final portrayals at Disney were a witch and a Nazi teacher in the short Education for Death (1943) and the climactic battle between a giant octopus and an American eagle in the feature Victory Through Air Power (1943).

Tytla's perception that he was unwelcome at the studio; less challenging work, his wife's three-year long illness with tuberculosis, fear of Japanese attack, and a desire to live on his Connecticut farm eventually led him to the decision to leave the studio. He resigned from the Disney studio on February 24, 1943, an action he regretted for the remaining twenty-five years of his life.