Disney Urban Legends

Throughout the years, there have been many urban legends surrounding Walt Disney and his legacy, from hidden nude scenes placed in his cartoons to Disney's own cryogenically preserved body buried under the Pirates of the Caribbean ride in Disneyland. As with most urban legends, some are based on a nugget of truth while others are nothing more than unsupported rumor. Here are only a few:

Was Walt Disney's body cryogenically preserved?

No. After his death in 1966, his body was cremated and his ashes were interred at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. (Note, however, that officials at the cemetery will not give out the location of Walt's place of burial.)

In 1972, when these rumors first surfaced, his daughter Diane wrote, "There is absolutely no truth to the rumor that my father, Walt Disney, wished to be frozen. I doubt that my father had ever heard of cryonics."

Also note that Robert Ettinger's book on cryonics, where the subject of freezing humans was first discussed, came out in 1964, two years before Disney's death.

Walt Disney once produced an animated film about menstruation.

This is true. In 1946, Disney created "The Story of Menstruation", an educational film for the International CelluCotton Company, makers of Kotex sanitary pads. The film consisted of animation and diagrams illustrating the female body's reproduction process. The original screenings of this film were accompanied by a booklet titled "Very Personally Yours", which was mostly promotion copy for Kotex products.

In his 1959 trip to the U.S., Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev was denied permission to visit Disneyland.

Yes, this is true. The official reason for the denial was that adequate security couldn't be provided for Khrushchev by the Secret Service on such short notice. The Premier was so disappointed, he said, "I was told that I could not go to Disneyland. I asked: 'Why not?' What is it? Do you have rocket-launching pads there? I do not know."

Because of its negative racial content, the Walt Disney feature "Song of the South" has never been released on home video or DVD in the United States.