Walt Disney Christian History

This Disney Channel Christmas special hosted by Carol Lawrence explores Christmas traditions around the world. Lawrence was a popular singer and had co-hosted the 1983 Walt Disney World Very Merry Christmas Parade but this was her first time leading such a broadcast for the Walt Disney Company. This program takes on a music/educational concert format celebrating these traditions with songs and music from the native cultures. This was what "diversity" looked like in 1987. The majority of these songs and stories are Judaeo-Christian or Christ centered. You will not believe this was a Disney production. This special debuted in 1987 and aired on the Disney Channel through 1994. 1993/94 is when PC culture overran the Walt Disney Company and you can see that company wide. Original airdate December 19, 1987 Posted for historical purposes. This channel is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.

The Disneyland Candlelight Processional began when Walt Disney looked upon the park from his apartment above the Firehouse on Main Street USA and decided that Disneyland needed to have Christmas Carolers. He asked Dr. Charles Hirt, a local college professor, to lead these carolers as they performed both throughout the park and at the Disneyland Bandstand. That Christmas several neighborhood choirs were invited to perform in the park at an event called the Disneyland Christmas Bowl that was held for many years -- each year bigger than the last. By 1957 the Candlelight Processional had taken shape and while it had been held in front of Sleeping Beauty's Castle that year, Walt decreed that it would always be held on Main Street USA from that point forward. After being in charge of the pageantry of the 1960 Winter Olympics with which Walt had collaborated with Dr Hirt, the pair began planning on how to expand the Candlelight Processional event into an even larger affair. A living Christmas tree became part of the show and, in 1961, Disneyland began the tradition of asking celebrities to host the event. The first of these was actor Dennis Morgan who was honored with these duties for many years. Other celebrity hosts included Dick van Dyke, Gale Storm, John Wayne, Charlton Heston, Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant, Rock Hudson, and others. Many of these people were Walt’s personal friends and when he or his family informally asked them to perform in this service, they always agreed. John Wayne even did so while battling a bad cold because he felt it was that important to host. It was understood that Christmas was a time to culturally honor the birth of Jesus Christ with holy reverence regardless of personal issues or political position. After Walt Disney World opened in 1971, Dr. Hirt set up the Candlelight Processional there where he led it for many years. Rock Hudson was the first celebrity host for the Walt Disney World version of the ceremony and holds the record of hosting this service more than any other celebrity host. The show became so popular that eventually it was moved to EPCOT Center where it had a much larger venue, and more guests could see it. In this version there has usually been a different host each weekend from Thanksgiving through New Year's. In 1986 the Disneyland Candlelight Processional was filmed and began airing on The Disney Channel in 1987. Actor Howard Keel hosts this event and had been the star of the Biblical film Walt and Roy co-funded and distributed in 1959, The Big Fisherman. In an interview Keel commented, “I’ve never been a very religious person, but when you stand up there for all of those people with that incredible chorus and orchestra beside you, it’s a wonderfully moving experience. In fact, I was so moved I could hardly speak.” This version had already begun to be watered down from the Eisner era PC policies starting to creep in but is still a very powerful statement that this was once the Walt Disney Company. The broadcast also illustrates the Nativity Story with artwork going back centuries in this celebration of what Christmas is really all about. This broadcast aired on the Disney Channel annually from 1987 until 1995 and often aired as their Christmas Eve midnight service and/or as their final Christmas special on Christmas day. After 1995 it never aired again. The poem, One Solitary Life, had always be a part of the Candlelight Processional. It began as a sermon by James Allan Francis that he gave at a Los Angeles Convention to the Baptist’s Young People’s Union on July 11, 1926. The poem proved immensely popular and became a beloved Christmas staple as well-known as any hymn and featured in everything from The Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular to Sonny & Cher’s Comedy Hour. President Reagan frequently read the poem to children from the White House as part of the Christmas festivities. This was a VERY well-known piece of American, Christian, and cultural history that’s become obscure in recent years. In 2012 the poem, One Solitary Life, which had always been a part of Walt Disney's Candlelight Processional, was removed along with many of the “more religious” Christian traditional hymns celebrating the birth of Christ. The Walt Disney Company claimed they were removed for “time,” but these had always been at the heart of the presentation, so we know what that really meant. In the years afterward, references to the deity of Jesus Christ were also removed, emphasis placed on Jesus only being a mortal man of peace were substituted, and eventually Woke Disney inserted 1 Corinthians 15 known as the "Love Chapter" twisting it to be about affirming the rainbow jihad. The Candlelight Processional also often became a platform for the celebrity host to push their leftist agenda or rail about social justice and other typical leftwing nonsense instead of honoring the birth of Christ. Every time a change has been made, Woke Disney always claims these changes are only minor and troll those who object for "overreacting." Eventually the center was gutted out from the ceremony. This is clearly not the same service Walt Disney created. Below are some further resources on the history of this event. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- List of Disneyland Hosts Dennis Morgan (1961-1964) Dick Van Dyke(1965) (Walt’s last Candlelight ceremony) Dennis Morgan (1966) Gregory Peck (1967 Saturday) Dean Jones (Sunday) Henry Fonda (1968, Saturday) Rock Hudson (Sunday) Gary Grant (1969) Charlton Heston (1970 Saturday) Dean Jones (Sunday) John Wayne (1971) Rock Hudson (1972) Cary Grant (1973-1974) Jimmy Stewart (1975) Rock Hudson (1976) Buddy Ebsen (1977 Saturday) Ed Asner (Sunday) Cary Grant (1978) Elliot Gould (1979 Saturday) Joseph Cotton (Sunday) Michael Landon (1980) Ed Asner (1981 Saturday) Jason Robards (Sunday) Pat and Shirley Boone (1982) Darren McGavin (1983) Joseph Campanella (1984) Kevin Dobson (1985) Craig T. Nelson (1986 Saturday) Elliot Gould (Sunday) Howard Keel (1986-1987) Joseph Campanella (1988) John Forsythe (1989) James Earl Jones (1990) Robert Urich (1991) George Kennedy (1992) Michael York (1993) Peter Graves (1994) David Ogden Stiers (1995) Mary Hart (1996) Joseph Campanella (1997) Richard Crenna & Edward James Olmos (1998) Olympia Dukakis (1999) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- List of Walt Disney World Hosts Rock Hudson (1971) Carey Grant (1972) Rock Hudson (1973-1974) Dean Jones (1975) Joseph Campanella (1976) Rock Hudson (1977) Ross Martin (1978) Perry Como (1979) Rock Hudson (1980) James Hampton & Darren McGavin (1981) Pat & Shirley Boone (1982) Joseph Campanella (1983) Rock Hudson (1984) Howard Keel (1985-1986) Dean Jones (1987) Walter Cronkite (1988) McLean Stevenson (1989) Joseph Campanella (1990) George Kennedy (1991) Paula Zahn (1992) James Earl Jones (1993) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- List of EPCOT Center Hosts 1994 – Robert Guillaume, Robert Urich, Phylicia Rashad 1995 – Erik Estrada, Louis Gossett Jr., Peter Graves, Phylicia Rashad, Billy Dee Williams 1996 – Buzz Aldrin, Barbara Eden, Edward Asner, Louis Gossett Jr., Sandi Patty, Joseph Marcell, Tara Halland, David Ogden Stiers 1997 – Paula Zahn, George Kennedy, Mary Hart, Angie Dickenson, Louis Gossett Jr., Pat Morita, Robert Urich, Sandi Patty, Dr. Bobby Jones 1998 – Louis Gossett Jr., Art Garfunkel, Phylicia Rashad, Charles Kimbrough, Brian Dennehy, George Hamilton, James McDaniel, Joseph Marcel, Deidre Hall, George Kennedy, Nicole Johnson, David Ogden Stiers 1999 – Alfre Woodard, Charles Kimbrough, Angela Bassett, Brian Dennehy, Maria Conchita Alonso, James Avery, Edward James Olmos, James McDaniel, Andy Garcia, Sandi Patty, David Ogden Stiers, LeVar Burton ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- One Solitary Life by James Allan Francis He was born in an obscure village as the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another obscure village where he worked in a carpenter shop until he was thirty. Then for three years was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never owned a home. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put his foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place where he was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself. He had nothing to do with this world except the naked power of His Divine Manhood. While still a young man the tide of popular opinion turned against Him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. Another betrayed Him. He was turned over to his enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon the cross between two thieves. While he was dying, His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth and that was His coat. When He was dead, He was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. Nineteen wide centuries have come and gone and today He is the center of the human race and the leader of the column of progress. I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, and all the navies that were ever built, and all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon the earth as powerfully as has this One Solitary Life. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Original airdate December 20, 1987 Posted for historical purposes. This channel is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.

Walt Disney "historians" always tell us that Walt's first cinematic experience was the 1916 film adaptation of Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs but this isn't accurate. Walt's sister, Ruth, revealed an earlier experience where Ruth and Walt snuck into a theater to see From the Manger to the Cross in 1912. Ruth said that the film had a profound impact on her brother and they marveled at the effects of Jesus being crucified and resurrected. Their father Elias was a devout congregational Christian, was both a deacon and trustee in their church, and would often preached sermons when their pastor, Walter Parr, was away. Walt's mother, Flora, was the church treasurer and played the organ in the service. Elias was a contractor and built a new sanctuary for their church without charge. The Disneys and Parrs were close friends and when both wives found they were expecting babies at the same time, Elias and Walter made a pact to name their children in each other's honor. Walt was named after Pastor Walter Parr and a few weeks later Elias Parr was born. Walt would have been familiar with Judeo-Christian values from his upbringing and not only displayed these values in his body of work but wrote about them a few times across his life as well. Influences from his childhood, including his Judeo-Christian values, are evident throughout many of the things Walt created. From the Manger to the Cross is regarded at the most important film of the silent era portraying the life of Christ. At the time, it was one of the longest and most popular films ever made. In 1998 it was added to the National Film Registry. From the Manger to the Cross was an influential film on young Walt Disney and is an important part of Walt Disney history and deserves to be acknowledged as such. *Note: Ruth said this was the film they witnessed but all copies in circulation abruptly end after the crucifixion. It's unclear if the final real is missing or if it, indeed, only tells Christ's story from the manger to the cross. Starring Robert Henderson-Bland as Jesus Percy Dyer as Boy Jesus Gene Gauntier as the Virgin Mary Alice Hollister as Mary Magdalene Sidney Olcott as Blind Man Samuel Morgan as Pontius Pilate James D. Ainsley as John the Baptist Robert G. Vignola as Judas Iscariot Helen Lindroth as Martha George Kellog as Herod Jack J. Clark as John the Apostle J. P. McGowan as a Wise Man Montague Sidney as Joseph F. Owen Sterling as Unknown Thos J. Wentworth as a Wise Man G. Howard Barton as a Wise Man Frederic Bryson as Unknown Leslie D. Thomas as Peter (Saint-Pierre) Frank T. Gregory as Andrew Harry Lennox as James H. H. Kerr as Bartholomew Jack Melville as James Denton Harcourt as Matthew J. M. Baber as Thaddeus Ralph T. Duncan as Simon William Smiley as Lazarus F. R. Payne as a leper Huntley Roma as a palsied man James H. Wilson as the son of the widow Ruth Middelton as the widow G. W. Martin as Thomas Carl Vincent as Simon of Cyrene Lydia Gardebeau as Salome H. L. Lumt as Penitent Thief F. T. Bostock as Impenitent thief Written by Gene Gauntier Directed by Sidney Olcott Release Date October 1912 Posted for historical purposes. This channel is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.

In 1955 Walt Disney contributed the essay "My Faith" to the book How Prayer Helps Me edited by Samuel Duff McCoy. Walt was one of the 71 figures to composes an essay for this book. Walt's brother, Roy, was so moved by Walt's words that he had the studio print shop publish cards with this text to be distributed to guests of Disneyland. We have used AI to recreate Walt's essay as it may have sounded in his own voice. Walt's mother played the piano and organ in their church when Walt was growing up. We've chosen a hymn from an early 20th century congregational hymnal to accompany Walt's words because of this. If you enjoy these videos of putting Walt's written words into a video format, please consider contributing to our Give/Send/Go so we can acquire more of these articles to adapt. Our goal is to make Walt's written words more accessible to the masses. https://www.givesendgo.com/RediscoveringWaltDisney Posted for historical purposes. This channel is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.

On July 17, 1955 Disneyland opened to the world. Walt Disney had originally intended to include a church on Main Street USA known as the Little Church Around the Corner. This can be clearly in the early art for Disneyland and is described in Walt's prospectus for the park. Clergy from different Christian denominations would be invited guest speakers to give sermons in the church on a rotating basis. When Walt told his nephew, Rev. Glenn D. Puder about his plans, Puder advised his Uncle Walt that it might be considered disrespectful to have a church in a for profit enterprise like a theme park so the idea was scrapped. Even so, Walt still opened Disneyland with a blessing led by military chaplains representing the three great faith of America; protestants, catholics, and jews. Rev. Puder led the crowd in prayer and asked that this endeavor prosper beneath the hand of God. He always told people that his Uncle Walt had spiritual reasons for creating his park. Once open, Walt frequently had choirs and gospel singers perform at his park -- a practice that continued even well into the Eisner era of Disney. When the park has been rededicated in the After Walt era, no blessing has been observed. It's almost like Walt made a covenant and Woke Disney has broken it. In the 90’s to counter the boycotts of various Christian groups, Rev Puder and his wife cashed in some Disney stock and funded the construction of a church in the Disney community of Celebration as a tribute to Walt and Roy. The Puders acknowledged that the company their uncles had started needed Jesus. Rev Puder died in 2011 with little fanfare from the Disney community even though he'd been an important figure at the Disneyland opening day ceremony. Here you can see the opening ceremony of Disneyland as it was broadcast on national television and was one of the largest viewed broadcasts up to that time. Ronald Reagan hosts this segment where Walt gives his dedication, which was written by Winston Hibler, Rev Puder gives the blessing and leads the crowd in prayer, CA Governor Goodwin Knight gives some remarks and the American flag is raised. You can see Walt cry as the flag flies over Disneyland. The identities of the military chaplains are: Bishop Francis Eric Bloy (Episcopalian) Bishop Gerald Kennedy (Methodist) Cardinal James McIntyre (Catholic) Dr Carroll Schuster (Presbyterian) Rabbi Edgar Margin (Jewish) Also present are invited representatives from the local houses of worship including 10 Baptist churches, 9 Methodist churches, 8 Lutheran churches, 8 Catholic churches, 7 Christian churches, 6 Church of Christ, 6 Presbyterian churches, 6 Episcopalian churches, 5 Free Methodist Churches, 2 Congregational Churches, 1 Nazarene church, and 1 Jewish synagogue. Among the invited press are reporters from 8 different religious newspapers. Posted for historical purposes. This channel is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.

In the 1950's Walt Disney started an annual Nativity Pageant in Disneyland. The Matterhorn mountain, the highest point in the park, eventually became the home to the Star of Bethlehem so the 3 Wisemen could find the Christ Child. For many years that star rotated. When Walt Disney World opened after Walt passed away, the Nativity pageant was brought there as well. This video is a home movie of the living Nativity Show, performed at Walt Disney World Village, in 1983. The show was called the Glory and Pageantry of Christmas and was performed as a living Tableau, with three performances nightly for about a ten day period during the Christmas season. The incredible background vocals were performed by the amazing A Cappella group known as The Regeneration Carolers, under the direction of Derrick Johnson, who also served as the Innkeeper character and provided the narration. What is not included in this video is the pre-show performance by The Regeneration Carolers, which included a collection of Christmas Carols. The Glory and Pageantry of Christmas was discontinued by the Eisner regime some time in the early 1990's. If a guest had not recorded this home movie there would be no evidence that this event was once a Christmas tradition at Walt Disney's the Magic Kingdom and is part of Walt Disney history. Posted for historical purposes. This channel is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.