LETTER FROM SAN FRANCISCO
At the Disney family museum in San Francisco, one would search in vain for his portrait. Abigail Disney, 59, is one of the eminent heirs of the inventor of the cartoon. His grandfather, Roy O. Disney, founded with his brother Walt, in 1923, the studio which produced Snow White, Bambi, The jungle Book and dozens of other iconic films of 20th century American culturee century. His father, Roy E. Disney, was until 2003 a member of the board of what is now the world's number one entertainment company.
Abigail is a bit of the ugly duckling in the family. When Meryl Streep called Walt Disney a misogynist and anti-Semitic reactionary in 2014, she did not defend the great-uncle, but the actress. In 2011, she joined the Patriotic Millionaires, the patriotic millionaires, a circle of super-rich who feel guilty for being a little too much.
In October 2019, the heiress received the distinction of “class traitor”, awarded by the Union for a Fair Economy, an association founded by Chuck Collins, 60, the great-grandson of the hot- dog, Oscar Mayer. A social traitor too: at 26, he distributed all of his inheritance to social and environmental justice organizations.
Documentaries engaged
Mickey's creator's grand-niece has always struggled to assume her privileges. When her grandfather took her to Disneyland, she hated parading at the top of the queue, while the common child stood in line for hours in front of the attractions. "They hate us", she was sorry.
His parents were arch-conservatives. At 21, when she was able to dispose of her trust fund – $ 10-20 million – she settled in New York, on the other side of the continent. The trigger came years later: one day when she was traveling alone in the family Boeing 737. Settled in her big bed, she realized that the plane was a little disproportionate. "The carbon footprint, the fuel. I thought it was totally wrong ", she entrusted to New yorker.
In March 2018, Abigail Disney, who became a producer of engaged documentaries, received a call on Facebook for help from a Disneyland concierge. In Cinderella Kingdom, the staff could no longer make ends meet. "It was supposed to be the place of the most perfect happiness on earth, and the employees were so badly paid that they had to sleep in their car or eat in food banks", she related. At the same time, Disney had made a profit of $ 13 billion (11.7 billion euros) and its CEO, Bob Iger, had been rewarded with compensation of $ 65 million. Or more than a thousand times the median salary of employees (1,424 times, to be exact).
