X-Message-Number: 9943
Date: Sat, 27 Jun 1998 03:10:19 -0700
From: Peter Merel <>
Subject: Walt Disney

On Scott Badger's survey question per Walt Disney; William Poundstone wrote 
in "Big Secrets":

'Disney had opportunity to hear about cryonics. Ettinger's theories
received widespread attention in the two years before Disney's death.
(Ettinger made a tour of talk shows, getting into a televised argument
with Buddy Hackett when Hackett made jokes about cryonics. Ettinger
didn't see what was so funny.) If Disney was frozen, he would have been
the first, barring any other clandestine freezings. Disney died just a month
before Dr. James Bedford [...] There was no news coverage of Disney's
funeral. Likewise, even as Disney's health failed in late 1966, he kept
tight rein on media coverage of his condition [...] the studio and
Forest Lawn officials refused to reveal any further details of the
service, including the disposition of the body. [... In 1933 Disney made
a gruesome cartoon in which] a mad scientist tries to cut off Pluto's
head and put it on a chicken. The film was withdrawn from the Rank film
library in 1970. [... Disney's daughter is quoted:] At such times [Walt] 
says, "When I'm dead I don't want a funeral. I want people to remember 
me alive." [...] The Certificate says Disney's body was cremated at 
Forest Lawn, Glendale, on December 17, 1966. [...] The utter secrecy 
was unusual; it stuck in people's minds. A few weeks later and purely 
by coincidence, the first cryonics suspension took place. Somebody made 
the connection and wondered if Disney had been frozen too.'

Btw, Scott, you might also add a slot for taoists under "Religion".

Peter Merel.

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