205: Walt Disney Legends & Conspiracy Theories

[MUSIC] Hey, what's up everybody? Welcome back to my our podcast episode 205. We have had another crazy week here. And this episode is going up a little late. So we really appreciate all of your patience. You guys are always really understanding for what's going on in our personal lives. Sometimes you just can't plan everything. No, you can have planned the last couple of weeks. No, yeah, we've really had a stressful-- Yeah, we had a canceling episode because I got the flu. Yeah. And then-- And we came back. We came back. And then we said that we have guests coming in next week. Right, right. Which we did. We literally had them out here. Yes. Which-- In the office. Do you want to say who it was? Yes, we had murder with my husband. They're a wonderful podcast. You guys should check them out. They're very entertaining. Another husband, wife, duo through friend podcasts. We were so excited to get to work with another husband and wife. Yeah. Yeah. We literally had them out. We had all of these episodes planned. We were going to do today's episode with them, which today we're covering Walt Disney conspiracies. Yes. So we were going to do that with them. And then literally probably 10, 15 minutes before we were going to come over here and sit down and record. They were literally here. They were literally in our office. We were chatting. We were-- They came all the way from Utah. Yep. Yep. And yeah, we really appreciate them being understanding. But yeah, right before we were about to record, Josh got some really bad news. Yep. Yeah. Yeah, I found out that my grandmother passed away kind of unexpectedly. So said just obviously derailed that whole day. And so we-- Unfortunately, they were leaving the next day. So we had to just kind of say, we're so sorry. We got to reschedule. So we're going to have them out hopefully at the end of the year after Baby Comes. After Baby Comes, because things are about to get really busy for us for a while. And then it kind of was a bad time, too, because we kind of had a little bit of a COVID scare here at the office. So-- Yeah, which no one had COVID. But we thought there was a chance. So we had everyone home. And yeah, it's just been kind of one thing after another. So we're luckily still getting out an episode for you guys this week. It's delayed. Next week we'll also likely be a little bit delayed. We'll see. But yeah, thank you guys for being understanding. We're trying. We're trying to-- The last thing you want to do is have to cancel episodes. We hate it when that happens. We know you do, too. So we're doing our best to sort of keep up on schedule as much as we can. But I'm excited to talk-- to dive into some conspiracy today. It's been a while since we put our tinfoil hats on. It is. It has been. It has been. And these conspiracies are rather theories, conspiracy theories, are really just-- Some legends. Yeah, legends or strange things that you probably didn't know about Walt Disney. We're going to focus a lot more on Walt Disney himself as opposed to the Disney movies. We might get into that a little bit at the end of the episode. But we're going to focus more on some really interesting things, many of which are true regarding Walt Disney. And maybe some sort of connections that he had with some various groups and things like that. Yeah, it's really intriguing stuff. That's pretty wild. So I'm excited to get into that. But before we get into the episode, I did want to remind everybody that it's been-- oh my gosh, probably a month now. I brought back Planet Sleep, my sleep podcast. So I don't even know if I've announced that on here since it came back. I don't think you have. No. I know I posted to the community page on YouTube in some of you saw it. But yes, Planet Sleep is back. So for those of you that are looking for something soothing to fall asleep to, yeah, I've got five or six new episodes up now on there. So we've continued our journey to Planet Sleep. So that'll all be linked below. And the whole concept with Planet Sleep is it's literally taking you around the world and it's educational, too. Yeah, it's very much an educational show. There's a lot of history involved. And the way that we've sort of have done some of the episodes have been really trying to take you to these places, but also have you learn about them while you're sort of allowing yourself to journey through them, which has been really fun to do. And we enhance it with music and sound effects and things like that and really try to create this experience. Yeah, shout out to Corelli, producer for the session, actually has been editing them and doing a fantastic job. So there's a video version of it on YouTube. And then obviously an audio version on Spotify and Apple podcasts. But it's, I just wanted to point out that it's not just for sleeping. You can really listen to it, learn something, just take time for yourself to become. Yeah, it's just relaxing. So just wanted to put that out there if you haven't checked it out yet. I would love it if you did. We'll put a lot of work into it. But let's go ahead and just jump right into the world of Walt Disney. And let's start with a little bit of background on the man himself, Mr. Walter Elias Disney. Yep. So Mr. Walter Disney was born on December 5, 1901 in Chicago, Illinois. And shortly after he was born, his family moved to a farm in Marcellein, Missouri. And later on to Kansas City, Missouri. And we'll always had an interesting art from a very young age. He always enjoyed drawing and playing with crayons. And once his family moved to Kansas City, he started taking cartooning classes at the Kansas City Art Institute and School of Design. When Walt was a teenager, his family moved back to Chicago and he started taking photos and making drawings for the school paper. And it was his dream to become a newspaper cartoonist. During World War I, Walt was too young to enlist in the US military. So he forged his date of birth on his birth certificate and joined the Red Cross as an ambulance driver in France. I did not know that. That's pretty admirable, honestly. Yeah. To do that. Yeah. I mean, he's questionable, but that was good. Yeah, that was a good move. So in 1919, Walt moved back to Kansas City and met a young artist named UB IWRX. And he and UB started their own animation company in 1922. And things didn't really work out in Kansas City, but in 1923, Walt and his brother Roy went into business together. UB and the two Disney brothers moved to California and reopened their animation company in Hollywood. And that's where they created the character Oswald, the lucky rabbit. And there weren't of all Oswald. Yeah, he was like kind of the original Mickey. Oh, weird. And it's kind of scary, honestly. Yeah, UB. Yeah, he's creepy. A lot of it was kind of creepy looking in the beginning. But I guess back then, there was really nothing like this before. So it's probably really cool. We have so many cartoons that we've all seen. So we judge older cartoons based on the new stuff. But back then, you could imagine it probably was pretty cool to see something like Oswald, the lucky rabbit. But Oswald got stolen. A distributor just completely ripped them off. So UB and Walt ended up tweaking it and created Mickey Mouse. And eventually Mickey made his first debut in a Disney animated film, Steamboat Willie. That's where Mickey got his-- I had no idea that Mickey was a rabbit before-- Oh, but he was a rabbit. Yeah, I had no idea that they tweaked him because the original idea got stolen. Imagine if it had it gun stolen. I know. And Oswald, the lucky rabbit, was like the iconic character at Disney. And everybody wore like bunny ears at Disney. I'm like a lot of people. I'm like a lot of people, maybe? But as you guys know, the rest is history. Mickey Mouse was a huge hit. And pretty soon Disney created his friends. Minnie Mouse, his girl, Donald Duck, Goofy, and Pluto. What's your favorite out of those go? Donald Duck. Janelle. Probably Pluto, right? Is Pluto the dog? Yeah. OK, Janelle is going to struggle for his-- I'm not trying to be-- You don't even know? I'm seriously not trying to be like, the pick me girl who doesn't like Disney. I just don't know. I know. I mean, you didn't really grow up with a lot of Disney. Your parents didn't really like play it for you. I don't know. I didn't really-- It's in five. Were you just not interested in her? Were you parents just an exposure to it? Actually, when I was really little, I think I liked Mickey Mouse. I remember I have home videos of me with a Mickey Mouse doll. And I would like his mom his big nose. And you liked cartoons. You're always a fan of Tweety Bear. Oh, yeah, I'd love to. You like cartoons? I like learning cartoons. Is learning cartoons part of Disney? No. No, I don't think it is. No. Or is it? No, it's universal. You know how they have learning tunes at the universal? Yeah. Yeah. I see. I take it back. I like Goofy better than Donald Duck. Oh, I was having no idea. Wow. That was pretty good. Not bad, right? Yeah. Kind of scared me for a stop. I could say a little horrifying. I wish I could do Donald Duck. That's my favorite. Oh, my mom can do it so well. Really? Have you ever heard her do it? She's so good at it. Oh my god. Get her up on FaceTime. Let's get out. Oh, I should. Hit her up. She's probably-- Can you do a Donald Duck for the show, please? Oh my god. OK, so 1937, Disney released the classic animated film. Their first one, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. And their company moved to Burbank, California. And in 1940, they released the classic Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo and Bambi. So think about this for a second about those four films. And if I've seen all of them, you've seen all of them. I'm sure. Janelle, have you seen any of these? I've seen Pinocchio. - Okay, oh I think, and Bambi I've seen Bambi. - Well I'm surprised you've seen Bambi. - And I, maybe I've seen Snow White, I don't remember though. - Bambi's like traumatized. - They all are. - Yeah, it was quite common. - They all are, trauma. - Right. - They all have like very dark themes in them. - They do. - They have of like death and fear. All of them. - I think that's why I didn't watch it. 'Cause I was like scared of everything as a kid. - Yeah. - Still am. So I'm like, you know, I don't need to be scared. (laughing) - What's the place in Pinocchio that they go to where everybody's just like. - Pleasure Island. - Pleasure Island, yes. - That's creepy sounding. - Yeah, they need it. - Isn't it? - Pleasure Island in its life. - Oh it's so creepy. I hated Pinocchio. - Pinocchio's a weird, - And I hated Dumb O2. That one really freaked me out. That's like a drug trip in a movie. - Yeah. - Really? - Oh yes, it's creepy. - Oh yes. - The adult themes are run very heavy in all of these films. - Yeah. - It's interesting that they were like made for children. But maybe, but here's the thing too, is like sometimes we like to think, oh, you know, this is all so dark and scary, but it's also like at the time. - Yeah. - It was a different world. - No, it totally was. I mean, most fairy tales were coming from brothers Grimm on this time too, which are horrific. - Hansel and Gretel, things like that. - Which we all have the soft versions of those now, but the original versions, you know, little mermaid even. - Really? - Oh yeah, it's like so creepy. It's-- - Well, I mean, I think it was, well, maybe we've all just gotten soft, I think, and just-- - No, they were like horrific. But it's in I think it's-- - Cinderella and stuff. - But why did they make it so? Why did they make these children's tales so horror? - I don't know, maybe kids were tougher. - I think it was because kids were enduring the Great Depression, they were enduring the world wars and things like that. Like there was so much like death destruction around them that it was so familiar in part of their daily life that they-- - But why do that though? - But also, it's very prevalent nowadays, we're dealing with horrific things that are happening in society all day long. - Yeah, like has that really changed that much? - I think it's more of just a culture shift. - But why did films go from these very dark adult themes to now like, there's really not any of that in most films. - I wonder if it was mostly for money, sales. Like people just were willing to show them to their kids if they are not going to break them out, they were trying to get adults to watch as well. Maybe it was a, they went that route to try to get-- - Originally? - Yeah, originally to get adults in the theaters and adults to watch the films or be interested in it as much as kids. - I don't really know, but these movies highly questionable, especially if Fantasia, that one has been-- - I don't even know, it is a strange movie. - It's not like a real weird. - It is, it's very weird, it's very trippy. And I mean, it's been re-release several times and redone, so has, I think Pinocchio and Dumbo. I think maybe all of them, but they've had a lot of just really inappropriate, also racist teams going on in those movies as well. - Which when you think about the different elements of these movies, it's gonna really like kind of click in when we talk about some of these stories and where Walt's head was at at the time. And what he was involved in, maybe there's a deeper reasoning for why these things made it into his movies. - That's right. - And that it wasn't all just deployed to be entertainment for children, 'cause it just seems like there being an easier, surefire way to make this like better for kids. Like don't you want kids to be happy and not feel these other feelings of sadness and pain. Like the scene of "Bambi" getting shot, you know? Like as a kid, you're like your heart wrenches, you see the moms run, like it's like it crushes you. - Yeah. - And it's like, why, why were they doing that? - I don't know. But Disney films really became a huge sensation after all of these releases. And then the company moved into the '50s and started to release more of the classic animated films, "Alson Wonderland," "Peter Pan," "Cinderella," - "Alson Wonderland" trip. - It is. - It is. - Like children's trip. - It is a trip. - "Peter Pan," hmm, I have questions about that one. - I mean, they're all questions, truly. - Even Cinderella too. - Yeah. - "Cinderella" has got some lines. - One of the themes in that, I like, hmm. - Interesting. - But Disney was planning something big. In 1955, they opened the world famous Disney Land Theme Park in Burbank, California. Here's some footage actually of opening day. This is pretty cool to see. - Fun fun. - $10 million playground dedicated to children - Wow. - Young and old opened its gates to the public today. These pictures were taken yesterday by - Oh, there's "Peter Pan" ship. - During a special preview showing of the Wonderland to invited guests. - Views from a helicopter show the huge 60 acre play land. - This was also been so mind-blowing. - I think it's not it. - Like for people who come visit this. - "Penical Features" as a Mississippi - Wow. - "The Showboat," a horse drawn trolley and snow-white vessels. - Yeah, it's like the first of a 30,000 person. - To build something so massive and so immersive. - And one had all he could do in some instances to keep from being crushed. - To the physicals. - To the physicals. - Oh yeah, to the back of the edifice. - It's really stressing out. - They're all on suits. - The hair even the guys like curl their hair all. - Oh wow. - A live ABC telecast brought opening ceremony to hold some fascinating. - My spot was closed. - It was close to the square. - It was closed to the square. - Then, seven or night and Disney, - At a train. - Wow. - Disney's imaginative hair care through the ground. - This was a bit lit for people. - People were like, "Wow, yeah." - There was Alice in the middle. - Don't they look lit? - Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. - That's great. - Yeah, the original Mickey Mouse. - The Ceynes. - And Annie Oak. - Questionable. - Disney Land hopes to handle 60,000 persons. - Oh God. - Oh God. - Pluto. - They really did 'em dirty. - 10 million dollars a year. - Oh yeah. - Take it's our one dollar for adults and 50 cents for children. - Wait, what, hold on. What did that just say? It's not hard about pricing, how cheap it was. - Yeah, that got up. - They picked a gross 10 million dollars a year. Take it's our one dollar for adults and 50 cents for children. - What? - Wow. - Wow. - But remember, - Well, you look how much it is for adults and children now. - Yeah. - I'm curious, I know it's constantly going on. - 100, like $170 for adult ticket or something for Disney Land. - Maybe. - I don't know, is it that much? - We went probably last time we went to Disney World. We've never been to Disney Land, but Disney World. Probably, we probably went like-- - Oh yeah, I mean, we probably dropped like 500 bucks. - Eight years ago. - A date? - No, I don't think we've had that much. - No, but if you do the fast pass and all that shit, then that's up. - We didn't even do that. - We did. - We did. - We can't find like a one day ticket, so this two day ticket for one park days, which would, 'cause they only had one park back then. So it's $255 for an adult 240 for a kid. - Oh my God. - So like-- - And if you want a hot park since $315 for an adult 300 for a kid. - That is ridiculous. - That's two day. - Wow. - Well, it says one park per day. - Okay, yeah, so I guess divided by two, it's around what, 125-ish? - That's for Disney Land. - Yeah. - I wonder if Disney World is different. - That is crazy. I mean, what is it gonna be in like 10 years from now? - Okay, I just found for Disney Land. They start at $76 a day for a standard theme park ticket. - Theme park ticket. - Just for a standard? - Yes. - What does that mean? - It means that you probably won't get to ride anything. You'll be standing online and hopefully get one ride in and get your freaking turkey stick and go home. - Like the turkey. - Your turkey leg and go home. - Yeah, those are nasty people walking around with those things. - Okay, so yeah, so it starts at $76, but it's basically a hundred bucks a day per person. - That's just wild. - Just to get it. - But the rides are free, right? Once you're in, you can just keep, yeah. Like you don't pay for the ride. - Yeah, but you pay for everything else. - Your body pays the entire day. - Yeah, that's true. - While you're in pain. - Yeah, your feet hurt so much by the end of it. - The amount of time we spent and waiting for space mountain that one time was like two and a half hours. - Why? - Yeah, we stood in line for two and a half hours for our space mountain. - Really? - Because we're 80s. - For 80s. - No, for real. - Not even. - Because everybody's an idiot that goes to Disney. - Yeah, no, no, no. - There's nothing else to do. It's like, okay, you can wait in that line or you can wait in that line. - What's the use of that? - We can just stand here and waste your money completely. What's the appeal? - I mean, there's really not. - Obviously, salt and is appealing because this is like the most successful thing ever. But, I mean, damn, that's crazy. - We went on a really busy weekend too. I believe it was like a holiday weekend. I'm pretty sure it was like Memorial Day or something. - Well, they really, like now to have a good experience at Disney, you have to drop tons of money and you have to plan way ahead or in advance. - That's what we learned last year. - So you can do reservations first. - You have to reserve everything, like different restaurants and stuff, any type of experience. - Yeah, you have to show up the day up. Like, you're having a bad day. You're gonna want your money back. - Now, I'm assuming people in California can get like season tickets. - Yeah, same in Florida, you can get like discounted like pass basically. I think any passes or something like that. - Yeah, which probably makes it more worth it if you go a certain amount of times. But I don't know, like, I mean. - But just the amount, if you think about the amount of visitors that visit every day and the amount of money that people pay, their profits are like astronomical, just for their theme parts. Not to mention all of their other IPO, all their other, you know, IPs and-- - Oh, yeah. - Movies, films, studios. - Oh, they own like everything, it's crazy. - Yeah. - More than $10 million a day or $10 million a year that they're making. - But $10 million back then, I mean, instantly, probably one of the richest man in the country. - And he was doing that with just 50 cents for kids and a dollar for adults. - But this was back when like a nickel would get you like-- - Right, so that was pricey. - Yeah, that was pricey. That was like, you gotta save up to do that. shows how many people were going. I mean, it was a huge hit right away. Well, I think it was because it's kind of the first place where this fantasy that you got to immerse yourself into through the films and books and things like that became real and like you could actually walk through it and there's something about it that like we all find interesting. Even with like Harry Potter and Universal and everything like being able to go into Hogwarts for the first time is somehow it's cool. It makes you feel really like, this is cool. It's kind of like a kid. It's magical. Yeah, it's a magical type. This is insane. I just pulled up an article that says Disney parks experiences and products. So it's obviously not just Disneyland. They're revenue doubled to 7.2 billion in the first quarter of 2022 compared to 3.6 billion, the same period of 2021 granted. COVID was grand. Yeah, but just the number of 7.2 billion in the first quarter, that's insane. Yeah, we always talk about Elon Musk and Tesla and SpaceX. Watch out for Disney, man. Well, Elon's got to be making more, right? Well, yeah. Well, he makes more because of a lot of other things. Yeah. But so obviously it all started with Mickey. Well, really, I'll start with Oswald who turned into Mickey. But he is now one of the most iconic and recognizable characters, according to the Disney company 98% of kids ages 3 to 11 in the entire world know who Mickey is. That's fucking. It is. It's scary. It's scary. It's scary influence that Disney has. It is. That's a lot of power. But obviously a company that massive is bound to have some secrets. And a man as influential as Walt Disney is definitely going to attract a lot of rumors and conspiracy theories. So we're going to take a look at those. Yes. Yes. And a lot of what we're going to talk about today focuses on Walt Disney himself. Yeah. So let's start by looking at probably one of the most popular Disney conspiracies out there growing up. You probably heard this one from friends at school potentially. And you know, this one's a great. I would say most people have heard of this theory. So some people think that Walt Disney when he died, he had his body frozen. So that one day when technology would allow it, they could thaw him out and reanimate him just like his cartoon characters and bring him back to life. And Walt Disney could rise back to the throne. And that rumor has kind of gone back like some I've heard it that it's just his head is cryogenically frozen that it's his full body. My grandparents used to tease me on the way to Disney world and tell me that he was frozen underground somewhere around like when you first drive up to Disney, it's like a bunch of trees and just land. And I used to just sit there and look outside and try to figure out where under the ground is frozen body was that freaky out thinking about that. Yeah, but I was also confused as I was like, this is Orlando. Well, and you probably don't even understand how what it means to be like you probably know the giant ice block. I did in a freezer in Orlando. Yeah, I was like, hmm, it's just mad up. Yeah, they just got a big freezer underground that he's just in a giant ice block. Yeah, it's interesting like cryogenically freezing yourself. And people do it. I mean, you can do it for you can freeze your head. We talked about that on the show before, right? Yeah, I think long, long, long time ago, I think we did. We did in like one of our unexplained sets or something. It's interesting stuff. A lot of people do it. Yeah. Well, a lot of people relatively. Yeah, a lot of people that have a lot of extra money, I guess, that want to maybe see if they can bring themselves back in the future. That is so weird. No part of me would ever want to do that. Even if it was free and proven to work. Really? No. I would you want to like come back like be de-thought in the world's probably going to be way more fucked up. Be like, freeze me back up. I have no interest in that. Put me in the ground or scatter me. I don't know. No freezing. Well, it's like you don't even obviously nobody knows if it even if it would even work. We don't have the technology yet to bring somebody back from the dead, obviously. But some people, I think it's like 40,000 bucks. You can have your head severed from your body after death and put it in a nitrogen tank and just it'll suspend there probably with a bunch of other heads of other people. You probably share a tank with other other people and have your head frozen there. Your friend. And the idea is that one day, eventually we're going to all be cyborgs. We're going to be meshed with robots. We're going to have actual mechanical parts. If you need a knee replacement or something like that, it's all a knee replacement right now. It's still mechanical. We are cyborgs in that way. But like technology to where your whole body could be robotic. But then your human head could be attached to it. Do you think people will eventually get robotic weeners? What the fuck? I'm curious. I'm sure people would absolutely. People will get any sort of robotic stuff. Wait, why would you want a robotic weener? I'm sure there's reasons. If yours was severed by like Lorena Bobbitt, you know, your crazy ex-sever's your weener. Lorena, yeah. I don't know. Maybe they could have like features on it like different settings and so basically like a vibrator. Yeah, setting. I'm sure people would be into that. If you can do it, I'm sure people will do it. It will happen. There will be ways to do that for sure. That's really creepy. But then there's people that will, you know, your head, you have to be reattached to a body. But then your body, you could do your whole body. I think it's like $200,000 and there's like a maintenance fee to keep your body suspended in this. That's disgusting. The whole head thing. What the fuck? Yeah. What the fuck? Just a big no. Imagine working in a place like that where you're walking and there's just these giant silos and you just know there's dead dead people suspended in these tanks and they're just loading there. It just gives me the chills. And they've been doing this for a long, long time like since Walt Disney's time they've been doing this. So there's people that are dead that are being preserved in these tanks for 100 plus years. Is Disney one of those people? Well, this is what's interesting about Walt Disney is that he was a heavy smoker for most of his life, which many people were at the time. In November of 1966, he was diagnosed with lung cancer and he was hospitalized at same month and spent about two weeks in the hospital. And on December 15th 1966, Walt died at the age of 65. The family held a private funeral the next day and Walt's body was cremated on the 17th. So that's like the official thing is that he was cremated. And his ashes were entered out of family plot in a cemetery in Glendale, California. But obviously, the theory goes that he wasn't actually cremated that he was cryogenically frozen. So the rumor goes that Walt's frozen head or bodies being kept at Disneyland under the allegedly haunted pirates of the Caribbean ride. Oh, that's the theory. Underneath that ride. Because that ride was actually being built at the same time that Walt Disney died. I think that'd be a great spot to stick them. Which I'm like out of all the places you would stick your prior, you know, your founder under a ride like why? That ride is pretty legendary though. It has a certain smell to it. Like anyone who's been there knows it's like it's a good smell. I don't know how to explain it. Maybe it's the chemicals from the cryogenic freezing. Maybe or it's just the water, the chlorine and the water. I'm just getting to keep it totally getting infested. I love that. I've seen candles in that scent. Really? Was it like Pirates of the Caribbean scent? Pirates of the Caribbean ride scent. The water. Yeah. Candle like that. Oh yeah, it's a whole thing. People love the smell of that ride. People will know in the comments for sure. Really? You can buy it. Sent it. People are obsessed with it. People go and they just stand there and smell the ride. How do you make a scent like that? You go to the ride and candle. People can do anything. But the public didn't find out about Walt Disney's death until hours after he passed. And this was probably because the family had to be notified before the public was. But some people think that the news was announced later so that there was enough time to freeze Walt before the story broke. A few weeks after he passed away, a reporter claimed that he snuck into the hospital that Walt Disney died in and saw his body being frozen in a cryo chamber. The reporter had no proof or photos. And there actually isn't any proof that this reporter existed at all. But the rumor took off after Walt's death and it's super popular and well known today. Those first published in a magazine in 1969 and a Disney publicist apparently told the magazine that the rumor was started by a bunch of Disney animators with a weird sense of humor. Disney's daughter Diane has said that her father wasn't frozen. He was cremated. She didn't even think her father knew what cryonics was, which I think is possible as well. But the rumor bothered Diane so much that it was actually part of the reason that she opened Walt's old Disney Land apartment up to the public. But Disney did have a fascination with technology in the future as we all know from the rides and space mountain and all these things. Plus, cryonics was becoming a more well known topic in the 1960s. So it was definitely possible that Walt had actually known or seen this technology before. His death certificate states that he was cremated and his ashes were spread on the Disney family plot in Forest Lawn Memorial Park. And the funeral services were private just for immediate family members. But some people believe that the private funeral was really just a cover for what was actually happening to Walt's body. But Walt was a private man and he said he didn't want a funeral. He'd rather people remember him alive. Another rumor floating around is that Disney didn't want the location of his remains to be public. And the cemetery he's entered out won't give out the location of the Disney family plot. But that's a pretty common request from celebrities who want privacy after they pass. Many people have still found the plot's location though of course. But some people have said that there's no plaque for Walt Disney there or anything to know. indicate that his remains are there, even though he was such an important figure. But there's a picture of the plaque at the family plot that pretty quickly disproves that. As you can see, it says Walter, Elias Disney. Since his ashes were scattered on the plot, there's no way of checking to see if they're actually there. But this has obviously all been, you know, when ashes are spread, it's, you know, they're not there anymore. So anybody be like, well, they were never there. Yeah. And he too, Bob Nelson, the president of the cryonic society of California said in an interview that Walt Disney quote unquote wanting to be frozen. But he also said that Walt missed out on the opportunity because he never put his wishes in writing. And according to Bob, Walt's family didn't want him to be frozen. Walt had apparently called the cryonic society after his cancer diagnosis and asked them all about their facilities and technology. And the society was incorporated the same day that Walt Disney died. Only about a month after he passed, the first human was crowd genically frozen. And Bob said that it would have been cool to have Walt Disney be the first, but it didn't happen. He claimed that he'd seen Walt's ashes with his own eyes. Another rumor that's out there is that the movie frozen was created to combat the rumor of Walt Disney being frozen. So whenever someone looks up Disney frozen or Walt Disney frozen, the movie frozen pops up instead of the legend. That is stupid. There's no way that that is why they could still type in Disney. Any cryogenically frozen or anything else. If that's true, then it's not the first disinformation campaign the Disney company has gone on. Next we're going to take a look at the shady origins of Walt Disney world. But before we do, we're going to take a quick break. It will be right back. So back in the 50s, Walt Disney had big plans. He wanted to create not just a new theme park, but a new type of American city. That city was going to be called Epcot, which stands for the experimental prototype community of tomorrow. I had no idea. Who knew? I always wondered what the fuck is Epcot? Me too. What a weird name for a park. Yeah, I just kind of accepted it. I was like, that's weird, but I like it there. It's a experimental prototype community of tomorrow. So Walt was a very foreign thinking guy. He was thinking about what the future is going to look like. A lot. So if you've never been to Epcot, it's, I mean, there are a few rides there, but it's not really a theme park. It's more of an experienced park. I would call it you go from country to country within the park and there's themed food and things to buy lots of shit to buy. And you'll spend a lot of money. Oh, yeah. Otherwise, it's just like, you'll be sad. It's mostly you just walk around and buy stuff. Yeah. And then there's a few rides. They do a pretty good firework show. And they have some really cool classic rides there. It's pretty like it's like nice to look at, but. Yeah. Huh. Never knew that that's what it stands for though. That's very interesting. So Epcot's city center would have originally been surrounded by a climate controlled dome. It would have its own airport, a theme park named Disney World with in it, a modern transportation system, and an industrial showcase. And there would be no unemployment or home ownership, just a community of happy renters living in one big, happy Disney controlled bubble. And this top secret concept became known around Disney as the quote Florida project. The project was definitely Walt's most ambitious idea. Epcot was set to be the city that changed the world. But first, Disney needed the land to build it. It was going to be hard to buy up all that property without raising eyebrows. If property owners knew that the company was trying to build a park in Florida, land prices would obviously skyrocket. And that's where the CIA comes into this story. Many hired two high level CIA agents, Paul Hellywell and William Wildbill Donovan to help them buy up the land. And they helped Disney trick local property sellers into deals where Disney got their lands for prices as low as $100 an acre. So rather go the honest way and get a real estate agent. He's like, no, I'm going to get CIA to specialize in tricking people into doing what they want to do. And the two CIA agents created a secret communication center trained undercover Disney agents and helped the company in a disinformation campaign. This would make sure that Disney's project stayed top secret. And the agents created multiple fake shell companies to buy the land with that had big names like reedy creek ranch corporation. None of the local real estate agents and sellers had any idea that they were selling their properties to Disney. Their plan worked. Now they had the land and Paul Hellywell told Disney that the company should set up two towns under their control so that they can avoid government regulations. The Disney company wanted full control over their newest project and that meant that they needed to have full control of the towns they were located in. They couldn't have local governments getting in their way, of course. So Disney realized that they couldn't let any local residents have any voting power. That would give them the power to interfere with their business operations. They wanted to limit their voting powers and they knew that that was a violation of the US Constitution. But the CIA agents had a fix for that too. They actually used their law firms to write up legislation that would help Disney control their towns and those lawyers sent off the text Florida legislators who were happy to sign off on it without even taking a look at it. And that's how the towns of Lake Buena Vista and Bay Lake were created. They controlled those "fantoms cities" by picking employees to become the only residents of the towns. And today only about 50 people live in these towns and they're all Disney employees and their families. The Reedicreek Improvement District was created as a result of Disney's scheme. That special district is essentially Lake Buena Vista in Bay Lake's government. Only landowners in the Reedicreek Improvement District are allowed to vote for a five-seat board of supervisors and all of those landowners are hand-picked Disney employees. So now Disney would basically have their own privately owned police, medical and fire departments and they'd also be exempt from certain tax and environmental regulations. Plus all of the park's tax revenue would go back to the company. Everything was going according to plan and in 1966 Walt Disney formally announced his vision. The Epcot City project though was scrapped after Walt Disney died. His brother Roy picked up the theme park project again and that officially became Walt Disney World. And some of Walt's original plans became the Epcot that we know today. Walt Disney World officially opened in 1971 and has expanded over the past few decades to include multiple theme parks like the Magic Kingdom, Epcot and Animal Kingdom as well as a bunch of hotels. The Walt Disney World property is twice the size of Manhattan and almost the same size as San Francisco, not that sink in for a minute, that's a lot of area for a company to own, especially a theme park company. It's also a full of a lot of undeveloped land. Some of it is set aside for future construction but a lot of it can't be developed since the area is too swampy. I mean, it's middle Florida. Walt Disney's concept of a new American city didn't become the Epcot of his dreams but some of his ideas were used when Disney built their own plans community in the 90s. Those plans turned into the town of Celebration Florida, which Disney used to control. Celebration Florida was designed to be a spotless diverse and harmonious town just south of Walt Disney World. It would be walkable, safe and happy for all residents. So many people wanted to move to Celebration that Disney actually created a lottery system for people to buy houses there. Residents had to follow a lot of strict rules though in order to live in Celebration. All the houses had to follow specific construction patterns and landscaping and some people have called the town's uniform houses "creepy" which like the ones in the Truman show or the Stetford Wives. For a while everything went pretty smoothly in Celebration but the plan was always for Disney to sell off the properties they owned there once the town had gotten onto its feet. In 2004 the company sold their control the downtown area to a private company which seemed like a good sign. But many residents said that the buildings in Celebration are crumbling and the new company won't do anything to fix them. They ended up suing the company for letting the town's condos become basically uninhabitable. Celebration wouldn't be the last of Disney's issues in Florida. In this past April Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill that will get rid of the Reedy Creek Improvement District. The special district is set to dissolve on June 1st, 2023. This will be huge for Disney since they won't be able to govern the park themselves. DeSantis probably made the move because he was angry that Disney spoke out against Florida because they don't say gay bill. And the end of the special district might have big consequences for local residents too. Now the tax payers in the Orange and Oceola counties will have to foot some of Disney's bills. The Reedy Creek Improvement District covered all the costs of the two towns, police and fire departments, waste management, water electricity, roads and bridges and more. And now tax payers will have to cover those things. They'll also be stuck paying for the park's billion dollar debt. Residents in the two counties, Disney World is located in, might also have their taxes increased by 20%. I would love to hear from people down in Florida especially in these areas what they think of all this. So anyway, now we're going to look at if there are any other connections between Disney and the CIA. Before Walt Disney was hospitalized and died, he wrote one last note. And the note was titled TV Projects in Production, Ready for Production or Possible Escalation and Story. And there were some interesting things written underneath that. A couple different things. Ron Miller, Two Way Down Selling. Kurt Russell and CIA-Mobly. So Ron Miller was Walt Disney's son-in-law who sometimes produced live-action Disney movies. Way down seller ended up becoming a Disney movie released about a year after Walt died and Kurt Russell was a rising star actor at Disney during this time. But what does CIA-Mobly mean? It probably refers to Roger Mobley, another big Disney start at the time. Walt probably wrote all those names to pass on to someone developing the way down seller movie. But what is the CIA part of that mean? That is still a mystery to this day. And why did these two CIA agents help Disney back in the 50s and 60s? Maybe it was because they shared the same vision of America that Walt had. Maybe it was because they wanted an influential man like him as a CIA asset. Or maybe it was because Disney was about to help the US government pull off an incredible hoax. Which leads us to our next conspiracy. And this one falls under the moon landing was fake conspiracy umbrella, which we've done a whole episode here on the moon landing conspiracy. It goes in pretty great detail on all the different theories about it. But today we're going to be focusing on Disney's connection to the moon landing was fake. So the theory is is that Disney used their movie studios to help Stanley Kubrick and NASA fake the 1969 Apollo moon landing. These conspiracies have been around since Neil Armstrong first stepped foot on the moon. And basically the gist of it is that the US staged the moon landing so that we could beat Russia in the space race that was going on at the time. Some people think that all the footage the Americans saw of the moon landing was actually filmed in a movie studio. Parts of the footage people saw on July 20, 1969 was actually simulated. And those portions were clips of the Apollo lunar module landing on the moon. Obviously it was the first manned spacecraft to land on the moon. So of course there is no cameraman already waiting on the surface. Plus CBS put a disclaimer on the footage stating that it was a simulation. Here's a clip. There you have it. CBS new simulation. Man on the moon. There we go. Because there's theories that some of it is real. Some of it is fake. Obviously this is a very fake. They're reacting to that clip. I'm just a doctor. While they say something on speech. I'm just trying to hold out of my breath. That is really something. It's a simulation. Why are you like freaking out? There are speeches about it. Why? I don't know. Disinformation campaign. Yeah. There were real videos of the actions walking on the moon for the first time. But some people think that those videos are actually fake too. But here's one key piece of proof. There's a photo of one of the Apollo astronauts that shows a strange light in the shot. And some people think that it came from a movie studios lighting system. But that light is really just a lens flare from the camera. The large rectangular shape in the middle came from the camera's aperture. So according to the moon landing conspiracy theory, NASA actually hired Stanley Kubrick to direct the fake moon landing movie or film that everybody saw that they thought was real. And who's studios did NASA and Stanley Kubrick use to film the moon landing footage? Well, probably the largest studios in the world and the most advanced and at the time that was Disney's. If that really happened, it would, yeah, it makes it would make sense that they would use a Disney studio for that. Plus Walt Disney had an interest in space and the company made multiple space exploration movies in the 50s, including man and space, man and the moon in Mars and beyond. Walt wanted to make the idea of space exploration less scary for the American people. The movies were supposed to introduce them to the concept and make them more curious about it. In the 1950s, the US was going head head with Russia in the space race. So humans in space was something that was on the horizon. Disney actually worked with a German aerospace engineer, Werner von Braun in order to create those films. Von Braun was the chief architect of the launch vehicle that brought the Apollo spacecraft to the moon. And he's considered the father of the American lunar program. But Von Braun was also a member of the Nazi party and the SS organization, which was a major Nazi paramilitary organization. But Von Braun had also been a member of the Nazi party and the SS, which is a major paramilitary Nazi organization. He created a lot of rocket technology for the Nazis during World War II. And he said that he was more or less forced to join the party or else he'd have to give up his aerospace work. So whether or not Von Braun actually committed to Nazi ideology is still sort of controversial. But regardless, he and his specialist surrendered to the US in 1945. And we brought him over to work for NASA. In fact, after the war, the US brought more than 1,600 Nazi German engineers and scientists into the country and gave them government jobs. This is an intelligence program that was named Operation Paperclip. I'm pretty sure we've done an episode on that. Or at least talked about it. We've talked about it before, for sure. But we haven't like done a deep job on. So that's basically how Von Braun met Walt Disney. And there was another Operation Paperclip physicist who worked on those Disney films. His name was Heinz Haber. He was a Nazi Air Force captain who worked with the US Air Force after the war. And not only did Heinz work on those films, he became Disney Land's chief scientist. He hosted an episode of the show, Disney Land, named our friend, the Adam. And he wrote a Disney book with the same name. Here's a clip of Walt Disney introducing Heinz Haber. We added a nationally known scientist to our staff to head our new science department. A nice, not just a former right. On the atom and to help us in developing this program. And here to tell you the story of our friend, the Adam is the author of our book, Dr. Heinz Haber. As we developed our story of the atom, we made an amazing discovery. We had a science story, but suddenly we realized that it was almost like a fairy tale. By a strange coincidence, our story turned out to be like the old fable from the Arabianites, the fishermen and the genie. Yikes. So both Haber and Von Braun worked with Disney to develop the Disneyland Park attraction rocket to the moon, which is in tomorrow and the two operation paperclip Nazi recruits collaborated with Disney NASA and the US military to create films that would get Americans excited about space. So did they realize that they couldn't actually finish the job by getting a man in space, which led them to fake it? Did the US government need to win the space race in order to justify operation paperclip or was the whole thing applied to advance what the Nazis believed? Or do you think it's all bullshit? Sound off. We want to know man. It's tough because obviously without knowing, you know, while Disney personally, I just think it's very odd out of all of the scientists in the country. He teamed up with two former Nazis, which I get. They came over and obviously we don't know for sure whether or not they subscribed to Nazi ideology, but still they were part of the Nazi. So they probably did. And yet they were heavily entrenched in a lot of what Walt Disney was doing at the time with his science department and everything else. And you can imagine they probably spent a lot of time together. Personally, there's probably a lot of conversations. So I mean, you never know. Maybe he brought them in because they shared some more views to what Walt Disney had. Yeah, maybe we just don't know. You don't know. It is. It is odd though. I speculate very odd. But keep in mind Walt Disney had been dead for two and a half years by the time that we landed on the moon while also died a year and a half before 2001. A space Odyssey was released, which was an MGM studio's production, not Disney. So where does Stanley Kubrick come into all this? Kubrick's film, 2001, a space Odyssey, had been released in 1968 a year before the moon landing. He supposedly had enough experience to help NASA fake the moon landing in a movie studio. And there was a video floating around of Kubrick confessing that he helped fake the moon landing. But the interview is actually just a hoax created by a filmmaker and a paid actor. The filmmaker said on his website that he interviewed Kubrick in May of 1999. But Kubrick actually died in March of 1999. So obviously we'll have to assume the filmmaker conducted the interview via Ouija board. Yeah, it's the only way possible. Yeah. So why would Disney agree to do this? It was supposed to be a secret. So the company wouldn't get any publicity from it was Disney in the pocket of the US government. Was he a secret Nazi himself? I mean, he was all wrapped up with CIA agents and I don't know. It's very curious. It is because even at the time I'm just thinking I'm like, I get he was really wealthy. It was really powerful. He was obviously in the upper echelon of society and he would probably have those contacts. He probably could get those contacts, but it's interesting that he's so wrapped up with the former Nazi members and CIA agents, or if for some reason he was an asset to the CIA, perhaps keeping an eye on these former Nazi members, something like that that could have been possible, like he was almost a spy. There's also another theory out there that's of course NANARs is just floating around out there that Walt Disney was a racist anti-Semitic FBI spy. It's not only that CIA, but the FBI now is involved with him. So a lot of these rumors probably stemmed from Mark Elliott's 1993 book, Walt Disney, Hollywood's Dark Prince. Mark wrote that Walt Disney was a fascist, anti-Semitic Nazi, sexist racist, a heavy drinker in an FBI spy, pretty bold accusations there. So what proof does he have? In 1937, Walt and his brother Roy visited Germany while they were on a European promotional tour, for Snow White. A German film distributor owed the Disney company a lot of money and the Disney brothers were trying to get that money back. Walt did meet with some fascists during his career, including a German filmmaker who visited Hollywood in 1938. That filmmaker was actually one of Hitler's favorites. Walt personally invited her for a tour of his studios and showed her some of his Mickey Mouse sketches. But Walt was a capitalist at his core, so these meetings might have been more attempts to get their money back as opposed to something else more in the fairies. But it's still not a good look, especially when you consider the whole operation paperclip space Nazi thing. There's a lot of biographers out there that have said that there's no record of Walt Disney ever harboring anti-Semitic feelings. In fact, there were a lot of Jewish people employed by Disney that had prominent roles in the company's operations and productions. While all counts, Walt was happy to work with Jewish people in the industry. And Disney actually produced some World War II propaganda cartoons to get public support against the Nazis. But there's also racist imagery in some older Disney productions, not the least of which was the song of the South. Many animated Disney films had pretty offensive language and stereotypes, but you also have to remember that during the 1930s and 1950s sexism was rampant. And unfortunately, most men in the film industry and in America were sexist. But it's still not a good look. In 1938, the Disney company actually responded to a woman's job application with women do not do creative work. But let's move on to the FBI informant allegations. These are actually somewhat true. And for 26 years, Walt Disney secretly informed the FBI about potential communists in the film industry. This included animators and other members of his own studio, writers, producers, union leaders, and film executives. In 1941, Disney's animators went on strike for better pay and working conditions. And they, I think they did that again pretty recently, actually. Obviously, Walt was a huge capitalist, and he was angry that a strike got in the way of his business. The Disney company fired most of the animators, but eventually, Walt agreed to let the animators join a union. But he was still very pissed about the whole thing. Walt wanted to get his way and the second red scare gave him the perfect opportunity to try and disrupt the unions. He accused the industry of being infiltrated by communists trying to undermine the American way of life by putting bits of propaganda in films. He also joined the anti-Semitic, anti-union, and anti-communist motion picture alliance after the strikes. But that might have been more of a business move than anything else since he wanted to bust the unions. But again, not a good look for Walt Disney. Walt actually testified at the McCarthy era hearings in 1947, he spoke before the House on American Activities Committee and denounced communism. He also snitched on some people in a studio that he believed were communists, which tanked their careers. Here's actually a clip of Walt Disney testifying against alleged communists. I don't believe it's a political party. I believe it's an un-American thing. And the thing that I resent the most is that they are able to get into these unions and take them over and represent to the world that a group of people that are in my plant, that I know are good 100% Americans, that are trapped by this group. And they represent it to the world as supporting all of those ideologies. And it's not so. And I feel that they really ought to be smoked out and shown up for what they are so that all the good pre-causes in this country, all the liberalisms that really are. American can go out without disteying a communism. That's my sincere feelings on it. - Very outspoken. - Yeah. So Walt's first recorded interaction with the FBI happened in 1936. FBI director, Jay Edgar Hoover, reached out to Walt and told him, "I am indeed pleased that we can be of service to you in affording you a means of absolute identity throughout your lifetime." - It's not clear exactly what absolute identity means. - I am indeed pleased that we can be of service to you in affording you a means of absolute identity throughout your lifetime. - That is so, so strange. I'm curious what you guys think about that one. - I mean, that's a very interesting statement to come from the director of the FBI to Walt. It seems like they, I mean, that right there seems almost like the FBI owed Walt something. So Walt began officially working as an FBI informant on November 10th, 1941. And this was just a few months after the successful Disney animators strike. Walt secretly worked with the agency until he passed away in 1966. In 1954, the FBI approved Walt as a, quote, "full special agent in charge contact" or "SAC contact." "SAC contacts were informants the Bureau trusted to help out with public relations, equipment, and insider intel." Throughout the 50s, the FBI actually helped Disney secure some permits for Disneyland. The FBI got permission to use Disneyland for their work in return. And we don't know exactly what purposes the FBI wanted to use Disneyland for. And we don't know if they actually did use the park. In exchange for his help, J. Edgar Hoover let Walt film inside the FBI offices. The two of them had a pretty cozy relationship throughout the years. Walt filmed multiple episodes of the Mickey Mouse Club at the Bureau's offices in Washington, D.C. and he promised the FBI that they'd air footage of the Mouse Kateres, owing and owing at the Brave FBI agents essentially doing propaganda work for the Bureau. The Bureau also collaborated on scripts with Walt. They wanted to make sure that Disney was portraying the FBI in a positive light. So for the most part, Disney let them change parts of their scripts to make the FBI look good. And at one point, J. Edgar Hoover actually had one of the Bureau chiefs send a request to Disney about a movie script. He wanted Disney to edit the script for the film Moon Pilot so that it never outright mentioned the FBI. Disney agreed to make those changes. In 1993, the FBI released 570 pages of their files on Walt Disney after they were FOIA requested. And a lot of those pages are heavily blacked out or redacted. So it's possible that we'll never really know the full details of what Walt did for the FBI. - It's interesting to me that he had such a cozy relationship with J. Edgar Hoover because we know what a piece of shit J. Edgar Hoover was. The guy was racist, he was homophobic, and the FBI killed Martin Luther King. - Yeah, and pretty much fact at the point. - He was just incredibly shading and wrapped up in so many different things. - Scandals and all sorts of things. - Doing a bunch of illegal, legal stuff. - Yeah, one of the worst. - So if you look at J. Edgar Hoover's personal views, you have to wonder that there's personal friendships here. And so-- - Even that statement was very-- - Yeah, you really start to think personal. - Did Walt Disney share those same feelings and thoughts? - I mean, makes you wonder. - Honestly, one of them. - And both of them were like, deathly afraid of Communists too as well. - Yeah. - Very, very interesting. - So Disney definitely made a decent amount of propaganda for the US government. But some people wonder if the Disney company is trying to push their other messages using secretive subtle methods or subliminal messaging. We're gonna dive into some of that subliminal messaging when we get back from our break. So does Disney hide subliminal messaging in their children's movies? Now, this has been a really popular theory for a while. People have always been fascinated on it. I know I did a video about just different possibilities when it comes to subliminal messaging. At some point in my earlier YouTube days, and it's always been very interesting to me. You may have heard that a lot of Disney movies have some R-rated hidden symbols or messages. And probably one of the most well-known examples of the hidden messages is in one of Disney's old cartoon kids movies. The Disney animated film The Rescue Wars, which was released in 1977. Did you ever see that one? - Yeah, I did. See The Rescue was actually. - Yep, I used to like that one. - Yeah, me too. - It's a kids movie that tells the story of a group of mice that rescue kidnapped children. And for over 20 years, people enjoyed the family-friendly movie without any complaints about inappropriate content. But that changed in 1999 when Disney announced that they were recalling millions of home video copies of the movie. It turns out that the rescuers contained two frames of a naked woman in the background of one of their scenes. - Oh, wow. That was really in there? - Yep, that was really in there. - Oh my God, yeah, you can see a woman's breast back there. - Mm-hmm. So these two frames were in the movie since 1977, but they're really hard to spot. you know, because the movie is moving so fast that no one would really notice unless they were looking for these frames. Slow it down. Yeah. So Disney said that their animators did not insert these frames. Someone in post production did. And the image wasn't in the movies 1992 home video release because those copies came from a different print. So we don't know exactly how many people were able to see that image before Disney recalled the film. But clearly it wasn't really common knowledge until Disney announced the recall decades later. I kind of think sorry. I kind of think it's interesting that Disney was the one that recalled it. And so it was kind of ignoring it until it was actually brought to the public by people who figured it out. Right. Because like it was there for so long. Why would they all of a sudden draw attention to it and cause such a ruckus? Yeah, I was thinking this is where maybe like the leadership change there after Walt died and change. And there was somebody who was trying to keep on Walt's method and inserting some little messaging and they're like, Oh, this is actually a bad idea. We shouldn't be putting this kind of shit in children's films. We should remove that from that rescue. Maybe a tough woman in there. So weird. Was it a joke though? You think this was just a joke that somebody did. I thought it was funny to put it in there. Like why? I mean, if it's the frames are moving so quick, you don't really see it at all. Anyway, why put it in there in the first little messaging works. It's so fast that our brain picks up things like a millisecond though. Yeah, that's the theory behind it. I don't really believe that one because I think it was more like a prank a joke. Has it happened so fast when I was trolling? Right. You would think that it would be more, it would be in more frames or like in the, you know, more visible if they're really trying to just like is your brain even going to register? I don't think anybody even probably noticed it until they got, they looked at it frame by frame at Disney. Yeah. Some people think that Disney actually recalled the movies to boost their home VHS sales. The theory is that the controversy would attract more VHS sales from people looking for those inappropriate images. And people might buy other Disney home releases to look for other hidden messages as well. I don't know. Honestly, that kind of seems more believable that this was like a sales tactic. And then they call it. Yeah. I feel like that'd be more damaging than helpful. I don't know. There have been other scenes from Disney kids movies that people think are kind of fishy. For example, there's a scene in the Lion King that has raised some eyebrows. I would say this is the most popular one in this scene. Simba walks to the cliff's edge and flops down on it. And he kicks up this like cloud of dust that fades into the night sky. It's actually this whole part of the movie is such a beautiful scene. So it's kind of sad that this whole theory is wrapped up in it. But you can see the dust kind of creates letters. It could be not for sure, but people think it says sex. You got to look pretty damn hard at that. To pull that out of there. But again, like that's what subliminal is. It's like subtly. And there's a legend online that a four year old was watching the movie back in 1995. And he turned his head for a second and he saw that it said sex. He told his mom about the letters and the mom told a religious organization called the American life league. And that organization had already been boycotting Disney because they thought their movies contained sexual messages. So it's kind of difficult to see the letters unless you really look at it. It's also pretty hard to believe that anyone casually watching the movie would notice something like that. But this is really interesting. And I don't think a lot of people know this. But one of the Lion King's animators confirmed that the dust was really supposed to spell something out. But he said it was actually supposed to spell SFX. It was a small tribute to the film's special effects team, according to him. And if you go and look at the dust again, it to me, it looks more like an SFX. I don't know. Yeah. It does kind of. I guess there's that tail on the F there that you could say wasn't E, but maybe you know, maybe there's just a design error. They're just like, oh, shit. We should have separated that little last particles of dust a little bit better. Because I mean, but it's not in common for companies to put in like little shout out. Yeah, a little Easter eggs are called. Yeah, a lot of games do that. But it does look could go either way. I see sex more than I see SFX. Why not make it a little bit more pronounced so that you don't run to this, this contribute. Right. Just kind of weird. So obviously that explanation hasn't really satisfied a lot of people. They've pointed out a lot of other examples of what they think are Disney trying to sexualize children. There are some promotional posters and images from Disney films that people believe have sexual symbols in them. Look at this Lion King poster, for example. That's some shit. Yeah, that is. That is something something else. That's a mess. That's some nice booty there. I don't know. Do you think that was the thought behind it? I mean, he looks weird in this. That's like, you know, even how he looks like it's distorted to make this image work. Yeah, why not make it a why? Yeah, that's I kind of believe that one. That's weird. Yeah, it does look like arms. Arms going up. Yeah, even in the top of the hair, like it really does questionable. Do you think there's just a bunch of like trolls working at Disney, maybe? And they're just like, it could be. Maybe it's like a culture thing there or I don't know. Maybe it cultured. Maybe these people are onto something that they really are trying to put these images out there to children. Like, is there is that possible? Guess it could be. I think it could be. I mean, pretty much everything these days is sexualized or is it a case of like just seeing things where there's nothing to actually be seen. Your brain just sees pictures. I mean, you can look at abstract art and also find sexual images and I don't know. I really am torn on this whole thing. But the little mermaid poster also this one. I don't know, man. It really looks like a big golden dildo to me. What do you think? It really does. It really, really does like a big penis. Yeah, big golden penis there. Yep. It really does. That one is. Yeah, it's pretty prominent and it doesn't even like make sense with the rest of the picture. It's like why it'd be so easy to just make it not look like that. Yeah. And I don't know. You know, is it just one person that draws all these posters and they're just a sick, sick person that wants to put little sexual digits in there? Not just one person. It's like over time, tons of different true. True. People. So is there a bigger, bigger thing going on here? I mean, next one. Look at this. Yeah. This cover of Icelandic Disney magazine. That is, that's some shit. That is some shit. I don't know how you deny that. That is so disturbing. It's a part supposed to be our shoulder. Oh, yeah. Got it. A little shoulder. Oh, yeah. But I mean, come on. Right. That is like a dick. Definitely a blue dick. I didn't see shoulder. I didn't see any. I couldn't even tell what that was until you just explained that. Even the crease at the top, I mean, I don't know. I don't know. Come on. Okay. Next we have this tangled poster. This one is a little, I think a little bit more of a stretch in my opinion, but I mean, it could be people think that the hair that's wrapped around the dude here. I'm never seen tangled actually. People say it's great. But apparently it says sex right here. I don't think any kid would ever look at that and spell that out. I think that's, here's my thing with it though. It's like, I get that these things look like that. But what does that actually do? Like what is it? What's actually happening? Are our kids actually, is this happening affect on people? Or is this just funny because we're all adults and we're looking at this and we're like, oh, this kind of looks like that on a kid's thing. Like is a kid ever going to register that that looks like a penis or that looks that spells out sex? Like the subliminal messaging thing is just like, I don't know about it. I don't know. I mean, some of them are like, I do think may have been put in there possibly as cranks. So is there any kid out there that's ever existed that's like, oh, I saw that one poster that one Disney poster. I mean, there's that legend. It's a woman's ass in it. Just stuck in my head all these years. There's a mooseboss's face, but it was a woman's ass. Well, that's the thing with subliminal messaging and maybe we should do an episode on that. That actually be quite interesting. It's like, even if you don't register it, your brain, that's the theory is that you're right. I think there's stronger arguments for subliminal messaging than any of these Disney examples. Okay. So there's also a scene in Aladdin that sounds like, I don't know if you've ever heard this, but I don't think we can play it because of copyright, but it says it sounds like I think it's a lot. Yeah, it might be a lot in any way. It sounds like he's saying good teenagers take off your clothes, but Disney confirmed that it's actually saying good tiger take off and go, which is kind of weird wording, but I've heard it before it is, it is weird. But it's like, I heard that after I already had heard the theory. So it's like, is your brain looking for it? It's the genie that says it. Oh, maybe it is. Or it's the magic carpet that says it. I don't know. I don't know. It doesn't matter. There aren't just references to sex that people have found in Disney's content. For example, take a look at this still from 101 Dalmatians. Looks like there's a possible swastika in the Dalmatians print. Or there's this still from an episode of Duck Tales. Remember Duck Tales? It says ask about Illuminati. Yeah. That one's weird. What? Right? that actually is - That's actually really crazy because if that's in there, then I guess it makes all these other ones a bit more believable. - Right, I know. - They really are dropping these little things. Wow, wow, that's interesting. - So obviously the question is why? - So last year we're gonna talk about today has to deal with Club 33 in Remasons. So some people think that this exclusive Club 33 might be hiding interesting secrets to keep guests from going into unauthorized areas. Disney parks use Go Away Green. It's a bland green color paint on building so visitors eyes naturally gloss over them. The color is usually used to disguise utility closets and areas under construction. But at Disneyland it's also used to hide Club 33. Club 33 is an ultra exclusive private members only club. It's for high profile celebrities who want to enjoy finding dining and entertainment at Disney parks. The Club is a way for these elites to get away from the crowds. There are Club 33 locations in Walt Disney World, Tokyo Disneyland, Shanghai Disneyland in the original Disneyland and Aime location. The Disneyland location is the most famous though. And it's also the most expensive. Club 33 has been visited by celebrities like Tom Hanks, Tiger Woods, Christine Aguilara and Elton John, and it costs tens of thousands of dollars to join. And the waiting list for this club has sometimes been decades long. Walt Disney got inspiration for a Club 33 after he saw the executive lounges at the 1964 New York World's Fair. He wanted an exclusive lounge where he could entertain VIPs and elites. When Disneyland opened, Club 33 was the only place in the park where alcohol was sold. State laws required an address from any business that wanted a liquor license. So Disney needed to give their members club an address. The original Disneyland Club is located at 33 Royal Street in New Orleans Square. This is probably where the club gets its name from. It might also have been a reference to the 33 original corporate sponsors of Disneyland. But some people think that the Club's name actually comes from Free Masonry. It's been rumored that Walt Disney built Club 33 to be a Masonic Lodge. You've probably already seen a few conspiracies online related to the Free Masons, which I don't think we ever did a whole episode on the Free Masons. Even though I'm sure we said a million times we're going to, definitely something we should revisit. But Free Masonry is a fraternal organization that's been around for centuries, it's a secret society. Originally, there were groups of stone masons that formed guilds and regulated the business. They were basically like a medieval trade union for stone masons. There were a lot of ceremonial rights involved, and masons were expected to keep trade secrets within their individual guilds. It was basically a medieval pattening method. Free Masons still exist today, but they're not stone masons anymore. But the organization is still based on a lot of ceremonies and traditions. Masons are grouped into individual local Masonic Lodges. Any man can become a Free Mason as long as they're above the age of 18 or 21 in some places, and women are strictly prohibited from becoming masons. Outside of the ceremonial stuff, most of what the masons do is charity work in service. It's kind of like a Greek letter college fraternity, but with more tradition in service and without any of the insane partying. However, a lot of people think that the Free Masons are tangled up in the occult or the Illuminati, and that they've been accused of being involved in lots of different conspiracies, including the New World Order or the spread of Satanism. Walt Disney was rumored to be a 33rd degree mason, and in Masonry, the 33rd degree is an honor given to members who've made important contributions to Masonry or to society. Some examples of other 33rd degree masons are President Harry Truman, Arnold Palmer, and Henry Ford. It's actually interesting that my grandfather is a, I wanna say he's like a 20 something degree free mason, and he showed me his free mason ring, so I know it's legit. - He's coming over tonight, maybe we'll ask him. - He's like obsessed with joining all these fraternal organizations. He's part of the Elks. He was a part of the Shriners. All of these groups, which is very interesting. I should ask him, yeah, I should ask him why he joined those groups. - Mm-hmm. - So was Walt Disney a free mason? Not exactly. He was a member of the Order of the De Molle, which is a free mason sponsored youth fraternal organization. De Molle International was founded in 1919 in Kansas City and it's been a youth group for boys age 12 to 21, and the group mainly focuses on charity and service work much like the free masons. Walt Disney joined De Molle International in 1920 when he was 19 years old, and he was one of the organization's first members, and he was pretty committed, but it doesn't look like he ever became a full-fledged free mason. Walt Disney actually made Mickey Mouse a member of the Order of De Molle, and Walt did receive the De Molle Legion of Honor Award, which is their equivalent to the mason's 33rd degree. There's actually some rumors online that Walt's older brother, Roy Disney, was briefly a free mason, but that's never really been confirmed. On June 15th, 1967, Disney lands Club 33 officially opened, but Walt passed away in 1966, six months before the club was completed. And today you can visit Club 33 if you're lucky enough to snag a reservation that a member has canceled. If you get in, take a look at the trophy room, it has a max occupancy of 33 people. That's random. Back in the day, Disney land actually had its own masonic club. The club was created in the 50s for Disney employees, but there's not a lot of info about the club or when it was disbanded. There's also an interesting reference to free masonry in Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom. If you take a ride on the Liberty Square Riverboat, you'll pass by the big Thunder Mountain Roller Coaster. And on that ride, there's a small crate on the dock that's labeled H-Abiff's Working Tools. And that's a reference to Hiram Abiff, who is a character in an allegory that mason's learned about during the third degree ceremonial stage. That's really bizarre. - Yeah, that is. - Really weird. The third degree is the last of the three masonic degrees. Once a mason completes the ceremonial stage to become a master mason. The legend of Hiram Abiff goes something like this. He was an architect of King Solomon's Temple in a free mason, and one day, and trutters came into the temple and tried to get Hiram to give up the master mason's secret passwords. He refused to tell the intruders, and they killed him for that. And the story is supposed to teach the lessons of faithfulness, loyalty, and certainty of death. So why is that reference there at all? It's unknown who designed the crate and Disney died decades before Big Thunder Mountain was constructed. So it was probably a Disney Imagineer, which is what they call Disney's creative engineers, who had some tie to masonry that put it there. That's really weird though, that they would put that in like on the ride. - Yeah, really strange. - Or is it just to try to like make people think? Maybe they want everybody to think all these conspiracies are real. - No, I think there's no plan. - They're kind of planting it. - I don't know. - But there's also some more numerology stuff out there related to this conspiracy. It was 13 and important number for Walt Disney. The letter M is the 13th letter of the alphabet, and you've got Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse, plus Mason. Disneyland's mailing address is 1313 South Harbor, Boulevard in Anaheim, and 13 is allegedly a Masonic symbol. But the free Mason's organization has denied this. Also the number three sort of looks like mouseres if you turn it to the side. So it does the letter M. - No. - So Mickey Mouse might equal 33. - Well, I think that's all we have time for today, but you could go on and on when it comes to the Disney stuff. - You can go through all the bells. - We didn't get to Disney parks, and there's other theories, and yeah, more subliminal messaging stuff. So if you guys are interested in another episode of this, maybe later on this summer, let us know in the comments below what you think. - Yeah, the ties to the former Nazi party members and the CIA, he was tight with J.A. Garhuever. I mean, it's really hard to deny some of the stuff in that there may be deeper meanings, planted everywhere for some darker purpose. - Yeah, I think there's a lot more to the store. I'm very curious about those documents that were blacked out for that. - Yeah, I know, right? - I feel like there's probably so much that Disney like has to protect and hide from Walt Disney's past. I mean, in order to create the sort of illusion they've created today, the magic kingdom where dreams come true. - Yeah, and just some of the content that came out too is just questionable when it comes to his character as well. I mean, I don't know, I think there really is something to it. What do you think, you know? - Yeah, I definitely think so. And actually, I was just to bounce off of the 13, number that kind of interests me. I just found this article, and there's like tons of examples of A113 in all different kinds of movies. - Oh, wow, yeah. - They're playing set everywhere. - Nimo, Bugs Life, Up, Monsters University. Wait, with Nimo, is it the address, the wall of each room? - No, it's on the diverse camera. - I only see it in this picture, but on the, what if this princess in the frog on the train? - Weird. - My whole thing is like, why? Why, like if you're trying to be this like, sorry, blast from the past, that's a Disney movie, the Brave Little Toaster. You wanna talk about trauma, that movie fucked me up. - Really? - Oh my God. - I never saw that one, I don't think. What's that one about? - It's about all these like, sad appliances who are all misfits. They're like junk like a vacuum and a, oh my gosh dude, seriously, the vacuum almost dies. It's like a whole thing. That movie I used to get so scared of and cry, but it was one of my favorites too. I didn't know that was a Disney. - I know, it's so weird that if you think about all the Disney movies, how many of them have a common theme of death in it? - 'Cause Pixar's Disney, right? Disney Pixar. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well you should, yeah this A113 is like everywhere. - A113. That is interesting. I wonder if any of you out there know more about that. - It could just be 'cause again, the 13th layer of the alphabet is M, and he just love M because of Mickey Mouse. And that's why he plants it everywhere. I don't know. That's, hmm. Well, it's up at the A. That's weird. And why, I don't know. Hmm. Hmm. Well, we definitely want to hear your thoughts on this one, folks. Chimin. Yeah, it's really bizarre. I don't know how I feel about Disney now. I know. One of those things. Everything has to be ruined, right? There's no good, anything. No more. Wow, it's a good note to leave on. Yeah, it just everything sucks. There's no good kids movies anymore. That's why we're team dream works. We're team dream works here. Oh, yeah, dream works. Those songs are good. Shrek's good. But then there's theories about, isn't there like theories about Shrek too? Oh, don't tell me that. I think there are. I think there's like wild theories about Shrek and-- Shrek can conspiracy theories. I mean, there's conspiracy theories about everything. Yeah, I thought I saw that there was so Shrek in conspiracy theory. Shrek, I see fan theories. Oh, dark Shrek fan theories. That make total sense. But I mean, you could really, any movie you could come up with a crazy theory about. Oh, yeah, there's theories about everything. But yeah, let's just think. You think of these Disney conspiracy theories. How do you heard any of these before? And should we start doing some detective work on all of the other animation studios out there? Are they all evil? That is the true question. Yeah, I think we need to dive into the free Masons more to look at some more of the theories surrounding them and see-- Interesting stuff. For good. Yeah, it's been a while since we visited secret societies. Might be time to-- Yeah. Dive back down that road. We're hoping to explore more into that world. For a while, we really had to pull back from the world of conspiracies because it's a huge, like, trigger word for YouTube. And I hope I can even say that. I don't know, like, a little nervous. But I think it's gotten a little better. But it just got to the point where it's like, you couldn't say anything without-- I mean, it punishes our content. Who it gets pushed to. But there are definitely some things that we are curious about. And we might dive back in. We will. Yeah. I'm telling you right now, we will. Because I love that stuff. Yeah, it's interesting. It really is. We'll go ahead and wrap up today's episode there. Thank you, again, for joining us for another episode of the Mahalhar podcast. Have you enjoyed this episode? Make sure you-- if you're watching it on YouTube, give us a thumbs up. Make sure you're subscribed. If you're watching us on Spotify now, which we have video on Spotify, please make sure you're following us there so that you always get notified. Yeah. And Spotify will push you our newest episodes when they come out. Spotify's the way to go. We can let the good more of your ship there than we have to worry less about the YouTube bullshit. Right, exactly. So we will see you guys next time with another episode. And until then, keep taking your mind. Mahalhar. Mahalhar. What he said. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING]