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Page 14 of 28 Creative Explosion: The Family is Reunited

Walt with the Academy Award

Walt with the Academy Award for
the creation of Mickey Mouse,
awarded in 1932

tWhen the girls were very young, the family employed a tall Swedish nurse named Ada who helped care for them. Though both parents doted on their children, it fell to Ada to change the diapers and take care of their meals. "This is the way things were done in the early and mid-30s," says Diane. "We were kept in our little place and didn't have an awful lot of access to our parents." By the time Diane was seven and Sharon was four, though, the family didn't need nurses anymore, "and that was wonderful," she recalled.
        In their early years, the daughters were carefully kept out of the public eye. In 1932, aviator Charles Lindbergh's baby son had been kidnapped -- a crime that was trumpeted in newspaper headlines on a daily basis for many weeks, until the child was finally found to have been killed. This episode was more than just a newspaper headline to Walt and Lilly. Given their fame, they feared that their children might also be targets for kidnappers. As a result, they installed security measures in the house, like steel-reinforced screens on the nursery, and eschewed publicity that involved Diane and Sharon. This was an intense time for Walt at work. Unaffected by the Depression, the studio had turned profitable. Mickey Mouse and the Silly Symphonies were the kings of the cartoon roost, winning a slew of Academy Awards. By the time Sharon arrived, Walt was deep into preparations for "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."
Still, he and Roy stayed very close to their family. In 1936 they chipped in on a new refrigerator to give to their parents in Portland. Roy, by this time, was one of the most successful businessmen in Hollywood, running the increasingly complex financial side of the studio. With that in mind, a letter he wrote to his sister Ruth about the gift provides real insight into the modest, careful man he remained all his life. He wrote: "Last night, I bought a Cold Spot refrigerator for Mother and Dad for Christmas from Walt and me. . . After looking over all the boxes on the market, I think this box from Sears is just as good as any of them, and it is considerably less money. "
     In 1937, Flora and Elias agreed to join their sons in California. They had been running a rooming house in Portland, and although they enjoyed their independence, it was an activity that no longer made sense. For one thing, Flora had had a series of small strokes in the mid-30s, and Walt and Roy were worried about her health. What's more, the studio was doing well enough that Walt and Roy could finally afford to take care of their parents. They bought them a house and installed a housekeeper to help. Lilly and Edna helped them decorate the new home; Herbert and his family and Raymond were living in California then too. The family sometimes gathered on Sundays for barbecues at Roy's house. The transplanted midwesterners enjoyed hamburgers, corn on the cob, and a competitive game of croquet (though Walt felt that his brothers ganged up on him, and everyone suspected Ray of moving the ball when no one was looking).
Elias and Flora

Elias and Flora relax in
the warm California sun
 

Raymond Disney

Raymond Disney in his
element as insurance salesman

Despite invitations to join the family firm, Herbert insisted that he enjoyed his life as a mail carrier. Even as Walt grew steadily more successful and famous, he maintained that he was envious of his older brother, a man who appeared to be genuinely contented with his lot in life. Ray, meanwhile, was an insurance salesman and a lifelong bachelor. He was known to Walt's staff as a slightly peculiar fellow who would collar them in the studio to try to sell them policies. Ray constantly smoked cigars and made his way about Los Angeles on an old-fashioned bicycle with a big basket in front.
      Ruth remained in Portland with her husband, Theodore Beecher, for the rest of her life, but she stayed in touch with Walt through letters and calls. When times occasionally grew difficult for Ruth, Walt and Roy were always there with a check. Until she died in 1995, Ruth remained her brothers' No. 1 fan. In a series of letters between Ruth and Flora,  Flora describes the lovely life in California: the pleasant weather, a beautiful anniversary party her sons gave her, fun times with Diane, her pride at the success of "Snow White" -- a steady sequence of happy times. Then, in November 1938, the letters from Flora ceased.
The gas heating in the house Walt and Roy had purchased for their parents was defective. Flora had complained to the boys about the problem. Walt  sent studio repairmen over to the house to correct the flaws -- but they were not fixed effectively. On the morning of November 26, 1938, gas fumes spread through the house. As Flora washed up, she grew woozy and then passed out. Elias discovered her body on the bathroom floor and tried to carry her into another room. But the fumes were too much for him, and he, too, fainted. Their housekeeper had been preparing oatmeal when she herself began to feel dizzy. Realizing that something was wrong, she rushed inside to check on the couple and discovered them both on the floor. Together with the man next door they pulled Flora and Elias out of the house. Flora was dead. Elias was saved by the fact that he fainted so quickly; there was less of the deadly gas near the floor.
     The terrible tragedy was compounded for Walt and Roy by the fact that it was a flaw in the house they had purchased for their parents that had killed Flora. Walt refused to talk about it to people at the studio and even to his daughters in years to come. Sometime later, Diane was exploring one of her father's drawers: "He always kept an interesting collection of matchboxes," she explained, "and soap boxes from hotels, which I used to find fascinating, and I found the newspaper with the headline about her death in it."

Flora and Elias in their new California home

Flora and Elias, proud and happy in
their new California home. 
Flora died shortly thereafter, 
in November of 1938

 
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